Virtuoso recognized The Travel Corporation (TTC) as an industry leader in sustainability during their 33rd annual Virtuoso Travel Week, with a special “Luminary Award”.  This award also acknowledged multiple nominations from several TTC brands at the gala event, which highlighted travel companies that continued to support employees, sustainable practices, and communities in a very challenging year.  TTC's luxury brands – African Travel Inc., Insight Vacations, Luxury Gold, Red Carnation Hotels and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises – were represented at the event.

The nominations included TTC's new How We Tread Right (HWTR) 5-year sustainability strategy with its not-for-profit partner, TreadRight, and its new collection of MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experiences that advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs).

“After receiving numerous nominations in multiple categories for companies under its umbrella, a special “Luminary” recognition was bestowed upon The Travel Corporation for its commitment to sustainable practices that encompassed almost every category,” Virtuoso stated in their award announcement. “As an industry leader that takes corporate responsibility to the next level, TTC is truly an industry luminary.”

“I am humbly honored by the Virtuoso community in recognizing The Travel Corporation's sustainability accomplishments with TreadRight,” said Brett Tollman, CEO of TTC.  “This past year has made us more conscious and appreciative of what a tremendous gift travel is, and all the more determined to make our travels meaningful.  As the doors of travel open again, we look forward to resuming and expanding the positive impact travel can have on the world,” he concluded.

Nominated under Virtuoso's “Environmental” category, TTC's HWTR strategy consists of 11 goals that are designed to lessen the environmental footprint of TTC's leading travel brands, such as achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, reducing food waste by 50%, eliminating all unnecessary single-use plastics, and reducing printed brochures by 50 percent.

Each brand has a unique role to play in TTC's sustainable strategy. Red Carnation Hotels is addressing food waste by employing AI technology - Winnow Solutions - across its 20 properties, Uniworld is eliminating all unnecessary single use plastics on their ships and providing guests with reusable water bottles, and African Travel, Inc. is ensuring that wildlife experiences adhere to TreadRight's Animal Welfare Policy, only offering safari experiences that are free of animal cruelty.

TTC's new MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experiences were nominated under Virtuoso's “Innovation” category. Available on itineraries across each of TTC's nominated brands, these experiences are chosen specifically for the positive social or environmental impact they have on their communities and on those who experience them.

Insight Vacation's new Wander Women series of tours - created for women, by women - was a finalist in the category. The Wander Women series first launched on International Women's Day in March of 2020 and was created to connect women with communities and a diverse group of female travelers from across the globe.

Insight's 12-day Venice & the Croatian Coast women's only tour has 9 MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experiences in its itinerary, such as supporting women and refugees at the Deša Workshop in Dubrovnik, visiting a Sustainable Fish Farm in Piran with a local biologist, and visiting Croatia's first women-owned co-op brewery in Zadar.

“With our female clients yearning for uplifting and immersive experiences, Insight Vacations is proud to celebrate women's' successes with local female trailblazers, artisans and community leaders whom we visit and support across the globe,” said Insight Vacation and Luxury Gold's Global CEO, Ulla Bohler. "Women make up more than 50 per cent of our industry's global workforce and should be recognized as valuable contributors, influencers and leaders in travel.”