TRAVEL+ LEISURE: GLOBAL VISION AWARDS 2023

Traveling with positive intent and impact has never been more vital. In the following pages, you'll meet 25 innovators who are leading the world to a more sustainable future whether they're focused on eliminating food waste, creating equal employment opportunities for hospitality workers, or preserving the habitats of at-risk wildlife. Their work proves that when ingenuity and imagination meet purpose and grit, the human capacity for problem-solving is boundless.

- CHADNER NAVARRO, HANNAH SELINGER, TOM VANDERBILT, SARAH BRUNING AND SAMANTHA FALEWÉE

TACTILE TRAVEL

Textile Seekers 

A VIETNAMESE REFUGEE raised in Australia, Thao Phuong spent almost 20 years working as a fashion designer in places like Singapore and New York City. But over time, she became disillusioned by the industry's rapid, wasteful consumption.

In 2019, Phuong launched TextileSeekers, a boutique tour operator focused on Vietnam's traditional textile artisanship and ethnic heritage. On six- and 11-day trips through the rural Mai Châu district in northern Vietnam, for example, visitors can attend hemp-making workshops with Blue Hmong people and learn about silk making in the town of Ban Lac. Speaking with locals, spending ample time in each destination, and being in natural landscapes are central to TextileSeekers' mission.

"By connecting directly with small communities and businesses, we're able to support them without a third party," Phuong says. The company also partners with NGOs such as the Pacific Links Foundation, which supports survivors of human trafficking in Vietnam. textileseekers.com. — H.S.

NATURE AND NURTURE

Rancho Pescadero

LOCATED EIGHT MILES outside the town of Todos Santos in Baja California, Mexico, this oceanfront 103-room boutique hotel, once a poblano-chile farm, reopened in November after four years of thoughtful, sustainability-focused renovation. "I had a vision for what this could be, and I wanted to do it the right way," founder Lisa Harper says. She originally bought the land in the 1990s.