Kind Traveler, a responsible travel platform empowering travelers to positively impact local communities through a collection of 350-plus hotel, charity and destination partners, has launched the Every Stay Gives Back (ESGB) community impact program. The program launched following a successful six-month global pilot, where $73,000 in donations for seven local charities were mobilized by just 15 boutique hotels.
Since the pilot program, the ESGB collection has doubled to represent 32 hotels and 17 charities in 19 global destinations. The program empowers travel dollars to fund local charities critical to the communities travelers visit with every guest stay—whether the booking occurs directly with the hotel or on a third-party platform with participating hotel and destination partners. In advancing responsible tourism principles, 100 percent of the proceeds raised are donated directly to the participating local charities advancing the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
“Coming out of a summer travel season marked by devastating wildfires, record-breaking heat across large parts of the globe and ongoing social justice movements, travelers are more aware than ever of the need for travel that goes beyond doing no harm and gives back to support local communities and the environment,” said Jessica Blotter, CEO and co-founder of Kind Traveler, who also serves as a board member for the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST).
According to Kind Traveler’s "2022 Impact Tourism Report," 97 percent of travelers want their travel dollars to positively impact the communities they visit and 75 percent agree traveling sustainably enhances their vacation experience. Despite this, half of travelers say they don’t know how to start. To that end, Kind Traveler has empowered travelers to positively impact the communities they visit when they book through its Give + Get platform. Now, with the launch of Every Stay Gives Back, Kind Traveler takes its commitment to responsible travel one step further by mobilizing charitable funding and easy-to-share positive impact metrics with every guest stay. Hotels, tourism boards and travelers can easily communicate and celebrate positive impact metrics through a live community impact report that displays as a digital dashboard displaying the funds raised and the details of the positive impact created.
For example, in the Hawaiian Islands, 1,400 carbon-sequestering breadfruit trees were planted with Hawaii Farm Trails; 7,000-plus servings of Sonoma County-grown fruits and vegetables were provided to families facing food injustice while solving food waste with Farm to Pantry; 6,200 meals were provided to individuals facing food insecurity with The LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert in Greater Palm Springs; 775 hours of enrichment programs were provided to students in an after-school program with Dylan Jude Harrell Community Center in Coastal Oregon and Washington; 5,500-plus square feet of wetlands were created by Blue River Watershed Group providing habitats for wildlife and wildfire protection in Silverthorne, Colorado; 153 families received food for three days with Their Future Today working in Sri Lanka; and 250 students received school supplies for an after-school program with Abriendo Mentes in Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica.
The Every Stay Gives Back program has a collection of destinations, boutiques, glamping experiences and luxury resorts from around the world for travelers to choose from, all committed to promoting responsible tourism principles. In California, lodging and destination partners are encouraged with special incentives to participate through the Visit California x Kind Traveler Kind Destination program launched earlier this year. Current participating partners include:
For destinations and hotels, ESGB represents a formalized, third-party validated giving program where a portion of every guest stay is donated to a local charity the hotel designates, regardless if the booking is directly with the hotel or originates on a third-party booking platform. As third-party validation, Kind Traveler verifies and tracks monthly donations to local charities, where a digital ESGB dashboard makes it easy for lodging and destination partners to communicate their initiatives to guests and stakeholders effectively. Wood plaques representing the ESGB membership seal and QR codes are provided to lodging partners to easily communicate the positive impact metrics garnered and ways to get involved with every guest stay. A ‘How to Travel Kindly’ section shares additional opportunities for travelers to get involved with volunteering and stewardship activities with charity beneficiaries.
To learn more, visit wwww.kindtraveler.com.
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