How to Join the Meaningful Travel Map
By joining the Meaningful Travel Map, you become a Tourism Cares Impact Partner, gaining the opportunity to share your story, build partnerships, and benefit from the impact of tourism.
Through the Map, your business is discovered by travel advisors, tour operators, and industry leaders who are actively looking to work with community-led, impact-driven partners and suppliers. It’s not about mass exposure; it’s about building the right connections. The Map helps open doors to thoughtful visitation, responsible itinerary development, and meaningful, long-term relationships with travel brands and organizations that share your values.
Tourism Cares supports you every step of the way. All approved Impact Partners receive guided onboarding, tourism-readiness support, access to training and educational resources, and ongoing engagement through updates, consultation opportunities, and learning designed to help local partners succeed with the travel trade.
Explore the criteria below to see if your organization is a good fit for the Meaningful Travel Map.
Do You Qualify for the Meaningful Travel Map?
Base Requirements:
To be included on the Meaningful Travel Map, Impact Partners must meet all five of the following requirements:
You currently work with—or are open to working with—tour operators, travel advisors, Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs), or Destination Management Companies (DMCs) to grow your business or generate more impact.
1.
Your organization directly offers a product, service, or experience that is relevant to travelers and the travel trade (the network of businesses that sell and promote travel).
2.
You must be ready to welcome visitors or bookings, with a basic online presence (website or social media), and clear information on how to visit, book, or engage.
3.
Your work proactively contributes to community benefit, environmental responsibility, and/or cultural preservation, without causing harm to people, animals, or the environment (Click here to review Tourism Cares’ child safety and animal welfare policies).
4.
You are a small businesses, emerging initiative, non-profit and/or community-based organization that goes beyond the mainstream tourism model to create meaningful impact.
Please note, large or well-established companies with basic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs are less likely to qualify, especially if they’re already well-connected to the travel trade.
5.
Additional Requirements:
Your organization must meet two or more of the following Impact Areas as part of your core mission, business model, and/or public messaging:
Governance + Business Model
Your organization is:
Registered non-profit, social enterprise, community-owned business, or cooperative;
Women-owned; or
Certified B Corp
Social + Community
Your organization is:
Owned/operated by and/or directly beneficial to historically excluded communities (Black, Indigenous, ethnic minority, people of color, LGBTQIA+, people living with disabilities); or
Creates local jobs or reinvests in the community, specifically in areas that currently lack significant economic impact from tourism
Environmental
Significantly and actively minimizes or offsets environmental harm through efforts like reducing waste, water use, or emissions; and
Goes beyond minimization by actively restoring or protecting ecosystems, biodiversity, or natural resources; and
Has a sustainability policy, sustainability training for staff, and sustainability communications for guests
Educational + Awareness Building
Your organization:
Offers immersive, place-based experiences that connect travelers with local knowledge;
Actively preserves, protects, or enhances cultural heritage and/or local traditions;
Inspires behavior change toward more responsible travel; or
Communicates values of sustainability or social impact through storytelling and interpretation
Criteria for Hotels + Accommodation Providers
To be included on the Meaningful Travel Map, accommodation providers must meet the following criteria:
To be included on the Meaningful Travel Map, accommodation providers must meet the following criteria:
Demonstrated Impact: Meet one of the above Additional Requirements as a core part of your mission, operations, and communications (i.e. Governance/Business Model; or Social/Cultural/Community; or Educational/Awareness-Building), in addition to the Environmental requirements outlined below.
Local Ownership + Size: We prioritize locally or regionally owned accommodations, especially those with fewer than approximately 50 employees. Larger properties, or those part of a small group or small chain of hotels, may be considered if their impact efforts are truly exceptional (beyond typical Corporate Social Responsibility programs) and well-documented. We only list individual properties, as opposed to hotel groups or chains.
Environment: You have a sustainability plan that contains:
Clear goals, and some demonstrated impacts, for significantly and actively minimizing or offsetting environmental harm through efforts like reducing waste, water use, or emissions
Clear goals, and some demonstrated impacts, for actively restoring or protecting ecosystems, biodiversity, or natural resources (ie. going beyond just minimizing harm)
Note: Larger businesses require a written plan and systems for tracking, measuring, and reporting on local impact.
Staff Engagement + Training: Staff are actively involved in implementing sustainability practices and are:
Regularly trained on your sustainability initiatives
Educated about the natural and cultural heritage of the local area
Encouraged—or required—to share responsible tourism practices with guests
The Meaningful Travel Fund, an exciting new funding initiative launched by Tourism Cares and the UnTours Foundation, aims to support small, locally-owned tourism businesses around the world by empowering them to expand their efforts in sustainability, community engagement, and cultural preservation. The Meaningful Travel Fund leverages the UnTours Foundation's Reset Tourism Fund to provide affordable capital to purpose-driven tourism businesses.
Apply to the Meaningful Travel Fund
Tourism Cares reserves the right to approve or deny any submitted Meaningful Travel Map pins. For instance, an organization that otherwise qualifies but receives significant negative feedback from the community or creates environmental degradation is likely to be disqualified. If there are questions regarding your pin entries, our team will be in touch to gather more information.