Bright Ideas in Travel 2025

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In a complicated world, in which a million headlines vie for our attention, it can be easy to lose sight of the great work being done to make the world a brighter place. That is the purpose of Condé Nast Traveller's Bright Ideas in Travel, an annual list we first launched in 2022: to recognise the players, places, and projects that are approaching travel's most pressing issues with thoughtfulness and zeal.

For our fourth iteration of this franchise, we've identified an impressive collection of airlines, cruise lines, destinations, hotels, and start-ups across all seven continents that are revolutionising how we travel for the better - and how travel can do better. From the grassroots efforts of a women's collective in Pakistan to multimillion-dollar sustainability investments from some of the aviation industry's largest corporations, the 2025 honorees demonstrate that meaningful change can come in the form of individual actions or sprawling global initiatives. What they each share, however, is a track record of measurable impact reported for this year - whether that means emissions reductions, wildlife protections, monetary donations, or job creation.

We hope that by reading this list, you feel inspired to embody its ethos wherever your next trip takes you, armed with the knowledge that your choices (and tourism dollars) have the power to support local communities and protect your favourite destinations for generations to come. Hannah Towey and Matt Ortile, Condé Nast Traveller associate editors

In many ways, Alpine Europe is delineated not by nationality but by geography and culture. It's this shared heritage that Alpine Pearls, a consortium of 18 mountain municipalities across multiple countries, is harnessing to work toward sustainable regional tourism. Members, from Werfenweng, Austria, to Bohinj, Slovenia, are focused not only on tourism but also on what they call "eco-mobility": All have a high proportion of pedestrian areas, for example, and provide low-impact transportation options into and around town. Each must also offer bookable sustainable travel packages, such as a discount program for tourists choosing a car-free holiday. Membership in the consortium means visibility and built-in marketing (including for local eco-hotels, or Alpine Pearls hosts), plus cross-border collaboration with fewer bureaucratic hassles. Founded in 2006, Alpine Pearls has been a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) since 2022, enabling participation in EU-funded initiatives. New for this year: a project that brings together Alpine Pearls and four other EGTCs to evaluate the model, culminating in the establishment of a sustainability working forum for furthering this kind of interregional cooperation.

In early 2025, the two companies announced a partnership to collaboratively explore a number of experimental technologies for lower-impact air travel. First up: a promising flying technique developed at Airbus around a concept called "wake energy retrieval." Two aircraft fly in an arrangement based on the V formation of migrating birds, and the uplift of the plane in front increases fuel efficiency for the one that follows; preliminary research indicates this "fello'fly" technique could reduce emissions by 5 per cent or more. Delta has already helped with simulations, and test flights will commence in the coming months to evaluate the feasibility of wider adoption. Airbus has also announced a multi-year commitment to purchase sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) through the Minnesota SAF Hub, a joint effort aimed at scaling production. (Delta was the founding airline member.) A new facility, which will blend SAF into conventional jet fuel for use by Delta and other airlines at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, is expected to be up and running by early 2026.

Copenhagen is known for prioritising sustainability; the city has five times more bicycles than cars and more than 70 per cent of its electricity is sourced from renewable energy. It's also a major tourist destination - and now it's helping bring the millions of annual international visitors into the eco-conscious fold. Last summer, the city held a four-week trial run for CopenPay, a reward program that incentivises more sustainable choices for people visiting the area. For example, travellers who arrive by train or electric car, or who stick around for a longer stay (instead of hopping around Europe), can earn rewards like free bike rentals or discounted entry to popular attractions. Of those who participated in CopenPay's first season in 2024, 98 per cent said they would recommend the program. In June 2025, CopenPay returned for a second run that lasted nine weeks, with 100 businesses joining as partners. The model has been featured in the EU's Transition Pathway for Tourism to inspire other destinations to follow suit.

