CEO Matthew Davie, Tempisque River, Costa Rica

Whole Travel

"When people ask me what I'm doing with my new Environmental Engineering PhD from Stanford," says Matthew Davie, "they’re pretty surprised when I tell them that I'm starting a travel agency."

Ask a few more questions, though, and it starts to make sense.

The newly launched agency, Whole Travel, Inc., was developed in Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities, an integrated lab course at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Requiring at least two MBA students to collaborate with a non-MBA student, the class guides students through the process of evaluating a business opportunity or idea and creating a new enterprise.

In 2006, Davie connected with Business School students Alex Bergman and Sebastiaan Küitenbrouwer, both MBA ’06, to explore the idea of promoting sustainability by applying online marketing tools to the growing sustainable travel industry. All three have since graduated from Stanford, but out of that class, led by lecturer Dennis Rohan, a new business was born.

“My doctoral thesis was on Catalytic Reduction of N-Nitrosodimethylamine, so travel seems an unlikely next step,” said Davie, MS ‘04, PhD ’07, who is now working as CEO of Whole Travel. “But what could be a better focus for an environmental engineer than addressing the impact of a $700 billion industry on the health of our planet? Our goal is to minimize the environmental footprint of travel and tourism activities worldwide while promoting social and economic growth in places of ecological and cultural significance.”

More than 800 million people travel each year – both creating a boon to developing economies and contributing to problems such as habitat destruction and pollution. In many developing countries, travel and tourism is the largest industry, sometimes accounting for the majority of employment in local communities.

“While the sustainable travel market is growing three times as fast as the tourism industry as a whole,” says Davie, “sustainable resorts and tour operators around the globe are fragmented by geographic and economic factors, making it difficult for well-intentioned travelers to research and book this type of travel.

“Our team saw an opportunity to unite and organize small, local suppliers in a single online interface,” notes Davie. The team–which has grown organically out of the Stanford community–developed the “Whole Ranking” system, which defines metrics for evaluating the sustainability of hotels, resorts and tour operators. The tool allows customers to compare all suppliers on a consistent and transparent basis, making it easier to understand the benefits and costs of different travel and tourism activities.

“Sustainable travel is often associated with eco-tourism and environmental stewardship, but these are only part of the picture,” says Davie. By Whole Travel’s definition, sustainable travel is the overall umbrella that includes not only environmental preservation, but also cultural preservation and socioeconomic progress. Adventure travel, nature travel, educational travel and service learning join eco-tourism with the common goal of reducing the net negative impacts of tourism on local cultures and ecosystems.

Other Stanford alumni involved with the Palo Alto-based venture include Eric Hulin, MBA ‘07 who serves as VP Business Development, Pamela McLeod, MS ’02, PhD ’06, who evaluates the sustainability of resorts and tour operators, Business School faculty advisor and entrepreneur Eliot Terborgh, MBA ’67, who serves as CFO, and Davie’s two original collaborators who serve on Whole Travel’s board of directors.