As tourism destinations grapple with the growing challenges of climate risk and increasing pressure on communities, the need for practical action and support has never been greater. At the same time, charities and non-profits are operating in one of the most challenging funding environments in recent years, with rising demand for their expertise but increasing competition for limited resources.
For small organisations like ours, that makes collaboration more important than ever. Alongside the vital financial support of our funders, one of the most valuable contributions we receive comes through the generosity of organisations that share their expertise, skills and time. Pro bono support has become an important way of building the capacity, knowledge and momentum needed to create lasting change.
Our mission is ambitious
We exist to help transform tourism so that it works for destinations, the people who live in them and the natural environments on which they depend. Achieving that kind of systems change requires expertise from many different disciplines. No single organisation can do it alone.
Many of our most significant milestones over the past eighteen months have been made possible through partners contributing specialist knowledge alongside our own team. Together, we launched ‘Where Next?’ to accelerate climate adaptation that centres on the needs of destination communities. We developed our Destination Climate RiskScan initiative to help destinations better understand and respond to climate risk. We launched a new brand and website and we began shaping new approaches to funding the next phase of our work.
Expertise that makes a difference
Behind each of these milestones are organisations that have shared their knowledge because they believe in the importance of creating a more resilient and equitable future for tourism. The expertise they have contributed has taken many different forms including technology, communications, creative and strategic support.
Alongside its generous, long-term funding, Holiday Extras colleagues have used dedicated community engagement time to support our content and wider digital activity. This has included specialist support from its in-house web developers, Oak Creative, who designed and built our new website, as well as technical input into an AI-powered climate-risk tool for destinations.
Amadeus has helped us develop a new case study repository that will make practical learning and examples available to our Travel Forward Connect members.
Risklayer has become a close strategic and technical partner in the development of our Destination Climate RiskScan initiative. Drawing on its expertise in climate and disaster risk, data modelling and tourism resilience work, the Risklayer team has contributed significant pro-bono time to lead the development and operationalisation of the RiskScan methodology, and help translate the methodology into a scalable online platform. Risklayer is also contributing its expertise alongside Travel Forward to work with the European Travel Commission, the Netherlands and Portugal. This combination of Travel Forward’s tourism and destination expertise with Risklayer’s risk science, modelling and analytical capabilities continues to create new approaches for helping destinations understand and respond to an increasingly complex risk landscape.
Rise and Shine & Partners guided the development of our new name and visual identity, helping us better reflect the organisation we have become and the role we want to play in tourism’s future.
FINN Partners supported the launch of our Where Next? initiative and is now working alongside us to better understand the barriers to climate reporting across travel media, helping develop practical guidance that can improve understanding across the sector.
Through the support of 180 Degrees Consulting, we’ve explored new ways of bringing together philanthropy, strategic partnerships and innovative funding models to help sustain and grow our work over the coming years.
More than extra capacity
As well as providing vital capacity, these partnerships give us access to specialist expertise that would otherwise be beyond the reach of a small charity. They bring fresh perspectives, constructive challenge and new ideas, unlocking work that simply wouldn’t have happened otherwise. They help us move faster, test new approaches and strengthen our organisation for the future. Just as importantly, they allow more of our charitable funding to be directed towards delivering programmes and supporting destinations around the world.
“Some of the best innovation comes from partnerships where there is a real alignment of values, ambition and purpose. That’s what we’ve found with Travel Forward. We share a desire to push beyond established approaches and develop practical new ways for destinations to understand and respond to the risks they face. For us, this has never simply been about providing data or technical support – it has been a genuine collaboration in which both organisations contribute ideas, challenge each other and build something neither could have developed in quite the same way alone.”
Bijan Khazi, CEO at Risklayer.
A two-way partnership
These partnerships are rarely one-way relationships. Increasingly, organisations are looking for more meaningful ways for their people to contribute than traditional volunteering opportunities. Sharing professional skills can create far-reaching impact, allowing expertise developed in the private sector to become a springboard for work that benefits destinations and communities worldwide.
“At FINN Partners, we see pro bono work for charities and purpose-led organisations as an investment. The most impactful partnerships are those built on a shared exchange of expertise, creativity and strategic thinking. These relationships often spark new ideas, fresh perspectives and opportunities that may not otherwise be possible.
We’re proud to support Travel Forward’s important work and grateful for the many ways this partnership has helped both organisations learn, grow and create greater impact. Together, we hope to contribute to a more resilient and sustainable future for tourism,”
Debbie Flynn, Global Travel Practice Leader at FINN Partners
The partnerships also create opportunities for shared learning. For example, over many years Holiday Extras has drawn on Travel Forward’s expertise to help shape its own sustainability journey, from climate action to supplier engagement. Recently, members of our team joined the company’s internal podcast to share insights from our work, explain the projects their support is helping make possible and discuss practical ways colleagues can make a positive difference when they travel.
“Our relationship with Travel Forward has always been much more than a traditional charity partnership. Their expertise and insight help us strengthen our approach to more responsible travel, while our long-term funding, customer reach and the time and skills of our people help increase the impact of their work. It’s a genuinely collaborative partnership, built around a shared ambition to create a more sustainable travel industry for the future, and one we’re incredibly proud to have built over the last 15 years.”
Michelle Clarke-Cowell, Associate Director, Sustainability & Employee Experience at Holiday Extras.
This exchange of knowledge is one of the most rewarding aspects of partnership. Each organisation brings different strengths, perspectives and experience, and together we achieve far more than either could alone.
As Travel Forward enters its next phase, collaboration will remain central to how we work. Alongside funding and strategic partnerships, pro bono expertise will continue to play an important role in helping us develop new ideas, strengthen our organisation and achieve our ambitious aims.
To every organisation that has shared its expertise with us, whether through technology, communications, creative thinking, strategic advice, hosting workshops, opening doors or challenging our thinking, thank you! Your support has helped us build far more than individual projects. It has strengthened our ability to help tourism create better outcomes for destinations and the communities that call them home.
