$4.3m Trails Fund a sign of sustainability meeting commerce
For Aditi Mohapatra, VP of Global Social Impact and Sustainability at Expedia Group, the launch of the Expedia Trails Fund is a signal that sustainability, often seen as a soft function within corporates, is finding its commercial footing.
The trigger for the fund, with an initial $4.3 million in grants and a commercial partnership that ties philanthropy directly to business, was data, she said.
Expedia was seeing a marked increase in nature and nature-based travel interest among younger travellers, alongside growing concern about overcrowding and destination stewardship from the same demographic.
It is, she observed, an example of impact and commercial logic converging in a way that sustainability roles in travel companies have long promised but rarely delivered.
“We ground our priorities in our business,” she said. “We know our business best – we listen to our travellers, we listen to our partners, we watch what’s happening across our industry.”
That grounding in business reality is precisely what makes the Trails Fund interesting, she said. “We look at where issues intersect between business impact and societal need and identifying where the company can have genuine influence rather than simply ticking compliance boxes.”
The fund will work with three major conservation organisations – the Conservation Fund, the Nature Conservancy, and the Trust for Public Land – across 11 initial projects, improving safety and access at destinations ranging from Okefenokee and Yellowstone’s Paradise Valley to Hawaii’s Kealakekua Bay and natural areas near Seattle and Chicago, with an estimated benefit of more than one million visits annually.
Aditi Mohapatra, VP of Global Social Impact and Sustainability at Expedia Group: “We ground our priorities in our business. We know our business best – we listen to our travellers, we listen to our partners, we watch what’s happening across our industry.”
Alongside the fund, Expedia announced a partnership with AllTrails, matching support for the 2026 AllTrails Stewards Fund, which finances grassroots trail restoration projects globally. AllTrails premium members will also gain access to discounts on Expedia.com lodging bookings.
As AllTrails Chief Business Officer Carly Smith noted at the launch of the fund, the Stewards Fund was created to give directly to grassroots trail projects around the world, and Expedia’s matching support is designed to expand that impact through 2026.
Expedia’s own research suggests that while a large majority of travellers say they want sustainable options when booking, many feel overwhelmed navigating them.
Her answer is standardisation and credibility, working through industry coalitions like Travalyst to ensure that eco-certifications appearing on Expedia’s platform meet consistent benchmarks, and supporting tools like Tourism Cares’ Meaningful Travel Map to help travellers find and support local businesses at their destinations.
The fund will go global over time, Mohapatra confirmed, though the initial focus is the United States.
