I’ve been working in varying roles in the travel industry for some 25 years. In that time I have learnt two things, firstly that my passion for travel will never wane (and that it is a privilege we can’t take for granted) and secondly that you must always expect the unexpected when working in the sector! Admittedly 2020 threw us some pretty big curveballs but the two lessons above have never rung truer.
I am pleased to share with you my 2021 bucket list, I hope you enjoy the journey of reading it, dreaming a little and perhaps in the not-too-distant future take one of the trips confident that when you travel with The Travel Corporation you can sit back and relax knowing that all the details are taken care of on your behalf. What’s more, on all Insight Vacations, Luxury GoldandTrafalgar Tours in 2021, there will be an on-road team of three – a passionate Travel Director or Traveling Concierge, a diligent driver and – new for 2021 – a dedicated Well-Being Director to take a proactive approach to your well-being.
Back in autumn, as European borders were opening up and we enjoyed some COVID-calm moments, I was fortunate to spend a few days in Venice with my family. Dusting off that passport after not having traveled for several months and the anticipation of what was to come was very powerful and made me realize how much I missed travel. The excitement in our house was palpable. I love Venice – always have, always will but taking my kids there for their first visit when it wasn’t crowded made it even more special.
We stayed in one of my favorite hotels in Venice, Bauer Hotel which is also beloved by our Luxury Gold guests. Staying right in the heart of Venice, a stone’s throw from St. Mark’s and arriving at your hotel by water taxi never disappoints! The team was fantastic as always and the Covid-19 protocols were brilliant, and we felt perfectly at ease at all times. In my mind, there is only one ‘right way’ to do Venice and that is to stay at one of the hotels right on Venice Island instead of staying on the mainland. Being able to stroll through the narrow alleyways at night and being there when Venice comes into its own, is truly magical. At Luxury Gold, we would never do it any other way.
In the picture below you can see my family in St Mark’s square in Venice just before we sat down at Café Florian to enjoy a Bellini and a mocktail for the boys at dusk with very few people.
Another highlight, and my younger son’s favorite experience, was visiting one of the traditional glass workshops on Murano Island and watching the artisans at work. He loved it so much that his current career aspiration is to become a glass blower!
Our trip to Burano with its colorful houses and trying to spot houses in our favorite colors and eating a gelato or two a day were other highlights.
Making Travel Matter – Insight Vacations Country Roads of Andalucía
As CEO of Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold, it is a goal of mine to bring people together to enjoy travel but also make it a force for good. Our new trip through Andalucía does just that. Our newly created Make Travel Matter experiences advance the United Nations Global Goals and positively impact our travelers and the communities we visit. They are chosen with great care using an assessment endorsed by sustainable tourism experts which is exclusive to Insight Vacations and its sister brands.
In Seville on Insight Vacation’s Country Roads of Andalucía Tour you will visit The Cristina Heeren Foundation which aims to promote the teaching and conservation of flamenco and is a beneficiary of a TreadRight Foundation grant. You meet the students of the foundation, learn some basic flamenco steps, and then feel the passion as the students perform an emotional show. The school allows students access to cultural education that otherwise may not have occurred. TreadRight’s sponsorship has helped students to complete their studies in advanced guitar, singing and dance. As students complete their training, they will carry on and safeguard the traditional flamenco dance, contributing to the protection of Andalusia and Spain’s cultural heritage.
My eldest son is shortly celebrating his 13th birthday, and whilst I am still trying to get over the fact that I am the mother of a teenager now, I thought it would be fun to go on The Vienna Vibe cruise together. GenZ on U by Uniworld, their new family program exclusively for teens and their parents on select U by Uniworld cruises is a perfect experience for both adults and their teen.
We’ve picked The Vienna Vibe cruise to enjoy our Austrian heritage. We are most looking forward to having a bit of a cook off in their Viennese cooking class. Come back to our blog to find out whose Schnitzel and Apple strudel is better!
