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...and is it ethical? My name is Kate Bettes. I'm a travel journalist who is currently doing research into what it is actually like to work as a free tour guide working within the tips guide model. I would love to hear from anyone who is worked in this space: whether you're a current guide, ex-guide, run a free tour company, hate it, or love it. I'd like to hear your opinion in the comments below - and if you were interested in talking to me about it in more detail over a call!
This August, Visit Natives took 13 women to the summit of Kilimanjaro. Reaching 5,895 metres was a huge achievement, but from the start we wanted the journey to have a purpose beyond the top of the mountain: to build a tangible local impact into the expedition itself, without asking every participant to run a separate fundraising campaign.
Visit Natives specialises in journeys created together with Indigenous and local communities, so this was a natural extension of how we already work in Tanzania. Our first Summit for a Cause expedition was connected to a solar power project in a Maasai community we have worked with for years: the group climbed Kilimanjaro, and their journey helped make it possible to install solar panels there.
Article image #1
*Our first Summit for a Cause: the group climbed Kilimanjaro, and their journey helped bring solar power to a Maasai community we've partnered with for years.*
The experience made me think harder about the way we talk about charity, impact and "giving back" in tourism. There are many good initiatives in our industry, but one question sits behind all of them: who actually decides what kind of impact tourism should create?
Here are five lessons we learned from our first Summit for a Cause:
#1. Not all charity climbs are the same
Kilimanjaro has become one of the world's best-known mountains for charity challenges, but the term "charity climb" can describe very different financial models. One climber might pay for the entire expedition personally and fundraise separately for a charity. Another might join an organised challenge where participants commit to raising a minimum sponsorship amount, some of which may go towards the cost of the expedition itself.
Neither approach is inherently better or worse; both can raise significant sums for important causes. But transparency matters. Travelers, and particularly the people donating to them, should understand how the model works and whether the money raised goes entirely to the cause or also funds the journey.
With Summit for a Cause, we took another approach. Participants pay for their own expedition and are not required to fundraise. Instead, a contribution towards one clearly defined local project is built into the concept from the beginning, so the impact doesn't depend on how successful individuals are at asking friends, family or colleagues for donations.
I recently wrote a more detailed guide (link at end of this article) comparing these models and looking at where the money actually goes. What struck me while researching it was how different two trips described by exactly the same words — "climbing Kilimanjaro for charity" — can be.
#2. The community should be the first to be asked, not the last
For me, the more difficult question is not how to raise the money but what happens next. Tourism companies and travelers often have very good intentions, but good intentions can still produce projects based on what outsiders believe a community needs rather than what people have identified for themselves.
This matters to us because much of our work takes place with Indigenous communities. We bring travelers into other people's homes, cultures and environments, and that comes with a responsibility not to assume we know what development or a "better life" should look like for them. The principle that guides the cultural experiences we create has to apply when money or resources are involved too.
With our Maasai partners, solar power was a practical need. Traditional Maasai homes have very little natural light, and after sunset families have long relied on fire and other fuel-based sources. Solar lighting offers another option, and the electricity can also charge mobile phones, now an important part of communication and everyday life in Maasai communities.
Article image #2
*For our Maasai partners, solar meets a practical need: light in homes that get little after dark, and power to charge the phones now central to everyday life.*
There can be economic benefits too. A household with solar electricity can charge other people's phones for a small fee, a modest source of income. And reliable light around the *boma* is useful at night, when livestock needs checking and predators such as hyenas are about.
None of this is revolutionary technology, and that is part of the point. A tourism impact project doesn't have to be large or impressive to be useful. It has to make sense to the people who will actually use it.
#3. What happens after the mountain matters as much as the summit
One element we deliberately built into the model was continuing the journey after Kilimanjaro. Once the group came down from the mountain, we travelled together to the Maasai community connected to the project. Participants could see the solar installations themselves, but the purpose wasn't simply to inspect what their money had bought.
We spent time there, talked, ate together and learned more about everyday life. For the travelers, it connected an extraordinary mountain experience to the country and people around it. For us, it was part of being transparent about what we mean when we say an expedition creates local impact.
Article image #0
*Connecting an extraordinary climb to the country and people around it.*
This is something our industry needs to be far more specific about. "Supporting local communities" appears everywhere in responsible tourism marketing, but it can mean almost anything. If we make the claim, we should be able to say which community, what is being supported, who decided it was needed and what actually happened as a result.
#4. Impact should be designed for the community, not the traveler
There is another side to this that tourism businesses need to acknowledge. Responsible travel has become increasingly important to consumers, which is positive, but it also means impact has become valuable as a marketing tool. Once travelers actively seek experiences that "give back", companies have a commercial incentive to satisfy that desire.
