Bright Ideas in Travel 2024

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Our Bright Ideas in Travel list, first launched in 2022, recognizes the players, places, and projects that are approaching travel’s most pressing issues with thoughtfulness and zeal. In our third iteration of this franchise, we've selected trailblazers who have demonstrated a positive impact on the travel industry in 2024 or celebrated a significant milestone in their efforts to prove how travel can move our world forward. Their unique and pioneering approaches straddle the realms of sustainability, community, inclusion, accessibility, conservation, innovation, innovation, and wellness (a category we've added for the first time this year).

Some of the honorees on the 2024 Bright Ideas in Travel list are making a point of thinking big: managing a worldwide wildlife census, creating an open-source map with hundreds of thousands of users, even creating trails and bike paths that span an entire country (or eight). But more focused projects can have just as powerful an impact when they direct their attention to the needs of a community—or the experiences of individual travelers. This year's honorees range from countries, airlines, and tech giants to startups, small nonprofits, and even a handful of operations that started out as one-person shows. Needless to say, a bright idea can look like a lot of things—and we’re excited to celebrate all of them.

This year’s list is more expansive than ever, with 71 innovators touching every US state (plus Washington, DC) and more than 75 countries across every continent (yes, even a few in Antarctica). It’s also more relevant than ever: These bright ideas—around slow and low-carbon travel, citizen science that assists conservation and climate research, and community-driven tourism strategies to ensure locals are helped, not hurt, by international travel—show us the industry’s potential as a force for good when we invest in people and the planet.

Read more about the Future of Travel here.

SECTIONS

Air Travel | Cruises | Destinations | Hotels | Organizations & Operators | Products & Technology | Rail Travel

BADGE KEY

Accessibility ♿ | Community 👨‍👨‍👧‍ | Conservation 🦏 | Inclusion 🤝 | Innovation 💡 | Sustainability 🌱 | Wellness 🩺

AIR TRAVEL

Synhelion and SWISS/Lufthansa Group | 💡🌱

In June 2024, Switzerland-based Synhelion opened the world’s first demonstration plant for the production of solar fuel: a carbon-neutral fuel made using sunlight that can be swapped in directly for fossil fuels to reduce carbon emissions by more than 80%, says the company. The plant, located in Germany, is fully operational and the first commercial plant is projected to open in 2027 with the goal of producing 1 million tons of solar fuel annually by 2033. These big plans have been made possible, in part, by the aviation industry. SWISS and its parent company, the Lufthansa Group, partnered with Synhelion in 2020 to help bring this fuel to market. In fact, SWISS plans to be the first airline in the world to fly with solar kerosene, though the exact timeline is still in flux (and the fuel will only be available in small quantities, at first). SWISS is aiming to secure the first solar fuel delivery within the year.

Delta Air Lines | ♿💡

When power wheelchair (PWC) users fly, they typically have to check their chair, be taken to their seat by an airport staff member, and spend the duration of the flight without the mobility and custom support their chair provides. Not only that, in 2023, around 1.4% of wheelchairs and scooters carried by US airlines were damaged, lost, or otherwise mishandled. But in May 2024, Delta Flight Products—the Delta subsidiary in charge of airplane interiors—unveiled the latest prototypes of PWC-compatible economy and first-class seats, as well as an accessible lavatory design. The seating design is a collaboration with the UK-based Air4All and was carried out with input from Delta’s Advisory Board on Disability. The project is now in the testing and certification stage, and the Federal Aviation Administration has stated that it expects to complete its review by the end of 2025.

Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport | 🌱

In October 2023, the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport powered up its new geothermal heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system—the largest of its kind in the US. More than 600 “wells,” dug 500 feet under the ramp area adjacent to the terminal, use the earth’s temperature to enable an efficient heat exchange that cools the building in the summer and heats it in the winter. Engineers estimate the system will reduce the airport’s carbon emissions from heating and cooling by more than 80%, and save around $400,000 per year—a compelling example for other transportation hubs that are considering making the switch.

Portland International Airport | 👨‍👨‍👧‍💡

As part of a comprehensive renovation of the main terminal, Portland International Airport (PDX) is adding 24 shops and restaurants from local brands and hospitality groups. The first batch, which opened with the new PDX in August 2024, includes Orox Leather Co., Blue Star Donuts, and Pendleton; more, like Powell’s Books, will open their stores by early 2026. The terminal will not only give local businesses a lucrative bump but also serve as a launch point for the region—showing the more than 16.5 million passengers that come through each year that supporting local and independent businesses is part of the Portland way.

Dubai International Airport | ♿

In 2023, Dubai International Airport (DXB) became the first international airport to receive the Certified Autism Centre designation issued by the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES), which offers certification for those working with people with autism. It’s a response to a large (and largely overlooked) need: according to the IBCCES, 32 million trips are taken annually by travelers with special needs, but in a 2019 survey given to parents of children with autism, 97% indicated they were not satisfied with current travel options. At DXB, passengers with autism can access an autism-friendly route to their gate, which includes priority check-in and security; other offerings for travelers with hidden disabilities include an Assisted Travel Lounge, opened in September 2024, with features like noise-reducing seating.

JSX | ♿🤝💡

At the end of 2023, public charter jet service JSX announced plans to acquire more than 300 hybrid-electric planes, with the first one entering service as soon as 2028. But the carrier’s equity and social justice work is well underway. JSX is the world’s first air carrier to be certified “Autism Aware” by Autism Double-Checked and has consistently earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which measures workplace inclusion of LGBTQ+ employees. Through long-standing partnerships, the company also recruits heavily from industry advocacy groups working for equity both in the cockpit and on the tarmac, including the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, the National Gay Pilots Association, and the Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance, employing two to three times the number of women pilots than the industry average.

