As a member of the travel industry, we can’t help but think about the roles—both good and bad—that tourism plays on a local and global scale. In many of our cities, tourism is a major industry that drives the local economy and supports the lives of residents. At the same time, tourism often introduces a number of new problems, and threatens to diminish the qualities that have made these cities so unique over the centuries.
In Venice for example, tourism has pushed residents out of the center. In Paris, tourism has skewed the preservation agenda to favor the most popular sights at the expense of a host of “forgotten monuments” that are literally crumbling before our eyes. In Rome, major monuments like the Colosseum or Vatican are so overcrowded that the sites’ meaning—once so powerful—is often compromised.
From our beginnings, we’ve been asking ourselves how we can protect the places that we love while enhancing the experience of the people we serve. To us, travel is more than a consumption experience, or an easy pass-through of culture. We believe that—done consciously and responsibly—travel can profoundly benefit both the visitor and the visited. We don’t take our responsibility within the travel industry lightly, and we are committed to spreading our specific approach to sustainability:
Our ultimate aim is to engross travelers in the why and how of a city by nurturing quality learning, meaningful interactions, and memorable conversations. Read more about our approach to sustainability on our blog.
