Here’s How Luxury Travelers Are Boosting Sustainability

While wealth inequality protestors vandalize private jets and harass tourists under the guise of environmental advocacy, over 5,000 travel professionals have landed in Las Vegas for the annual Virtuoso Travel Week conference, bringing together executives of hotels, resorts, tour companies, cruise lines and destinations to meet with travel advisors. The travel agency members of the group sell around $30 billion in travel annually, mainly to the well-heeled, the type of travelers the protestors have put in their bullseye. However, if the activists were here and willing to listen, they might just come away with a different view.

During a special track on sustainability, the travel advisors heard first-hand how a large amount of the money that flows from their clients’ bank accounts helps the same populations that the protestors say they are supporting by blocking highways and taxiways.

Michael Gregurich of &Beyond says its HNW customers have enabled it to fund 73 wells that provide clean water for over 50,000 people in rural African villages. The company has also underwritten the construction of 307 classrooms, including 27,000 lessons on conversation for the local populations.

“Profit and purpose can live side-by-side,” he told advisors during a morning session.

An ocean away, guests at Costa Rica’s Tabacon Thermal Resort & Spa who donated five dollars voluntarily – matched by the hotel owner – raised $65,000 for building new classrooms and providing supplies to local schools. The resort has also set up an awards program for teachers. Like many travel companies, it is providing jobs and career opportunities that enable locals to stay in their home communities. Its food and beverage director started as a dishwasher and then a busboy. The operations manager was hired as a housekeeping assistant. Moreover, progressive policies mean that 50% of management is female.

During Covid, when schools in rural Peru were closed, Big Five Tours & Expeditions learned about a teacher who had programmed a robot to give lessons in a half dozen of the country’s over 40 languages. It funded the deployment of 17 robots to local communities, enabling village students to continue their education even while schools were shuttered. It was so well received it plans to expand the program to communities that lack educators.

Heading north to Canada, it’s a similar story. Destination Indigenous supports tourism development enabling native populations to create thriving local communities. Markus Kruse told travel advisors the money earned from those visitors “sustain our cultures and languages.” This year, the group expects $1.9 billion of direct GDP contributions to more than 1,800 indigenous tourism businesses supporting over 40,000 jobs, all funded by visits from the same travelers protestors want to stay home.

Protestors often portray high-end travel as champagne and caviar. In India, Insight Vacations’s Luxury Gold division includes on itineraries the Sheroes Hangout cafes that employ women injured by acid attacks, bringing awareness to the issue. The group, which was recently sold by The Travel Corporation to private equity, supports the Rainbow Railroad, which assists members of the LGBTQI+ community facing violence and oppression simply because of where they were born. An executive of the company told advisors the programs will continue under its new owner.

The travel industry’s biggest players are fully behind the sustainability push. Kees Hogetoorn from Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam says Accor’s 5,000 hotels’ initiatives range from reducing food waste and water usage to eliminating single-use plastics and vetting suppliers’ sustainability practices. It no longer throws away linens and mattresses, instead donating them to homeless shelters.

“It’s little steps forward, but every step helps,” he says.

Back across the Atlantic at The Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman, where guests pay $500 to $25,000 per night, the resort supports island culture with a gallery in the hotel exclusively for local artists. It recently installed 813 solar panels as part of initiatives that include EV and e-bike charging stations, an HVAC system featuring air recovery technology, and specially tinted windows to help control UV radiation, light, and heat in guest rooms. Its Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment teaches adults and their children “respect for nature and responsible living.”

Natural Habitat Adventures offers over 100 conservation-focused itineraries around the globe. Don Martinson says that 94 cents of all the dollars travelers spend end up in the local communities. The company was launched in 1985 after its founder, Ben Bressler, visited Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence to see baby harp seals. He was so moved that he convinced local hunters to instead of become guides for photo safaris.

Travel advisor Sonia Jones of Sonia Jones Travel in Brisbane, Australia, who attended the sustainability briefings, says while many consumers don’t generally ask about sustainability practices, the meetings helped give her the information she can now share with them as part of trip proposals. One beneficiary could be the indigenous communities of British Columbia, where she intends to promote visits as part of the Canadian itineraries she puts together for her clients.