American Airlines | 💡🌱

In 2023, American Airlines participated in a study around contrails: the long lines of cloud created when hot, moist air from jet engines condenses in the atmosphere, trapping heat and ultimately accounting for more than a third of the climate impact of the aviation industry. Led by Google Research and Breakthrough Energy, the study used AI to identify zones where contrails were likely to be created; American pilots used these “forecast maps” during 70 regular passenger flights over a six-month period. When using the predictions, pilots were able to reduce the total contrail distance by 54%. The next step will be looking at how to incorporate these findings into an airline’s standard operations. A paper published in Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability in March 2024—co-authored by the head of Breakthrough’s contrails team—used the preliminary American Airlines data to calculate that the additional fuel and other costs of “navigational contrail avoidance” would be minimal, a crucial factor for industry wide adoption.

Safran Passenger Innovations | ♿

In the summer of 2023, California-based Safran Passenger Innovations introduced the new Accessible Mode on its RAVE in-flight media system. Developed with feedback from disability advocates, the new functionality—designed for passengers with cognitive difficulties or issue with vision, hearing, or motor function—lets fliers customize the user experience based on their specific needs, whether that means enabling screen reading, changing color settings, or filtering to show only media with audio descriptions. The initial airline partners are Air New Zealand and Virgin Atlantic, which will start flying with Accessible Mode in early 2025. The company is taking an open approach when it comes to competitors, providing designs and concepts for free to others who want to use them.

Virgin Atlantic | 💡🌱

In late November 2023, Virgin Atlantic completed a remarkable test flight: sending a Boeing 787 from Heathrow to JFK, powered only by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made using sugars and waste fats. In May 2024, the airline released a report of the experiment, sharing that lifecycle carbon emissions were reduced by 64% as compared to fossil-derived jet fuel, and that particulate emissions (which impact local air quality) and total fuel use were reduced as well. Their success shows that SAF is safe to use with “today's engines, airframes, and existing infrastructure,” according to the company’s 2023 annual report. The airline is also lobbying to scale SAF production capacity, part of its larger goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

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CRUISES

Viking | 💡

In 2024, the former PCR labs aboard Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris, as well as the PCR technology itself, were converted into facilities for real-time environmental DNA sequencing: a method that allows scientists to create a full picture of an ecosystem, identifying organisms living there or passing through using just a small sample. Under its Genomics at Sea Program, in partnership with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the J. Craig Venter Institute, Viking hosts researchers to analyze samples of phytoplankton from the ships’ home waters in the Great Lakes, Antarctica, and, beginning in 2025, the Arctic. Much like forests, phytoplankton is a natural carbon sink and crucial for producing atmospheric oxygen. Onboard scientists can monitor the impact of various stressors on these microscopic algae and other species—without costly freezing and transportation or the months-long wait of getting samples to shore.

Aurora Expeditions | 🦏💡🌱

Beginning with its 2024 Arctic season, expedition cruise operator Aurora Expeditions launched its partnership with Eyesea, an app that lets users document, report, and geotag sightings of plastic debris and other pollution in the ocean or along the shoreline. Its Citizen Science Coordinators assist participants with collecting and sharing data, which Eyesea then analyzes and maps to help inform the allocation of cleanup resources. Aurora has played a crucial role in testing Eyesea’s reporting system, as well as the accuracy of its satellite imaging spectrometry—which can help detect and locate marine plastic pollution from space—in the remote locations where its ships sail. The partnership will eventually roll out to Aurora sailings in other destinations.

Seabourn | 👨‍👨‍👧‍

In 2024, Seabourn cruise line announced a partnership with the Wunambal Gaambera people, the traditional owners of what is now the Kimberley in Western Australia. All sailings in the area will visit Wunambal Gaambera Country with stops at Ngula (Jar Island) and passengers can book excursions with Indigenous guides who will show them around Uunguu—the Native title holders’ name for their lands—and share about the region’s wider Wanjina Wunggurr culture through lectures and guest engagement on board. Seabourn has also donated $100,000 to assist the Wunambal Gaambera in building tourism facilities and other infrastructure, supporting the implementation of the Wunambal Gaambera’s Uunguu Visitor Management Plan.

Holland America Line | 🦏🌱

In September 2023, Holland America Line began rolling out the Global Fresh Fish Program, which now serves fresh and local seafood options across its 11 ships. Why does it matter? Overfishing is a massive global problem, and some estimates indicate that 1 in 5 wild-caught ocean fish is caught via illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. Fish served as part of the program is accredited by the Marine Stewardship Council, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, or Responsible Fisheries Management, which require third-party audits and standards for traceability. Holland America Line’s passengers in the Mediterranean might be able to order fresh sardines or swordfish, for example, or in Australia, barramundi and Tasmanian ocean trout—all with the knowledge that they are certified as responsibly caught.

Hurtigruten | 🌱

In April 2024, the Norwegian cruise line Hurtigruten announced it would be implementing a closed-loop system to keep its food waste out of the landfill, where decomposing food creates roughly 6% to 8% of all greenhouse gas emissions. The company launched an initiative called Towards Zero Food Waste, also known as “Farm to Table to Farm,” under which edible food waste is collected from Hurtigruten ships and taken to a composting facility in the Lofoten Islands, where an estimated 319,000 pounds of waste is turned into nutrient-rich compost. The compost is delivered to Myklevik Gård, one of the farms from where Hurtigruten sources its ingredients. Passengers enjoy the produce at the onboard restaurant, Norway’s Coastal Kitchen, and the cycle begins again.

