![\"kelley](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/kelley-louise.jpg\")
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Kelley Louise\u00a0is Executive Director of Travel + Social Good<\/a>. Founded in\u00a02013, in partnership with the UN Foundation and +SocialGood, the non-profit is building a collaborative community that seeks to develop\u00a0the tools and network to help catalyze our industry\u2019s next\u00a0leaders.<\/em><\/p>\n There are so many incredible travel professionals whose vision is centered on making the travel industry more sustainable, and ultimately, geared at making the world a better place. Our aim is to connect the dots between those visionaries. <\/strong><\/p>\n TRAVEL + SOCIAL GOOD<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>We believe that sustainable travel is the future of all<\/i> travel. I think there\u2019s a misconception that when you hear \u201csustainable,\u201d \u201cresponsible,\u201d or \u201cimpact\u201d travel, people tend to think of this as a niche within the travel industry, and their gut reaction is (usually), \u201cThat\u2019s great, but I want to go on a vacation.\u201d But the thing is, there is no reason you cannot visit any<\/i> destination, and do so in a sustainable way.<\/p>\n When most people travel, whether for business or pleasure, they are visiting cities. We believe the secret to pushing the travel industry toward its potential as a force for good is to transform cities into capitals of sustainable travel.<\/p>\n One of the most beautiful parts about this is that these sustainable experiences – ones that really celebrate the community and empower them – are also the most authentic and memorable experiences we have when we travel.<\/p>\n TRAVEL + SOCIAL GOOD<\/a>:\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>First, it’s our community. We launched our first Hub (TSG NYC) in April 2015. Since then, TSG has grown and expanded to 22 other cities around the world. We are an unfunded nonprofit run entirely by volunteers, so it\u2019s deeply humbling to see the time and dedication that our passionate members put forth.<\/p>\n As the Executive Director, I feel so blessed to witness this movement coming to life, and the biggest factor that keeps me going is when people find Travel+SocialGood and tell me, \u201cI\u2019ve found my home.\u201d As entrepreneurs within the travel space, I think it can be incredibly isolating to feel like it\u2019s you against the world, and it\u2019s so humbling to know that we don\u2019t have to do fight this alone.<\/p>\n Second, it’s the Global Summit. We originally launched as a Summit to explore the potential within the travel industry, and more than 250 social entrepreneurs, travel industry professionals and innovators joined TSG for the inaugural Summit in 2013. It was an incredible success, and after the event, the overwhelming response was, \u201cWhat\u2019s next?\u201d<\/p>\n The team went back to the drawing board, and since then, we\u2019ve grown into the nonprofit we are today. The Summit sets the tone for our organization as a whole, and we have four other initiatives that create a web of opportunities for the travel industry.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s Summit will be hosted at the UN Headquarters in New York City and already shows the promise of being our most impactful event to date. We\u2019ve limited the event to 150 visionaries in the travel, tech and social good nexus, and the main portion of the event is a design-thinking session (different workshops geared at finding concrete solutions to unlock the potential within the industry). Our goal will be to answer one question: How do we mainstream sustainable travel?<\/p>\n To find out more, visit the Summit page<\/a> on our website.<\/p>\n TRAVEL + SOCIAL GOOD<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>Our biggest challenge is learning how to be sustainable as an organization. There is so much passion and potential within our community of volunteers, but as an unfunded nonprofit, it\u2019s always a balance of investing our time and also being creative to keep costs free or as low as possible.<\/p>\n People hear what we\u2019re doing and are blown away by our rapid growth and the traction that we\u2019ve already been able to accomplish – and it\u2019s usually after that realization that they find out we\u2019re run by volunteers. I think the gut reaction is to say, \u201cWow, that\u2019s so incredible because you\u2019re driven entirely by passion.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s this misconception that you can\u2019t do good in the world and get paid to do it, but the reality is, that\u2019s just not sustainable. One of my greatest hopes is that TSG can talk about sustainability with radical transparency and through a very holistic approach, one that encompasses triple bottom line (people, planet and profit), and also be a sustainable nonprofit organization in itself.