Meet the Travel Company Lifting Up Local Businesses
Over the pandemic, says Emily Buder from Here Magazine, entrepreneurs Alexis Bowen and Craig Zapatka co-founded Elsewhere, a new travel company that puts destination welfare and authentic experiences first.
““We saw that the traditional model was broken for the communities that it was engaging with,” Zapatka says. “The larger corporations were holding the microphone and speaking for the local communities, who were supposed to be, in a sense, a product.””
“In April 2021, Bowen and Zapatka co-founded Elsewhere, a direct-to-local travel agency that proposes an ethical and sustainable approach to tourism. To understand how their business model is different, it’s important to understand the problem of economic leakage. According to the World Bank, local economies lose an average of 55% of tourism revenue, which instead enriches foreign corporations such as hotel conglomerates, major travel agencies, and multinational franchises.”