Ecoventura | 🌱

Ecoventura, the Galápagos expedition yacht operator, opened its own recycling facility on San Cristóbal Island in 2022. Two machines help process and compact all recyclables, taking strain off of the already saturated waste management system: one condenses plastic and paper products into dense blocks, and the other breaks down bottles and other glass items into a fine powder. This allows more efficient transportation to mainland Ecuador—in the cargo hold of regularly scheduled Avianca passenger planes—where the bulk of the recycling infrastructure is located. So far in 2024, the facility has processed more than 13,000 pounds of material. Other sustainability initiatives include habitat restoration on Santa Cruz Island for the endangered Galápagos giant tortoise, a project Ecoventura launched on Earth Day 2024.

MSC Group | 🦏

We are currently in the midst of a global coral bleaching event—the fourth such event on record. But the MSC Foundation’s Super Coral Programme has a small silver lining to deliver: Its 550 coral samples, housed in a 64-square-mile marine reserve off Ocean Cay in the Bahamas, remain alive and well. Through its foundation, the MSC Group supports research around so-called super corals, hardy varieties that are more resilient to environmental stressors like heat. The nursery is home to five different species and 12 genotypes. The world’s coral populations have shrunk by 50% since the 1950s, and global emissions reductions are required to prevent more die-offs—but in the more immediate term, conservation scientists see possibility in super corals to help maintain these rich ecosystems. The goal of MSC’s coral program is to identify specimens that can be used to propagate new reefs in the effort to reverse coral population decline in the Bahamas.

Ponant | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🩺

Ponant subsidiary Paul Gauguin Cruises has partnered with the government of French Polynesia to offer up its 330-passenger ship for a practical, high-impact purpose. While visiting the region’s most isolated areas, the m/s Paul Gauguin will also provide free transport for healthcare professionals commissioned by the government’s Health Directorate to service communities without adequate medical facilities. During a summer 2023 test phase, 20 consultations were carried out in just two weeks, including two ultrasounds for patients on the island of Fatu Hiva, which does not have medical imaging tools. The program officially launched in October 2023 and has since made nine medical expeditions in the remote Marquesas Islands, serving about 90 patients so far.

Oceania Cruises | 🌱

A cruise is often about getting away from it all, but Oceania Cruises is encouraging its passengers to look thoughtfully at the world around them (even for just an afternoon). In spring 2022, Oceania Cruises introduced a new kind of shore excursion: educational tours that focus on sustainability, showing passengers how people around the world are conserving their environment and innovating in an age of climate upheaval. The cruise line has since developed more than 200 Go Green tours—from learning about regenerative farming in Yangon, Myanmar to meeting a designer in Tallinn, Estonia, who creates fashion using old garments and factory offcuts.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises | 💡

It’s an age-old conversation in the cruise industry: when passengers disembark in a city for just 8 to 12 hours, how much can they truly experience the place (and who really benefits)? In January 2024, Regent Seven Seas Cruises announced its Immersive Overnights category to help guests fully experience the destinations they visit and support local businesses better. Each of the Europe and Asia voyages in the collection includes an overnight stay with nighttime excursions at nearly every port, giving passengers time to find a hole-in-the-wall diner in Tokyo, for example, or a taxi ride to an archaeological site just outside Athens. The first Immersive Overnights itinerary set sail in October 2024; Regent estimates that the time passengers spend at each destination will increase by as much as 70% compared to the industry average.

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DESTINATIONS

Trans Dinarica | 👨‍👨‍👧‍💡🌱

Launched in July 2024, the Trans Dinarica cycling route runs through eight countries in the Western Balkans, taking travelers off the main tourist trail in popular destinations like Croatia and Slovenia, but also extending into countries less touched by international travel, like Kosovo and North Macedonia. The route’s developer, Slovenia-based GoodTrail, connected a combined 3,400 miles of paved roads, and dirt and stone paths. Local operators offer guided cycling tours, but travelers can also go for it alone, downloading navigation packages with information about road surfaces, elevation gain, points of interest, and locally owned businesses, including more than 550 restaurants. One hope is that with the trail’s success, local governments will be inspired to invest in more cycling infrastructure.

Greenland | 🤝🌱

With a new international airport opening in the Greenlandic capital of Nuuk in late November 2024, the world’s largest island is preparing for an influx of visitors. Greenland introduced a new sustainable tourism pledge in 2023, and this symbolic move is bolstered by real initiatives to prevent overtourism while supporting local infrastructure, including raising the cruise passenger tax for the roughly 76,000 cruise tourists that visit annually. Earlier in 2024, a draft tourism law was introduced that would divide the country into various zones with different tourism regulations, including “yellow zones” that would require provisions like the use of local providers and “red zones” where tour operators would be banned outright. Greenland’s careful tourism strategy is a blueprint for making sure increased travel to a destination doesn’t leave the communities who live there—and the environment they call home—behind.

NamibRand Nature Reserve | 🦏🩺

The NamibRand Nature Reserve in southern Namibia was named a Wilderness Quiet Park—Africa’s first—in June 2024. The designation recognizes areas with pristine natural soundscapes, a testament to the reserve’s work safeguarding this corner of the Namib Desert. Encompassing four types of habitat and significant populations of springbok and oryx (plus giraffes, baboons, zebras, and more), NamibRand is one of the largest privately protected areas on the continent. To promote low-impact tourism, beds are limited to 25 in any given location—and overall, one bed per roughly 3.85 square miles. NamibRand helps fund the Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust and also indirectly supports programs funded by tourism levies, including a project called RuralRevive focused on socio-economic development in the town of Maltahöhe.

Mareterra, Monaco | 👨‍👨‍👧‍💡

In December 2024, the tiny Principality of Monaco will increase its landmass by approximately 3% with the opening of Mareterra, a coastal land reclamation project that will include residential buildings, retail outlets, parks, and other public spaces. The development itself will be a showcase of sustainable technology, with geothermal heating, smart public lighting, EV charging, and a rainwater pond that will allow precipitation to be reused for the watering of green spaces. But efforts were also made to mitigate the impact of the construction: the new shoreline was designed with the movement of wildlife species in mind, and has been planted with an artificial reef to help repopulate the ecosystem. Engineers also relocated fields of endemic seagrass—crucial to the area’s biodiversity—to the Larvotto Marine Protected Area and elsewhere along Monaco’s coastline, making efforts to disturb them as little as possible.

