The Tourism Cares charity is marking its 20th anniversary with the launch of an expanded Meaningful Travel Map for agents and operators to find responsible travel products.
The US-based organisation began in 2003 by hosting a volunteer clean-up event on New York’s Ellis Island.
Now it is a global non-profit focused on helping travel and tourism companies with resources and education about sustainability.
The newly relaunched Meaningful Travel Map is a B2B tool that helps the travel trade to find community-led experiences, products, services, accommodation and tours that can be added to itineraries.
It taps into the growing consumer demand for responsible travel and having a direct positive impact on the people and places of travel.
The platform is hosted by Tourism Cares’ partner, Wander, which helps destinations with map technology.
Greg Takehara, Tourism Cares chief executive, said: “At Tourism Cares, we consider ourselves a pioneer in the meaningful travel movement – driving the industry to conduct business in a way that directly benefits host communities, protects cultural and environmental assets, and engages guests in a deeper, more responsible way.
“Through our innovative programmes, such as our Meaningful Travel Summits and the development of our Meaningful Travel Map, we have been able to generate significant impact for local communities and social enterprises around the world.”
John Sutherland, director of community impact at Tourism Cares, added: “We developed this tool as a way to easily provide operators, advisors and other trade professionals with a one-stop global resource for sustainable product development while widening the impact of tourism to include businesses and non-profits that are not often marketed or packaged to the travel trade.
“While there are several consumer-oriented resources for sustainable travel experiences already out in market, this is the first B2B platform of its kind that not only includes vetted products, but also serves as a destination development tool that can help scale social enterprises and other community-led organizations to benefit from tourism dollars.”
Malia Asfour, chair of the Tourism Cares board and director of the Jordan Tourism Board in North America, commented: “The Tourism Cares Meaningful Travel Map represents a pivotal tool in our efforts to create a more sustainable travel industry.
“We have already seen significant success in countries like Jordan and Colombia and look forward to creating more impact in other destinations around the globe.”
The map contains more than 150 vetted sustainable experiences placed throughout the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Colombia and Jordan.
It is free for any industry professional to use and can be accessed via the Tourism Cares website at tourismcares.org/meaningful-map.
Pictured: Travellers on horseback trip in the Baidha area of Jordan with guiding service Ammarin Bedouin Camp. Picture courtesy of Ammarin Bedouin Camp