That can subtly change the starting point of a project. Instead of asking what would be genuinely useful locally, we end up asking what travelers would feel good about supporting. Projects that are easy to photograph, explain and package into a story become more attractive than less visible things a community may consider more important.
We think about this a lot. Our travelers naturally want to know their presence has a positive impact, and that is a good thing, but Indigenous communities do not exist to provide visitors with the experience of helping them. Any impact model has to preserve local agency and dignity rather than turning people into beneficiaries in someone else's travel story.
The relationship matters too. We didn't arrive in an unfamiliar village with solar panels because we needed a project for a Kilimanjaro expedition. It grew out of an existing relationship with a community we already work with, and that makes a significant difference to how needs get discussed and how the impact continues after the travelers go home.
#5. Start with the relationship, not the project
Our first Summit for a Cause was relatively small: 13 women, one expedition, one solar project. I wouldn't claim we have found the perfect model for impact tourism, and there are many ways tourism can contribute to destinations. What the experience reinforced was the importance of starting with the relationship rather than the project.
Tourism has an extraordinary ability to move resources around the world. Travelers spend on accommodation, guides, transport, food and experiences, and adventure tourism often brings that spending into rural areas that would otherwise see little of it. If we want to create additional social impact on top of that, we need to think just as carefully about how the value is distributed as about how much is generated.
For us, that means asking whether the people we work with have a genuine role in deciding what happens, whether the impact suits their community and whether we can clearly explain to travelers where their contribution goes. It also means accepting that the most useful project isn't always the most exciting one to market.
The summit of Kilimanjaro is spectacular, and standing at 5,895 metres with our group was something I will never forget. But when I think about what I want our expeditions to represent, I don't want the story to end with a summit photograph. I want our travelers to come home understanding more about the country they visited, the people who live there and the role tourism can play when local communities are treated as partners rather than as part of the product.
If you'd like to go deeper, I wrote a longer guide unpacking how "charity climb" can mean very different things, and how to tell where your money is really headed. Read it at [Kilimanjaro Charity Climbs: Where Does the Money Actually Go?](www.visitnatives.com/post/kilimanjaro-charity-climbs-where-does-the-money-actually-go).
*[Anniina Sandberg](www.travelmassive.com/@visitnatives) is the founder of [Visit Natives](www.visitnatives.com/?ref=travelmassive), a travel company creating journeys together with Indigenous and local communities. She led the first Summit for a Cause expedition to Kilimanjaro.*
Hello! 👋 I’m Anniina Sandberg, founder of Visit Natives, a pioneering travel company specialising in Indigenous-led and community-driven tourism. I’m an African Studies scholar and Swahili interpreter, and I have worked in Tanzania for over two decades.
As a passionate mountain climber, I wanted to create a different kind of Kilimanjaro experience where the impact is built directly into the journey rather than relying on individual fundraising. This became our Summit for a Cause model, which connects each expedition with a locally identified community project.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the article!
Hi everyone! I’m Nadeem, a Brisbane-based entrepreneur and the founder of TrippyBid, a travel technology platform built around a simple problem I experienced myself: hotel prices often drop after people have already booked, but most travellers never know.
Every travel platform competes for the moment you book. Almost nothing happens after it. Hotel rates move constantly, but once a traveller has booked, the industry treats the transaction as finished. TrippyBid is built around what happens next.
Book a hotel through us and we keep watching the rate until your stay. If it falls, we rebook the same room at the lower price automatically - no cancelling, no rebooking, no forms. The saving goes to the traveller, not to us. Doing nothing is the optimal move, which is the opposite of how price alerts usually work.
What the TrippyBid does:
- Automatic rebooking. We track the rate on every confirmed booking and rebook you cheaper when it drops. Same room, same dates.
- Live price tracking. Every booking shows the threshold it's being watched against, so travellers can see the engine working rather than take it on trust.
- Name your price. Place a bid at the rate you're willing to pay. If the hotel reaches it, you're booked.
- No card needed to start. Your card isn't charged at booking - it's charged at the free-cancellation deadline, so plans stay flexible until the last moment. Adding a card extends that window further.
- Nearby price drops. Alerts when comparable rooms near your booked stay fall below what you paid, filtered by room tier so the comparison is honest.
- Free upgrade alerts. When your room becomes available on a better board at the price you already paid.
- Multi-city trips. Chain up to four cities into one itinerary, pick a hotel per stop, review one combined total, and book every leg in a single flow. Each stay is then price-watched independently - a four-city trip is four bookings all being rebooked on their own.