The small Caribbean nation of Dominica is preparing to legally establish the world's first sperm whale reserve: a roughly 300-square-mile protected marine area home to a year-round whale population of around 200. It's the centre of an emerging strategy that will support conservation initiatives on the island through responsible whale tourism. Helping lead the charge is a new company called Camp Dominica, founded by Dominican-born Jackson Mawhinney and freediver-photographer Adam Slama, which launched its Diving with Giants itineraries in March 2025. Trips are facilitated by tour operator partner EYOS Expeditions and guided by local conservationists; guests will have the chance to swim and sail alongside massive sperm whales, then retire to their "resort within a resort" at the luxurious Secret Bay on the northwest coast. 10 per cent of proceeds go to support the UK-based organisation Common Earth, whose projects in Dominica include training programs for local ocean guides, funding for Project CETI and its marine science fellowship for young Dominicans, and the development of a future research centre called the Dominican Sperm Whale Institute. The long-term aim is to create a sustainable tourism blueprint that works with - not against - local communities and ecosystems that can then be replicated across other Commonwealth island nations, many of which are on the front lines of the climate crisis.

The Chumash people have lived on and with the ocean, in the region now known as the Central Coast of California, for tens of thousands of years. Now, Chumash stewardship of tribal waters has been formalised on the federal level: In late 2024, more than 4,500 square miles of Pacific coast and ocean were protected as part of the new Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. The Northern Chumash Tribal Council proposed the designation, which was decades in the making, to bring a tribal perspective to decisions around ocean management and conservation. Co-stewarded in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the protected area is extremely biodiverse - home to whales, sea otters, kelp forests, and corals - and includes several submerged Chumash villages and sites with sacred significance. In addition to blocking activities like offshore oil and gas extraction, the designation will also bring an economic boost to the area: An impact study, included in the initial 2014 proposal, found the sanctuary could potentially create up to 600 new jobs and put at least $23 million annually (around £17 million) into the local economy.

Salterra opened on South Caicos in March 2025, but its sustainability impact on the island is well established. In 2022, the ownership group behind the 100-key resort helped found the South Caicos Coral Reef Consortium: a partnership for researching and restoring the island's biodiverse reefs that also includes the Turks & Caicos Reef Fund, the local outpost of the School for Field Studies, and the Florida-based Reef Institute. Thanks to Salterra's $350,000 (around £260,000) contribution - the majority of funding to date - the consortium has helped create jobs for five South Caicos locals, collect about 950 samples for study and replanting, and open an experimental solar-powered "biobank" where corals can be observed and propagated in a controlled environment. More than 400 coral fragments have been outplanted at various reef sites around the island, which Salterra guests can see during guided snorkelling excursions. The lab has also welcomed local schoolchildren and twice-weekly tours for resort guests.

At the end of 2024, Peruvian river line Delfin Amazon Cruises brought on biologist Gabriela Orihuela as its first formal sustainability advisor. Her charge: a full-scale revision of the company's standard operating procedures to bring its goals in line with the UNESCO Sustainable Travel Pledge and the joint biodiversity efforts of UNESCO and Relais & Châteaux, of which it has been a member since 2017. In addition to tracking and reporting metrics in areas like energy consumption and waste management, new programs include a recently signed collaboration agreement with three Indigenous communities along the Marañón River, a major Amazon tributary that runs across Peru's Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, where Delfin operates. Delfin is also expanding its citizen science opportunities, such as a long-term project led by conservation biologist Joanna Alfaro, who is monitoring the endemic pink river dolphins; guests and locals alike can help log sightings and deploy sensors to record their sounds. Delfin's refocused sustainability efforts coincide with another exciting debut: the April 2025 relaunch of the fully renovated Delfin I, now equipped with solar panels and more robust plant-based menus, among other updates.