Haida Gwaii | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🤝💡

Decades ago, the Haida Nation began working on a British Columbia court case for a return of their ancestral land in the Haida Gwaii archipelago—and in the spring of 2024, they won. The agreement was brought into effect in July 2024, and once the jurisdictional transition is complete, most of the public land in Haida Gwaii will be managed by the Indigenous government, setting a new precedent for First Nations groups to reclaim land stewardship and management rights through legal channels. The decision also gives the Haida more control over tourism projects in the region, which sees approximately 32,000 visitors every year. Among Haida Tourism’s latest projects is the expansion and relocation of its boutique hotel Ocean House, which will open in winter 2024 on the northern side of Graham Island (Xaaydaga Gwaay.yaay linaGwaay), the largest island, with easy access to Naikoon Provincial Park.

Kanazawa, Japan | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🤝

In 2013, Kanazawa launched its Ichigo Ichie program to support the region’s famous artists and craftspeople by creating itineraries for travelers to tour private studios. When a magnitude 7.6 earthquake hit the nearby Noto Peninsula at the beginning of 2024—damaging tens of thousands of buildings, including workshops for traditional crafts like lacquerware, candlemaking, and pottery—the city government sprung into action. Among the thousands displaced to Kanazawa were some Noto artisans, who can now display their work at Ginza no Kanazawa, the city’s craft gallery in Tokyo, with both exhibition fees and commissions waived. Noto craftspeople are also listed for free in the city’s online craft catalog and are eligible for a one-time subsidy of ¥500,000 (just over $3,270 at time of writing) to set up studios in the city and rebuild their livelihoods.

Norway | ♿👨‍👨‍👧‍🦏💡

The Norwegian government has had a long-standing partnership with Stibyggjaren, a company that hires Sherpas from Nepal’s remote Himalayan regions to restore old roads and masonry, commissioning them to install stone pathways and staircases along routes through Norway’s steep mountainous terrain. So far, more than 300 such projects have been completed around the country, from the Helgelandstrappa steps on Øyfjellet mountain—the world’s longest stone staircase—to the Sherpatrappa or “Sherpa Stairs” that wind up a scenic hill in Tromsø. The staircases help mitigate erosion along the paths and make them safer to walk while also creating employment that pays well and is less dangerous than the mountaineering jobs many Sherpas work back home. New projects in progress for 2024 include the Nordkapptrappa (North Cape steps) in the far-north town of Honningsvåg, where the thousand-step flight up Storfjellet mountain is expected to be completed this year.

Rapa Nui | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🦏🌱

Rapa Nui, the small Pacific island more than 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile is now halfway into a 20-year initiative called Plan AMOR: Autosustentabilidad (self-sustainability); Mejoras continuas (ongoing improvements); Optimización de recursos (resource optimization); and Respeto (respect), based in the indigenous concept of mo’a. After the pandemic hit, Rapa Nui—also known as Easter Island—made efforts to reorient its relationship with tourism during the two-odd years that its borders remained closed. Direct international flights are no longer allowed, and the government continues to regulate the number of visitors and tour operators. Locals also took up extensive community beach cleanup efforts during the shutdown, and Rapa Nui actively addresses the menace of plastics and microplastics, which wash up on its shores in volumes up to 50% higher than in mainland Chile. In April 2024, the island hosted the Rapa Nui Pacific Leaders Summit, which produced a declaration affirming a regional commitment to combating plastic and microplastics pollution.

Singapore | 🩺

The small Southeast Asian nation is investing big in public spaces, parks, and gardens—even more so than usual—and in some surprising ways. In early 2024, Singapore’s Land Transport Authority announced it would be putting $1 billion into projects like repurposing lanes of car traffic into car-free paths and making streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists, with a pilot project called the “Friendly Streets” initiative set to be completed in 2025. Furthermore, the country is helping people interact with the great outdoors in more targeted ways. The Ministry of Health’s Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, known for its award-winning biophilic design, recently rolled out a program called “Garden by the Bed” that provides horticultural therapy to bedbound patients by wheeling small gardens to them. The National Parks Board has developed a number of public “therapeutic gardens” using evidence-based horticultural design to improve visitor well-being. There are currently 15 such gardens across Singapore—the newest opened in West Coast Park in September 2024—with plans to take that number to 30 by 2030.

Vienna | 🌱

In September 2024, Vienna’s city government initiated the review process for the Vienna Climate Act, a climate protection law that provides a legally binding framework for climate targets as part of an overall goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2040. It’s just one of the many sustainability milestones that the Austrian capital has reached in 2024. In April, the city opened its first green hydrogen production facility; the plant, which has a filling station next door, produces up to 1,300 kilograms of green hydrogen daily. That’s enough to power about 60 buses. In fact, the city’s 39A line is currently being converted to run exclusively with hydrogen buses; the first one hits the road in mid-2025, and buses are being tested on many other lines with free rides for the public.

Xala | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🦏🤝💡

This development on Mexico’s Costalegre has been described as an “anti-resort,” a low-density destination taking an active role in conservation and community support to help build a sustainable blue-green economy in the region. Of Xala’s 3,000 acres, a full 1,272 are natural protected areas, with even more land dedicated to reforestation projects and regenerative agriculture. Xala’s vision incorporates input from the farming communities in nearby Higuera Blanca and José María Morelos; a foundation called Xala with Heart is carrying out community initiatives, such as entrepreneurial programs and youth sports tournaments. Xala’s Sierra a Mar foundation spearheads its conservation work, including support for the local turtle sanctuary Campamento Tortuguero Chalacatepec. In November 2024, construction begins on what will be the development’s sole on-site hotel: a Six Senses property that plans to open its doors to travelers in fall 2026.

