Prince Harry is on a mission to transform the travel industry. The Duke of Sussex is in Amsterdam today to officially launch Travalyst—a new program that aims to explore and improve conservation efforts at tourist destinations around the world, tackle climate change, and help local communities grow economically.
Travalyst is the first endeavor to fall under the umbrella of Harry and Duchess Meghan’s new charitable foundation, Sussex Royal. The prince spent more than two years working on the ambitious project with partners Booking.com, SkyScanner, CTrip, TripAdvisor, and Visa.
“Travel has the unparalleled power to open people’s minds to different cultures, new experiences, and to have a profound appreciation for what our world has to offer,” the prince said in a statement. “As tourism inevitably grows, it is critically important to accelerate the adoption of sustainable practices worldwide and to balance this growth with the needs of the environment and the local population. Bringing companies, consumers, and communities together is our best chance to protect destinations and ecosystems for future generations.”
Travalyst won’t encourage people to travel less, but it will help tourists make environmentally friendly decisions, such as providing tips for offsetting carbon emissions and supporting local communities at tourist destinations. The goal is to give the consumer more eco-conscious travel options when booking trips and educate them on the impact tourism can have on the environment. In the months ahead, Travalyst will launch new industry collaborations and initiatives focusing on different areas of tourism sustainability, including preventing wildlife damage and ways to tackle the growing problem of “over-tourism”—which is literally seeing some of the world’s most beautiful places being loved to death.
“I have learned so much from the experiences I’ve had and the people I’ve met in places like Botswana and the Caribbean, Nepal and New Zealand,” Harry said in a speech at Amsterdam’s A’dam Tower. “What is clear across this vast landscape is our world faces environmental challenges of unprecedented scope and scale.”
A source close to the prince tells BAZAAR.com that the royal felt the project was “hugely important, as the number of people traveling is rising rapidly but individuals are not being given enough opportunities to do it in a more sustainable manner. By bringing together these industry heavyweights, they are able to help lead the way in protecting this planet.”
There is a growing demand from eco-conscious tourists for access to more sustainable options while traveling; a recent survey conducted by Booking.com showed that more than half of all travelers are keen to make sustainable travel choices in the future but don’t know how. “The commitment from these different brands to work together and help build a global network of like-minded social entrepreneurs, NGOs, and policymakers is truly inspiring,” Gillian Tans, chairwoman of Booking.com, tells BAZAAR in a statement. “Collaboration is the only path forward if we want to create a real paradigm shift in travel. We want to protect the destinations we all love and guarantee that they are happy and healthy for generations to come, but we can’t do it on our own. Even though we don’t have all the answers yet, we are determined to find them together.”
Critics will be quick to point out Harry’s own widely-reported use of private jet to three different destinations in the month of August. During today’s launch, which he flew to on a commercial flight, Harry was asked about his personal travel choices. The prince said, ”I spend 99 percent of my life traveling the Earth commercial, but occasionally I have to make a decision not to, to ensure my family are safe.”
Says SkyScanner CEO Bryan Dove, “We have an obligation to preserve our world for future generations to explore and enjoy—but to do this we need to act now as change won’t happen overnight. As the biggest players in the travel industry, we have a responsibility to use our collective scale to lead this change.”
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