- Watched stays (in pilot). Upload a booking made elsewhere and we'll watch that rate too, rebooking it when a cheaper equivalent appears.
Download the app at trippybid.com and please share your feedback!
This is genuinely clever! Finally someone fixing the 'book now, watch it get cheaper next week' pain. Downloading it.
Thanks for your support, Maya.
We just made waltru (yes, lowercase w, we're weirdly precious about it) public in both app stores, with a beta starting in Barcelona.
Here's the thing that got us started. You save up all year for a handful of free days, spend real money getting somewhere, and then somehow end up doing the same trip everyone else does. Same five photos. Same three streets. You come home having seen a city without ever quite living in it, and there was probably something worth stopping for right around the corner that you'll never know you missed.
How it works
That's the gap we've been chasing. waltru is a travel companion (for now), not a planning app. It walks with you through the city, and it talks to you first, when something around you is worth knowing, instead of waiting for you to think of the right question to ask. It also doesn't tell you and the person next to you the same story: what you get depends on who you are, the technical detail for the person who wants it, the story for the person who'd rather have that, and every so often, for anyone, a small serendipity, something you'd have walked straight past if it hadn't spoken up. It also doesn't assume the city stays the same all day: if something's changed, the weather, how crowded a place got, it lets you know and suggests three different alternatives. The decision is always yours.
We built this off a survey of 900 travelers before writing a line of code, and we've tested it enough ourselves to know the personalization works: the same street tells us something different depending on which profile we're testing. What we haven't seen yet is what happens when someone outside the team tries it, on their own trip, with nobody there to explain it.
Now live in Barcelona
So: if you're traveling to Barcelona in the next few weeks, or know someone who is, we'll give you the full trip free, in exchange for honest feedback when you're back. Good, bad, "this broke on day two," all of it.
There's also a business side to this that we think about a lot. Any travel business (a hotel, an airline, an agency, whatever) sells you something specific and then disappears for all the days you're actually out there, living the destination, which is most of the trip. If you've run into that gap from the inside, or you're just the resident travel-tech obsessive in your friend group, we'd love to hear how you see it.
Travel is where we're starting, not where we think this ends (yes, it's our Trojan horse, we'll admit it). But that's a conversation for another time.
Try it out and give us feedback
Comment here or send us a message if either of those is you.
You can find waltru at notanothertravelapp.com, or grab it on:
📲 apps.apple.com/us/app/waltru/id6772929931
📲 play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.waltru.app
Hi Lucia, congrats on the launch and I can't wait to try it out when me and @kckiwigirl visit Barcelona in October for FutureTravel Summit (and a Barcelona Travel Massive meetup - we're working on it with @benjamin-rhatigan).
What is your rollout plan for other cities / countries? And what has your initial feedback been from people who have used the app? Any early-stage insights you can share?
Hi! Thanks so much, and congrats on putting together the Barcelona meetup, would love to cross paths in October.
On cities: honestly, still Barcelona-only for now, and we're being deliberate about that rather than fast. The narration itself is AI-generated, but what a place actually has to offer, and for which kind of traveler, isn't something we leave the AI to invent. We curate that ourselves, per profile, and the AI's job is closer to putting it into words than deciding what's worth saying. That's slower to scale city by city than a fully automated approach, but it's the part of waltru we don't want to compromise on, so the rollout plan is still being shaped around that trade-off rather than around speed.
On feedback: the strongest signal so far has actually come from the business side, we're having genuinely good conversations with places that want to offer this to their own guests. On the traveler side we're earlier. We've tested the personalization enough ourselves to know it really does change what you hear at the same spot depending on your profile, but we haven't seen yet whether that holds up on someone else's real trip, that's still genuinely unfolding as more people actually use it.
Speaking of which, since you and @kckiwigirl will be here in October: it's live and public, so just grab it whenever you're around, Barcelona's the one city we cover so far. Would genuinely love to hear what you think afterward.
Last week, like millions of people, I found myself fascinated — even mesmerized — by the eclipse in France. Some watched it, some didn’t. But when all is said and done, what does an astronomical event have to do with what we do in tourism?
For me, the answer came from a seven-year-old girl. ❤️
I had the pleasure of watching the eclipse alongside a number of visitors to our destination, including a German family with two children, aged 7 and 12.
The parents didn’t have protective glasses, so of course we shared ours. We started talking while watching the sky together. Their English was considerably better than my German — and their seven-year-old daughter’s English was probably about as good as my German. 😄
At one point, I told her parents that when the next comparable eclipse comes around here, in 2081, their little girl could be a grandmother herself.
She didn’t understand me.
Then her mother translated.
The look of absolute awe on that little girl’s face was priceless. ✨
And suddenly, it wasn’t really about the eclipse anymore.
