Bright Ideas in Travel 2024

Wanderland Outdoors | 🤝

Founded by Angel and Bobby Massie—a former BET journalist and former Denver Broncos player, respectively—Wanderland Outdoors began its first season in April 2024 with the goal of helping more people, of more backgrounds, feel at home in nature. But the Colorado-based outfitter is also showing BIPOC travelers that it’s possible to make a career in the outdoors industry, by offering continuing education, covering certifications and equipment, and giving a higher-than-typical split of fees to its diverse team of guides. Wanderland Outdoors leads day experiences, including open-fire meals cooked by Bobby, now a chef, and can organize longer itineraries. New offerings for 2025 include backcountry hunting and wine tastings in Colorado wine country; multiday retreats at Piney River Ranch, just outside Vail; and fly-fishing trips in Belize.

Travalyst | 💡🌱

Founded by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, this nonprofit brings together travel platforms to present travelers with reliable, easy-to-parse sustainability information at time of booking. Travalyst coalition partners, such as Expedia and Booking.com, have aligned on using emissions estimates from its Travel Impact Model, developed by Google; as of September 2024, these estimates have appeared in more than 65 billion flight searches. Now, Travalyst is expanding to the accommodations sector by vetting existing sustainability certifications used by hotels and vacation rentals against its own set of criteria. In August 2024, Travalyst announced an initial list of 49 certifications found to be compliant after an independent review, making it easier for travelers to book truly sustainable properties.

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PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY

EnChroma | ♿💡

Since 2010, Berkeley-based EnChroma has produced and sold glasses that enhance visible colors (with varying results) for 4 out of 5 people with red-green color blindness, experienced by 8% of men and 0.5% of women globally. Through its Color Accessibility Program, EnChroma matches purchases one-for-one when the buyer intends to make the glasses free for the public to borrow. More than 400 organizations, including more than 100 museums, now participate. Color-blind travelers may also encounter the patented tech on their next trip: EnChroma has developed specialized snorkel masks for Seaside Finolhu Baa Atoll Maldives resort, for example, and as of July 2024, specially adapted scenic viewfinders have been installed across the Virginia State Parks system.

Everywhere Is Queer | 👨‍👨‍👧‍ 🤝

Since its mobile app launched in February 2024, more than 135,000 people have downloaded Everywhere Is Queer: a free resource to help users find queer-owned and -operated coffee shops, tattoo parlors, dental practices, bookstores, or whatever they’re looking for, wherever they’re looking for it. Created in 2022 by Charlie Sprinkman, the publicly searchable map, which also exists as a web version, now has pins for more than 15,200 businesses and organizations across every continent except Antarctica, connecting them to customers eager to support. The app also has a directory of online businesses and a job board, which launched in June 2024.

EarthRanger | 💡🦏

Created in 2015, EarthRanger is a software tool for protected area management and wildlife research. It can collect data and field reports from a variety of sources—from GPS trackers on animal tags or collars to satellite cameras and various kinds of sensors—and display it all in one place, invaluable for activities like identifying potential hotspots for poaching. The product is being used at over 600 sites in more than 70 countries, 11 of which, including Kenya and Mozambique, have employed the system countrywide through their wildlife services. Users also include NGOs like African Parks, which employs EarthRanger at its 22 protected areas. In 2023, EarthRanger launched a partnership with Conservation X Labs’ Sentinel that can provide more immediate alerts on threats or animals that may be in trouble. Looking forward, EarthRanger is currently adopting a new open-source analytics platform called Ecoscope, entering beta later this year and launching fully in 2025, that will help turn data collected into even more useful information for conservationists.

Mymizu | 🌱🩺

Since 2019, the Mymizu mobile app has helped direct thirsty locals and travelers alike to free water refill stations around Japan—where users have listed more than 13,000 refill locations and counting—and other countries around the world. Run by Mariko McTier and Robin Takashi Lewis through their organization Social Innovation Japan, Mymizu has seen more than 350,000 downloads, with users tracking refills equivalent to 750,000 PET bottles. Anyone can add a public fountain to the open-source map, and businesses like shops or cafes that offer free refills to the public can also apply to be listed. A new web version of the app is currently in beta, and April 2024 saw the launch of the Mymizu Government Alliance, which works with municipalities to expand refill locations and help normalize usage among residents.

