Empowering Travelers to Make a Positive, Local Impact
 

Oakland’s most socially conscious hotels share exclusive offers to incentivize travelers and drive community impact 

Oakland, CA – As the first statewide regenerative travel program kicks off with Visit California & Kind Traveler, Visit Oakland, a proud destination partner in the program, launches a new wave of opportunities for travelers to make a positive impact when visiting Oakland. Visit Oakland, participating local hotels and Kind Traveler join together to support the vital work of Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, an Oakland nonprofit with a mission to unlock the potential of every child by fighting to end childhood hunger, ensuring access to a quality education, and providing safe places for all children to play and be active. Through this partnership, Visit Oakland is empowering a new generation of responsible travelers to positively impact Oakland, while also receiving exclusive rates and perks with Kind Hotels in Oakland.

With more than 97% of travelers revealing that it’s important for their vacation dollars to positively impact the communities they visit (Kind Traveler 2022 Impact Tourism Report), it has never been easier to dream big and plan a vacation that not only creates meaningful memories, necessary relaxation and mental health benefits, but also a lasting community impact. Through the simple act of booking a hotel with Kind Traveler, travelers can now travel kindly and meaningfully support the local community with Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, with 100% of the traveler’s donation supporting the local Oakland community.

“Visit Oakland is proud to join Eat. Learn. Play., Kind Traveler and our partner hotels as we give back to our community” commented Peter Gamez, President & CEO of Visit Oakland. “This program is extremely powerful because it allows our visitors to participate in providing meals for kids in Oakland and creates a better environment for them to realize their dreams.  This builds a strong connection to our destination. Together we share the ability to truly make a difference.” 

The way it works is simple: Through Kind Traveler’s Give + Get hotel booking and media platform, travelers unlock exclusive offers from participating Kind Hotels with a $10 or more donation to Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, or to another charity of choice on the platform. Positive impact metrics are shared with every booking empowering future visitors with specific details about how their travel dollars are supporting the local community. As an example, a $10 donation to Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation will provide five nourishing meals to disadvantaged children in Oakland. Travelers additionally have an opportunity to plant trees at the time of booking with Arbor Day Foundation; one dollar plants one tree.

To further sustainability awareness, travelers also have an opportunity to learn about each property's sustainability, wellness and community impact features. Local neighborhood guides are shared with each hotel profile inspiring conscious, mindful, local travel opportunities and other ways to do good for the day or give back locally.

Discover the new opportunities for 2023 to plan your vacation and travel kindly in Oakland with participating hotels on Kind Traveler:

  • Kissel Uptown Oakland
  • Moxy Downtown Oakland
  • Marriott Oakland City Center

 

A Kind Destination: Oakland
 

Located on the east side of the Northern California Bay Area, Oakland is bordered by 19 miles of coastline to the west and rolling hills to the east. Here you’ll discover one of the nation's most diverse communities, artistic vibes, art deco gems, beautiful scenery, locally owned shops, urban farms, multi-cultural cuisine and civic pride. Like many great cities, Oakland is a sum of its parts: 125 languages are spoken in Oakland. It’s a city that proudly celebrates its Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), women, and LGBTQ+ owned businesses. The spirit of the city that birthed the Black Panther Movement in the 60’s is still alive and well, you see it in community activism and social justice. Its heartbeat for creating positive social impact is displayed all over the city in murals and storefronts, and in the ethos of so many local creators, entrepreneurs and philanthropists that integrate social impact and giving back into their business models.

“In partnership with Visit Oakland, Kind Traveler is delighted to mobilize new opportunities for travelers to give back, make a meaningful community impact, and advance regenerative and sustainable tourism principles in the extraordinary, socially-aware destination of Oakland,” said Jessica Blotter, Co-Founder & CEO of Kind Traveler. 

“While giving back to charities connected to destination wellbeing helps California create a sustainable future, studies share that it’s also related to higher levels of trip satisfaction.”

To start planning your kind vacation and #TravelKindly visit: https://www.kindtraveler.com/content/visit-oakland

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Media Contacts:


Visit Oakland

Renée Roberts
renee@visitoakland.com
415-407-7424 

Kind Traveler Media Contact

Jessie Burns
Press@KindTraveler.com
702-461-7508

For downloadable images, please see our media gallery, here.
 


ABOUT KIND TRAVELER


Kind Traveler, a women-and-veteran-owned public benefit corporation, is the world’s first socially conscious Give + Get hotel booking and media platform that empowers travelers to positively impact the communities they visit through a network of 150+ destination-specific charities tied to the UN Global Goals. In advancing sustainable and regenerative tourism initiatives, Kind Traveler’s mission is to harness the next generation of travelers into a financial force that addresses some of the world’s greatest challenges and provides a positive impact to support local communities, the environment, and animals. Recognized with global awards from Fast Company (World Changing Ideas Award), Travel + Leisure (Global Vision Award), Newsweek (Future of Travel Award), Lufthansa Innovation Hub and UNWTO, Kind Traveler represents Kind Hotels and tourism boards in 22 countries globally. Visit us at KindTraveler.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

ABOUT VISIT OAKLAND


Visit Oakland is a non-profit organization marketing Oakland, California as a travel destination. Visit Oakland offers a wide variety of complimentary services and materials for travelers interested in visiting Oakland. For more information, check out VisitOakland.com. Want to share the Oakland love with the world? Follow @visitoakland on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.  #visitoakland #oaklandloveit