That, to me, is tourism.
It’s not only about destinations, visitor numbers, hotel nights, attractions or marketing campaigns. Those things matter, of course. But at its best, tourism is about human connection and shared experiences — sometimes between complete strangers who happen to find themselves standing in the same place, looking up at the same sky. 🌍
For a few minutes last night, language, nationality and age really didn’t matter.
We were simply sharing a moment.
And that is exactly why I love what I do. ❤️
Well done! Tourism indeed.
Very interesting! Thank you
Hi everyone,
I’m Andor, the person behind the www.whatanight.tv app.
I started building it because I sometimes like to put together a travel-themed video evening for my family—either about a place we haven’t visited yet, or somewhere I have visited but didn’t manage to see everything.
What I didn’t enjoy was spending hours searching for suitable videos, comparing them, and trying to create a good selection across different categories. I wanted to see whether that part could be made easier.
If you have time to try the current version, I would really appreciate your honest feedback:
- Is it clear from the start what the site is for?
- Could you imagine using it for an evening with your family or friends?
- At what point, if any, does the experience become confusing or feel like too much effort?
I’m especially interested in whether this solves a real problem for other people, and what those of you with experience in travel and tourism think it could become.
Thanks for taking a look.
Cheers,
Andor
Hi Andor, welcome and thanks for sharing your project with the Travel Massive community.
We ran an online "movie night" featuring videos from creators in our community a few years ago and it was a great success!
I would recommend changing the way you display destinations you don't have videos for yet - it took a bit of clicking to find Spain which seems to be the only complete destination.
Hi Ian,
thanks — really appreciate the feedback. You were right, the distinction between complete and preview destinations wasn’t clear enough. I’ve already changed the layout to make that much more obvious.
Thanks again for pointing it out!
Way better! Bravo!
Hi Travel Massive community!
I built Strollio because I realized that finding travel recommendations is no longer the hard part. Keeping track of them is.
Before a trip, my feeds suddenly fill up with restaurants, cafés, neighborhoods and places I want to visit. I save a Reel here, get a recommendation from a friend on WhatsApp, save something else in Google Maps, take a screenshot, write down a name somewhere — and a few weeks later it’s all scattered across different apps and lists.
Then I’m actually in London trying to remember where I saved that café with the Basque cheesecake.
Strollio closes that gap between travel inspiration and travel planning. It's an app that turns saved recommendations into organized trips.
Collect places you discover through social media, messages, and maps, and Strollio keeps them together in one place — each turned into a point on a map with the location and details filled in. When it's time to plan, it groups those places geographically and builds sensible daily itineraries with a good mix throughout the day. And if you don't have enough saved to fill a day, it can suggest more based on the kinds of places you've been collecting.
The idea is that you shouldn't have to plan every trip from scratch. The things you've been saving for weeks or months should already be your starting point.
And if you're a creator, you can turn your recommendations into a shareable map at strollio.app/yourname that your audience can plan trips from — more at strollio.app/creators.
Strollio is available now on iPhone.
I'd love feedback from the Travel Massive community — especially on how you currently keep track of recommendations before a trip, and whether this problem feels familiar.
Hi there, I used to be a journalist covering business, international affairs and global energy transition. I'm now a freelancer and volunteering for Couchers.
What is Couchers?
Couchers is a community and platform built to facilitate genuine interaction between travelers and locals, centered around couch surfing: free, non-transactional homestays and meetups, while prioritizing trust and safety.
The platform (couchers.org) allows travelers to know the countries they are traveling in and see places through the perspectives of locals. It also allows travelers to know about local niche festivals or events that are not usually known, or promoted, on travel guides or travel agencies.
Couchers gives local residents the chance to present their communities and country through their own voices to travelers. They will have the chance to know their travelers’ countries and culture without leaving their communities. Such cultural exchanges build people to people diplomacy and life long friendships.
If you have reservations about hosting travelers in your home, or staying with locals in a foreign country, fear not because apart from homestays, Couchers also allows locals and travelers on the platform to organize live hangouts and events.
A little more on Couchers:
Couchers is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. This means that Couchers is a charitable organization and none of its profits may be given to any private shareholder or individual.
The people who manage Couchers are all travelers themselves and have repeatedly used the platform during their own travels. We are committed to keeping the platform free and accessible to all, making traveling accessible, and more importantly, safe for everyone.
If this piques your interest, I encourage you to give Couchers a try. You can also read more about Couchers’ mission and values here - couchers.org/landing
If you have any questions, please comment below and I’ll try to answer them. I’m also curious to hear what others in the travel and hospitality sectors have to say. Feedback? Suggestions? I’m listening!
