3 Black Travel Entrepreneurs Making Travel Safer & More Inclusive
Why Representation in Travel Matters
The travel industry has long struggled with diversity in leadership, safety solutions, and representation. But a new generation of Black travel entrepreneurs is changing that—creating safer, more inclusive experiences for underrepresented travelers. From building digital communities to providing resources for solo female travelers, these visionaries are reshaping the future of travel.
At Greether, we know that feeling safe while exploring new places isn’t just a privilege—it’s a necessity. As an award-winning platform connecting female travelers with verified local female greeters, we’ve seen firsthand how safety, access, and representation empower women to travel with confidence. Our mission is to help travelers navigate the world with fewer risks and more personalized experiences.
But we’re not alone in this mission. Across the industry, Black travel leaders are pioneering change, ensuring that safety, community, and cultural inclusivity are at the heart of the travel experience.
In This Article, You'll Discover:
✔️ How these entrepreneurs are transforming the travel industry
✔️ Why representation is essential for safety & empowerment
✔️ Ways travelers can support inclusive travel initiatives
By amplifying their work, we continue our commitment to building a more inclusive travel space where all travelers—especially women of color—feel seen, safe, and supported.
➡️ Meet the Black Travel Entrepreneurs Leading the Change →
Meet Annette Richmond — the founder redefining body-positive exploration
Photo Credit: Annette Richmond
Fat Girls Traveling is a groundbreaking platform advocating for body inclusivity in travel. Founded by Annette Richmond, the community-driven space ensures plus-size travelers have the representation and resources they need to explore the world confidently.
What inspired you to start your travel brand?
I started Fat Girls Traveling because I noticed that not only were plus-size women missing from travel ads and marketing, but our needs weren’t being considered by travel companies. As a Black fat woman, I never saw myself represented but I saw plenty of people that look like me traveling. Size restrictions weren’t listed and figuring out the activity level and accessibility limitations took a lot of investigation. My travel needs weren’t being met, I knew the same was true for my community, so I launched Fat Girls Traveling Tours.
Photo Credit: Annette Richmond
How do you think representation in travel impacts safety, inclusivity, and empowerment—especially for women of color?
When it comes to travel safety, inclusivity, and empowerment for women of color, only women of color REALLY understand the struggles and successes we face. That is why representation is so important because we need seats at the table, plural. Black women and Black people are not a monolith, we all have unique lived experiences that can help create safety measures, create inclusive spaces, and empower the world.
Photo Credit: Annette Richmond
What challenges have you faced as a Founder?
The biggest challenge I face as the founder of Fat Girls Traveling is the world’s adverse response to the word “fat”. It’s still considered taboo, but since I launched FGT in 2017 I’ve seen a ton of growth in the body-positive and fat acceptance movements.
Fat Girls Traveling is the world’s first fat-positive travel community and being the first ain’t easy! From online trolls to being blocked and disabled on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok it’s tricky to be a travel brand that centers marginalized people, encourages, educates, empowers, and entertains.
My hidden words list is long, which helps a little with the trolls. However, it’s strange how Meta will quickly delete our account because we’re featuring a plus-size woman on the beach in a bikini. And the accounts that troll us are never disabled or deleted, regardless of the horrific comments they leave, which we always report.
Currently, I'm shifting my focus to Youtube and the Fat Girls Traveling Network, a private social media network for the FGT Community. Outlets that feel more secure and worth the time and energy, versus platforms that allow us to be abused.
Photo Credit: Annette Richmond
Vision for the future
My vision for the future of FGT includes less time on Meta and more time in our private Network. I’m done fighting with Meta so that I can give them my content for free. My focus is to continue to grow the Fat Girls Traveling Network and encourage more fat people to explore the world.
Some of the benefits of the FGT Netword are: It’s a safe, protected space that we own and can’t get banned, Network Members are invited to our monthly events, including a Support Group and Virtual Mixers. Members have opportunities to connect online and
offline. They also get a 10% discount on all group tours and retreats, as well as invitations to Members-Only trips.
