Dear Traveler

DEAR TRAVELER, It’s February 20th and I’m writing this from Hawaii. I’ve returned ‘home’ after months in French Polynesia working, exploring, and trying to fathom how the future will develop on so many fronts. It’s delightful here, in many ways, because Hawaii, although part of the U.S., remains Polynesia. It is, after all, the eastern tip of the vast Polynesian triangle, a region of the world I will never tire of exploring; there is so much beauty and wonder, both natural and cultural.

And exploring is what I am writing to you about today. We are about to carefully, thoughtfully, and responsibly resume our mission to explore and understand the world through expedition travel. We do not take this intention lightly. A dedicated team has been joined at the hip for nearly a year working on the details of a multi-faceted plan to re-engage, as I mentioned, carefully, thoughtfully, and responsibly—with optimism buoyed by the most important development of the past year—a vaccine—as well as advances in therapeutics and testing.

We are heading back into the wild, with perhaps an added level of purpose. These past months have been tough on the environment and people in so many places: rangers who protect against poachers in parts of Africa no longer employed; illegal fishers moving more freely as patrol boats are shut down. In Galápagos, a region we have deep roots in and a profound commitment to, the dearth of tourism has been devastating—for the people, the economy, and the mechanisms for protecting the wild. We responded to this need by developing a relief initiative to engage all friends of Galápagos in providing micro loans—to further education, increase local food security, and create new businesses. This infusion of money raised helps in the short term and the long: the programme will live well beyond the pandemic, with the monies loaned, returned, and recirculated. If you are interested in learning more, or donating, please visit islandconservation.org/galapagos-island-relief-fund.

Resources for the protection of the wild will inevitably be strapped as economies have been hard hit. We want to actively find creative ways to pick up some of the slack, to be a lifeline of sorts to places that desperately need support. We as a company, tourism as an industry, and travellers can do so much to fulfil the notion of ‘rewilding’—a concept of protecting an environment and working to bring it back to its natural state. We can, and I believe must, come to the aid of our wild heritage, and the people who depend on its health, wherever it exists, by celebrating it, revering it, and finding our own paths to support its essential existence.

We need to get back out there and show all the hard-hit places some real love. Rangers and park wardens need to get back to work, NGOs need to resume their efforts, and so many people whose livelihoods are connected to travel need to get back to work. And you, I believe, deserve to confidently get back to exploring. After all, it’s something you’ve done with passion and purpose, and long to do again.

All the best,

Sven-Olof Lindblad