Anderson Expeditions launches new tours to Angola in 2026, becoming one of the first safari operators to offer itineraries in the remote Iona National Park. Located in Angola's far southwest corner, at the northern edges of the Namib Desert, the park's spectacular dunes, mountains, steppe, and shoreline are still fairly unknown to travellers: Angola's decades-long civil war, which ended in 2002, brought immeasurable losses to rural communities and wild lands. As the nation embarks on a new tourism push, African Parks, which has managed Iona since 2019, is spearheading biodiversity restoration - including the reintroduction of the Angola giraffe - and projects with the local Himba and Herero communities. Anderson has long supported sustainable tourism in lesser-travelled (and often, less profitable) destinations, and as part of an ongoing partnership with African Parks, will help promote travel to Iona and Angola more broadly as one of just a handful of operators working in the country. Guests will explore alongside the conservation team, making use of African Parks vehicles and its forthcoming tented camp, anticipated to open in the second half of 2026.

A steadily growing stream of travellers has recently been drawn to the Hunza Valley, in the Karakoram Mountains of Pakistan, known for its Silk Road sites, pleasant villages, and dramatic high-altitude scenery. Turning this tourism potential into opportunity is the local women's collective Ciqam - its name taken from a Burushaski word meaning "greenery" and "prosperity" - which trains members in skills like carpentry and masonry to build both sustainable incomes and improved tourism infrastructure. The headquarters are within the thousand-year-old Altit Fort, now a museum, which the craftswomen helped restore before it opened to visitors in 2010 (along with the newer Serena Altit Fort Residence at the base of the complex). In fact, Serena Hotels is a regular client for commercial projects: Ciqam's woodwork can be found in the nearby Hunza Serena Hotel, opened in 2024, and the forthcoming Sost Serena Hotel, a few hours' drive north near the border with China. In addition to furniture, Ciqam also makes musical instruments (more than 800 since its founding) like the xigeni, a local bowed lute.

As the biodiverse grasslands of western Mongolia are endangered by extractive industries and desertification, so too are the region's land-based cultural traditions. These include eagle hunting, long practised by the area's ethnically Kazakh population. To support this legacy of falconry, the Cultural Sanctuaries Foundation, along with local groups and Mongolian-owned tour operator Nomadic Expeditions, have created the new Eagle Hunter Cultural Center in Mongolia's Bayan-Ölgii province, which is currently home to up to 400 eagle-hunting families (about 80 per cent of the world's practitioners). The new facility, now a highlight of Nomadic's Mongolia itineraries, opened in October 2024 and comprises a large ger (Mongolian for "yurt") that houses artefacts and hosts visitors (more than 1,150 so far) for tours and presentations. The Center is administered by the Kazakh Falconry Association, which also uses the space as its headquarters. Ticket sales support operations and community initiatives while keeping admission free for locals and school groups. This valuable gathering hub is poised to generate additional opportunities for related tourism activities - such as homestays, falconry lessons, and horseback riding - to supplement locals' incomes.

The Davis Center, a $160 million (£118 million) recreation space in the northeast corner of New York City's Central Park, opened in April 2025. It sits on the edge of the Harlem Meer, a sprawling artificial lake constructed in the 1860s - long a beloved destination for swimmers, boaters, and even catch-and-release fishers. But in the 20th century, this rural slice of Manhattan was obscured by fences and asphalt paths, and in 1966 it was further cut off from the rest of the park by a large recreation centre - one now largely considered by historians and architects to be a planning failure. Eventually, due in part to historical underfunding of majority Black and brown neighbourhoods, the public facilities fell into disrepair. Since the 1990s, community groups and city groups have been working to restore the Meer and provide East Harlem with a beautiful public gathering place once more. The Davis Center is the Central Park Conservancy's largest-ever project and the culmination of these efforts: Neighbours and visitors alike can now enjoy a swimming pool during the summer, an ice rink for skating and hockey in the winter, and low- or no-cost programming like nature walks and yoga on the lawn throughout the year.

In May 2025, Cathay Pacific's Hong Kong catering facility introduced an overhauled cleaning system that turns partially eaten meals from inbound flights into energy - enough to power approximately 8,000 Hong Kong homes per year. The new Food Waste Segregation Ware Wash System at Cathay Dining uses special conveyors to separate food scraps from packaging and servingware, collecting up to 550 tons of organic material per day. Instead of all that food ending up at the landfill, it gets sent to Hong Kong's Organic Resources Recovery Center, where it's digested into biogas. Cathay's ability to recycle excess food has increased threefold, while also reducing water use by about 60 per cent (since the washers don't run until after food has been adequately removed). And it's not just scraps that are powering a good cause: Cathay also donates unused food items to the community through a food-rescue partnership with Feeding Hong Kong, which has served more than 260,000 residents since the program began a decade ago.

In 2013 Farmer's Fridge unveiled its first-ever vending machine stocked with fresh dishes at a reasonable price at Chicago's Union Station. Now, 20 million meals later, the company has 1,700 smart fridges around the country - including 130 within major US airports, a welcome sight for travellers, crewmembers, and airport staff in search of a convenient, nutritious meal. The production facility in Chicago sources more than 130 whole ingredients (up to 30 per cent of which are local, depending on the season) for dishes like pasta bowls and chopped salads, most of which are priced around £9 or less. Everything is packaged in recycled-plastic jars that customers can return at the fridges themselves or take home to reuse. At the beginning of 2025, the company rolled out a new fridge design that is sturdier, easier to use, and smoother to set up, requiring just half an hour for assembly. And in early June, the company launched a partnership with Delta to sell its products on select flights out of LAX.

Over a buzzy week in Boston earlier this year, more than 5,000 hungry people - and at least four stars of RuPaul's Drag Race - converged for what is considered the first-ever LGBTQ+ food festival in US history. The 2025 gathering marked a new chapter for Big Queer Food Fest (BQFF), initially founded by food TV producers Chad Hahne and David Lewis in 2023 as a Los Angeles-based dinner series. After expanding to pop-ups and other one-off events around the country, BQFF now has a permanent home: Its first Boston festival counted Food Network and the Boston Globe among its sponsors and brought together 50 queer chefs and food folks, including Rick Martínez, Top Chef winner Melissa King, and writer John Birdsall, who cooked, presented, and mixed drinks for attendees from 29 different US states and beyond. Planning for 2026 is currently in the works.

The sensory intensity of a family-focused all-inclusive resort is a thrill for some kids, but for others, especially guests with autism, the experience can be less friendly. That's why, in 2017, Beaches Resorts decided to make its properties more navigable and supportive for children with autism. Beaches is the first and only resort company to be designated an Advanced Certified Autism Center, a distinction it has held since 2019; 4,800-plus employees and counting (amounting to more than 80 per cent of the guest-facing staff) have completed a 40-hour sensitivity and awareness course. On-site, special guides map out the sensory landscape of each resort, and programming includes an annual Autism Inclusion Week, as well as special activities at the Camp Sesame kids' club. Beaches will soon introduce this autism-inclusive approach to several additional locations around the Caribbean, including Barbados and the Bahamas, with a costly expansion announced earlier this year. First up: Treasure Beach Village, a new 101-key development at Beaches Turks & Caicos opening in March 2026.

The Bruce Beach Revitalisation Project, a $11.8 million (around £8.7 million) effort to restore waterfront access and preserve an important locus of Florida's Black history, reached its final phase in November 2024 when it cut the ribbon on a 10-acre coastal park in downtown Pensacola. The site abuts historically Black neighbourhoods like Tanyard and Belmont-Devilliers and sits along the path of Washerwoman's Creek, named for the enslaved Black and Creole women who long made use of its waters. In the mid-20th century, the public pool at Bruce Beach became a safe social space for Black Pensacolians during the last decades of legal segregation. But after the pool closed in 1975, factors like systemic underfunding and hurricane damage meant the abandoned property became unusable. Now, after decades of community advocacy, Bruce Beach is a new kind of gathering place. And thorough interpretive signage, developed in collaboration with the University of West Florida Historic Trust, broadcasts the area's significance to the world.

Later in 2025 and throughout 2026, oceanographer Katy Croff Bell will begin trials of a new tool that could dramatically expand our understanding of the world's oceans. Her project, "Voyages to the Deep: Pilot Deployments of the Deep Ocean Research and Imaging System," is supported by a National Geographic Society grant and encompasses testing of an untethered deep-sea camera and multisensor nicknamed DORIS, developed by the Ocean Discovery League, of which Bell is the founder. The novel design is modular, inexpensive, and easy to deploy - the ultimate goal being to lower the barriers to conducting deep-ocean research, which is prohibitively expensive for more than a handful of high-income countries. In fact, 99.999 per cent of the deep sea floor has never been observed; filling that gap is crucial for getting a full picture of the marine ecosystem. "Voyages to the Deep" is supported in part by the Lindblad Expeditions National Geographic (LEX-NG) Fund, which is sustained by guest donations solicited during expedition sailings, providing almost two million pounds to fund 45 different projects last year. Bell will work with community partners in several regions visited by National Geographic-Lindblad ships.

Reopened in July 2025 after a major rebuild, this 10-villa property is set on the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, a national park in southwestern Uganda that's home to around half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas. Gorilla Forest Lodge guests contribute close to a million pounds in conservation funds annually through trekking permit fees. But crucially, Abercrombie & Kent is just as concerned with the region's people, many of whom are Indigenous Batwa displaced by the creation of the park. A&K Philanthropy (AKP), the company's nonprofit arm, supports several community-led projects in the area, including Bwindi Community Hospital (recent additions include a new operating theatre and a neonatal unit) and the Uganda Nursing School Bwindi, which, after being licensed by the Ministry of Higher Education to become a fully accredited university, will expand and reopen as the African University of Science and Management in September 2025. The property helps direct guest donations toward such projects, but also provides technical support, personnel, and even business: The renovation includes around 10,000 beads sourced from the AKP-funded Women's Bead Shop.

Australia's Whitsunday Islands, in the centre of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area, are alive with coral and lush forests, a stunning biodiversity that draws visitors for sailing, snorkelling, diving - and, soon, hiking. In 2026, trekkers can explore the region like never before along its first multiday trail: the Ngaro Track, a point-to-point route on Whitsunday Island that was developed in partnership with the Ngaro people, the Whitsundays' seafaring traditional owners. The challenging 20-mile trek winds between coast and interior, mountain waterfalls and mangrove boardwalks, with interpretive storytelling providing cultural context along the way. With two dedicated campsites, the new track can be done over three days or in sections as day walks. Both guided and independent itineraries are handled by tourism partner World Expeditions; bookings are limited to just 45 hikers at any given time. Construction is well underway, and the track is expected to be completed in early 2026, ahead of the start of the season in April.

Bookings have officially opened for cruises on board the Arctic's first solar sailing ship, scheduled to depart for its maiden voyage from Tromsø, Norway, in fall 2026. The 36-passenger Captain Arctic, from the polar operator Selar, will reportedly emit an estimated 90 per cent less CO than comparable ships: Five 115-foot retractable sails hold more than 20,000 square feet of solar panels, which, combined with a pair of hydro turbines, help power the electric propulsion. Heat comes from a recycled-wood-pellet boiler, and water, directly from the sea (desalinated by reverse osmosis). Captained by cofounder and CEO Sophie Galvagnon, the Captain Arctic will ply the fjords of northern Norway - with no set itinerary and no wifi, for the most immersive experience - stopping for activities like snowshoeing and cold-water swimming with migrating orcas. The Captain Arctic will also offer other itineraries in Svalbard and Greenland, and provide free transport to support the work of scientific bases in partnership with the French Polar Institute.

At Key West's Ocean Key Resort, hurricane season means a lot of uncertainty - and a lot of hesitation around bookings. However, in mid-2024, the property implemented an innovative measure to alleviate travellers' concerns about wasting money on a stormy holiday. While booking, Ocean Key guests can now add on a Weather Guarantee from Sensible Weather, a start-up founded by climate scientist Nick Cavanaugh. How it works: Venues can offer the option at no cost to them, and in the event of covered inclement weather, Sensible Weather will automatically and promptly reimburse guests for the affected days. In addition to rain and snow, Sensible Weather has since extended coverage to include high temperatures and, in August 2025, high winds - plus a new tool for hospitality partners to better predict shifts in demand and operational needs based on the forecast. The Weather Guarantee is offered by over 8,000 hotels, attractions, ski areas, golf courses, and more locations around the world, which, according to the start-up, experience a 9 per cent average increase in overall revenue after adding the option. At Ocean Key, guests have been reimbursed for more than 700 combined days covered by the Weather Guarantee, without any additional workload for hotel staff.

