The founder of charity Invisible Cities, Zakia Moulaoui, joined the Duke of Sussex as he spoke to the online Travalyst Convening.
Prince Harry urged the industry to put sustainability at the heart of its tourism bookings and gave special mention to the Edinburgh-based charity.
Travalyst is a not-for-profit organisation founded by Prince Harry. The gathering brought together some of the biggest brands in travel and technology, as well as world-renowned experts to discuss sustainable and regenerative tourism.
A key part of this year’s event was the roundtable discussion focused on communities, speaking to a range of people including Zakia who talked about the impact that conscious travellers have on communities.
She said: “We are increasingly seeing people making even more conscious decisions when they are travelling and visiting new places. People want to see the money they spend directly benefit communities.”
Prince Harry said: “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. We’ve heard from some fantastic organisations like Invisible Cities who train people affected by homelessness to be tour guides in their own city.”
Travalyst has focussed on accommodation and aviation but is working to bring a clear message to help people make more informed choices.
Invisible Cities train people who have experienced homelessness to be tour guides of their own cities. The charity currently runs tours in six cities, expanding to more this year and beyond. All of the guides are paid the living wage and employed by the charity. Each of them carefully researches, plans and practices their tour, based on their own interests, observations and life stories, with our support. Invisible Cities also help many more people with valuable employability skills such as confidence, public speaking and storytelling. They also work closely with many other community outreach support services who work with people who are struggling with homelessness.
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