Thanks for sharing. This looks like a wonderful community!
What is different in Couchers from the original couch surfing model? How is the network growing - is it word of mouth or other activities?
Popping in here - Couchers is a registered non-profit, free forever and run fully by volunteers. They were created out of Reddit in 2000 by many former Couchsurfers who were sad and angry after Couchsurfing sold out and became for-profit and began charging. Couchsurfing recently did a major update a couple months ago that made it much more like a dating app as well. So Couchers is aimed at that OG Couchsurfing feeling, but with a more modern UI and more safety and moderation features for the times. The registered non-profit is there to prevent what happened with the original CS from ever happening to them.
There's almost 100,000 users currently and growing. I've stayed a few times via them and I also volunteer for them.
I love Couchers! I was a huuuuuge Couchsurfer back in the day, made so many friends from him, so was super sad to see when it all went downhill and lost the magic. Couchers definitely brings that back, I really appreciate their transparency, that they're a registered non-profit and built along with the community. I've hosted and surfed with them a few times and been to and hosted a couple events and can recommend!
Hey guys, what’s up? My name is Rusty, and I built joinmapclub.com
I’m convinced the best travel guide for almost any city already exists inside somebody’s Google Maps account. The problem is that unless you know the right person, you will probably never see it.
So, Map Club. These are the secret maps people quietly share with close friends. A chef’s Paris list, a bartender’s Lisbon map, or a local’s favorite places in New Orleans. Google lets us create these lists, but gives us no good way to discover the great ones. They're hidden!
The exchange is simple: give the club a genuinely great map, then choose great maps to take with you. It is deliberately not AI. Nothing is scraped, generated, etc and every map comes from a real person who knows the destination. I also personally review every submission.
I’m genuinely open to feedback. Would you trade one great map to get several? What would you add, remove, or rethink?
Curious how curation/vetting works. What makes a map great? Would it be reddit style with upvotes and downvotes? do some users have more voting power/authority than others? Interested and hoping to learn more :)
Hey Sydney! Great question. I think I will add votes when I get more scale. Great idea. Because AI slop is so dominant, I wanted to have the curation just be from one human with great taste - :) me!… so that’s where I’m starting. Try adding a map, and let me know your feedback!
What a couple of fantastic days in Vietnam! Our second [Travel Massive Asia Conference](www.travelmassive.com/events/travel-massive-asia-conference-2026-da-nang-3982452889) brought the community together in Da Nang and Hoi An on 21–22 August for two days of learning, pitching, conversations, and plenty of connecting. Here are some of our favourite moments from the event in photos (use the gallery above — there's 100 photos!). You'll find the full program and speaker line-up on the [event page](www.travelmassive.com/events/travel-massive-asia-conference-2026-da-nang-3982452889) and you can follow our [Instagram Highlights Reel](www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18167705752393135/) from our time in Da Nang.
Here's a recap of what happened during our time in Vietnam.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_gSzxeaOlc
#Day 1 — Conference in Da Nang at Ariyana Convention Centre
We kicked off at the Ariyana Convention Centre in partnership with the [HorecFex](horecfex.com/en/) hospitality exhibition in Da Nang. The morning was all about rolling up our sleeves in hands-on workshops, with [Heads on Pillows](headsonpillows.com) on getting found in the AI era and [In Marketing We Trust](inmarketingwetrust.com.au) on building smarter AI-driven marketing campaigns. These workshops were popular and highly informative.
From there, we took to the main stage for the day's conference. Five finalists took the stage for our Travel Startup Pitch Competition, presented by [Airwallex](tmsv.co/airwallex) and the [Travel Trends Podcast](www.traveltrendspodcast.com). Congratulations went to [Brad Bitler](/@brad-bitler), founder of [Migo](migo.app) — a platform turning messaging-app numbers into bookable local businesses — for winning the top spot from our judging panel. Brad also wins tickets to [FutureTravel Summit](www.travelmassive.com/events/futuretravel-summit-barcelona-2026-1465522709) in Barcelona and a demo spot at the [Travel Trends Summit](www.travelmassive.com/events/travel-trends-summit-v3-8932052095) in October. The [five startup finalists](www.travelmassive.com/posts/meet-the-5-startup-finalists-heading-to-travel-massive-asia-conference-2026-627088498) also demonstrated at our exhibition booth throughout the day.
