Hurawalhi Island Resort, SolarPanel Covered Walkway © Courtesy of Kind Traveler
By Allie Murray
Eager to leave the world better than how they found it, Jessica Blotter and Sean Krejci joined forces to start Kind Traveler, the world’s first socially conscious hotel booking and media platform.
Launched in 2016, Kind Traveler empowers travelers to positively impact communities and the environment in the destinations they visit. Through the Kind Traveler Give + Get booking platform, travelers unlock exclusive hotel rates and perks upon a minimum $10 donation to a local charity.
When Blotter and Krejci first met, they both had goals of finding a way to benefit the planet. Krejci, an Air Force veteran, had grown up in Hawaii as the oldest of ten siblings to two blind parents.
While traveling themselves, Blotter and Krejci came up with the idea to provide travelers with an easy way to make a difference while seeing the world.
“We dreamed that instead of creating marketing campaigns we would create movements, the kind with the power to make the world a better place,” Blotter explained. “When we found ourselves on a trip to Belize, that dream started to take shape. As our tour bus wound its way through the back roads of rural villages, we witnessed heartbreaking poverty, families living in tiny shacks near polluted swamps and emaciated dogs wandering the streets for food. The bus had never been so quiet. How could we get excited about visiting the Mayan ruins nearby and ignore the devastation around us?”
To do so, they launched Kind Traveler, which now represents sustainable hotels and tourism boards in 22 countries and more than 100 charities globally.
To continue offering travelers the best resources possible, Kind Traveler launched their 2022 Impact Tourism Report. The report surveyed more than 1,000 people and interviewed 64 partnered hotels, charities, and destinations, to identify ten trends shaping the future of sustainable and regenerative tourism.
In the report, 96 percent of respondents noted that it’s important that their travel dollars are making a positive impact in the places they visit, and 48 percent stated that choosing accommodations that are sustainable and socially conscious is the hardest part about traveling sustainably.
To make sustainable accommodations and traveling easier, Kind Traveler released the report to encourage other hotels, destination managers, and travelers to seek out partnerships and opportunities that make a positive impact. Some of the trends that were brought forth included how transparency around sustainability initiatives is required; the opportunity for hotels and local charities to be catalysts for destination wellbeing; hotels as regenerative powerhouses; and how stewardship pledges can be a critical roadmap to good.
When booking with Kind Traveler, travelers will have the opportunity to learn about how each hotel is advancing sustainability, wellness, and community impact. Additionally, travelers will learn about the exact impact of their donation to the community they plan to visit and why such donations are so important.
Setting their sights on improving and expanding sustainable and regenerative travel resources to all travelers, Kind Traveler promises to help travelers make a positive impact in the communities and places they visit, helping to create more purpose-driven, meaningful vacation experiences.