I’ll continue hosting more group trips through Fat Girls Traveling and offering custom services to travelers or size and marginalized travelers who don’t want to wait until they lose weight to see the world. Travelers who also don’t want to do the planning!
Fat Girls Traveling is an international community with members from all over the world. I’m excited to continue to connect members globally, work with local businesses and guides, and increase fat acceptance and awareness through travel.
How does your brand help travelers feel safer, more confident, or more connected in new destinations?
There’s something special about traveling with people who really get it. People who understand why it’s important to double-check the mattress widths and weight limits. People who communicate estimated walking distances and times as well as alternate routes. Something magical happens when a community connects over a shared lived experience and then connects with a new culture in a new country. Fat Girls Traveling mixes accessibility and luxury to deliver accessible tours and trips in some of the most sought-after destinations. We put people first preferring to work with small local companies and working towards sustainability.
Photo Credit: Annette Richmond
Meet Lawrence Phillips — the founder turning Black travel experiences into a global guide
Photo Credit: Lawrence Phillips
Green Book Global is the world’s first Black travel review site, inspired by Lawrence Phillips’ travels across 30+ countries and the historical Negro Motorist Green Book. His platform provides user-generated insights on Traveling While Black, offering safety ratings, reviews, and trip-planning tools tailored for Black travelers.
What inspired you to start your travel brand?
Green Book Global was inspired by my personal travels to over 30 countries and all seven continents, as well as the historical Negro Motorist Green Book, which helped Black travelers navigate safely in the U.S. during segregation. While traveling around the world on my gap year, I realized there wasn’t a dedicated platform where Black travelers could share Traveling While Black experiences, find welcoming destinations, and assess safety beyond general travel advice. I saw a gap in the industry for an authentic, community-driven travel review platform that centers Black experiences
Photo Credit: Lawrence Phillips
How do you think representation in travel impacts safety, inclusivity, and empowerment—especially for women of color?
Representation in travel ensures that diverse voices and experiences are acknowledged, which directly impacts safety, inclusivity, and empowerment. For women of color, who often face unique challenges while traveling—such as discrimination, misogyny, and concerns about personal safety—having a platform that highlights real experiences is crucial. When travelers see others who look like them exploring the world safely, it fosters confidence and creates a sense of belonging. Green Book Global helps amplify these voices by offering firsthand reviews that address safety, joy, and empowerment for the Black traveler.
Photo Credit: Lawrence Phillips
What challenges have you faced as a Founder?
Building a travel brand, especially one focused on the Black travel experience, has come with challenges, from securing funding to breaking into mainstream travel spaces. Many investors and travel brands initially overlooked the significance of a platform catering specifically to Black travelers, so I didn’t even bother seeking external funding. Instead, I bootstrapped the company from 2015 until 2023, making it a slow grind to build the business. In hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it any other way. Bootstrapping allowed me to gather feedback from customers over the years and develop a great product.
Everything culminated in the launch of our newly redesigned app on iOS and Android this past August. We are targeting 100K users on the app by the end of 2025! Additionally, accelerator programs and founder community groups have been invaluable, providing support and connections with like-minded entrepreneurs. I was fortunate enough to be accepted into the Expedia Accelerator and received a grant. I am also part of networks like the Afrotech Founder’s Circle and Goodie Nation
Photo Credit: Lawrence Phillips
Vision for the future
The vision for Green Book Global is to become the go-to travel app for Black travelers worldwide, to be a platform that not only provides safety insights but also fosters a global community. I want to expand our Driving While Black Trip Planner to include welcoming hiking trails, gas stations, Black-focused historical sites, and Black-owned businesses.
I also want to continue expanding our AI trip planner, which can create trips from a Black perspective in under 30 seconds. Additionally, I would love to to integrate the platform into corporate travel benefits programs (e.g., Amex Employee/Travel Benefits Page) and establish more partnerships that amplify Black travel voices.
Ultimately, the goal is to make travel safer, more accessible, and more rewarding for Black travelers while pushing the industry toward greater inclusivity.
