Not all travel is created equal.
There is a growing style of travel that is specifically focused on creating these special moments:
Transformational travel is intentionally traveling to stretch, learn and grow into new ways of being and engaging with the world. It is being strategic in how you invest in travel, ensuring that your tourism dollars are a catalyst for positive change for yourself, for the destination your visit, for the businesses (and their extended communities) that you hire, and that your experience leaves a positive (not negative) impact on the environment.
Transformational Travel is a movement I’ve been passionate about for years. At its core, it focuses on being intentional when we travel, selecting places and experiences specifically for their ability to generate those moments that help us stretch, learn, and grow.
For many, travel serves as a means to forget about the world. To sit on a beach, shut off email, and spend the day sipping away on a piña colada. While there is nothing wrong with sipping a fruity drink with an umbrella while your toes dig in the sand, this style of travel almost never serves to open us up to new experiences and worldviews.
Transformational Travel on the other hand is about engaging with the world – or more specifically, a part of the world you’ve never experienced. It’s about changing the way we view our relationships, our ecological footprint, our consumer choices, our social purpose, and ultimately, our impact on this world.
While Transformational Travel can look different to everyone, The Transformational Travel Council distills it down into three critical parts:
By bringing these three parts together, wanderers following the Transformational Travel protocol increase the likelihood that they’ll have that life-changing travel experience, and create those moments and memories that will stay with them forever.
Whether you’re an Industry leader or a solo traveler, each of us has a responsibility in the tourism ecosystem to use our experience as a catalyst for positive change. This can look like a lot of things including:
In Summer of 2020 after months of course work, I officially became recognized as a Transformational Travel Ally.
"Allies of the TTC are thoughtful, heart-centric, and conscious practitioners, destinations, and organizations that are actively co-creating a more ethical, emotional, equitable, and ecological travel dynamic.
We encourage you to support these organizations and practice the transformational travel philosophy when making choices related to your travel. From where you go, to who you book with, and how you travel, and how who you give back to when you return, they all play in concert, harmonizing, and amplifying the benefits of travel."
If you’ve spent any time at all reading my blogs or following me on social media, you should already know that I’ve always made it a point to travel with intention. To be present where I go. To ensure that my family and I immerse ourselves in local cultures and experiences. This is the type of travel I have always loved, and why I am such an avid proponent of the Transformational Travel movement.
With the completion of the Transformational Travel Council’s Traveler Design Program, for the first time in my life I will not only have a love for this style of travel, but a framework and toolkit for helping others learn to love it as well. My aim is to give readers like you a much better understanding of how to build these types of Transformational Travel experiences for yourself.
Places to go. Experiences to uncover. Things to look for to ensure you’re traveling with purpose.
Ultimately, my goal is to give you moments. Those little flashes of light that, although fleeting, will stick with you forever.
Whatever your appetite for adventure may be, I am here to be your guide. Because as someone that’s experienced the magic of Transformational Travel first-hand, I know all too well that these experiences are far too powerful not to share.
And I cannot wait to start sharing transformational adventures with you!
