These 2025 Global Vision Awards winners are redefining what tourism should look like.

Were at a key inflection point, Rabinor says.

Tourism, some community leaders proposed, offered a way forward.

Three photos showing surf, trees, and sky with the Travel + Leisure Global Vision Awards banner

After years of groundwork,Icy Strait Pointdebuted in 2004 as the first privately owned cruise destination in Alaska.

Partnering with other Indigenous groups in Alaska and the Caribbean.

Items are then donated to local aid organizations, rather than languishing in lost-and-found closets before being discarded.

Pilot Teara Fraser inside a plane

A lot of those items have a useful life, Cox says.

You have to start small because small doesnt break anything, he says.

White Desert

Antarctica has seen a record-setting number of visitors in recent years.

A trio of watches, one each with a black, pink, and blue band, on aqua colored tiles

A woman holds a fishing net for recycling

A red and white plane on an ice field in Antarctica

A cabin in the Dutch forest, with a woman sitting on the deck

Aerial view of a guest resort in Sao Tome and Principe

An aerial view of a cruise port destination in Alaska

A group of people birdwatching on a raised platform

White tourist domes in the Antarctic landscape

A smiling pilot named Teara Fraser stands behind a wing of her plane

A red and white plane on an ice field in Antarctica

A White Desert plane in Antarctica.Credit:Courtesy of White Desert

Pair of photos from Mexico, one showing a farmer in a field, and one showing two weavers

From left: A farmer in Xochimilco, a district of Mexico City; weavers affiliated with the Haciendas del Mundo Maya Foundation.From left: COURTESY OF JOURNEY MEXICO; @VIRIDIANNA/COURTESY OF HACIENDAS DEL MUNDO MAYA FOUNDATION

A canoe near a cruise ship at Icy Strait Point in Alaska

Paddling near Icy Strait Point, Alaska.Courtesy of Icy Strait Point

A clothing recycling bag in a hotel closet in Indonesia

A Giving Bag in a guest room closet at the Alila SCBD Jakarta hotel in Indonesia.Courtesy of Giving Bag

A group of women adventure guides stand on a hill in Tanzania

Trainees of the Mountain Lioness Project, in Tanzania.Courtesy of Exodus Adventure Travels

Pair of photos from a guesthouse in Morocco

From left: The view from a Memory Road guesthouse in Morocco; a guest bedroom at the property.Courtesy of 700’000 Heures Impact

A small research hut and a snowmobile in Antarctica

White Desert Foundation supports field science in Antarctica.Courtesy of White Desert