The afternoon sessions brought our panels and debates, where [subject-matter experts](www.travelmassive.com/posts/join-us-at-travel-massive-asia-conference-2026-updated-790035485) dug into the latest topics shaping travel — the creator economy in Southeast Asia, the trends to watch for 2027, and a lively OTAs-vs-direct-booking showdown. A highlight was [Tracie May](www.instagram.com/_traciemay_)'s fireside chat with Sean Mulhern of [One Life Adventures](onelifeadventures.com) which covered foreign investment and tips for founders. We closed the day with networking drinks sponsored by Airwallex and 5 Elements Brewing Co.
#Day 2 — Masterclasses at Namia River Retreat, Hoi An
Day two took us to the beautiful [Namia River Retreat](namiariverretreat.com) in Hoi An, for a more intimate day of masterclasses. With workshops and sessions hosted both at the venue and on [The Merchant River Cruise and Restaurant](www.instagram.com/merchanthoian/), it was a setting that made deep conversations easy — covering everything from storytelling and hotel photography to cross-border payments and building revenue beyond Google. Attendees enjoyed a catered lunch at Namia's acclaimed farm to table restaurant.
Then came the hotly contested Travel Massive Quiz — a nail-biter down to the final questions! We wrapped the day with sunset drinks before boarding a cruise up the river to Hoi An Old Town, ending the night at [Market Bar](www.instagram.com/marketbar.hoian/) above the old market, with a local DJ and views over the water.
New friendships were made, and everyone left with fresh ideas, new learnings, and a bigger community than they arrived with.
#Thank you to the Travel Massive community and supporters
A huge thank you to all our sponsors — Airwallex, In Marketing We Trust, Heads on Pillows, Stay22, and Namia River Retreat; our Party Sponsor Nuna; event sponsor 5 Elements Brewing Company; our event host Secret Experiences; and our media partners Travel Trends Podcast, Vietcetera, and Saigoneer. Thank you also to HorecFex and the team at Furama Resort for co-hosting Day 1.
Finally, a huge thank you to every speaker, panelist, and attendee who showed up and made Travel Massive Asia Conference so special. We can't wait to see you again next year!
❤️ We'll be back on 19–21 August next year — save the date, and we'll see you there.
What a way to bring the Travel Massive community together in Vietnam.
I'm still buzzing from the conference and what we achieved as a community together - what a show! A few quick personal thanks from me:
- Natalya, for being such a wonderful co-organising partner
- Andre and the team at Furama Resort and Ariyana Convention Centre
- The whole team at Namia River Retreat for hosting us so beautifully
- Iain at Market Bar for sending us off in style
- Aimee on our team, for all the help behind the scenes and at our booth
- Our photography team, for capturing it all
- Casey, for the Instagram takeover
- All the speakers who joined me on my panel
- Ric Gazarian, for being a brilliant MC for the day
- Mandy from the Vietnam Startup Foundation, and all of our startup pitch judges
- Bansko Nomad Festival, Namia River Retreat, and Jumpstart App for quiz prizes
- Everyone who showed up to support us in one way or another from around the world!
This really set a new high for Travel Massive and what we can achieve as a community and I'm already looking forward to returning to Vietnam again!
Thank you to all our amazing partners, speakers and Travel Massive members for bringing great energy and making this a fantastic event! It’s been wonderful to hear such positive feedback from so many of you about what we put together this year. The bar is set high, and we’ve already started working on the 2027 conference to make it even more exciting, with plenty of pleasant surprises to wow you!
To add to Ian’s list of thanks:
- Thank you Aimee, Loan and Phi from my Secret Experiences team — you did an amazing job coordinating the conference 🫶
- Thank you Chef Soohan from Michelin-listed Rang Restaurant for taking great care of our speakers and partners at the private dinner ✨
Also, something extremely important to me is that 43% of the speakers across our panels, workshops and masterclasses were women. While this doesn’t exactly reflect the gender balance in the travel industry (54% women vs 46% men), we’re getting close, and we’re committed to achieving a more accurate representation next year!
Such a pleasure to contribute to such a fantastic conference!! Thx for having me! 🙏😊
This so far exceeded my expectations! Well done, everyone! Missing Vietnam already.
Thanks for the organising, what a great community and insightful event.
Looks wonderful! I'll save next year's dates to my calendar so I can finally join!
It will be great to have you! I think you should give a masterclass on newsletters! And be my quiz co-host! :)
fantastic event and a great community of travel professionals!
It was a treat to be invited and to participate alongside such a stellar crew! Many thanks to everyone involved in the coordination - I'm looking forward to next year already.
What an incredible weekend! Was totally blown away away with the speakers, organization, conversations, and everything in between. Thanks to the team for their hard work putting this together and can't wait for future ones.
I've always wanted to visit Da Nang, I wish I could have been a part of this. It sounds like it was a success.
An incredible weekend bringing a diverse community together. Upwards and onwards!
