(CNN) – Vanderelster Martinique Lewis has achieved a variety of sacred grails: he turned his passion for travel into a fully developed career.
Lewis, who works as a content creator and diversity consultant, saw a lack of diversity in the travel industry and grew determined to change sustainability. Travel publications and companies weren’t doing enough to appeal to African American tourists, Lewis realized, and she knew there was a problem to be solved.
“I have no representation anywhere, and I know how much money I spend on annual travel,” Lewis tells CNN. She uses her platform to diversify tourism boards and travel brands and help to study the content.
Curated directory
For two years, he curates the guide based on research and personal travel experience. Lewis described it as a source for “connecting the AZ to the African Diaspora globally.”
The “ABC Travel Green Book” is a self-published directory covering black-owned businesses, restaurants, communities, travel and festivals in the U.S. And suggests abroad.
A list like this promotes black businesses, but it also represents the presence of black in places where most people don’t think to look.
Inspired by history
Green, a New York postal worker, published the first edition of the book in 1936 and for three decades it provided African American tourists with a reliable list of American and American destinations that served without discrimination during the Jim Crow era.
By 1966, its publication was discontinued, after the 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed segregation in public facilities. Black tourism looks completely different today, but Lewis says there is a void in representation when it comes to travel marketing and black travel excerpts.
Martinique Lewis with Jillan Hall Hall-Johnson in Billings, Montana, managing owner of The Sissy Biscuit Co. in Billings.
Courtesy Martinique Lewis
“By taking a page from his book, I wanted to do the same thing, but I wanted to do it internationally,” Lewis explains. “It helps black travelers, not just black passengers – especially if they’re moving – to find out what community is for them in the desired location.”
K.L. for inclusion
Lewis knows the importance of that number and works with many black travel groups to call for more variety.
When Lewis and a group of fellow content creators saw several tourism boards and travel brand accounts participating in a blackout Tuesday, they saw a disconnect between their actions on social media posts and their travel space.
“About 17 of my colleagues and I got together and said, we have to do something about this because now they act in a certain way on social media, but they don’t prove it, that’s not right.”
Sissy Biscuit Co. Brunchery in Billings, Montana, is one of the black-owned businesses in the directory.
Heidi Cooper Photography
As president of the alliance, Lewis refers to his book as a tool for publishing unique travel destinations for travel companies and groups owned by Blake, brunch spots, book stores, pilot associations and the like.
“I’ve given you all that information so the travel industry no longer has an excuse as to why they’re not sharing black stories – why they’re not sharing these black stories,” Lewis says.
Brands were categorized into categories that include diversity in traditional media, diversity in conferences and trades, and influencers selected for trips.
Last year, Lewis spoke at Facebook’s Travel Summit and introduced its diversification in travel report cards based on evaluations of 55 leading travel brands.
Instagram / Shaheed_Sanidego
“Using data and travel stories, Martinique is doing an incredible job of cultivating diversity and universality in the whole travel journey – within physical experience and in marketing,” says Kellen Clutter, director, Industry Travel, Global Marketing Solutions.
Says Coulter, “Their work highlights the importance of the following passengers and why the industry needs change to become more inclusive. Coulter’s role on Facebook includes helping the world’s largest travel brands succeed in the mobile-first world.” .
Get out
Lewis believes that black tourists can join the journey of empowerment because of the work of green.
“Victor Hugo Green isn’t celebrated enough,” Lewis says. “That’s the reason my grandparents were safe to move from Tennessee to California. That’s the reason black people decided to move out.”
For Lewis, the man on the cover of his book symbolizes the “get out and go” spirit.
On the cover, Philip Calvert, a fellow travel content creator, wears Lederhausen and salutes Black Power after a successful hike up the Mount Unitsburg in Salzburg, Austria.
“It really embodies everything that I think travel is like and what travelers have to do, and it connects with communities wherever they go,” says Lewis.
“One of the things I look for when I travel is for black-owned businesses because I want to promote them,” says Travel Wert. “I’m so excited for a book like this because we’re finally going to show black business and I think it’s amazing.”
To encourage, inspire and educate
Lewis also created the “ABC Travel Green Book” to create a space for black tourists to learn about their own history and to connect with black communities in places they didn’t know about.
Real Cartagena’s experience is dedicated to showing visitors the authentic story of the Colombian city.
Experience the real Cartagena
“Everyone goes from Amsterdam to the Red Light District, not realizing that all you have to do is look at the black faces on the building and see,” according to Lewis. “In this way people show that they are rich: show that they have slaves.”
After her time there, she studied at a Dutch university, where she says the course ignores the Black Historic Black presence in the Netherlands. Her travels make her presence visible through the architecture, landscape and literature of Amsterdam.
Naki Gaglo, founder of African Lisbon Tours, takes a tour group on research into the history of the Portuguese slave trade.
African Lisbon Tours
“The uniqueness about Amsterdam and the Netherlands in general is that the black presence, the very colonial history, is very well preserved in our architectural history,” explains Tash. “You’ll really see this dark presence on monuments, canal buildings and museums. In a sense, this city has become an archive.”
Tosh believes the “ABC Travel Green Book” could open the door for people of color, black tourists and especially fellows who want to advance the “local story” of some of the mainstream travel destinations.
Louis expands the meaning of his book with a call to travel for people outside the diaspora, seeking to support greater diversity in travel.
“This is for every passenger who calls themselves a partner and who says they want to support black voices and support black businesses,” Lewis says. “This book helps you identify exactly where those people, those communities, those places are.”
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