As the sustainable travel movement takes hold throughout the tourism industry, a new initiative has grown: one which promotes social sustainability by empowering women who run travel organizations, as well as the women who live and work in the communities visited. 

In recent years, a new movement has grown within the tourism industry: socially-responsible travel. A primary facet of the ethical travel movement has been eco-tourism: international travel focused on reducing environmental impact as much as possible. When thinking about the ethics of travel, tourism is especially tricky. Although not completely straightforward, environmental footprint can be measured quantitatively by studying emissions, soil erosion, and fluctuations within ecosystems. Similarly, travel undertaken without cultural awareness risks trampling, commercializing, and exploiting the cultures and peoples indigenous to the places visited. Negative socio-cultural effects of travel are frequently masked--or if not masked, are presumed to be mitigated--by the economic benefits of tourism. Because of this, and unlike environmental effects, the drawbacks of socially-irresponsible travel are difficult to categorize, and spiral throughout society as a whole. 

Fortunately, the ill-effects on the social structure of communities created by tourism can be minimized through a respect for and a foreknowledge of the history, language, and culture of the peoples and places visited. More than just minimizing social impact, there exist multiple organizations and projects dedicated to mindful traveling that promotes female empowerment and forging sustainable global relationships. The work of these organizations allows for enriching travel experiences while cultivating the socio-economic flourishment of local cultures. Growing alongside eco-tourism, but often less discussed, are movements empowering women through the travel industry; these include women-owned travel firms with primarily female staff, as well as organizations that seek to connect with and offer support to women in the communities they visit. 

One such organization is Planeterra, a foundation that assists in designing, planning, and executing projects focused on sustainability and global development by harnessing the resources available in local communities in combination with those generated through the travel industry. A major facet of Planeterra’s work is in female social and economic empowerment, which includes employing women as tour guides, and contributing funding to and bringing in markets for handicrafts and services provided by entrepreneurs who are women all over the world. Similarly, the Intrepid Foundation has spearheaded the Empowerment Collective, a series of localized community projects based around the world. Empowerment Collective projects concentrate on areas such as women’s education and literacy, vocational training, and supporting entrepreneurial endeavors undertaken by women inside and outside of the travel industry. 

Consequently, ethical travel spearheaded by women, for women fosters sustainability in ways that differ from environmentally-sustainable travel. Rather than seeking to reduce impact alone, female empowerment projects promote sustainability in a productive sense: forming relationships and growing networks of economic support that heightens the personal and financial power of women globally. The act of traveling connects women and builds self-esteem, while providing avenues for women who are entrepreneurs in the travel industry to empower themselves and one another by achieving economic independence and forming cross-cultural partnerships. Although the ability to travel itself is, for the most part, linked inextricably to socio-economic privileges, it is misguided to say that those hierarchies must be replicated in the places visited. That is to say, intentional channeling of the resources of the tourism industry brings heightened personal independence and opportunity to both the women who run these projects and the women who live and work in the places visited, creating avenues for greater socio-economic parity all over the world.