If you've been travelling lately and trying to figure out what's actually going on, you're sure to have noticed that a lot has changed. Global exploration is trying to take off again but it's had some wind taken out of its sails.
It doesn't affect me directly as I won't be travelling anytime soon, for a number of reasons (see this part of my story here if you don't already know it), but I have been privy to some wild stories as I vicariously follow a few family, friends and JourneyWomen solo adventures. As an Advisor on JourneyWoman's Council and Member of the JourneyWoman: Solo Travel for Women 50+ FaceBook Group, I've been able to keep up with some of these things.
Let's start with this story behind the story about this McLean's magazine article, written just as Covid-19 hit ... which I was sure my brother, Gary could have written. But I knew he was stranded off the shores of the Bahamas in his sailboat. Wasn't he?
As it turned out, when I messaged Stephen Maher, the writer of the article I randomly came across that was posted on Twitter, before they were X'd out. I wasn't following him at the time but his post came up on my stream. When I mentioned I'd sent the article to my brother, he asked if my brother's name was Gary.
What? He'd been trying to contact him to see if he was alright. My brother's phone hadn't been working and he'd since replaced it. It turned out that Stephen had stayed on my brother's boat in the Florida marina just before Gary left for the Bahamas while waiting for his own sailboat to arrive. I'd even called while they were having dinner earlier that month. I'd said I'd call back later, happy that my brother was breaking bread with a friend.
It's a small world.
And it's all we've got.
More to the point, I've been diving into travel reading and am presently listening to Looptail on audible. It's a book about the industry. Bruce Poon Tip, G Adventures founder has developed a revolutionary new business model. The Forward to his book is written by the Dali Lama and his company was endorsed by Jane Goodall and has been in partnership with her since 2016. Enough said. That impressed me.
Karma figures strongly in the operation of this community-based company but some don't seem to be quite be able to figure it out nor how to successfully navigate them. I can't help wondering if it's because the model doesn't follow the standard heirarchy with an easily decipherable, stereotypical structure in place. Its policies & procedures follow a newer set of ethics that veer off the well-beaten path of capitalism which frustrates many The 60:40 men to woman tour ratio appears to be somewhat balanced and Women in Travel Awards 'promoting diversity and inclusion' were announced by them in November 2023.
I recently rewatched The Last Tourist (see below) which Bruce narrated.
Carolyn, CEO of JourneyWoman, called our attention to another new book, called The New Tourist by Paige McClanahan which is also attempting to reframe how we view tourism versus travel. Change is happening. Is it happening quickly enough. I know sometimes we need to slow down to get things done more quickly and patience is a virtue and all that but ... I wonder.
After listening to some of the good, the bad and ugly, I keep questioning whether there's hope. Possibly given the right circumstances and connections, wrinkles can be ironed out.
According to David Suzuki, air travel could account for 25% of all emissions by 2050. While other areas are decreasing their output, aviation is increasing theirs.
G Adventures is the largest player in travel at this point in time and it appears to be expanding into more areas; women's travel for one and animal volunteeism for another. I've been talking a lot about this with fellow JourneyWoman Advisory Council Member, Nora Livingstone whose company, Animal Experience International, follows the regenerative model this business model champions. I find it timely, hopeful and refreshing. As Nora said about The Last Tourist, "I like the audacity, from the call to be coming from inside the house. It shows a lot of guts to be of the industry while calling it out." You can see the trailer for The Last Tourist here and the documentary, in its entirety, here on YouTube.
The Advisors for JourneyWoman meet monthly. We are hopeful new ways of being in the world can be found and know recovery takes time. Time is precious and hopefully we'll find we have enough of it.
And now to Part 2 of Painting the JourneyWoman's Award for Joy Fox, 1st Recipent of the Evelyn Hannon Solo Travel Award. Joy seems to have always been on the cutting edge of travelling sustainably and we've shared many conversations about changes we hope to see in the industry.
here's a link to Joy's BBC interview
In this video, I block in the large forms of Evelyn's Boots and begin rendering both boots using Beam Paints and a Winsor Newton Sketchers Pocket Box and I read Evelyn's remarks about the boots.
You can read Part 1 of 3 here or skip right to my YouTube channel and watch the video there.
Welcome to more about the creative process as I lay a watercolour foundation down for in Part 3 of 3 of Evelyn Hannon's JourneyWoman Boots Award Painting the finishing details of the final gouache painting
AND a few more links from the 2nd NewsLetter Landing Page.