There are times when we can actually see the curve of history unfolding around us. 2020 has been such a year, and by no means easy. Most painfully, many have lost loved ones to this awful pandemic. Many others have lost their jobs and face difficult hardships, including colleagues who started the year with us but are now, unfortunately, unemployed. For those of us who love to travel, it has been filled with delays and disappointments brought on by Covid-19. Suffice to say, while all of us at The Travel Corporation began 2020 with great anticipation of celebrating our first century as a family owned and run business, this was not the year any of us had imagined.
And yet, even bad years can bring good things. While physical travel was more limited than at any point in our lives, we have nevertheless traveled tremendous distances through time and memory. It has been our great joy each month this year for those of us at TTC to look back over this past century and share with you tales of how we began, who we have become, and why we do what we do.
Thus, anxious as we all are to turn the page on 2020 and to begin a gradual global recovery in 2021, we invite you to join us as we look back over the stories we’ve told this past year, so beautifully narrated by Vicki in our videos, and through the voices of guest writers in this series of blogs.
While this year was not how we had envisioned the start of our second century, those of us at TTC know well that great journeys do not always have easy beginnings. That was true for our founder, Solomon Tollman who, as a boy of fifteen, was forced to leave his home and family in Lithuania to escape oppression of life under the Czar. After being smuggled out in a train, he eventually arrived in London with nothing more than the few gold rubles his mother had sewn into his clothing. Six months later he traveled steerage class on a steam ship to Cape Town, South Africa. There he survived the last pandemic – the Spanish Flu of 1918-19 – and made his way up South Africa’s rugged west coast to the sleepy fishing village of Paternoster.
Solomon’s story was the first we told, in January’s blog posting by Brett Tollman, our Chief Executive, 100 Years of Being Driven by Service. Brett recounts how his Grandfather Solomon – Solly, as he was known – purchased and refurbished a run-down community center, and in 1920 welcomed the first guests to The Paternoster Hotel, shown above as it appears today. Difficult as his journey had been, Solly ran that hotel so as to give other travelers the welcome he himself had not received. That spirit gave rise to that business principle which guides all of us at TTC to this day: Driven by Service.
Love and travel are forever linked, and in February we shared a story from TTC’s Chairman, Stanley S. Tollman. A Valentine’s Day Tale of Love and Oysters tells of a memorable journey to Durban, the birth of his vision for TTC – and the moment he literally fell for Beatrice Lurie. A love story for the ages, she went on to become Mrs. Bea Tollman – his partner, fellow visionary, and the love of his life – they celebrated their 67th anniversary this past March.
Bea Tollman picked up the story in March for International Women’s Day with a blog post entitled The Secret Ingredient. Through the story of her own journey to become a master chef, founder of Red Carnation Hotels, and guiding visionary for Uniworld, she celebrates the crucial role that women always have – and always will – play in the success of TTC, through the passion they bring to their work.
In April we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Earth Month with Paradise Lost & Found by Shannon Guihan, Chief TreadRight & Sustainability Officer for TTC. In it, she tells of growing up in Paradise, Newfoundland, a town which lived up to its name. As she grew up, however, she saw the impact of tourism without forethought, where visitors trampled the very sights they had come to see. This led her to her life’s work, ensuring that travel is a force for good, and the ongoing work of The TreadRight Foundation.
In May, as the extent of the pandemic became clearer to us all, we naturally turned our attention to what matters most in life. Vicki Tollman, Executive Director of Red Carnation Hotels, wrote We Are Family, celebrating Mother’s Day in many countries around the world and the United Nations International Day of Families. In it, she reflects on being part of the Tollman family, of TTC’s family of brands, and of the many families within these families.
June brought the silence of the quietest travel season we had ever known, with virtually all trips cancelled. Difficult as this was, we realized this was an ideal time to reflect and appreciate the gift of travel, the places we have been fortunate to visit, the experiences we have had, and the people we have come to know. Travel is, after all about creating memories that last a lifetime, and this seemed like the right time to share some of these. We invited employees of TTC around the world to share tales from past journeys they are thankful to have made in Reflections of Gratitude, From Those of Us At TTC. These sentiments were echoed in June’s video, Gratitude, narrated by our Chairman, Stanley Tollman. Through his words and his calm, reassuring, and wise manner, one truly understands why he has come to be so widely recognized as both a successful entrepreneur and great statesman.
