By Andrea
Andrea, founder Be MyJourney in Sardinia
I am now seated in my leaving room in London, as most of the days lately. On the desk my Japanese wooden cup with steaming Italian moka black coffee, Lucio Dalla in the background and a pile of magazines reminding me I want to read them all.
A few things you should know about me: I am 31 y.o. , I have a sweet tooth, I lived in 5 and visited over 60 countries worldwide, I would spend my all time reading and researching about sustainable travel and I am a new-born entrepreneur!
I grew up in a family of businessmen and I have always liked the freedom and creativity linked to that work-style, but I decided to go down this road not a long time ago.
Inspired by my travel style, for a long time my friends have been asking me suggestions for their own trips and I enjoyed those conversations so much that I started wondering if that was a real vocation. Being a passionate traveller, establishing my own travel brand has always been my secret dream and, even if it took time before I jumped into the adventure, here I am working on my own project!
Last year I moved from Switzerland to the UK due to my husband’s employment and I took this as a chance and my life game changer. I resigned my job to dedicate 100% of myself to my biggest passion: reading, researching and thinking about travel all day long!
As a young and passionate woman, my enthusiasm has always led all my actions, but I needed a framework, guidelines and a network in the UK.
Once I moved to London, I enrolled to the Condé Nast College to attend a Master in Entrepreneurship.
A step that allowed me to structure my work and the market research at the basis of the process. At the same time I became obsessed with the planet conditions. Our Eden garden is suffering from our habits and I, as many other travellers, wanted to protect it while keep exploring its wonders. I wanted to exploit my passion to create a good impact while inspiring people and find a way to innovate the conventional travel market.
Looking back to my travel experience I realised that all my choices, from defining the destinations and itinerary up to selecting services like hotel and experiences, had a common thread. I have always been looking for authenticity. Remote places, local guides with niche business, eco-lodges and intimate boutique hotels with deep roots in the country’s traditions..
All aspects in line with what is defined as responsible tourism: a tourism committed to minimise its impact on the environment while supporting the local economy and community.
To begin, I wanted to create awareness around the topic, not talking with weird jargon or an academic tone and not making mindful travel looking as a pain or a quit on something. I wanted to create a space to give easy tips and highlight best practices and destinations in order to facilitate travellers’ research.
I opened an IG profile to start telling a story, rewriting the narrative of what until then appeared to be the only way of travelling sustainably: fly less. Although the impact generated by flights is remarkable, tourism is among the biggest forces for many countries’ economy as well as one of our biggest wells of growth and development as humans.
Making mindful choices when we travel is our duty, but it is also our chance to have an active role in driving the change our planet needs. In my vision this process starts with the definition of the itinerary, to discover mainly off-the-beaten-path areas of a country, followed by the selection of conscious services and suppliers. Looking at “sustainable travel” from this perspective, “travel responsibly” becomes about “travelling differently” rather than “travelling less”.
This is the message I want to share with Be MyJourney Instagram community, this brand-new conscious lifestyle Journal and your next tool to evolve into a modern conscious traveller: a platform that will be launched soon.
Be MyJourney’s adventure will take-off exploring Italy, my home country and one of the most enchanted places in the world. Its continuously surprising beauty is not all and only enclosed within the usual places that pop-up in your mind when thinking about Italy, but it mostly regards everything else. The small villages away from the crowds, the pristine natural parks and all those so far authentic places where you can stand still watching the beauty of the everyday life going on in an 100% Italian style.
This is what fascinates me the most about my homeland. And the people, of course! Italians were born as hosts and the concept of sustainability is an intrinsic part of our culture’s soul. Something that has been passed on for generations and that represents the basis of our traditions. Many Italian hospitality offerings have always been respectful of the cycle of seasons as well as used KM zero products, practiced biological farming and glorified regional peculiarities. Concepts like these, that nowadays sound cool, in Italy have always been standard.
This is why Italy is among the best destinations to approach a mindful way of travelling, and this is why I want to start from here!
There will be a lot coming out from Be MyJourney and over this uncertain times I will do my best to help you stay inspired and motivated to be a modern conscious traveller. Are you ready to take this journey with me?
