Tickets are now open for the 2025 Travel Unity Awards Dinner
Join us for an inspiring evening celebrating the champions who are making travel more inclusive and welcoming for everyone.
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We’ll be Honoring Wheel the World this December
Wheel the World is a pioneering solution for people with accessibility needs and seniors to travel the world. They are transforming accessible travel through their platform and “Accessibility Verified” program, which partners with destinations and hospitality businesses to verify, improve, and market accessibility using verified information. They guarantee that every hotel room booked on its platform is accessible, offering a full refund if accessibility is not as described.
Since 2018, Wheel the World has improved access to travel for more than 25,000 people. At the same time, they actively work with 150+ destinations, helping them unlock this emerging market. Their work – and that of their partners – will be recognized at our Awards Dinner in December.
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Travel Unity celebrates the work of groundbreaking organizations and individuals who are passionate about inclusion in travel.
The 2025 Travel Unity Award categories are:
- Inclusion Champion
- The 2025 Inclusion Champion will be decided by popular vote.
- Community Impact
- Judges: Sonya Bradley, Stephanie Sheehy (2024 Community Impact Award winner), and Sven Wiltink
- Outstanding Academic Research
- Judges: Dr. Vincie Ho, Dr. Edwin Gómez and Dr. Juan Madera (2024 Outstanding Academic Research Award winner)
- Outstanding Organizational Initiative
- Judges: Josh Heinz, Romey Louangvilay, Shayna Walker
- Young Professional
- Judges: Noor Ahmad Hamid, Dona Regis-Prosper, Diego Rendon (2024 Youth Award winner)
Meet the Finalists
Inclusion Champion
As news editor for Halal Travel Network, Shebs has championed the growth of halal tourism through impactful journalism and strategic partnerships with tourism boards. His work directly contributed to major industry wins and inspired new voices in the sector.
Shebs Alom
For over 15 years, Allie has worked to make travel inclusive for the 33 million Americans with food allergies through her platform Miss Allergic Reactor, reaching over 60,000 travelers across multiple platforms. She combines personal expertise with professional consultation services, partnering with destinations and brands to recognize food allergies as a critical accessibility issue in travel.
Allie Bahn
As former Director of Media Relations at ATTA, Tami increased diverse media representation at international trade conferences by 32% from 2018-2024, generating 6.2 billion earned media impressions globally. Her strategic outreach to underrepresented communities and collaboration with local businesses has created sustainable pathways for inclusion across the adventure travel industry.
Tami Fairweather
OCVA has strategically built a network of local stakeholders committed to making the Oregon Coast accessible for all visitors, partnering with organizations like Travelability and Wheel the World. Their collaborative approach prioritizes listening to residents with lived experience, transforming “The People’s Coast” from a tourism slogan into meaningful action for inclusive outdoor access.
Oregon Coast Visitors Association
Jeny has transformed the lives of 375 female survivors of human trafficking by training them as certified tour guides, hospitality staff, and culinary experts through her social enterprise in Nepal. Her work has contributed to a 73% reduction in trafficking rates since 2011 by developing 10 trafficking-prone communities through homestays and alternative income sources.
Jeny Pokharel
As Argentina’s first Afrotourism Director, Julia has transformed the country’s tourism landscape by centering Afro-descendant heritage, leading the first Afro-Argentine heritage tour and helping develop Argentina’s first federal Afrotourism map. Her work created El Tambo Afro, the first Black entrepreneur shop in Argentina, and she is directing the first documentary about Black heroine María Remedios del Valle.
Julia Cohen Ribeiro
As CEO of the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association, Sherry leads the only national association dedicated to Indigenous tourism and launched the first-ever economic impact study of U.S. Indigenous tourism businesses. She was instrumental in passing the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience (NATIVE) Act and serves on multiple national boards advancing Indigenous tourism.
Sherry Rupert
John has served over 50,000 customers with disabilities through his three accessible travel companies and partners with 15+ cruise lines representing 87% of the industry’s accessible shore-excursion market. He authored WTTC’s Inclusive and Accessible Travel Guidelines and leads accessibility initiatives for 13 national and global travel organizations.
John Sage
This year, you can vote for up to TWO choices. Voting closes Friday, October 17.
Community Impact
Cory became the first person to visit all 7 continents in a powered wheelchair and has inspired thousands of wheelchair users to travel through his blog, which has reached over 5 million visitors since 2014. In 2022, he launched The Curb Free Foundation, which has provided six fully-funded dream trips to wheelchair users, covering all expenses for recipients and their companions.
Cory Lee
Through their Meaningful Travel Map platform, Tourism Cares has connected over 650 community-based organizations across 40+ destinations to the global tourism marketplace, featuring Indigenous cooperatives, women-led enterprises, and social ventures. The platform has generated increased visibility and income for local changemakers, demonstrated through success stories like Iraq Al Amir Women’s Cooperative in Jordan, which gained international tour operator partnerships after being featured on the Map.
Tourism Cares
In collaboration with the Tourist Organization of Banja Luka, Minja connected local communities and organizations in Krupa na Vrbasu to promote inclusive tourism experiences. Her work led to Krupa na Vrbasu being included in the World’s Best Villages Network (UN Tourism) and the Most Beautiful Villages in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and her expertise has been recognized by other cities in BiH who hired her to develop rural tourism projects.
Minja Kovacevic Surlan
The Hybrid Tours partners with local guides, grassroots organizations, and displaced people to ensure tourism dollars benefit marginalized communities. They collaborate with survivors of war and genocide to create bridges between travelers and overlooked communities.
The Hybrid Tours
Lunfarda Travel is the only company in Argentina working with CAF (Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean) to promote Afrotourism, bringing global visibility to the Afro-Argentine community. They developed Argentina’s first Afro-FAM trip, creating a sustainable pipeline of opportunities for Afro-Argentine guides, artists, and communities while partnering with institutions like Mocha Celis and LGBTQ+ initiatives to ensure multiple communities benefit directly from tourism.
Lunfarda Travel
Under President & CEO Fred Ferguson’s leadership, ABA has made DEI central to its mission by creating affinity groups including the African American Motorcoach Council, Hispanic Motorcoach Council, and Women in Buses Council. Through their groundbreaking partnership with AIANTA, ABA expanded opportunities for Indigenous-owned tourism businesses, and they provide members with practical resources like guides on curating Black heritage tours and Indigenous tourism.
American Bus Association
For over eight years, Destination Asia has provided young, marginalized Indonesian women with hospitality training and employment opportunities through their partnership with Bali WISE. The program offers on-the-job training and financial support at their Bali office, equipping participants with practical knowledge and competencies needed to thrive in the hospitality sector while building a network that helps them break free from poverty constraints.
Destination Asia
Outstanding Academic Research
Dr. Jamgade’s doctoral research on “Promotion of Sustainable Economic Ecotourism in Rural Areas of Nagpur District, India” presents a holistic framework integrating environmental sustainability with social inclusivity. Her work demonstrates how participatory planning, equitable revenue-sharing models, and culturally sensitive tourism experiences benefit marginalized local communities, indigenous groups, and women stakeholders, and she has mentored undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD students to focus on local people employability and inclusivity in ecotourism.
Dr. Sweety Jamgade
Emily’s doctoral thesis at Griffith University empowers people with disability to thrive in the tourism and hospitality sector through an emancipatory research paradigm employing innovative participatory methodologies, notably Photovoice. Her research extends Fraser’s theory of social justice into tourism and hospitality contexts, critically analyzing 490 tourism policy and planning documents to reveal systemic neglect of disability workforce issues, and proposing a conceptual model of thriving at work specific to people with disability that challenges conventional workplace norms.
Siqi (Emily) Lu
Dr. Vongvisitsin’s groundbreaking research applies social identity theory and queer ethnographic paradigms to uncover the experiences of LGBTIQ+ individuals in diverse Asian contexts, challenging Western-centric narratives and developing innovative frameworks including a sexual and gender normativities model of servicescapes and the first systematic multi-country survey of transgender medical tourism intention. Her work bridges academia and practice through the Inclusive Tourism Asia campaign, workshops with industry professionals globally, collaboration with the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and representing RFSL at the UN Human Rights Council to address issues of arbitrary immigration detention of trans, non-binary, and gender-diverse travelers.
Dr. Bella Vongvisitsin
Anna and Dr. Olena’s case study examines how a pay-what-you-wish pricing model can create sustainable and socially responsible cultural institutions, providing a framework for analyzing how unique pricing strategies balance financial viability with social missions. The research demonstrates how pricing can be used as a tool for accessibility, challenging traditional revenue models and offering insights that could influence policy and practice in cultural institutions globally.
Anna Abelson and Dr. Olena Ciftci
The Tourism For All NZ Research Group at Auckland University of Technology, co-led by Dr. Gillovic and Professor McIntosh, is New Zealand’s only dedicated tourism research group conducting academic and applied research in partnership with industry stakeholders and the disability community. Their work affirms the citizenship rights of people with disabilities and those living with chronic or terminal illness to participate fully in tourism, using academically rigorous, co-creative methodology and challenging ableist assumptions in scholarship to drive social change for a more inclusive tourism world.
Dr Brielle Gillovic and Professor Alison McIntosh
Outstanding Organizational Initiative
Since 2007, Global Glimpse’s Equity in Travel Model has served 9,700+ students and 700+ educators with $15M in scholarships, creating intentionally diverse student cohorts where 83% identify as BIPOC and 83% come from families earning $70,000 or less. Their innovative partnerships with United Airlines, Away, Expedia, and Marriott demonstrate how the tourism sector can take tangible steps toward inclusion, with 98% of students building meaningful relationships across racial, cultural, and socioeconomic lines through mixed-background travel groups.
Global Glimpse
The Richmond Region Tourism Foundation’s OutRVA program has promoted the Richmond Region as a welcoming LGBTQ+ destination for over 10 years, organizing the third annual Dine Out for Pride in June 2025 with approximately 30 restaurants raising $2,180 for Diversity Richmond’s Virginia Pride Program. The program maintains a dedicated website, active social media presence, and newsletter curated by LGBTQ-owned creative agency Big Spoon Co., serves as presenting sponsor for VA Pridefest (the state’s largest LGBTQ+ festival) for the third year in 2025, and was created through collaboration with a committee of LGBTQ individuals to profile local LGBTQ+ people and affirming businesses.
Richmond Region Tourism Foundation
As a women-led buy-side platform under Direct Digital Holdings—the ninth Black-owned company to go public—Orange 142 combines data-driven precision with creative storytelling to help destination marketing organizations reach diverse travelers through award-winning campaigns spanning search engine marketing, social media, display advertising, and website design. Their measurable, replicable strategies have increased visitation and boosted local economies for DMOs of all sizes, with a commitment to inclusive and authentic representation that ensures messaging resonates with audiences across demographics while supporting destinations as must-visit hotspots.
Orange 142
The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group became the first hotel chain globally to receive IGLTA accreditation for LGBTQIA+ inclusion, training over 2,000 employees in DEI and LGBTQIA+ sensitization while creating employment opportunities for 200+ marginalized individuals through their ‘Love For All’ initiative. Named among India’s Top 10 Employers for LGBTQIA+ inclusion at IWEI 2024, they offer scholarships to LGBTQ+ students at The Lalit Suri Hospitality School since 2019 and organize Pride Month events including filmmaking workshops, art residencies for queer artists, and awareness walks on inclusive practices in hospitality.
The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group
Ranked India’s 5th Best Company to Work For in 2025, ITC Hotels Limited operates under its Responsible Luxury ethos with robust DEIB mechanisms, employing People with Disability, Veterans, and diverse socio-cultural backgrounds while preserving Indian culture through locally-sourced ingredients and indigenous artisan partnerships. The chain holds the world’s highest number of USGBC LEED Platinum certifications (23), operates the world’s first 12 LEED Zero Carbon and 9 LEED Zero Water hotels, and has exceeded COP21-aligned 2030 sectoral emission targets for five consecutive years while investing in training marginalized youth through institutional partnerships.