Visit Oakland | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🤝

In May 2024, Visit Oakland announced that it had joined nearby Humboldt and Mendocino Counties to expand its collaboration with the Cannabis Trail, which was founded in 2015 to acknowledge and preserve NorCal's cannabis history. Oakland began working with the organization in 2022 to direct some of its approximately 3.4 million annual visitors (as of 2023) to more than 30 cannabis sites and businesses around the city, many of them BIPOC-owned or licensed through its groundbreaking equity licensing program (designed to help repair a small part of the community harm caused by the war on drugs). As of 2024, The Emerald Cup—the so-called Academy Awards of cannabis—has moved its annual event to Oakland. The US cannabis industry is valued at $30 billion to $40 billion, and locals will hopefully be getting a larger piece of the pie.

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HOTELS

The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts | 🤝🌱🩺

The Leela’s properties across India use more than 10 tons of flowers every year—and now, those flowers will be reused, too. In February 2024, the brand commenced a new collaboration with Phool, a company that employs marginalized and at-risk women in Uttar Pradesh to upcycle temple flowers that would have otherwise been dumped into the Ganges. The Leela collects flowers from its properties, which are sent to Phool’s facilities to be “flowercycled” into natural incense. These incense sticks and cones are then infused with The Leela’s signature scent and distributed to its hotels and resorts, where they are available for guests to purchase.

Mara Siana | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🤝

Mara Siana, a camp that opened in June 2023 within the 20,000-acre Mara Ripoi Conservancy, represents new possibilities for Kenya’s safari industry. Unlike an estimated 99% of safari camps in the country, Mara Siana is 50% Maasai-owned. The project was spearheaded by Jackson Looseyia, a renowned wildlife guide born in the Maasai Mara. Guests at Mara Siana can look for cheetahs and wildebeest on traditional game drives or safaris taken by balloon or on foot. A portion of the proceeds goes to the camp’s nonprofit arm, the Mara Siana Foundation, which supports not only the conservancy but also the local communities, with projects determined with community input.

Ananda in the Himalayas | 🩺

Ananda in the Himalayas, set within a palace estate in the foothills of the Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, offers holistic healing programs focused on everything from stress and sleep issues to chronic pain. In March 2024, the spa launched a new Fertility Enhancement program based on Vajikarana, the branch of Ayurveda related to reproductive health, while incorporating Traditional Chinese Medicine, yoga, and psychology. Individuals and couples looking for fertility support, including those preparing for egg freezing or IVF, can book retreats with a standard length of 14 nights. For guests with diagnosed medical issues that inhibit conception, the duration would be a minimum of 21 nights.

Belmond | 🦏💡

In June 2024, the luxury hospitality brand Belmond announced a partnership with the nonprofit Parley for the Oceans to execute environmental initiatives at select properties where the ocean factors deeply into the experience. The work begins at Maroma, A Belmond Hotel, Riviera Maya, in Mexico, where Parley has helped create an education and certification program for staff called Ocean Guardians; among other projects, the Ocean Guardians will be assisting The MEGA Lab, a Hawai’i-based research group, with reef-mapping efforts in the nearby Mesoamerican Reef. The Parley partnership will eventually be rolled out at other Belmond properties: Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro; Mount Nelson, in Cape Town; La Samanna in St Martin; and Reid’s Palace in Madeira.

Dar Tantora The House Hotel | 💡🌱

AlUla, an oasis town in the Arabian Desert abandoned in the 20th century, has become a center of Saudi Arabia’s new tourism push. But Dar Tantora The House Hotel is firmly rooted in the area’s ancient past. Opened in May 2024 in the 12th-century Old Town, the property is composed of 30 dars, or houses, designed by Egyptian architect Shahira Fahmy; some are restored historic homes, others are newly built with heritage mudbrick construction techniques. In a nod to the past, electric lights are limited; bedrooms and common spaces are lit by candles. Still, guests will find that Dar Tantora has plenty of modern comforts to offer, including its just-opened spa and gym.

Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria Resort | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🤝🩺

This luxurious Maui property is putting Native Hawaiian healing traditions in the spotlight with its Kilolani Spa, which opened in February 2024 with 40 treatment rooms spread across 50,000 square feet of space. In accordance with the kaulana mahina, Hawaiʻi’s lunar calendar, programming rotates with each ten-day period (or anahulu). Culturally informed services include lomilomi massage, facials with botanical oils handmade on the island, and a traditional Polynesian ‘awa (or “kava”) ceremony led by a Native Hawaiian practitioner. The concept—a significant $55-million investment—was developed in part by Grand Wailea’s cultural programming director and leadership educator, Kalei ‘Uwēko‘olani. Spa staff have been retrained by local healers, and the property made sure the opportunities for healing are not limited to tourists: in addition to special Kamaʻāina (“local”) offers with discounted services, the spa will host quarterly Kamaʻāina Night paid events to bring the Hawaiian community into the resort.

The St. Regis Red Sea Resort and Nujuma, A Ritz-Carlton Reserve | 🌱

This pair of Marriott properties opened in 2024—the St. Regis Red Sea Resort in January, and Nujuma, A Ritz-Carlton Reserve in May—in the Ummahat Islands off Saudi Arabia. Both LEED Platinum-certified as of September, the resorts are powered by 100% solar energy with 100% electric transportation on-site. To protect the surrounding ecosystem, nets were installed during construction to prevent debris from falling into the sea, especially while building overwater villas. To protect the shorelines, Red Sea Global, which owns the properties, has planted more than a million mangroves in a local nursery, an initiative that guests can join. Cultural engagement is also important—for example, The St. Regis hosted the first-ever Red Sea Fashion Week in May 2024.

