The ABC Travel Green Book is a new directory that spotlights Black-owned businesses and places of interest all over the world. Olivia Palamountain reports
Black-owned businesses, restaurants, communities, tours and festivals in the US and abroad have been collated in one place for the first time, in the ABC Travel Green Book, a self-published directory written by content creator and diversity consultant Martinique Lewis (pictured below).
After noticing a lack of diversity in the travel industry, Lewis, herself a keen traveller, was adamant something needed to change.
“There’s no representation of me anywhere, and I know how much money I spend on traveling annually,” Lewis told CNN.
Travel publications and companies weren’t doing enough to appeal to African American tourists; now Lewis uses her platform to help tourism boards and travel brands embrace diversity and practice inclusion.
In 2018, African American travellers contributed US$63 billion to the tourism economy in the US, according to a survey by Mandala Research.
With five million black millennial travellers in the US alone, and an estimated 40 million across the US, UK and the EU, Lewis told Forbes “we are reflected in less than 3 per cent in tourism ads and promotion… it makes you wonder”.
Lewis describes the ABC Travel Green Book as a source to “connect the African diaspora globally from A-Z,” and curated the guide based on research and personal travel experience over two years.
The book takes inspiration from The Negro Motorist Green Book Compendium, by Victor Hugo Green, who created a guide for African-American travellers in the US during the Jim Crow era. The directory helped the Black community find places that would serve them while they were moving around the country, from hotels and restaurants to petrol stations.
The ABC Travel Green Book compiles listings from “restaurants to recreation centers, transportation companies to Black history tours in every city and country in six out of seven continents,” Lewis said in a statement. However, it is also a useful resource for Black allies looking for ways to support people of colour while travelling.
“Black travellers, Black business owners, Black expats, allies and travel publications. Allyship is a 365-day thing and these are places they should also be visiting and adding into their itineraries to teach their communities about,” said Lewis.
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