It was so fantastic to be a part of it! Thank you so much Ian & Natalia for including me!! 🥳
Great event! Congrats Ian, Natalya and the team!
This looks great!
Missed it this time! Hope to attend next year!
HERE'S THE NEXT 5 UPCOMING EVENTS:
Travel Massive Cape Town at Groot Constantia: Heritage, Wine & Connection
Join Travel Massive Cape Town for a special morning at Groot Constantia, one of South Africa’s most iconic wine estates and a destination deeply rooted in the history and heritage of Cape Town’s wine industry.
This exclusive Travel Massive gathering will give members the opportunity to step behind the scenes at Groot Constantia, explore its historic heritage, learn more about its wine production, and enjoy a curated wine tasting — all while connecting with fellow tourism professionals from across Cape Town.
Founded in 1685, Groot Constantia is recognised as an important part of South Africa’s wine heritage. The estate’s Visitors Route brings together the historic Manor House, the famous Cloete Cellar and the modern production facilities, providing visitors with an insight into both the history and contemporary production of the estate.
Whether you are a tourist guide, tour operator, accommodation representative, concierge, travel advisor, content creator or other tourism professional, this is an opportunity to experience Groot Constantia from a different perspective while building connections within the Cape Town travel community.
Event Details
📅 Wednesday, 9 September 2026
🕙 10:00 – 12:30
📍 Groot Constantia, Constantia, Cape Town
👥 Limited to 30 Travel Massive members
What to Expect
🏛️ Welcome at the Manor House
Meet fellow Travel Massive members and our hosts outside the historic Manor House before beginning the experience.
🍇 Historical Tour: Manor House & Cloete Cellar
Discover the heritage of Groot Constantia as we explore the historic Manor House and the famed Cloete Cellar, the original wine production cellar dating back to the estate's historic winemaking story.
🍷 Production Cellar Tour
Continue into the modern production area for an insight into the processes behind Groot Constantia wines and how the estate's historic legacy connects with contemporary wine production.
🥂 Wine Tasting
Enjoy a wine tasting featuring Groot Constantia wines while connecting and networking with fellow members of Cape Town's travel and tourism industry.
🤝 Networking & Industry Connections
Travel Massive events are about more than simply visiting a destination. They are an opportunity to meet people working across the tourism industry, exchange ideas, discover new experiences and strengthen professional connections.
Programme
9:30 – Arrival & meet outside the Manor House
10:00 – 10:10 – Welcome & introductions
10:10 – 10:40 – Historical tour of the Manor House & Cloete Cellar
10:40 – 11:00 – Production Cellar Tour
11:00 – 12:00 – Wine Tasting & Networking
12:00 – 12:30 – Closing remarks, networking & thank-yous
Important Information
• Capacity is limited to 30 guests, so RSVP is essential.
• This event is intended for Travel Massive members and tourism industry professionals.
• Please arrive on time as the programme begins promptly at 10:00.
• The event takes place across historic and working areas of the estate, so comfortable footwear is recommended.
• Please advise the hosts in advance of any relevant accessibility requirements.
• Wine tasting is intended for guests aged 18 and over.
• Guests are encouraged to make use of the opportunity to network and connect with fellow tourism professionals throughout the morning.
Hosted By
Travel Massive Cape Town
in partnership with Groot Constantia
If you have any queries or require any additional information before the event, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Community Leader | Fuad Peters
083 398 5038 | [howzit@iamcapetown.co.za](mailto:howzit@iamcapetown.co.za)
We look forward to welcoming the Cape Town travel community to Groot Constantia for a morning of heritage, wine, learning and connection.
Come discover the story behind one of Cape Town's most iconic wine destinations — and connect with the people helping shape the future of travel and tourism in our city.
Link to event pageHi there, Melbourne travel and tourism community friends!
Justin and Casey here, back with another Travel Massive Melbourne get-together — and this one's taking us upstairs. We're teaming up with Courtyard by Marriott Melbourne Flagstaff Gardens for an evening on their private rooftop, and they're looking after us with a welcome drink, a grazing table and $10 drinks at the bar. This event is open to anyone working in the travel and tourism industry in MEL.
THE LOWDOWN
🥂 Courtyard by Marriott Melbourne Flagstaff Gardens — Rooftop
📍 50 Batman St, West Melbourne VIC 3003
🗓️ Wed 9 September, 2026
🕠 5.30pm – 8.00pm
👗 Smart casual
☝️ RSVP is essential — please register on this event page
Attendees from 24+ companies including: 50 Degrees North, Angela Does Media, Arvie Group, Bar Humbug Tours, CM Communications, GlobalSalsa, GNTO Office in Australia, Hop It, Hurtigruten, Inspiring Vacations, Kellaway People, Make-A-Wish, Marriott International, Melbourne River Cruises, Monash University, Rebecca and the World, Tashi Travel, Travel Activated, Travel Massive, Videreo, Young Tourism Network.
