Jessica Blotter

Jessica Blotter is CEO, Co-Founder, and Editor-in-Chief of Kind Traveler, a journalist & speaker on sustainable tourism, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST). After a trip to Belize witnessing heart-breaking poverty, polluted swamps, and the plight of emaciated dogs roaming the streets, Blotter and her co-founder, Sean Krejci, asked themselves: "What if we could create a way for travelers to easily make a meaningful positive impact within the communities they visit and in turn, be filled up with a greater sense of joy and purpose while traveling?” After years of development, the answer was KindTraveler.com.

Blotter led research and development of the Kind Traveler brand and business model and now leads the Kind Traveler team in creating partnerships with future Kind Hotels and charities in creating oppportunities for travelers to make a meaningful positive impact in the communities they visit. 

In a time of violence and war, she dreams of living in a world where the environment and all animals and people are treated with kindness; a world where all individuals are empowered with a sense of purpose and gratitude in their daily lives and are fulfilled with heaps of happiness as a result.

Her career began as an earth science and math teacher with UCSD's Pruess School, a unique charter school for low income students who strive to become the first in their families to graduate from college, educating 130 students each day. She then spent 10 years as an associate publisher and advertising director with popular print & digital fashion and lifestyle magazine start-ups in San Diego and Los Angeles. Her entrepreneurial journey began as the five-year principal of LA-based brand consultancy, Publicly Loved, where her clients included luxury real estate moguls like CIM Group and Marriott Hotels.

Since launching Kind Traveler, Blotter has been cited in more than 600 news outlets including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Newsweek, Fast Company, and Travel + Leisure. 

As a speaker, Blotter delivered a TEDx salon talk ‘The Future of Travel: Purpose is King,’ spoke as a finalist at both the UNWTO Tourism Tech Adventure Pitch Competition in Chile and Lufthansa Innovation Hub's Changemaker Challenge in Germany, and delivered the Keynote speech for both MMGY's Summit at Vail Forum (2020) and Tahoe Chamber’s Annual Summit on Responsible Tourism (2019).

She's also a frequent guest lecturer at UCLA & USC on social impact and social entrepreneurship and additionally was a speaker on the stages of Visit Calfornia's 2020 Outlook Forum in San Diego, Sonoma County Tourism's Annual Summit, Travel & Adventure Show, UCLA Marshall School of Business, Impact Travel Alliance Summit at the United Nations in NYC, Lodging Magazine's Green Lodging Summit, Boutique Lodging & Lifestyle Leadership Summit (BLLA), BLLA’s TIEWN (Travel Industry Executive Women’s Network), Enlightened Entrepreneur Summit, Travel and Tourism Marketing Association, and Female Founder University by LAUNCH. 

Blotter holds a M.A. in Education from Ottawa University and a B.S. in Biology from Arizona State University. In November 2020, she completed Blue Startups' 3-month venture accelerator program as Kind Traveler became a Blue Ventures portfolio company. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Join her adventures in traveling kindly on Instagram at @JessicaDBlotter and on Kind Traveler at @KindTraveler.

AWARDS + RECOGNITION on behalf of Kind Traveler:

• Finalist: 2024 Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award 
• Honoree: 2023's Top 100 Most Influential People in USA Travel & Hospitality - International Hospitality Institute Honors Kind Traveler's Co-Founder, Jessica Blotter 
• Story Feature: 2023 Travel Pulse's Most Influential Women in Travel 
• Story Feature: 2023 Conde Nast Traveler Bright Ideas in Travel 
• Winner: 2021 Newsweek Future of Travel Award, Startups/Tech Category 
• Finalist: 2021 Fast Company's World Changing Ideas Award
• Finalist: 2021 World Tourism Forum Lucerne, Switzerland, Innovation Camp, 'Impact Travel' Category
• Winner: 2020 Travel + Leisure Global Vision Award
• Winner: 2019 Lufthansa Innovation Hub Changemaker Challenge, Germany
• Finalist: 2019 UNWTO Tourism Tech Adventure, Chile
• Finalist: 2019 Make Change Awards, 'Innovation of the Year'
• Finalist: 2019 Bessie Awards, 'Startup of the Year'
• Winner: 2018 Best Ethical Travel Agency, ELUXE Mag
• Winner: 2018 Women in Travel & Tourism International, 'Rising Star in Tourism'
• Winner: 2018 Marine Mammal Care Center Business Supporter Award

