The Changemakers: Meet Our 2025 Award Winners
New York – 30 October 2025 – When someone sees a problem in the world and decides to fix it, not just for themselves, but for an entire community, that's when real transformation begins.
This year's award winners didn't wait for permission or perfect conditions. They identified barriers in travel and accessibility, then built the solutions our industry needed.
After reviewing nominations, committee deliberations, and over 1,300 public votes for Inclusion Champion, we're thrilled to introduce them to you.
Co-Winners of 2025 Outstanding Academic Research Award: Dr. Bella Vongvisitsin AND Dr. Brielle Gillovic & Professor Alison McIntosh
Congratulations to the co-winners of the 2025 Travel Unity Outstanding Academic Research Award!
Dr. Bella Vongvisitsin challenged Western-centric narratives by centering LGBTIQ+ experiences in Asian contexts. She developed the first systematic multi-country survey of transgender medical tourism intention and bridges academia and practice through Inclusive Tourism Asia and her work with the UN Human Rights Council.
Dr. Brielle Gillovic and Professor Alison McIntosh co-lead New Zealand's only dedicated tourism research group focused on accessibility, conducting rigorous, co-creative research with the disability community and industry stakeholders to embed inclusion into operations.
2025 Inclusion Champion Award: John Sage
John has served 50,000+ customers with disabilities through his three companies—Sage Traveling, Accessible Travel Solutions, and Sage Inclusion. He partners with 15+ cruise lines representing 87% of the industry's accessible shore-excursion market and authored WTTC's Inclusive and Accessible Travel Guidelines. His leadership across 13 national and global travel organizations has transformed how the industry approaches accessibility.
2025 Community Impact Award: Cory Lee
In 2013, Cory saw wheelchair users struggling to find accessible travel information, so he created it. He became the first person to visit all 7 continents in a powered wheelchair, built a 150,000+ community, and founded The Curb Free Foundation, providing travel grants so wheelchair users can go on their dream trips at no cost.
2025 Young Professional Award: Joe Jamison
Joe built VisitAble, the only training platform that scales empathy-based disability inclusion education across all disability types, not just one. He trained 2,200 people in Richmond in just one year, proving that accessible tourism starts with changing attitudes across entire organizations.
2025 Outstanding Organizational Initiative Award: Global Glimpse
Global Glimpse tackled a hard truth: less than 1% of U.S. high school students study abroad, and most come from wealthy white families. Since 2007, they've served 9,700+ students (83% BIPOC, 83% from families earning under $70K) with $20M in scholarships, partnering with United Airlines, Away, Expedia, and Marriott to prove the tourism sector can address systemic inequities.