ABOUT COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT FLAGSTAFF GARDENS
Courtyard by Marriott sits right in Melbourne's West End, opposite leafy Flagstaff Gardens — and it's in the Free Tram Zone, so it's an easy hop from the CBD, or a short walk from Southern Cross Station. Queen Victoria Market, Marvel Stadium and Festival Hall are all just minutes away too. Come for the views, stay for the drinks, and discover a corner of Melbourne you might not get to often.
With 150 contemporary rooms, flexible meeting spaces, an on-site restaurant and a café & bar that keeps things moving from morning coffee to evening drinks, it's a smart base for business and leisure alike — and tonight, their rooftop is ours.
A huge thank you to Courtyard by Marriott for hosting and shouting us the welcome drinks.
Learn more about the hotel at bit.ly/4htoGPT
WHAT IS TRAVEL MASSIVE?
Travel Massive is the world's largest network of passionate people who work, live and breathe travel. With chapters in more than 100 cities, its aim is to connect people in real life to share stories and ideas about how travel can positively impact people's lives. Thank you for being a part of our community and for (hopefully) joining us at this event.
If you know of any companies or brands with a message to share and keen to support our local chapter of passionate travel peeps via sponsorship, we are all ears :)
Best and hope to see you there
— Casey and Justin
Join the Morocco Travel Massive community for an evening of creativity and connection at Art House Marrakech in Sidi Abbad.
After our previous gatherings, we're bringing Travel Massive to this beautiful artisan space. Join us as we get hands-on with traditional Zwaq painting and connect with fellow travel professionals.
Our evening includes an introduction to Art House and its story, a chance for everyone to introduce themselves, a mini Zwaq workshop led by the Art House team, and finger food and conversation to close out the night.
Details:
Venue: Art House Marrakech, Residence Yamama, Villa 6, Sidi Abbad, Marrakech
Date & Time: 11 September 2026, 6:00pm – 8:30pm
Admission: Free with RSVP
👉 RSVP required - register here on the event page
Schedule
• Arrival & welcome
• Intro to Art House and its background
• Individual introductions
• The Mixer - a little surprise for you!
• Mini Zwaq workshop
• Finger food & chats
Share insights, discuss challenges, discover collaboration opportunities, and build genuine connections with Morocco's travel community.
— We look forward to welcoming you!
Link to event pageHangout with the Travel Massive Lagos community at the Akwaaba Travel Market 2026
Link to event pageBarcelona Travel Massive is back with our next big event!
Friday, September 18th please join us at The Cover social club at the Sir Vic hotel for a fun evening of speed networking with fellow Barcelona-based travel lovers, followed by DJ and drinks.
What better place to meet up than one of Barcelona's most iconic hotels? Our good friends at The Cover have graciously offered us their gorgeous space so we can mix and mingle with other tourism professionals in hospitality, travel creators and media, travel startups and tech founders, agencies and consultants, destination marketers and everything in between.
We'll organize lightning rounds of speed networking, followed by some relaxed Friday tardeo music and drinks.
As fabulous as The Cover is, it's a limited space so make sure you register early to save your spot! Can't wait to see you there.
Schedule:
18:30 – 19h - Arrival & registration
19h - Welcome from Travel Massive BCN + The Cover, and quick explanation of how the speed networking rounds work
19:05 – 20h Speed networking — 6–7 rounds of 5 min
20 - 22h - Open mingling with drinks and DJ provided by The Cover
It's always great to meet on a rooftop and we love the space at Little National Hotel Sydney. Join us for a social and networking evening with Sydney Travel Massive and friends.
🏨 Venue: Rooftop, Little National Hotel, Sydney
📍Location: 26 Clarence Street, Sydney (maps.app.goo.gl/MPQaJpA1RnKwyPLz8)
🗓️ Date: Wednesday, 23rd September 2026
🕕 Time: 6-8pm
👔 Dress Code: Smart business casual
🥂 Welcome drink on arrival
🏨 About the venue: Little National Hotel is one of Sydney's most celebrated boutique stays, tucked into the heart of the CBD on Clarence Street. Known for its exceptional design, warm hospitality, and a rooftop bar that feels a world away from the city below, it's the perfect setting for an evening of industry conversation. Learn more at littlenationalhotel.com.au/sydney/
👉 Spaces are limited, RSVP is essential
Looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday September 23rd
Link to event pageHere's the 10 latest classified ads:
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