Prince Harry's new Travalyst initiative aims to promote sustainable travel
Prince Harry has announced the launch of a global sustainable travel initiative, dubbed Travalyst.
Announcing the project at an event in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the Duke of Sussex said Travalyst will partner with travel companies like SkyScanner, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, and Visa U.S. in order to promote sustainable tourism — although the details on this are pretty vague at this point.
"As you may know, I am not a tourism or business expert, but through my travels I have observed the unique relationship between community and environment, and have noticed something alarming," he said in a statement.
"There wasn’t the symbiosis or connection there needed to be and I wanted to understand why," he added. "I am one of those people fortunate enough to have a platform and I want to use it to tackle hard problems, in the hope of finding solutions and that’s how Travalyst was born."
The name, per an Instagram post from the official account of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, is a portmanteau of the words "travel" and "catalyst". "The Duke and partners viewing our role in sustainable travel as catalysts to accelerate positive changes in travel," reads the statement posted on the Sussex Royal Instagram account.
Per the New York Times, the organisation will strive to educate people about environmentally sustainable travel and "make it easier for them to understand whether their own travels are helping or hurting the planet and who is benefiting from travel dollars."
The launch comes in the wake of mass criticism of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after they were branded "hypocrites" for reportedly taking a private jet to the South of France two days after a private jet flight to Ibiza.
It's not exactly clear how exactly Travalyst will function at this point. According to the website, the aim of the consortium is to "spark a movement of like-minded companies, organisations, and changemakers to transform the future of travel into a more sustainable one that supports and protects destinations and local communities for decades to come."
"We will use our influence to explore and promote initiatives worldwide that have the ability to preserve destinations, ensure that local communities thrive, and protect wildlife and environments through responsible practices."
While this all sounds relatively broad at present, there are already things you can do to shrink your carbon footprint while you travel.
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