ITC HOTELS LIMITED
Young Professional
Rising from IGLTA Foundation intern to Program Manager in less than four years, Amine leads international fellowships, educational programs, and the TUI Futureshapers Global: LGBTQIA+ Travel Innovators Program, providing mentorship and business development skills to LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs in emerging destinations. His research, including “How the Private Sector Can Drive LGBTQ+ Tourism Development in Emerging Destinations” and “Caribbean Kaleidoscope: A Journey into LGBTQ+ Travel,” has shaped industry practices, and speaking English, Arabic, and French allows him to build bridges across cultures while championing underrepresented voices in global tourism conversations.
Amine Gabbouj
As CEO & Founder of VisitAble LLC, Joe created the only accessibility training company that successfully scales empathy-based, self-paced training covering all disability types within destinations, evidenced by training 2,200 people in the Richmond region in one year. He speaks at industry events and partners with major associations to change mindsets and raise awareness, pursuing multiple sectors of the travel industry including tour operators and guides, with digestible, scalable training that makes an impact across almost all employees of every organization or location he works with.
Joe Jamison
Nicolas organized the CTO Regional Nex-Gen Tourism Showcase for the Caribbean Tourism Organization, a regional youth initiative focused on tertiary level students creating business proposals for tourism businesses by linking different sectors across the Caribbean, demonstrating leadership in developing the next generation of tourism professionals and fostering cross-sector collaboration in the region.
Nicolas Scott
Through his initiative Green Disability, Puneet has built a community of 1,200+ disabled, neurodivergent, and chronically ill individuals across the Global South, using storytelling and participatory methods to highlight how climate change and inaccessibility intersect with travel barriers. Born in a Delhi slum and navigating multiple non-apparent disabilities—dyslexia, dyspraxia, and stammering—he has organized workshops, dialogues, and campaigns that amplify marginalized voices and push institutions to design inclusive systems, earning recognition from Forbes, the Commonwealth, and international networks while advocating for discoverability: the right for all people to be seen, heard, and able to move freely in society.
Puneet Singh Singhal
As Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group and Founding Member of the Keshav Suri Foundation, Akshay has hired over 200 transgender persons, 500+ queer team members, 300+ people with disabilities, and 30 acid attack warriors across roles while making The Lalit the first hotel chain globally to receive IGLTA accreditation. He has led the IGLTA India LGBTQ+ Travel Symposiums (2022-2025), won 27 awards in three years for organizational inclusion, received 5 National Awards for accessibility, and earned recognition as APCOM Hero Award recipient and Trans Ally Award winner while training thousands of hospitality professionals across India.
Akshay Tyagi
Meet the Judges
Community Impact
Stephanie Sheehy
Owner, IL VIAGGIO Travel
Sonya Bradley
Chief Inclusion and Community Engagement Officer, Visit Sacramento
Sven Wiltink
Global Senior Director of Sustainability, Radisson Hotel Group
Outstanding Academic Research
Dr. Juan Madera
Curtis L. Carlson Endowed Professor, Conrad N. Hilton College, University of Houston
Dr. Edwin Gómez
Professor, Department of Recreation Sciences, East Carolina University
Dr. Vincie Ho
Founder & Executive Director, RISE Travel Institute
Outstanding Organizational Initiative
Josh Heinz
Community Engagement Manager, Visit Greater Palm Springs
Romey Louangvilay
Co-Founder, VP & Head of Communications, ELMNTL
Shayna Walker
Global Head of ED+I, Tripadvisor
Young Professional
Diego Rendon
President & CEO of Associated Students Incorporated, CSUMB
Noor Ahmad Hamid
CEO, Pacific Asia Travel Association
Dona Regis-Prosper
Secretary General & CEO, Caribbean Tourism Organization
Sponsors
2024 Award Winners
| Dr. Juan Madera 2024 Outstanding Academic Research Award “for his research focusing on DEI in the hospitality and tourism section” | Stephanie Sheehy 2024 Community Impact Award “promotes DEI in the travel and fashion industries” | Tonya Fitzpatrick 2024 Applied DEI Champion Award “advocates for marginalized communities in travel“ |
| Visit Greater Palm Springs 2024 Outstanding Organizational Initiative Award “promotes inclusive tourism, ensuring the industry benefits all community members” | Diego Rendon 2024 Youth Award “advocates for inclusivity in travel, impacting his university and beyond” | Ethan Gelber 2024 Director Appreciation Award “for his role in founding Travel Unity and his years of dedicated service to its mission“ |