SPEAKING:

• 2024 Forbes Travel Guide Summit - Emporium of the Future (Las Vegas)
• 2024 Corporate Giving Network (Virtual) 
• 2023 Visit San Luis Obispo Tourism Event 
• 2023 Oregon Coast Visitor Association People's Coast Summit (Oregon) 
• 2023: Visit California Luxury Forum (West Hollywood) 
• 2023: Virtuoso Travel Week Travel Tech Summit (Las Vegas, Bellagio) 
• 2023: Sonoma County Tourism Annual Meeting (Sonoma State University) 
• 2023: Keynote (2x): wmnsWORK: Tourism Business Accelerator (Online) 
• 2023: Caribbean Tourism Career Accelerator, Haiti Tech Summit (Online) 
• 2022: Women Thrive Through Travel Summit (Online)
• 2022: Nat Geo Women of Impact Panel (Online) 
• 2022: World Tourism Forum Lucerne (Andermatt, Switzerland) 
• 2021: Lufthansa Innovation Hub Changemaker Challenge (Frankfurt, Germany)
• 2021: ILHA (International Luxury Hoteliers Association) Summit (Santa Monica)
• 2021: South Bay Women's Business Association (SBWBA) (Online)
• 2021: East Meets West Summit - Rebuilding Tourism Back Responsibly (Online) 
• 2020: MMGY Global's Summit at Vail - Rebuilding Responsibly (Online) 
• 2020: Travel Unity: Diversity, Equality + Inclusion for the Travel Industry (Online) 
• 2020: Genre Hospitality - The Future of Travel is Sustainable (Online) 
• 2020: Visit California's Outlook Forum (San Diego) 
• 2020: Women's Travel Fest (New York City) 
• 2020: UCLA Guest Lecturer (UCLA Campus) 
• 2020: MMGY LA (Los Angeles) 
• 2019: UNWTO Travel Tech Forum (Santiago, Chile) 
• 2019: Sonoma County's Annual Forum (Sonoma County)
• 2019: Keynote: Lake Tahoe Tourism Summit on Responsible Tourism (Lake Tahoe) 
• 2018: UCLA Marshall School of Business Speaker Series (UCLA Campus) 
• 2018: Female Founder University, Jason Calacanis (San Fran) 
• 2018 & 2017: Travel & Adventure Show, (LA & SD)
• 2018: Impact Travel Alliance Summit (New York City) 
• 2018: BLLA - Boutique Lodging Association Symposium (Los Angeles) 
• 2016: TEDx Culver City (Los Angeles) 

GUEST AUTHOR:
Fast Company, Hotel Executive, TravelAge West, One Green Planet, CBS Los Angeles, Sonoma County Tourism, LA Yoga Magazine, and more

PODCASTS & TV:

• 2022: Live Happy Now Podcast: Learning to Be a Kind Traveler 
• 2022: KTLA (On-Air) Interview - Vacations That Give Back 
• 2022: TravelPulse Podcast 
• 2021: Full Time Travel Podcast 
• 2021: Soul of Travel Podcast 
• 2021: No Vacancy News Podcast 
• 2021: Say Yes To Travel Podcast with Sarah Dandashy of Ask A Concierge 
• 2021: Success Unfiltered with Cecila Harvey 
• 2020: How to Share Podcast with Amy Draheim 
• 2020: Bytemarks Cafe with Hawaii Public Radio 
• 2020: Disruptors for Good, Social Entrepreneurs - Cause Artist 
• 2019: Good Morning LaLa Land 
• 2019: Travel With Meaning 
• 2017: The Good Life Show - Travel, Food, Wine & Lifestyle 
• 2016: Travel Tales 
• 2016: What's Good? With Amy Paffrath & Justin Walter 

See more in PRESS ROOM

As a contributing writer and speaker, some of Jessica's work can be seen on: