Prince Harry has appeared in a video to mark the publication of Travalyst’s Five-Year Milestone Report. The Duke of Sussex, 40, founded the not-for-profit organisation in 2019 to make tourism more environmentally friendly. In a two-minute-long video, Harry marked the publication of a landmark report by the organisation where he highlights the industry’s power to drive positive change at a critical moment.
Wearing a crisp white shirt and a dark blazer, Harry says: “Travel can do a tremendous amount of good. It connects us to the destinations we love and to the communities that call these places home.” He added: “When I started Travalyst six years ago, the goal was simple. I wanted to harness travel’s power and potential to help create a more resilient work. And I’m proud of what we have accomplished.” He ended his video message by noting that there is still “much more to be done to protect the people and the places that we all depend on”.
In his foreword for the initiative’s report, Harry stressed that the road ahead is “challenging” but added: “I am inspired by our incredible network of collaborators and what we’ve managed to achieve together already, along with the energy our community continues to bring to the challenges we collectively face.”
It comes just days after the Duke of Sussex announced his resignation from one of his charities in Africa.
Prince Harry, along with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, stepped down from Sentebale last week – noth princes were patrons of the organisation and weren’t on the board of trustees.
They said they were quitting in support of the trustees, who left after a dispute with chairperson Sophie Chandauka.
They said in a joint statement: “These trustees acted in the best interest of the charity in asking the chair to step down, while keeping the wellbeing of staff in mind. In turn, she sued the charity to remain in this voluntary position, further underscoring the broken relationship.
“We thank all the trustees for their service over the years and are truly heartbroken they’ve had to follow through with this act.
“What’s transpired is unthinkable. We are in shock that we have to do this, but we have a continued responsibility to Sentebale’s beneficiaries, so we will be sharing all of our concerns with the Charity Commission as to how this came about.
“Although we may no longer be patrons, we will always be its founders, and we will never forget what this charity is capable of achieving when it is in the right care.”
A spokesman for Sentebale said it had carried out a “restructuring” of its board as “confirmation of its strategy to redeploy senior roles to be proximate to most of the team and programmes in southern Africa”.
They said: “We can confirm that we are aware of concerns about the governance of Sentebale. We are assessing the issues to determine the appropriate regulatory steps.”