Insight Vacations is a proud member of The Travel Corporation’s (TTC) family of brands. The Tollman family behind TTC is guided by service and giving back. Together we believe that travel is a great privilege. With the education, compassion, and lifelong memories travel provides us also comes a great responsibility. At Insight Vacations, our mission is to ensure that travel has a positive impact on the planet we call home, the people and communities whose home we visit, and the rich wildlife we find there.
Insight Vacations does that in two ways: through being founding members of The TreadRight Foundation and through the implementation of our five-year sustainability strategy How We Tread Right (HWTR).
The TreadRight Foundation
The TreadRight Foundation is a not-for-profit organization created as a joint initiative between The Travel Corporation’s (TTC) family of brands. TreadRight has supported some 55-plus sustainable tourism projects worldwide to date. Support is provided through donations and grants to leading partners across the sustainable travel spectrum. These projects all fall under the three pillars of TreadRight: People, Wildlife, Planet.
1. PEOPLE – Community Support and Cultural Preservation
At Insight Vacations, we are committed to supporting the cultures, traditions and arts of the communities that we visit. We help communities unlock the benefits of tourism through economic empowerment, by supporting micro-enterprises and community-based initiatives that build positive futures for local people and their families.
Meet Sarain Fox, TreadRight’s People Ambassador
Sarain amplifies the voices of her Indigenous community through preservation of culture and stories. “When we make authentic connections with local people our travel becomes infinitely richer. My First Nation Anishinaabe heritage serves as the lens through which I view the world, seeking to build a bridge to the people whose lands I am grateful to visit and whose stories I am privileged to tell. Throughout the Americas, you will find rich cultures to discover and support – and fascinating people to meet.”
2. PLANET – Sustainability and Conservation
We are committed to reducing the environmental impact of our business and safeguarding the future of our planet. Initiatives include: targeting climate change, sustainable food production and responsible consumption through carbon management, renewable energy, the food cycle, waste reduction, and the elimination of single-use plastics.
Meet Céline Cousteau, TreadRight’s Planet Ambassador
Céline travels the world helping to communicate the stories that connect humans and the environment. “Every journey we take deepens our appreciation and respect for this planet we all call home. The Americas offer some of the most awe-inspiring sights on earth, which I have been fortunate to see while navigating the Amazon and tracking the gray whale migration from Mexico to Alaska. We must make our travels sustainable – so our planet sustains us.”
3. WILDLIFE – Conservation and Protection
Partnering with leading wildlife organizations, we work to help protect and rehabilitate elephant, rhino and big cat populations around the world. Our ethical wildlife experiences are led by TreadRight’s Animal Welfare Policy.
Meet Ami Vitale, TreadRight’s Wildlife Ambassador
An award-winning National Geographic photographer, Ami has captured images in over 100 countries. “Nature is sending us all a strong message now. We need to start recognizing that we are not separate from nature. When we see ourselves as part of the landscape and part of nature, then saving nature is really about saving ourselves. Traveling across the Americas, you will witness powerful stories that remind us of just how small and deeply interconnected our world is. I hope we all take advantage of this time to reimagine our relationship to nature and each other.”
How We Tread Right Strategy Implementation
Going beyond our partnership with The TreadRight Foundation How We Tread Right is our new five-year sustainability strategy. At the heart of this strategy are 11 goals, developed to address both the environmental footprint and the community impact of our business and operations. These 11 HWTR goals are anchored to the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development, which we’ve prioritized based on our impact potential. Our goals were developed in consultation with 30+ TTC brand and business leaders, as well as our Make Travel Matter Team, a passionate group of team members tasked with embedding sustainability at our offices and within our operations around the world.
Make Travel Matter (MTM) Experiences
Make Travel Matter (MTM) Experiences are conscious travel experiences available on our itineraries. MTM Experiences are chosen with great care based on the positive social or environmental impact they have on their communities and those who experience them. Using a proprietary assessment tool endorsed by industry experts and developed exclusively for TTC’s family of brands, MTM Experiences are assessed against a robust set of criteria directly tied to the UN Global Goals. Travelers can identify MTM Experiences across our brands by locating the MTM Experience seal. Through HWTR, we are committed to integrating at least one MTM Experience on 50% of our trips by 2025.
Take The Pledge – In It Together
As mentioned our ethos of #makingtravelmatter permeates our entire business and mandates that each member of the Insight team does his or her very best to walk the talk. As a global family connected through our love of travel and our commitment to sustainability, we have each signed the #MakeTravelMatter Pledge we hope that you will join us before embarking on your Insight Trip.