Six Senses Laamu | 🦏🌱

In March 2023, Six Senses Laamu opened its Sea Hub of Environmental Learning in Laamu—SHELL, for short. It’s the home base for the resort’s Maldives Underwater Initiative (MUI), which carries out marine research in Laamu Atoll and beyond in partnership with the Manta Trust, the Blue Marine Foundation, and the Olive Ridley Project. One of MUI’s major projects is the conservation of the archipelago’s seagrass meadows, which are crucial to the sea turtle diet and a nursery habitat for many species—not to mention a natural carbon sink—but are often removed, especially at international resorts, for aesthetic reasons. MUI has so far helped protect around 230 acres of seagrass, bringing at least 37 resorts around the islands on board through its awareness campaign. MUI also participates in coral monitoring, population studies of turtles and manta rays, education programs at the resort, and more.

Nayara Resorts | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🤝

In early 2025, construction will commence for 60 single-family homes in La Fortuna, Costa Rica—about a 25-minute drive from Nayara Resorts’ trio of properties in Arenal Volcano National Park. The project is helping Nayara employees become homeowners through a partnership with a local bank, which will provide subsidized mortgages. The homes will be ready for move-in nine months to a year later (no down payment needed), and employees can access furniture and fixtures, if desired, from the previous iteration of Nayara Gardens, which reopened after a full rebuild in January 2024. Crucially, ownership is not dependent on employment with Nayara, meaning the owners can leave the company whenever they choose and their deed will not be impacted.

Populus | 💡🌱

Opened in September 2024, Populus bills itself as the first “carbon-positive” hotel in the US. But beyond the effort to offset its emissions through reforestation work in Colorado and the acquisition of carbon credits, the new property in downtown Denver has sustainability strategies woven through every space: from the basement, where a parking lot is notably absent, to the green roof planted with perennials. The LEED Gold–certified building, designed by Studio Gang, was constructed using a low-carbon concrete called ECOPact and is powered by 100% renewable energy. Food waste from the two restaurants is processed in an on-site BioGreen360 biodigester, with the resulting fertilizer delivered to local farms.

SHA | 🩺

The renowned medical spa’s latest offering: sexual wellness, a program that the group rolled out in December 2023 at the original SHA Wellness Clinic near Alicante, Spain. In January 2024, a second Sexual Health Unit opened along with the group’s second property, SHA Mexico, in Costa Mujeres. Following SHA’s distinctive integrative method, the treatment approach is holistic and draws on many disciplines: guests can speak with specialists in both physical and mental health, and suggested treatment options can range from sessions with a sexuality-informed psychologist and hormone therapy for symptoms related to menopause to noninvasive procedures for urinary incontinence. A third unit will be hosted at SHA Emirates, opening in 2026. With the sexual wellness market expected to hit $55 billion within the next three to four years, SHA’s foray into the field is right on time.

Wildland | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🦏

In July 2024, Scotland welcomed its newest UNESCO World Heritage Site: The Flow Country, a peatland area in the north that’s home to one of the planet’s great bog ecosystems. Wildland, the hospitality and conservation group founded by ASOS billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen and his wife, Anne, helped secure this recognition through its work with The Flow Country Partnership. The company looks after 220,000-plus acres of land across Cairngorms National Park, Sutherland, Lochaber, and Loch Ness—investing nearly $13 million per year into land preservation and ecological restoration work. In 2024, at the Cairngorms estate, the first Scottish beaver was born in the wild in centuries. To experience their conservation work firsthand, travelers can stay on-site at Wildland’s collection of luxury accommodations like Glenfeshie Lodge and Aldourie Castle.

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ORGANIZATIONS & OPERATORS

Onçafari | 🦏

This conservation nonprofit was established in 2011 with a focus on the jaguars of Brazil’s Pantanal region. Since then, Onçafari has expanded its mandate to many other species—and its operations to 16 different bases across the country. Work in species rehabilitation, scientific research, and other areas is supported, in part, by the organization’s ecotourism offerings: spotting maned wolves in the Cerrado; animal tracking and night kayaking in the Atlantic Forest; jaguar observation at Caiman Ecological Refuge in the Pantanal, where it all began. In 2024, as intense fires in the region have burned an estimated 10,000 square miles and counting, Onçafari has launched the Pantanal Recovery Fund to help treat injured animals, rebuild impacted reserves, and support firefighting efforts.

Blue Zones | 🩺

The concept of “blue zones” was popularized by writer and longevity researcher Dan Buettner, who identified places in the world where people were observed to live notably long, happy lives. And this year, the concept was brought into the travel space with new retreats from Buettner’s Blue Zones organization, offering site-specific programming at hotels and other properties around the world. While each retreat is unique, they are organized around what it calls the “Power 9”—lifestyle patterns common to the world’s longest-lived people, such as cultivating a sense of purpose and eating a mostly plant-based diet. The first Blue Zones Retreats were held this June at the Modern Elder Academy (MEA) in Baja California Sur and at Andaz Costa Rica Resort at Peninsula Papagayo (the country’s Nicoya Peninsula, just to the south, is considered a blue zone). Since then, retreats have also been held at MEA’s campus in Santa Fe. Those properties will host more retreats in 2025, as will Kamalaya, on the Thai island of Koh Samui, and Halekulani, in Okinawa, Japan, also a blue zone.

Professional Association of Diving Instructors | 🦏

For years, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) has advocated for protections for sharks and rays, a group in which 1 in 3 species is currently vulnerable or endangered. In summer 2025, PADI will launch its first-ever Global Shark & Ray Census, a citizen science initiative that will ask divers and anyone who is out on the water to report sightings or help monitor specific locations. A new Shark and Ray Specialty Course will even train divers in identifying species and logging animal activity. Starting in January 2025, PADI will work with select members—including Six Senses Laamu and Six Senses Kanuhura in the Maldives, and Beqa Adventure Divers in Fiji—as beta testers. It’s all part of PADI’s 10-year plan to help reduce the number of sharks and rays that are threatened with extinction by 25%.