<\/p>\n TRAVEL + SOCIAL GOOD<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>Travelers today are driven by experiences and purpose. There\u2019s a growing trend that encompasses supporting local, empowering communities and spending money on businesses that include social good in their business model. These ideas are why you see success in services like Airbnb (connecting travelers with locals, and therefore, more authentic and unique experiences) or companies like TOMS or Warby Parker (that integrate social good directly into their business model).<\/p>\n For Travel+SocialGood, I think success is more than just growing as an organization – success would be the ability to look back at the industry in 10, or even five years from now, and to know that we played a small part in helping to catalyze some of the industry\u2019s next leaders.<\/p>\n TRAVEL + SOCIAL GOOD<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>TSG leads with an inclusive voice, so there isn\u2019t a specific person or organization that I would want to pinpoint. But I will say that much of the power within TSG is centered on the fact that our community connects the dots between likeminded individuals (from different organizations focused on travel, tech and social good).<\/p>\n It becomes very powerful when you consider the potential of connecting say perhaps, a small community-based tourism operator with a social media influencer, or a large positive-impact retail company with a community-led development project.<\/p>\n Kelley Louise is the Executive Director of Travel+SocialGood, a nonprofit and community aimed at propelling the travel industry to meet its potential for global positive impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,131,287,551,535,573,676],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nTRAVINDY: <\/strong>What challenges is your organisation\u00a0trying to address?<\/h5>\n
![\"tsg-danielle-pearce-photography-5-small\"](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tsg-danielle-pearce-photography-5-small-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a>TRAVEL + SOCIAL GOOD<\/a>:\u00a0Travel+SocialGood is a nonprofit and community aimed at propelling the travel industry to meet its potential for global positive impact. The travel industry has this wonderful potential to solve some of the world\u2019s most pressing issues, and we look at the Global Goals<\/a> for inspiration on issues that we can tackle as a community. <\/strong><\/p>\nTRAVINDY:\u00a0<\/strong>What is the impact you are trying to achieve?<\/h5>\n
![\"tsg-danielle-pearce-photography-2-web\"](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tsg-danielle-pearce-photography-2-web-1024x683.jpg\")
TRAVEL + SOCIAL GOOD<\/a><\/strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>Our goal is to transform the industry into a force for good. We are focused on education, advocacy and community. We hope to arm our community with the tools and resources they need in order to spark positive change within the industry.<\/p>\nTRAVINDY:\u00a0<\/strong>What’s special about your approach to meeting these challenges?<\/h5>\n
![\"tsg-danielle-pearce-photography-5-web\"](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tsg-danielle-pearce-photography-5-web-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h5>\nTRAVINDY:\u00a0<\/strong>What’s the most exciting thing your organisation has achieved so far?<\/h5>\n
![\"tsg-danielle-pearce-photography-1-web\"](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tsg-danielle-pearce-photography-1-web-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
“We believe the secret to pushing the travel industry toward its potential as a force for good is to transform cities into capitals of sustainable travel”<\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\n
TRAVINDY<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>What do you need to help you be more successful?<\/h5>\n
![\"tsg-danielle-pearce-photography-6-web\"](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tsg-danielle-pearce-photography-6-web-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\nTRAVINDY:<\/strong> What does that success look like? Share your dream with us.<\/h5>\n
![\"tsg-danielle-pearce-photography--web\"](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tsg-danielle-pearce-photography-web-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\nTRAVINDY:<\/strong> If you could connect with one person, company or organisation in\u00a0responsible tourism, who would it be, and why?<\/h5>\n
![\"tsg-logo\"](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tsg-logo-1024x670.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\nTRAVINDY:\u00a0<\/strong>Which other person, company or organisation would you most like to recommend to be interviewed for this series, and why?<\/h5>\n
![\"kelleys](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/kelleys-heroes.jpg\")
TRAVEL + SOCIAL GOOD<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>Some of my personal favorites include –<\/p>\n\n
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If you would like to\u00a0be featured in this series, please get in touch<\/a>.<\/h5>\n
To contact Kelley Louise and Travel + Social Good, please email them here<\/a>, connect with them on facebook<\/a>, or on twitter<\/a>.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"