How does your brand help travelers feel safer, more confident, or more connected in new destinations?
Green Book Global helps travelers by providing user-generated travel insights on safety and enjoyment for destinations around the world from the Black perspective. Our rating system categorizes locations based on how welcoming they are to Black travelers through our Traveling While Black scores. We have almost 7000 destination reviews from Black travelers from around the world!
We also offer our Driving While Black Trip Planner, which provides safety scores for different cities in the U.S. to help Black travelers navigate safely. For example, if you’re planning a route from Atlanta to Houston, you might pass through Vidor, Texas—a historical sundown town. In our app, we identify Vidor as such, allowing you to avoid that city, create a new route, and seamlessly open the navigation in Google Maps.
Additionally, the platform fosters a sense of community by allowing travelers to share their experiences and tips, making it easier for others to explore new places with confidence.
Meet Evita Robinson - the founder amplifying Black and Brown travel narratives
Photo Credit: Evita Robinson
What inspired you to start your travel brand, and what gap did you see in the industry?
Nomadness was born almost 13 years ago, long before travel influencer communities became the norm. In 2011, I saw a gap—there wasn’t an online space dedicated to travelers of color. I wanted to create a brand that was millennial-driven, centered on Black and Brown travelers, and aligned with my own age demographic. Having lived as an expat in France, Thailand, and Japan, I understood the need for an in-person community for those living nomadic lifestyles or backpacking across the world.
Nomadness is now an online and offline community with nearly 40,000 travelers of color globally. Currently, we are pivoting towards deeper storytelling—highlighting the people and destinations that make up our community—to counteract the erasure of our histories and narratives.
Photo Credit: Evita Robinson
How do you think representation in travel impacts safety, inclusivity, and empowerment—especially for women of color?
Representation in travel is crucial for safety, inclusivity, and empowerment, especially for women of color. At Nomadness, we recently launched a new survey to analyze how travel habits, safety concerns, and community needs have evolved since 2020. This follows our previous groundbreaking survey, where we collected 5,000 responses in six weeks—one of the largest BIPOC travel studies in history.
Photo Credit: Evita Robinson
This new research aims to update the numbers, provide fresh insights, and ensure that we continue to shape the travel industry with real data. It also supports ongoing efforts to secure meaningful partnerships and sponsorships that reflect the needs of underrepresented travelers.
By amplifying our voices and advocating for change, we help create a travel landscape that is safer, more inclusive, and truly representative of all travelers.
🔗 Take the survey here: Survey Link (15-20 minutes)
📢 Greether is not affiliated with the collection of data or the organizations behind the research.
Photo Credit: Evita Robinson
Vision for the future
My vision for Nomadness is to pivot into creative storytelling. We are at a critical moment in the travel industry where the histories and narratives of travelers of color risk being erased. My mission is to ensure these diverse stories are told—stories that highlight the people who shape the destinations we visit.
By focusing on deeper, more intentional storytelling, we’re not just building a travel community; we’re preserving culture, identity, and the richness of global Black and Brown experiences.
Photo Credit: Evita Robinson
How does your brand help travelers feel safer, more confident, or more connected in new destinations?
Nomadness provides travelers of color with a supportive network through our online and offline community of nearly 40,000 members. This creates a space where they can connect, share experiences, and feel a sense of belonging while traveling.
Beyond community-building, we focus on research and data collection to understand the unique challenges travelers of color face, particularly regarding safety and inclusivity. By amplifying their stories and experiences, we challenge dominant narratives and push for more representation in the travel industry.
Through storytelling and visibility, Nomadness fosters confidence and empowerment, ensuring travelers of color see themselves reflected in the world and feel safer in their journeys.
Photo Credit: Evita Robinson
Why Celebrating Black Travel Entrepreneurs Matters
The work of these founders goes beyond travel—it’s about creating a movement that ensures safety, representation, and accessibility for Black travelers. At Greether, we are proud to spotlight these game-changers who are paving the way for a more inclusive travel industry.
Do you know other Black-founded travel brands making a difference?