American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🦏🤝

In September 2024, the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association (AIANTA), an organization that promotes sustainable cultural tourism in Indian Country, announced it would be collaborating with the USDA Forest Service on its new Community Navigators program. It allocates funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to help underserved Indigenous and rural communities access Forest Service resources. As one of the partner organizations, AIANTA is focusing on opportunities to invest in environmental health and climate resiliency—including by reducing wildfire risk and protecting fish and wildlife habitats—and has created a mentorship program to help Native Nations navigate the Forest Service grant application process.

Sungai Watch | 💡🌱

Every week, volunteers—both locals and visitors from around the world—join Sungai Watch for its cleanup sessions, collecting plastic from rivers and helping with emergency cleanup of illegal landfills in Indonesia. Since the organization’s establishment in Bali by siblings Gary, Kelly, and Sam Bencheghib in 2020, more than 5 million pounds of plastic, an estimated 36% of which comes in the form of plastic bags, have been retrieved. Those bags are the primary material for a new product line, Sungai Design, which launched in March 2024. More than 22,000 pounds of bags have been transformed into seating and tables, with more products in the pipeline; proceeds support the organization’s ongoing work. Sungai Watch extended its cleanup work to Java in 2023 and has plans to expand into more parts of the country.

Byway | 💡🌱

Byway is the first-ever travel booking platform focused entirely on flight-free trips—skipping planes in favor of trains, ferries, and buses for the itineraries it plans around Europe, Morocco, and Turkey. More than that, the trips—which can be booked immediately on the website or tailored with the help of the concierge team—prioritize locally owned accommodations and promote alternatives to overtouristed hotspots, directing travelers to places like France’s Opal Coast or the Danish island of Funen. Since its creation in 2020, the certified B Corp company has planned more than 1,500 trips. In 2024, 40% of its clients reported that they would have flown had they not booked with Byway. Now, the company is actively expanding into the US market after a soft launch in 2023.

Few & Far | 🌱

In March 2024, Sarah and Jacob Dusek—founders of the glamping outfitter Under Canvas—unveiled their next venture, Few & Far, a tour operator that’s also a conservation project. Their nearly 40 bookable trip itineraries prioritize hotels and local businesses with active sustainability efforts. The cost of booking supports Few & Far’s biodiversity and habitat restoration work, including its rewilding efforts to enable more natural carbon sequestration in South Africa’s Limpopo province. In early 2025, the brand will open an eco-lodge, Few & Far Luvhondo, located within Limpopo’s UNESCO-registered Vhembe Biosphere Reserve. In addition to traditional game drives, the property will have a solar-powered aerial tram (opening in April 2025) for viewing the landscape and wildlife from above.

Rails to Trails Conservancy | 👨‍👨‍👧‍💡🩺

This organization helped pioneer the idea of “rail trails”—public footpaths and bike lanes adapted from out-of-use rail lines—in the US. In 2019, Rails to Trails announced its largest project yet: connecting existing trails to create a more than 3,700-mile Great American Rail-Trail between Washington, DC, and Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. As of 2024, more than 55% of the planned route has been completed, including 100% of the trail through DC and Maryland. When the trail is finished, 15% of the country’s population will have access to car-free public paths within 50 miles of their home; it will also bring new opportunities for outdoor tourism investment and create new customers for businesses along the route.

The Genki Ala Wai Project | 👨‍👨‍👧‍💡🌱

Built in 1928, Honolulu’s Ala Wai Canal has become one of Hawaiʻi’s most polluted waterways, accumulating debris and sludge that releases toxic compounds into the water. But the Genki Ala Wai Project is working to restore the ecosystem—making it suitable once again for activities like swimming—by 2026. Inspired by similar cleanup efforts in Japan, the project uses Effective Microorganisms, a mixture of beneficial microbes, that are released into the water via “genki” (a Japanese term for “healthy”) mud balls. After sinking to the canal bed, the organisms begin to digest sludge—up to 10 square feet or more of the stuff per ball. As of October 2024, more than 190,000 balls of the organization’s 300,000 goal have been released. Those looking to get involved can volunteer on specific projects or join one of Genki Ala Wai’s regular events; the organization has also partnered with local hotels, like The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Waikiki Beach, and the new Romer House Waikiki.

Inclusive Morocco | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🤝

Created in 2020 by Bilal El Hammoumy and Rania Chentouf, Morocco’s first openly queer-founded and -led travel company wants to help all kinds of travelers and locals be celebrated and supported. Inclusive Morocco prioritizes queer-owned businesses in a country where same-sex sexual activity remains illegal. It recommends friendly hotels and restaurants, and hires from the queer community for its 100% Moroccan staff, in addition to supporting local small NGOs and LGBTQ+ advocates. Travelers can book day tours and bespoke multi-night itineraries, from surfing in Essaouira on Morocco’s Atlantic coast to a cooking class in the “cave village” of Bhalil. New itineraries for 2024 include Morocco with Kids, which can be tailored to suit families of all kinds.

Native Like Water | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🤝

In 2025, this San Diego-based nonprofit will celebrate 25 years of helping people connect with the water around them. What started with a focus on the next generation has grown to encompass public programs for people of all ages that are rooted in indigenous conservation practices and traditions. In 2023, Native Like Water (NLW) hosted more than 300 young adults in its Indigenous-specific surfing and water sports camps and ocean education programming. NLW also hosts groups for travel experiences in collaboration with Indigenous communities in places like Hawaiʻi, Panama, Mexico, and Jamaica, in addition to adult and all-ages programming in California. November 2024 will see the premiere of Haagua, a new short film co-directed by NLW founder Marc Chavez (with funding from the World Surf League) that highlights Indigenous surfers in California and Mexico.

