How one entrepreneur built and sold a travel media company
Cover photo: Humphrey M / Unsplash
When Zim Flores founded Travel Noire in 2013, she was betting on something the mainstream travel industry doubted: that Black travelers were a significant, underserved market hungry for content that spoke to their experiences.
Who founded Travel Noire? Zim Flores launched it in 2013 to give Black travelers the photography, destination guides and perspective mainstream travel media lacked. It grew through Instagram into one of the most influential Black travel platforms, and in September 2017 Blavity acquired it, with Flores staying on to lead the brand.
Key facts
- Founded: 2013.
- Growth: Instagram was its main channel, built on aspirational photography of Black travelers.
- Beyond content: group trips, visa guides and destination rankings, and brand partnerships.
- The exit:acquired by Blavity in September 2017 for an undisclosed amount.
She was right. Travel Noire became one of the most influential Black travel media platforms, and its sale showed that Black travel content is a major market, not a niche.
Seeing the Gap
Photo: alex starnes / Unsplash
It started with noticing. As a traveler herself, Flores saw that mainstream travel media rarely featured Black faces or the destinations Black travelers cared about. When coverage did exist, it often felt tokenistic or focused on trauma instead of joy.
She founded Travel Noire to fill that gap. The platform featured beautiful photography of Black travelers, destination guides written from Black perspectives, and content that celebrated traveling while Black instead of apologizing for it.
Building a Media Brand
Photo: Simone Santos (@sithevision) for Caviar in the Air
Travel Noire quickly found an audience that had been ignored for too long. It grew through social media, with Instagram as its main channel for aspirational travel photography.
Flores didn't stop at content. She developed:
- Group trips that brought the community together in real life
- Travel resources, including visa guides and destination rankings
- Brand partnerships connecting Travel Noire with major travel companies
Her business sense matched her editorial eye.
The Exit
In September 2017, Travel Noire was acquired by Blavity, a digital media company focused on Black millennials, for an undisclosed amount. Flores stayed on to lead the brand. The deal confirmed what she had always believed: Black travel media is a real business with real value.
It also showed other Black travel entrepreneurs a path. Flores proved you could build a travel media company for Black audiences and sell it, a template others have since followed.
After Travel Noire
Since the sale, Flores has stayed active in entrepreneurship and travel. She speaks about building businesses, serves as a role model for founders, and keeps advocating for diversity in media.
Her legacy reaches past the company she built. She proved the market existed and opened doors for the Black travel media world that has grown since.
What Zim Teaches Us
Our experiences have economic value. What we know about traveling while Black, the places that welcome us, the businesses that serve us, the trips that change us, is worth something.
By building and selling Travel Noire, she showed that Black travel content can be a real business opportunity for anyone bold enough to take it. Two more founders in that same spirit: Martinique Lewis of the ABC Travel Greenbook and Emmy winner Oneika Raymond.
Zim Flores proved Black travel sells. Learn about Zim and other Black history pioneers, then explore our upcoming trips, designed for travelers who expect excellence.
Culture
Culture
Culture