On Wednesday, Prince Harry made a virtual appearance for Travalyst, a nonprofit he helped found in 2019, during its annual summit in the south of France. With the support of major tourism companies, including Expedia, Booking.com, and Tripadvisor, Travalyst aims to help consumers choose more sustainable and carbon-conscious travel options. Addressing a group gathered at travel company Amadeus’s offices in the Sophia Antipolis technology park, the prince shared a message where he spoke about some of the organization’s successes and how tourists need to do more to protect the communities they visit.
“Travel and tourism relies on destinations, held together by communities, without which we have nowhere to travel to. Communities are the beating heart of travel, and we must do better by the people who are the custodians of the places we visit,” he said. “More and more people are wanting to make informed travel choices so that the benefit of travel is felt by all.”
The video was filmed in the Montecito home he shares with wife Meghan Markle, and in the background the Gracie Award that Meghan won in 2023 for her podcast Archetypes was visible on a bookshelf behind the prince’s shoulder. According to the Mirror, Harry officially updated his permanent residence to the US in Travalyst’s filings at the UK’s Companies House earlier this week, after vacating Frogmore Cottage, his former Windsor home, last summer.
During Travalyst’s two-day summit, the group announced new additions to its Independent Advisory Group, which vets sustainability certifications for accommodation providers. In a statement, the organization said that it is planning to share a master list of those certifications to the public.
Harry also took part in a roundtable discussion, where he spoke to representatives from nonprofits addressing communities affected by tourism. In his Wednesday speech, he mentioned the conversations. “We’ve heard from some fantastic organizations like Invisible Cities who train people affected by homelessness to be tour guides in their own city, and Global Himalayan Expedition, whose programmes have helped electrify over 200 Himalayan villages impacting over 60,000 lives for the better,” he said.