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The World Travel & Tourism Council recently estimated that the tourism industry’s collective global economic contribution in 2024 totaled $11.1 trillion—that means one out of every $10 spent in the last year went toward travel. Now, more than ever, there are increasingly more mission-oriented companies that are focused on making the industry more diverse, sustainable, and accessible for all. The following six companies—including an Antarctic outfitter that wants to protect the fragility of the White Continent and an eccentric hotelier who curates “microhospitality” experiences across the planet—are pioneering a more intentional future in travel.
Journey Mexico
From left: COURTESY OF JOURNEY MEXICO; @VIRIDIANNA/COURTESY OF HACIENDAS DEL MUNDO MAYA FOUNDATION
Founded in 2003, Journey Mexico is a B-Corp Certified luxury-travel firm that’s going out of its way to demand travelers do more for the country. Last year, the company introduced what it calls a “responsible travel fee” of $100 per person, which is tacked onto every booking. The funds are distributed to projects such as the Haciendas del Mundo Maya Foundation, which supports community-led economic development, and to the Xochimilco Agroecological Initiative, which aims to promote regenerative farming in Mexico City and beyond. “The idea was to connect travelers to these hot-spot issues,” says Zachary Rabinor, the founder and CEO of Journey Mexico and a member of the T+L A-List. He notes that while the fee can be waived on request, most guests are more than happy to contribute—and many ask to link up with supported organizations during their visits. “We’re at a key inflection point,” Rabinor says. “I see people, for the first time, really asking for this.” —Hannah Selinger
Icy Strait Point
Courtesy of Icy Strait Point
Thirty years ago, the Huna Tlingit community on Alaska’s Inside Passage faced a crossroads: The future of extractive industries such as logging and fishing was in doubt, and the economic outlook, particularly for young job-seekers, was grim. Tourism, some community leaders proposed, offered a way forward. After years of groundwork, Icy Strait Point debuted in 2004 as the first privately owned cruise destination in Alaska. Managed by the Native-owned Huna Totem Corporation, the destination has become one of the most popular in the state, with both thoughtful programs and thrill rides. Along with elevating Native culture in the eyes of visitors, the development has revived interest in Indigenous language and traditional dance among the Tlingit community, says Russell Dick, president and CEO of Huna Totem. “We’ve built something that’s allowed future generations to express their pride in who they are and where they come from,” he notes. Up next? Partnering with other Indigenous groups in Alaska and the Caribbean. “If other people can build off us, we’ve done our job,” Dick says. —Elaine Glusac
Giving Bag
Courtesy of Giving Bag
“We’re trying to create a connection between the traveler, the hotel, and the community,” says Quinn Cox, cofounder and CEO of Giving Bag, a company born of the desire to help reduce waste in hotels. In 2013, Cox and Lilia Karimi, both veterans of the hospitality industry, came up with a deceptively simple idea: guests can leave unwanted shoes, articles of clothing, books, or whatever else they no longer need in reusable bags or receptacles provided in their rooms. Items are then donated to local aid organizations, rather than languishing in lost-and-found closets before being discarded. “A lot of those items have a useful life,” Cox says. Little wonder, then, that the idea has taken off, with Giving Bags now offered in 26 hotels across 15 countries. —H.S.
Exodus Adventure Travels
Courtesy of Exodus Adventure Travels
A fair number of high-end outfitters can pull off a dog-sledding adventure in Finland or a pulse-quickening hike through the Dolomites. But Exodus Adventure Travels takes trips like those to another level by inviting its guests to be not just thrill-seekers but also citizen scientists. Since 2022, the company has been outfitting its clientele with water-sampling kits that can reveal the DNA of animal species living in a given area—data that’s fed into the global biodiversity database eBioAtlas. “Customers genuinely care about the positive impact of their travels if they see it in lockstep with fantastic experiences,” says Kasia Morgan, the company’s head of sustainability. In another laudable effort, Exodus has since 2020 run the Mountain Lioness Project, in Tanzania, which has so far trained 30 women porters to work as guides on Mount Kilimanjaro. —E.G.
700’000 Heures Impact
Courtesy of 700’000 Heures Impact
Hotelier Thierry Teyssier thinks every one of the 700,000 hours of the average human lifespan should count—hence the name of his “regenerative tourism” company. The idea behind 700’000 Heures Impact is to create what Teyssier calls “microhospitality” projects that welcome no more than six travelers at a time, whether it’s a collection of rainforest tree houses in the Peruvian Amazon or a series of rustic-chic homestays in Oaxaca, Mexico. “You have to start small because small doesn’t break anything,” he says. That was the approach for his project in Morocco, dubbed Memory Road, which helped entrepreneurs in the Berber village of Tizkmoudine diversify their tourism-dependent economy; today money from guest stays funds agricultural development, handicrafts workshops, a kindergarten, and after-school programming for kids. “We use hospitality as the engine to further a community’s goals,” says Teyssier, who’s currently at work on a project in Rwanda. —E.G.
White Desert
Courtesy of White Desert
Antarctica has seen a record-setting number of visitors in recent years. But for Patrick and Robyn Woodhead, the husband and wife who launched the travel outfitter White Desert in 2005, the final frontier is a familiar, if increasingly fragile, place. “From the early days, we understood that we were operating in a pristine wilderness, so it was always important to do it in a very sustainable way,” Robyn says. White Desert’s three small camps—each accommodates a maximum of 12 guests—are part of its low-impact approach, as is a commitment to using sustainable biofuel in the ski-equipped planes the company uses on its flights around the continent. In 2024, the Woodheads announced the White Desert Foundation, a U.K.-registered charity that will support scientific studies that can only be conducted in Antarctica. “We’re hoping to fast-track projects that don’t yet have funding,” Robyn says, such as an investigation involving the thousands of meteorites that dot the ice—and are at risk of sinking because of climate change. —Paul Brady
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