As professional experience givers and creators, we have an obligation to harness the power of travel to change people and our industry, for the better. And we have a responsibility to understand how our role impacts the cultures and the planet.

We call this transformative travel: the idea that we can be change agents, whether it’s giving a walking tour, creating your travel business, or thinking about how as a company or individual you’re going to keep growing.

2020

In 2020, we took that unexpected pandemic year to focus on helping tour guides and businesses look at their current tours and improve the quality of their storytelling: making sure the stories we tell include everyone, and tell the whole story of a place.

We call it the Diversity Project.

View recordings of the 16 webinars we did on the lesser-known histories of places and peoples.

Watch our special panel discussion on what to remember about diversity in storytelling when working as a tour guide or tour operator.

2021: The Pathways Project

In 2021, we looked at workforce development in the tours & attractions industry.

Why are there so few BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) tour business owners, and tour directors and local tour guides?

And so we’ve partnered with major non-profit organizations and associations to create:

Awareness of the jobs of tour operator, tour director, and tour guide

Subsidized Training for new recruits so cost is not a barrier of entry into the career

Jobs with tour businesses after completion of the training.

We graduated our first class of 15 individuals in December 2021, and many more projects will come.

Visit the Pathways Project to learn more.

What we do as travelers has an impact on cultures, communities and the planet we all share. We should all strive to not only leave as few traces of harm, but be agents of change to better the world as we all move through it.

Impact Travel = Asking yourself, how are you impacting the world?

Travel Sustainably

Travel Responsibly

Travel Meaningfully