Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Hire American PR Firm to Help with New Foundation Launch

Stephanie Petit
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Hire American PR Firm to Help with New Foundation Launch

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are turning to an American public relations firm as they announce the first initiative of their new independent foundation.

The royal couple have hired Sunshine Sachs to help with Sussex Royal The Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the charitable initiative they launched following their split from the foundation they previously shared with Prince William and Kate Middleton.

The New York-based PR firm is helping with Travalyst, the partnership which has the Duke of Sussex teamed up with leaders in the travel industry to promote eco-friendly tourism that the prince announced on Tuesday at an event in Amsterdam. Meanwhile, Sarah Latham, Hillary Clinton‘s former campaign advisor, will continue in her role as head of their communications team and handle Meghan and Harry’s personal matters.

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We are excited to announce the launch of ‘Travalyst’, a global initiative striving to change the impact of tourism, for good. Partnering alongside key travel industry giants @Bookingcom, #Ctrip, @Skyscanner, @TripAdvisor and @Visa_US, our aim is to spark a movement to transform the future of travel, putting communities at the heart of the solution. We believe in the power and importance of travel. We also have a shared responsibility to our planet and to each other. • “I want to start with a little bit of background as to specifically why I’m here today, because as you may know, I am not a tourism or business expert, but through my travels I have observed the unique relationship between community and environment, and have noticed something alarming. There wasn’t the symbiosis or connection there needed to be and I wanted to understand why. I am one of those people fortunate enough to have a platform and I want to use it to tackle hard problems, in the hope of finding solutions…and that’s how Travalyst was born” - The Duke of Sussex The name #Travalyst comes from The Duke and partners viewing our role in sustainable travel as catalysts to accelerate positive changes in travel. Travel + catalyst = Travalyst #Travalyst aims to make travel more sustainable, to help protect destinations and benefit communities long into the future, and to enable consumers to make more environmental friendly choices whilst traveling. The Duke of Sussex, having invited the founding partners to start the conversation, believes that the organisations - with operations in nearly every country, hundreds of millions of customers that use their products every day, and business relationships around the world - have sufficient influence and the critical mass necessary to catalyse real system change in the travel industry, for the benefit of destinations, communities and ecosystems. To discover more about the new initiative, visit www.Travalyst.org

A post shared by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (@sussexroyal) on Sep 3, 2019 at 2:15am PDT

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Harry, 34, and Meghan, 38, had previously been part of Prince William and Kate Middleton‘s shared foundation, but they two couples started to take “divergent paths” in their charity work and needed to reflect that in different outlets.

TOLGA AKMEN/AFP/Getty
TOLGA AKMEN/AFP/Getty

The separate foundations, which was described as a “natural progression,” a source previously told PEOPLE, follows the royal couples’ decision in April to separate their joint “court” at Kensington Palace by creating two offices, or households.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Alex Trautwig/MLB via Getty
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Alex Trautwig/MLB via Getty

Harry said Tuesday that Travalyst (which comes from a combination of the words “travel” and “catalyst”) “is a first-of-its-kind coalition, a united front of businesses dedicated to making travel an engine for sustainability.” It has been “created to mobilise the travel industry as a catalyst for good, aiming to transform the future of travel for everyone,” Harry’s office says.

The Duke of Sussex was inspired by his own travels and his work with the Queen’s Canopy (which helps preserve valuable forests) and Africa Parks.

Prince Harry | Press Association via AP Images
Prince Harry | Press Association via AP Images

In many emerging economies, only 5% of the money spent by tourists goes back into the local community. Harry wants to make “sure that we change the system in a way to make it more effective for destinations and local communities can thrive,” says a royal charity source.

The new project teams together Booking.com, SkyScanner, CTrip, TripAdvisor and Visa to work with Harry’s foundation to influence the way the world travels. The partners “are really enthusiastic,” says the source. “They are committed and the partnership may expand.”

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They are initially focusing on three areas: helping communities benefit more locally from visitors; educating people about sustainable travel; and working with the travel companies to make it easier for people to make a sustainable choice.