Travel Forward launches global community to unite destinations and tourism businesses around shared challenges
New membership community will bring destinations and travel businesses together, with founding members to be announced in the coming weeks.
The new membership community addresses climate risk, visitor pressure, and economic leakage through collaborative action between destinations and global travel businesses.
Photo by Travel Forward
Travel Forward (formerly the Travel Foundation) has today announced the launch of Travel Forward Connect, a unique global membership community bringing tourism destinations and businesses together to act on the challenges affecting the wellbeing and long-term future of destinations.
The initiative responds to a long-standing gap in tourism: destinations and global travel businesses are often trying to solve the same challenges, from climate risk and visitor pressure to spreading local benefits, but rarely have a shared space in which to work on them together. Travel Forward Connect creates that space. The community also supports organisations, including Glasgow Declaration signatories, to move from climate commitments to practical action and deepen collaboration in line with the Declaration’s five pathways.
Organisations interested in joining Travel Forward Connect are invited to attend an introductory webinar at 3pm BST on Wednesday 27 May, where Travel Forward will outline the purpose of the community, explain membership options and introduce some of the first members to join.
For too long, destinations and travel businesses have been expected to solve shared challenges separately. Travel Forward Connect is designed to bring them around the same table, with a shared focus on honest conversation and practical action. That means being willing to address the issues that really shape the future of tourism, including responding to climate vulnerability, shifting how the money flows, reducing economic leakage and putting communities at the centre of destination development
Jeremy Sampson, CEO of Travel Forward
Travel Forward Connect is intended not only as a space for discussion and peer learning, but also as a platform for collective action. The founding cohort will help shape an initial collaborative pilot project linked to the charity’s mission to spark big changes in how tourism benefits destinations.
Membership includes monthly online convenings, insight briefings, access to emerging research and case studies, opportunities to shape Travel Forward’s wider agenda, and participation in a growing international network focused on destination resilience and wellbeing.
The community is open to destination management organisations, national tourism authorities, tourism businesses, operators, hotel groups and travel platforms that are committed to supporting long-term destination resilience and fair outcomes for communities.
Media Contact
Ben Lyman
Head of Communications at the Travel Foundation [email protected]