Rum & Sargassum | 💡🌱

In September 2024, this Barbados-based startup unveiled a prototype of its innovative biogas, using it to power a generator that, in turn, powered an electric car for a test drive. The renewable fuel is the brainchild of Dr. Legena Henry, a mechanical engineer, who founded Rum & Sargassum in 2021 to help turn some of the island’s common waste products into energy—removing detritus from the environment while contributing to the country’s goal of reaching 100% renewable energy by 2030. The biofuel, which can also power regular cars after a simple retrofit, is made with manure from Barbados Blackbelly sheep; wastewater from rum production; and sargassum, a seaweed that has been inundating Caribbean shores, causing harm both to the ecosystem and the economy. Converting the country’s cars to run on this sargassum-based fuel has the potential, the startup says, to remove 103,000 metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere every year.

White Desert | 🌱

White Desert has been conducting small, luxury expeditions to Antarctica since 2005, and in October 2024, the tour operator launched the White Desert Foundation, which will help support ecosystem restoration and climate change research on the white continent and beyond. The foundation has already issued its first grants: funding a team of scientists in Antarctica and a blue carbon project just outside Cape Town, from where the company flies guests to its low-impact Antarctic camps. White Desert has been CarbonNeutral-certified since 2007 with the help of offsets, but is taking steps to reduce its own emissions wherever possible, including by trialing and using sustainable aviation fuel—the first operator in Antarctica to do so—which the company hopes to roll out across its aircraft over the next three to five years. In the meantime, the planes have their own role to play in supporting environmental and climate research: each season, about 50% of the people White Desert transports to the continent are scientists, which adds up to around 150 scientists a year.

Sanctum | 🩺

Founded in Amsterdam by partners Luuk Melisse and Gabriel Olszewski with the goal of fighting disconnection and loneliness during the pandemic, Sanctum has made waves around the globe. It currently welcomes around 2,000 people a month to its regular classes and has hosted events in more than 15 countries around the world. The unorthodox 2.5-hour site-specific sessions, often held at venues like churches and public parks, draw from various approaches to wellness and spirituality: meditation, martial arts, breathwork, high-intensity interval training, even rave-inspired flow. Sanctum now offers bookings for private events and hosts retreats at properties like Six Senses Rome, NIHI Sumba, and (for the next invite-only installment) Fincadelica Xarraca, a luxurious villa in Ibiza. In February 2024, Sanctum took its classes to London, and there are plans to expand to Germany and the Nordic countries in 2025, and the US in 2026. An online subscription model is also in the works.

Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary | 👨‍👨‍👧‍🦏

In 2025, the team behind the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary will open a set of low-impact ecolodges on Jaibui Island in southern Sierra Leone. Jaibui is a research site for the organization, founded by Bala and Sharmila Amarasekaran, which has been working in conservation and animal welfare for decades. Tacugama already operates ecolodges at its sanctuary just outside the capital of Freetown, which is now home to more than 120 chimpanzees rescued from poachers and illegal pet operations. Proceeds from the lodges, as well as guided hikes and birdwatching tours, support work like creating sustainable livelihoods—that are not reliant on deforestation or poaching—in places where humans and chimpanzees live in proximity. Back at the sanctuary, construction is underway on their Innovation Centre and Botanic Gardens, projected to open in 2026.

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.

Swiss Federal Railways | 💡🌱

Swiss Federal Railways (Schweizerische Bundesbahnen, or SBB) carries more than 1.3 million passengers daily—all on trains that run fully on electricity, 90% of which comes from hydropower and 10% from nuclear energy. SBB buildings—stations, offices, and production facilities—are powered only by energy from renewable sources. The company even acknowledges the negative ecosystem impact of track construction on its own website and is working to promote biodiversity by developing warning systems for animals, among other methods. In April 2024, SBB also began mixing the small amount of diesel fuel it still uses—which powers a few older-model construction and maintenance trains—with hydrotreated vegetable oils, reducing emissions by up to 25% until the old vehicles can be updated or replaced.

Denver Union Station | 👨‍👨‍👧‍💡

Union Station is sometimes referred to as “Denver’s living room,” a transport hub that sees more than 15,000 commuters and travelers pass through daily, but that also gives them a soft place to land or linger. In the summer of 2024, this living room got a $11 million update. The six-month renovation project continues preservation work that started more than a decade ago, when a major restoration project, completed in 2014, helped revitalize this Beaux Arts landmark. The reinvestment in the historically significant building is aligned with a larger post-pandemic effort to stimulate the surrounding Central Business District. The new renovation extends through the soaring Great Hall, the 112-key Crawford Hotel, and The Cooper Lounge on the mezzanine level—beautiful spaces that bring together both locals and tourists, and give them a chance to interact, a rare quality in a modern transit hub.

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Credits

Lead editors: Matt Ortile, Hannah Towey

Special project editor: Hannah Walhout

Global digital director: Arati Menon

Lead visuals: Pallavi Kumar

Supporting visuals: Andrea Edelman

Illustrator: Weston Wei

Copy editor: Sneha Kanchan, Rachel Whalen

Lead social media: Mercedes Bleth

Supporting social media: Emily Adler, Kayla Brock

Contributors: Caitlin White, Carrie Honaker, Charis McGowan, Dan Q. Dao, Eloise Stark, Hannah McKenzie, Hannah Walhout, Hayley Domin, JD Shadel, Jonny Bierman, Kaila Yu, Karen Gardiner, Maria Yagoda, Samantha Falawée, Sarah Kuta, Sarah Marshall, Sarah Wood, Scott Laird, Siobhan Reid, Taryn White, Zachary Schwartz

Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler