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Most of us enjoy traveling throughout the US or all over the world, seeing new places, doing new things.

Some folks cherish America's favorite pastime jumping in the car or the camper for a stay.

Some are adventurous, some are fun.

LA Vegas, San Antonio, Santa Fe, Memphis, Miami, New Orleans, New York, the list goes on.

Others enjoy taking to the skies for a worlds travel adventure.

Cancun, Costa Rica London.

Lisbon.

Madrid.

Barcelona, Rome, Venice.

Whatever the case may be, many of us stay in hotels on our vacation.

Well, what if your hotel stay could be more than just a hotel room?

What if a small portion of the money you spend on your hotel could be a force for good, and give back to the communities you travel to.

Communities all over the US, all over the world, were a tiny fraction of your hotel bill goes to things like disaster relief.

Say for example, in wildfire ravaged areas, hurricane hit communities, earthquake recovery, helping the homeless.

Well, the hotel and tourism industry seems to believe they can help with this process.

And so does a new Southern California company.

The travel and tourism industry is partnering with Sean, who I met in San Diego, and it was on our first date that we discovered that we had a shared passion for entrepreneurship.

So Sean had a surf apparel company in San Diego.

I had just started a brand development agency, and at the time, I was looking for a graphic designer to help me with a project I was working on.

And, we literally started working together that night, and we realized that where my skills ended, his began, and vice versa.

We were looking for deeper purpose in our lives, and we wanted to apply that both to our personal lives.

But also to our businesses.

And we both had a love for the travel and hospitality industry, but we didn't really know what challenge or business idea we wanted to tackle.

As my first career, I was a teacher and found a love for sustainability and giving back.

So we really wanted to bring in that piece into our business model, but really didn't know how at the time we were going to do that.

So it all came together when we went on a vacation to Central America, and we witnessed heartbreaking poverty.

We saw a message to dogs roaming the streets, plastic pollution, and we really wanted a way for our travel dollars to give back to the place that we were in.

And we sort of had this moment there where we realized that travel should give back more than it takes.

We workshopped a lot of ideas and it was like we were never set on something concrete.

But it wasn't until that experience didn't really give us that moment where we were like, okay, let's take with this and run with it.

Like travel can be transformative and regenerative for local communities.

And so we took that home and then we started really diving into it.

This is Jessica Blotter and Sean Creasy.

Jessica and Sean are the CEO and CEO of their new company, Kind Traveler.

These two co-founders are partners both in life and in business life or as you might say, dedicated to each other and to giving back.

Jessica began her career as an earth sciences teacher with a degree in biology.

However, it was at Central America Vacation.

Jessica speaks of that reshape their lives.

Jessica and Sean were determined to do something to help dire conditions throughout the world.

Sean was on board.

Sean certainly knows about giving back.

He's a military vet, originally from Hawaii, military proud, he likes to say a patriot dedicated to the U.S.

like all our brave military heroes who sacrificed so much for us.

After his military service in the U.S.

Air Force, he joined the business world.

Jessica and Sean were the perfect match.

Jess, with her creativity, business ambition and conviction of compassion.

And Sean, with his street smarts, savvy military knowhow, and business expertise.

A great beginning to a new veteran owned, woman owned company that's revolutionizing the way we all can travel.

Kind traveler is a first platform of its kind to bring travelers, hotels and charities together.

We came back and we started doing our research and study.

After study.

What we found everywhere from Expedia to Booking.com.

We found the same sentiment that was shared that between 70 to 90% of travelers want their travel dollars to benefit and make a positive impact in the places that they visit.

However, the big challenge was that at least 50% or more of travelers find this very confusing or didn't know how to do it.

So there's no clear pathway for travelers to give back and make a meaningful impact.

A lot of times, folks will think about voluntourism or volunteering as a way to give back, but frankly, those opportunities might not always exist.

Nor maybe you don't want to volunteer on your vacation, or perhaps don't have the time to.

So after we did that research, we realized that we needed to create a clear pathway for travelers to give back to the communities that they visit.

It was amazing.

Once we started talking to hoteliers and travelers alike, they really resonated with that story.

They really resonate and said they had that same moment where they experienced those same feelings and thoughts on their travel experiences, so it really tied back that we were on the right direction and the right path, and it was really adopted quickly by the hotels and travelers alike.

You know, on that opportunity where travel could be transformative and regenerative for those communities kind travelers.

The model is based off of its signature.

Every state gives that program where a portion of every guest's stay.

Fund a local nonprofit that's in the community that traveler is visiting.

And the great part is, it doesn't matter where or how you walk.

It's every single guest.

Stay with that participating property will go back to support the local community.

And these nonprofits range from those that support community wellbeing, environmental restoration and animal welfare.

The best part is 100% of the donations go back to the nonprofit Time Traveler.

Also partners with destinations or tourism boards to create a responsible travel program where every state gives back in their community.

One of our long standing partnerships is right here in California with Visit California.

It's an ongoing partnership that we've had for many years now, and we work with local destination partners, lodging partners and nonprofits to make California better.

Great.

Is that right here in Santa Monica?

You can see part of that partnership in action right here at Regent Santa Monica beach.

So as an example, right here, Regent Santa Monica beach supports the Marine Mammal Care Center.

We all want a clean and safe beach to visit.

And so not only do we help create a better environment for the animals to thrive in, but for beachgoers and really anyone who's enjoying the ocean, one of the things that kind traveler does is create positive impact dashboards, and you can think of them as traveler friendly storytelling tools that the hotels can use to communicate with guest before, during, and after their stay so that they can better understand the positive impact that they're making and the good that they're doing simply by taking that vacation.

Every destination destination's going to have its own set of unique challenges and opportunities.

So here in Santa Monica, we might be supporting ocean health and marine mammal conservation.

But just up the road, we're supporting wildfire recovery and disaster relief.

So no matter where in the world the destination is, we're able to tailor an initiative that focuses on recovery and helps communities heal.

As Jessica and Sean explained, Time Traveler collaborates with destinations and lodging partners throughout the world.

Currently working with nine different countries, with other countries soon to join them, and recently Kind Traveler launched another program to add to the portfolio every Adventure Gives Back.

So when travelers are selecting their destination and planning their trip, they're thinking about their adventures, their experiences, what they're going to be doing there in those destinations.

But they're not necessarily thinking about how to get back.

They might see it firsthand.

They might see the need and desire and want to help.

But it's a little bit late.

But when they know that they're staying with hotels that are rooted in the community, that are giving back to their and supporting the local community, they feel that much better about their trip, making it more meaningful, meaningful.

So now they're like taking something back home with them.

So when disaster strikes, like the fires in Los Angeles, there's an opportunity to rebuild and drive tourism dollars back into the local community to help bring that community back to life.

Like a recent effort that we have with LA tourism, LA tourism, we have a group of hotels here in LA where travelers choose to stay at those properties, and they're automatically giving back into this fire relief effort from Altadena down to the Palisades.

They're helping to support and rebuild these communities, making it even stronger than before.

That community rebuild is going slowly, and fire victims need all the help they can get.

The January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires were devastating several people killed in the Palisades and eating fires.

Wildfires that also claimed the homes of thousands of L.A.

residents in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities after their houses burned to the ground during the infernos.

Many months later, Angelinos are still just trying to piece together their lives and better homes.

Brant Woodworth knows about this.

Brant is the chairman and CEO of the LA Emergency Preparedness Foundation, or LA, as it's known.

LA is a nonprofit community based organization that works with L.A.

County Fire.

And the Board of Supervisors.

The organization is dedicated to helping residents, businesses, and government join forces to have more effective disaster preparedness and resiliency.

Brant and L.A.

EPF were on the front lines of the wildfires back in January, helping firefighters from all over the region with evacuations helping to get residents and businesses out of harm's way, eventually helping neighbors return to what remained of their homes and helping get them the goods and services they needed.

Brant also lives just minutes from ground zero of the Palisades fire out here in this Malibu area, in these hills high above the Pacific Ocean, where the fire also scorched much of this community and destroyed many of the homes.

Brant and L.A.

EPF are now the recipient of much needed funding generated from kind travelers hotel collaboration.

This whole area was on fire.

This area, both canyons, had burned on both sides.

The winds here were almost 100 miles an hour, as recorded at Saddle Peak, and even at Fire Camp Bay just below us.

And it was just devastating.

We lost almost two thirds of the homes here were destroyed in the fire.

We spent over 5000 person hours responding to the fire for almost 30 days with about 50 people, so it was quite an effort.

This canyon is just one example of the devastation that you've seen because financially, as a 501 C-3, we're dependent on donations from private individuals, groups like Kind Traveler and some amount of grants.

But responding to and preparing for these events is expensive.

Just the personal protection alone per person runs well over $3,000.

The fire truck equipment runs about $150,000.

So it is expensive.

And then we're doing a lot of home ignitions, own assessments.

We've done 450.

Each one of those cost us between 400 to $500 an assessment.

So the money coming in from kind traveler, the ability of kind traveler to educate people on this process and what we do.

We are so grateful for that.

We couldn't do it without them.

These were people that had lost everything, and the very little that they did have left, they brought with them.

So when they entered through the door, it was it was a very sad sight.

Cory de Silva is the guest experience manager of Southern California's iconic hotel, the Surfrider Malibu, located out here on Pacific Coast Highway PCH with all its legendary surf history.

This is the Hotel That Kind Traveler and La EPF are partnering with a decades old tourist hotspot in Malibu, where some of the most renowned surfers and celebrities stayed back in the day.

A hotel that somehow miraculously survived the Palisades Fire.

This as nearly every surrounding structure, both out here on PCH and in these hills, either burned to the ground or suffered massive damage.

Corey de Silva knows the total devastation he and the other employees know.

They were lucky that day.

So they've been sharing some of their good fortune with others.

We didn't know exactly what was happening.

We could see the smoke billowing just from the mountain behind me.

It was very inspiring, actually, to see everyone pull together as a community right there.

You can see people reach out to, friends and family and neighbors that were living around this area or lived down south from here towards Palisades.

You can really see them making sure that the community was being safe.

Many of our team members were losing their property and were in a state of unknowing during that time, since they were on property and the fires were raging around their areas.

They were reaching out to people, making sure that everyone else was safe, not worrying about themselves.

It became a we and not an eye.

Almost instantly, we wanted to be a part of that community that helped, the people that have lost their businesses, their homes, their livelihood.

We opened our doors for roughly around three months.

And we had people from all over the community.

Our guests are thrilled by the ability to give to a community that they can see on their way out here has taken a huge hit.

They are just ecstatic that things like that exists where businesses like, like this one have the ability to give back to the community that they're it.

It's not just the human disaster, the human toll.

Marine mammals are also on the kind traveler list of giving.

John Warner is the CEO of Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles.

John and the care center are partnering with Kind Traveler and the Regent Santa Monica Beach Hotel here in Santa Monica, California.

The money generated from the Every Stay Gives Back program is slated to help preserve marine mammals and all kinds of ocean life.

Yet, said the marine mammal Care Center.

Our mission is simple and vital.

We're, inspire ocean conservation through the rescue, rehabilitation and education and research of marine mammals here in Los Angeles County.

So Los Angeles County, including Catalina Island, is the busiest, area for marine mammal strandings per mile of coastline than anywhere else in the country.

And that includes seals, sea lions, dolphins, etc.. We also have a team that, disentangled whales along with Noah and others.

We see thriving populations.

For instance, blue whales, the largest congregation of blue whales anywhere on this planet, happens right here in Southern California off the Channel Islands.

Our marine mammals, have been suffering quite a lot in recent years.

Marine mammals are stranding in record numbers because of annual toxic algae blooms here in Southern California that produce, toxin called domoic acid.

This, toxin infects their brains and creates seizures, unpredictable behavior, and real suffering, especially for sea lions.

But now also dolphins.

We saw, hundreds and hundreds of dolphins stranding in Southern California recently.

And it's a mortality event for them.

Very sad to see.

And you're talking about beaches in Southern California, especially in Los Angeles, that are heavily populated with people year round.

Being here at the region, Santa Monica is, really, a point of optimism, because it represents partnerships that are here and formed to, really help our marine mammals in the backyard of where people are coming to visit, where tourism thrives.

And it's all because of an organization called Kind Traveler.

Eunice Atala is the general manager of the region's Santa Monica Beach Resort.

When you just heard about what Jessica and Shawn and their kind traveler company were doing, and when he heard what was going on at the Marine Mammal Care Center, he and a hotel said, how can we be a part of this philanthropic work?

And further, the region's already established history of helping charitable causes, including the care center?

We take a lot of pride in being part of the fabric of this community here in the city of Santa Monica and in Southern California.

We've been around for over 30 years as a property.

And, it's really in and our ethos and, we do whatever we can, to, to, to really be part of, a, a positive, a giving back program.

So we're kind traveler came along and, kind of shared what they're doing.

We thought this was a perfect alignment with, with our culture.

We feel that it's absolutely the right thing to do.

We live by the ocean.

It is not unlikely to see sea life to sea lions and seals, whether it's on the shores, doing their own thing or swimming.

Just, you know, off our shore, we felt that there's a sense of place and a relevance from a location perspective.

It also allows our guests to really be immersed in the destination, rather than, you know, picking a cause that might not be as relevant.

To to our location, our guests want to belong and want to get back.

You're typically dealing with folks who are, high net worth individuals and, you know, philanthropy is part of their, their, their DNA or their, their, their values.

And so we find that when we talk about the program, whether it's through, marketing channels, social media, even, you know, through in-room collaterals, those types of things, our website, obviously, our partnership with controller, that there is a sense of, hey, I've given back, it's not just going and staying in a lovely hotel and, and, having a good time for myself.

The fact that a portion of your stay gets to go back to a good cause is, it's something that we should all be proud of, and we're absolutely, definitely proud of our partnership with kind traveler.

Adam Burke is the president and CEO of the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board.

LA tourism is an organization responsible for promoting the City of Angels as one of the world's premier travel destinations.

Roll down the window.

The Devils take a crack at the Beach Boys.

Baby, don't let the music.

Don't let the music stop.