Since 1965, the nonprofit World Monuments Fund (WMF) has worked to safeguard the singular, significant, utterly irreplaceable sites that help humans understand our past and present. This cultural heritage preservation, of course, has some implicit intersections with tourism. But in May 2025, WMF formalised this focus with the launch of the Balanced Tourism Initiative, comprising projects that deal explicitly with the challenges and opportunities created by the global travel industry. The goal: to create sustainable tourism strategies that help protect historically significant places while benefiting, not overwhelming, nearby communities. As part of the initiative, Accor has invested €1 million (about £870,000) in a three-year partnership that will fund projects at four sites: the Chapel of the Sorbonne, in Paris; traditional rainwater collection systems in the Indian city of Bhuj; the historic mining infrastructure of Serifos, in Greece's Cycladic Islands; and the Qhapaq Ñan Andean road network, which spans six countries in South America. All are drawn from the 2025 edition of the World Monuments Watch, a biannual list that brings attention to the places most in need of protection.

In late 2024, Ultima Antarctic Expeditions expanded its commitment to low-impact, high-immersion travel on the White Continent with the opening of Oasis Camp: three cabins (and one sauna) adjacent to Novolazarevskaya research station in the wide, lake-speckled plateau called the Schirmacher Oasis. Guests (capped at 250 annually) arrive at a nearby airstrip on regular flights from Cape Town operated by sister company Ultima Antarctic Logistics, which has long supported Antarctic science programs from many countries. The expeditions cross-subsidise deliveries of scientists and equipment while avoiding additional emissions (and the six-hour flight, while it certainly has an environmental impact, emits much less CO2 per person per kilometre than travelling by cruise ship). Once on land, Ultima complies with the strict requirements of the Antarctic Treaty: Newly rehauled biosecurity measures include foot scrubs before entering particularly vulnerable areas, and all waste (human and otherwise) leaves the continent when the travellers do.

Just six of Spain's 17 administrative regions account for approximately 90 per cent of visits, and as the country continues to see record numbers of tourists, cities like Barcelona are feeling the crush. Meanwhile, the small villages in the interior are experiencing the opposite. Enter Rooral. The nonprofit is working to reinvigorate depopulating rural municipalities by establishing co-working and coliving hubs in partnership with the community, then hosting travellers for stays of two weeks to two months. Year-long pilot programs around the country have shown that, in addition to fresh energy and new connections, the model infused around £1,300 per coworker per month into the economy (especially crucial during low season). The hope, says founder Juan Barbed, is to provide a blueprint that could eventually be replicated on a wider level. In 2024, Rooral chose the Andalusian white village of Benarrabá as its permanent home; Rooral spaces are currently rented from private owners, but a dedicated base, in a historic building being renovated by the municipal government, is projected to open in mid-2026.

In February 2025, judges began reviewing more than 140 entries for the first-ever Wilderness Impact Challenge. It's a new grant competition from the Wilderness Trust, a nonprofit established by the Wilderness Group, a safari operator, to expand its conservation and community impact beyond the activities of the travel business. That impact now includes $100,000 (around £74,000) awarded annually to an exemplary conservation or sustainability project in the regions where Wilderness operates. In April, the inaugural winner was announced: the BioBoundary Project, headed by Peter Apps, a conservation researcher harnessing the power of scent to keep predators out of livestock areas in Botswana. The grant will help Apps hire a second field assistant, among other expansion opportunities. Other finalists included an initiative to upcycle plastic waste collected in Victoria Falls and an AI project that aerially detects wire snares set by poachers. Applications for the next grant, for projects focused on communities living near protected wild areas, will be accepted starting in early 2026.