Google | 🌱💡

The tech company continues to roll out subtle but smart sustainability features across many of its platforms. Since April 2024, users looking for driving routes in more than 15 global cities have found that Google Maps also shows similarly timed options for walking or public transport. Google Maps uses a green leaf icon to mark more fuel-efficient routes—with less stop-and-start traffic or fewer hills, for example—a feature that has helped drivers reduce emissions by more than 2.9 million metric tons since it launched in late 2021 until the end of 2023. For certain destinations, Google also displays train and bus routes directly in search: departures, travel times, and booking links are provided on the results page for a search like “New York to Washington DC train,” a feature that has now been expanded to dozens of countries. In the coming months, suggestions for train and bus routes will also be displayed in Google Flights, providing more sustainable options when relevant.

Quouch | 👨‍👨‍👧‍ 🤝

Founded in 2023, this Berlin-based homestay website helps facilitate couchsurfing-style stays that are safe, comfortable, and affordable for queer people and those of marginalized genders. Quouch has since expanded to more than 9,000 users, representing 1,200+ cities across more than 80 countries. Users can find the right fit with a variety of filters: sober, trans-only, wheelchair-accessible, sex worker-friendly, vaccinated; there is even a filter for ballroom or drag performers. The platform is invite-only (interested parties can easily apply for an invite code), and implements safety checks and guidelines, like a video call between guests and hosts, before a stay. The Quouch mobile app is slated to launch in early 2025.

Zabbaleen Products | 🤝🌱

On the Zabbaleen Products website, you’ll see, for sale, jewelry made of recycled glass, quilts made of factory offcuts, and bags made of aluminum pull-tabs. “Zabbaleen” is the name of Cairo’s mostly Coptic Christian population of garbage collectors, who make a living sorting, processing, and reselling waste. It’s estimated that 80 to 90% of what’s collected is recycled in some way. An NGO called the Association for the Protection of the Environment (A.P.E.) aims to improve the Zabbaleen’s living and working conditions, teaching craft skills, providing workspace, and giving women artisans a way to be paid for goods they create from upcycled materials. UK-based Zabbaleen Products, run by Sheila Rozeik, pays fair-trade prices to these craftswomen and ships their work to shoppers around the world—then donates all profits back to A.P.E. to help fund its kindergarten and education unit. In 2024, the company also helped stock Zabbaleen-made bags in the online shop of Embrace the Middle East, a leading charity in the UK.

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RAIL TRAVEL

Brightline | 💡🌱

Brightline’s high-speed passenger train between South Florida and Orlando has hosted more than 1.4 million passengers since the beginning of 2024 alone, providing an easy, low-emission option for traveling a distance that’s a significant drive but too short to justify flying. And now, the company is preparing to bring its rail service to the other coast: construction broke ground in April 2024 on Brightline West, a route that will connect Las Vegas to California with stations in Apple Valley, Hesperia, and Rancho Cucamonga, where passengers can connect and travel on to Los Angeles. The new train, which will be all-electric (compared to the diesel-electric trains in Florida), will run much of its route on the median of Interstate 15. Its completion is projected for 2028, just in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane | 👨‍👨‍👧‍💡🌱

In 2024, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS), Italy’s national railway company, launched FS Treni Turistici Italiani: a new arm that operates tourist trains with the goal of promoting slow and sustainable travel in the country. Offerings include luxurious long-distance sleeper trains—such as La Dolce Vita Orient Express, starting up in spring 2025—and “express” itineraries running between major cities and tourist hubs like the mountains or seaside. In the future, there will also be affordable regional services that help direct visitors to lesser-traveled places, mitigating overtourism and highlighting undersung areas with plenty of history and culture to offer. And with its Treni Storici category, the company takes over operations for more than 400 historical locomotives owned by Fondazione FS Italiane. Through its Timeless Tracks program, the foundation has also revived around 370 miles of historic but “underused” track, which now sees around 45,000 tourists per year.