I know Los Angeles Tourism is a nonprofit organization, and we have the privilege of serving as the official tourism promotion organization for the city of Los Angeles, and our mission is to improve the quality of life for all Angelinos.

The way we do that is through tourism, through visitation.

But the numbers are just astonishing.

As of today, there are over 543,000 Angelenos who earn their living in tourism related careers.

That makes tourism consistently one of the top five employment sectors in LA.

Beyond that is what it does for our business community.

And this is not just large businesses.

It's our small business community in every region, neighborhood and household.

To LA.

Last year, visitors to our City of Angels contributed a remarkable $43 billion to our local business community.

But I think when you look at the numbers, it's just staggering how significant the contributions of visitors to Los Angeles are to every local neighborhood and community.

Well, this year alone, the city will receive nearly $300 million from visitors staying in hotels in Los Angeles.

What really inspires me is the way our community rallies together in a time of crisis.

Well, that certainly carried forward into the January wildfires without a second thought.

As soon as the wildfires hit, our community really sprang into action.

That was everything from hotels accepting first responders and evacuees, local restaurants opening up their kitchens to provide meals not just for those displaced, but also for all the first responders who did such an incredible job protecting our community.

Beyond that, we had transportation companies who were actively involved in evacuating residents and providing essential supplies to those who were displaced.

That's the way our entire travel and tourism community reacts whenever there's a crisis.

And I also really want to talk about the partnership with Kind Traveler, because I think that's an exceptional model that really is being used by destinations across the country.

We know that there are so many travelers who really want to leave a positive impact on the communities they visit.

We find, particularly among younger travelers, they want to make sure they leave a destination better than they found it.

But I think the challenge has always been, how can you make that easy for hotels and other tourism industry providers?

One of many hotels partnering with L.A.

Tourism and Time Traveler.

Actively working with guests to help give back both to fire victims and community is the luxury brand Marriott.

Harvey Akana was the area general manager of the Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles, J.W.

Marriott Los Angeles, L.A.

live Harvey Air is a proud son of the City of Angels.

So this is a very unique and special opportunity.

Oftentimes you have situations like these that come across where something happens in a community.

In our industry, the travel industry is one that just by its nature, unites people.

We go places to learn about other people's cultures, to learn about how other people live.

And so when something tragic like this happens, then we take a look at how can we help?

What are the ways to do so?

So this particular tragedy that occurred in early January here in Los Angeles was really impactful for me.

I'm a native Angelino, and to see our city, undergoing such a major challenge, really, meant that we had to try to do something.

So I had an opportunity to speak with Adam Burke from L.A.

tourism and we were talking about what could we do?

What could our industry do to be able to really give back and try to help in some meaningful way?

People were coming up to us.

They were asking us, how can we help?

What can we do?

It was individual travelers.

It was people who who did groups and meetings that were still being held here in the hotel.

They were just asking us, what can we do?

And so this particular program with Kind Traveler was a perfect fit.

Brooke Perlman is a community relations manager of the Change reaction.

Change reaction is a direct giving platform in Los Angeles that leads with the heart of helping, as Brooke likes to say, providing financial support to those in need during emergency situations everything from rent relief to car repairs.

Brooke's parents founded the change reaction some 20 years ago, and more recently created a wildfire fund to help thousands of people, especially for victims of the 2025 Palisades Fire and Ethan Fire in Altadena.

Now, the change reaction has added Kind Traveler to its massive list of giving partners and change agents.

But we really couldn't do any of that without the thousands of frontline heroes, the social workers and nurses and teachers, doctors who really have their ear to the ground and they know exactly what people need and when they need it.

So when the fires hit, it almost felt like we were built for something like this.

We all really put our heads together and knew that we could really show up in this crisis for people to stabilize and support so many of them.

So over the last six months, we've given over $14 million to 3500 families.

And we couldn't do that again without all the partnerships in LA.

You know, it's been six months.

There's a lot of work to go, but it's important to us to show up for for this community.

So to date, kind travelers raised nearly $2 million in donations for the local communities.

But we are on track to do 10 million in the next two years.

And these funds are helping to support all different types of community initiatives.

So, you know, they may range from supporting disaster recovery ranging from wildfires, earthquakes and hurricanes.

Kind traveler has a whole ecosystem from environmental causes, animal welfare, and so much more that they're helping support in the local communities rebuilding.

But we're also looking at the future generations.

Time traveler is the first responsible travel platform to empower travelers to positively impact the communities that they visit.

And the reason that this work is so important is when you look at the travel industry, it's a $9 trillion industry and 4.1 out of every ten people worldwide.

So it's undeniable to think about the economic power for the first good that the industry has.

And even just a small fraction is devoted back to supporting local communities and giving back.

So we know that travel can completely transform communities.

It can heal the planet and even change lives.

Hi, I'm David Nazar host of Sustaining Us.

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