Conscious Conversations: How to Use Data to Make Better Decisions in Travel
For our first Conscious Conversation of the year, we were joined by two of our brilliant mentors, Edmund Morris, founder of Equator, and Portia Hart, founder of Blue Apple Beach and Fundación Green Apple, for a session that challenged a lot of assumptions about how to measure, communicate and design trips for impact.
But first, a quick reminder about our Equator partnership
This year, we are really excited to have joined forces with Equator and Edmund to bring you a suite of benefits designed to make your work easier, your decisions sharper, and your impact stories more compelling. Equator helps independent travel brands like yours build resilient, future-ready businesses by turning complex data into clear insights you can actually use. They specialise in spotting economic shifts and traveller behaviour patterns early, so you can move ahead of the curve and stand out to the customers who matter most to you.
This session was the first of several opportunities to learn from and pick Edmund's brain. Members of The Conscious Travel Foundation have access to Equator's monthly insights newsletter via their Outlier platform, quarterly Office Hours with Edmund including bookable one-to-one slots, a practical online workshop shaped by your questions, and an invitation to our in-person event in London in June.
Five things we took away from the session
1. Tourism data is underinvested, so be precise about what you need
Edmund was frank that compared to industries like fashion or healthcare, travel data is messy and underfunded. His point wasn't that we need to collect more of it but rather that data only becomes useful when it's tied to a specific objective. Using data to design itineraries requires a completely different set of measurements to translating impact into marketing, and confusing the two is where a lot of time and money gets wasted. So you need to be very clear about what decision you're trying to make before collecting any.
2. Small businesses are telling the wrong story
B Corp certification came under some friendly but pointed scrutiny. Edmund's argument was that certification bodies were built for large corporations, to measure the things large corporations need to measure. When small travel businesses follow that template, they end up talking about plastic straws and scope 3 emissions rather than the things that genuinely set them apart. You can't out-Marriott the Marriott. The better question is what stories can you tell that they never could.
3. Ask better questions, of both your customers and your partners
There was a really practical thread around customer insight. Edmund suggested that swapping "how important is sustainability to you?" for "if 5% of your trip went to a charity, which would you choose?" gives you something you can actually build a marketing strategy around. Someone who funds wildlife conservation will respond to very different storytelling than someone who supports medical aid organisations. Age brackets and device type tell you almost nothing by comparison. The same logic applies when vetting suppliers. The session got into exactly which questions cut through, and which ones let everyone off the hook.
4. When you try to say everything, nothing sticks
Most of us are doing a lot; Reducing waste, supporting women, investing locally, improving supply chains. Edmund's challenge was to pick one clear story to lead with, not because it's the only thing you do, but because it's the hook your audience will remember and repeat. Patagonia owns waste. Vivienne Westwood owned animal cruelty. What do you want your primary impact story to be?
5. Impact is a design decision, not a reporting exercise
Edmund walked through how money actually moves within destinations, and why those mechanics matter more than ranking countries as inherently good or bad choices. Staying in a locally owned hotel, using a local guide, sourcing food in-country: each of these is a measurable lever. In some destinations, the difference between a locally owned property and an international chain can be the difference between most of a client's spend staying in the community or very little of it doing so.
Want to hear more?
There was considerably more in this conversation than we can capture here, including a live critique of a member's customer survey and Edmund's views on whether SEO, Google Ads and Meta Ads are worth your money.
Edmund's quarterly Office Hours, exclusively for our members, are open for booking. The session starts with a 30-minute group discussion, followed by four private one-to-one slots on a first come, first served basis. Members can book their places now via the Member Portal.
