Get ready to take flight. This fall, the award-winning BIPOC travel group and community brand, the NOMADNESS Travel Tribe, will be touching down in Louisville for their annual festival.
NOMADNESS Fest, which is scheduled to take place Sept. 28 to Oct.1, will bring Black, Indigenous and people of all cultural backgrounds together for a week centered on the joy of travel and international tourism.
This year’s theme will focus on the power of “conscious and cultural” travel. Panels will include a broad range of topics such as the state of diversity in tourism, travel 101 for newbies, and wellness for communities of color, according to a press release. Attendees will also have a chance to sit in on thoughtful fireside chats focused on the ways overtourism can harm local communities.
During the event, attendees will get to soak up knowledge and hear incredible adventure stories from Black leaders across all sectors of the travel and tourism industry. Speakers include Deidra Mathis, who made history in 2018 when she founded Wanderstay Hospitality Group, the first Black women-owned hostel and hospitality brand in the United States. Christina Rice, founder of OMNoire Luxury Retreats, and outdoor experience leader Rue Mapp of Outdoor Afro, will also grace the NOMADNESS stage to share the wisdom and expertise they have gained as entrepreneurs in the travel business industry.
Make sure you bring a good pair of walking shoes because the festival will sprawl across several venues and outdoor spaces located in Louisville’s downtown area. Activities will be located at 21C, the Muhammad Ali Center, AC Nulu, and Paristown. Festival goers will also have a chance to embark on an exciting tour across the city with a stop planned at the Roots 101 African American Museum for a day of historical fun. More locations will be announced closer to the festival.
Evita Robinson is the founder of the NOMADNESS Travel Tribe.
Founded by three-time expat and avid traveler Evita Robinson in 2011, the Nomadness Travel Tribe is an award-winning social online community that brings travelers of color together to celebrate cultural harmony and curiosity. With over 30,000 international members and over a dozen regional ambassadors, the BIPOC-focused group strives to create a safe space for travelers of color– no matter where they are in the world.
So far, the group has traveled to some exciting places including Jaipur, India for the city’s Holi Festival of Color and Cape Town, South Africa, where they journeyed into the open ocean to shark dive. Growing from a hundred people to an international movement of thousands, NOMADNESS is a homage to The Negro Motorist Green Book, spearheaded by Black travel writer, Victor Hugo Green.
The annual guidebook outlined safe spaces for African American roadtrippers to stop for food, lodging and car repairs along their travels. Green even made note of “sundown towns,” all-white neighborhoods where Black people would have to leave before sundown if they wanted to avoid hostility and vitriol from police and racist community members.
During her 2017 Ted Talk, Reclaiming The Globe, Robinson shared that NOMADNESS was a way to fight back against structural systems of oppression that prevented Black people from traveling and living life freely during the Jim Crow Era. It was also a tool to combat the appropriation and negative stereotypes often depicted of Black American Culture.
“From generations, we’ve gone from literally being chained to literally being able to fly everywhere. These trips are our moments to set the record straight,” Robinson said. “We’re showing the world that Black people do travel everywhere and we aren’t a monolithic people. We come in all shapes and sizes and with interests that are as diverse as we are. Simply showing up, allows the world to hear our stories from our mouths. By being exposed to us, we are able to unwrap our truths and gift them over and over and over again every trip.”
In 2019, Black travelers showed tremendous spending power across the globe.
Black folks spent a lot of money on travel experiences in 2019. According to MMGY Global’s Shifflet Travel Performance/Monitor survey, Black travelers in the U.S. purchased $109.4 billion on travel before the pandemic hit in 2019. Meanwhile, in the U.K. and Ireland, Black travelers spent $9 billion on domestic and international leisure travel.
Germany, Canada and France were also countries where Black spending made a boom in the travel industry. In Germany, Black travelers paid $8.1 billion on travel while French and Canadian Black travelers coughed up $7.8 billion and $5 billion respectively.
The Black American travel movement has been growing steadily since 2010. According to Mandala Research, between 2010 and 2018, African American spending power in the travel industry jumped from $48 billion to a whopping $68 billion. Those in search of cultural experiences were among the highest spenders, shelling out an average of $2,078 for trips and tourism across the globe.
RELATED CONTENT: 7 Black Travel Influencers To Follow On IG