One of the great joys of travel is the friendships that arise from our journeys. In July we reached out to our travelers to gather stories of friendships they had made while traveling with us, as well as to our employees, for tales of friendships with each other, our partners, and with our guests. These became With a Little Help From Our Friends.
As a fourth generation family business, we are always looking toward the future. For August’s blog, we reached out to Brett’s daughter, Ella, who is currently a student at
NYU. A talented photographer, she shared some of her favorite travel shots in Bringing the Future Into Focus, recounting how her travels have shaped her world view, and how her camera has shaped her travels.
By September we were sorely missing our guests. We heard from many that they had been missing us as well, and that they had been flipping through scrapbooks and photos to remember past journeys. That encouraged us to do the same, sifting through letters, emails and photos we’ve received over the years. With their permission we shared some of these in Tales From Our Travelers.
Continual innovation is crucial in the world of travel, and it is what has guided us through our first century. For October’s blog we turned to a visionary leader, Gavin Tollman, CEO of Trafalgar, Costsaver, and Brendan Vacations. His blog posting, Innovation – the Key to Our Past, Our Present, and Our Future tells the stories behind some of the revolutionary innovations that have made these companies so successful. Not one to dwell in the past, he brought us up to the minute, sharing some of our current TTC innovations around health and well-being for our future travelers in this new era.
Finally, November brought us to what would have been the end of the 2020 travel season. As we have always done here at TTC, we turned our focus to the future, and more sustainable travel, through the “eyes” of our non-profit TreadRight Foundation, which we started over a decade ago to help protect and preserve what we love on our planet – its magnificent destinations, welcoming communities, and stunning wildlife – for future generations. In When We Travel Again we heard from three of the most inspired travelers in the world, Céline S. Cousteau – TreadRight’s Planet Ambassador, Sarain Fox – TreadRight’s People Ambassador, and Ami Vitale – TreadRight’s Wildlife Ambassador. Through photographs and stories, they helped all of us to think of how, when the time comes, we will Make Travel Matter more than ever.
With that, we thank you for joining us on this journey over this past year and through this past century, and return to the present moment, here at the tail end of 2020. Squinting a bit in search of the perspective one finds in reflecting on the past, we imagine what we might see on some future day when we look back on this year. Challenging and painful as 2020 has been for all of us, perhaps we may come to see it as a bridge – albeit a narrow one – that helped one another to cross, from the past to the future.
In that spirit, on behalf of all of our TTC family, we send our best wishes to you and yours for happy, healthy, and safe holidays and a new year, filled with light and love. We know none of us will take the joy of traveling to new destinations for granted again. May the year ahead bring better times, amazing journeys and rich experiences for you, our beloved travelers.
As we approach the end of 2020, we look back with a sigh at the year of travel that was not – then turn our focus to dreams of future travel.
Like you, those of us at The Travel Corporation have been watching closely for signs of progress on vaccines against Covid-19, even as we implement the innovations for traveler hygiene and wellbeing described by Gavin Tollman in October’s blog posting. While each of us will need to decide exactly when we are ready to journey onwards, one thing is clear – we will travel again. Difficult and frustrating as this year has been, it has not diminished our desire to travel. If anything, this time of limited movement and isolation has increased our desire for the freedom to explore distant destinations and rediscover the world.
For this month’s blog post, we thought it fitting to look forward, wondering what might be different when we do travel again. The challenges we face in life transform us, leading to learning and growth, and that is especially true with challenges of the magnitude of those we have been through this year, which have had such an impact on all of us.
How might this period of time shape our future travels?
For insights on this question, we turned to TreadRight’s Travel Ambassadors, Céline Cousteau, Sarain Fox, and Ami Vitale, three of the most inspired and inspiring travelers in the world. They represent the three pillars of our company’s non-profit, TreadRight Foundation – Planet, People, and Wildlife, respectively. We invited each to tell us a little about what this time of limited travel has been like for them – and their thoughts on when we travel again.
Céline S. Cousteau, TreadRight’s Planet Ambassador As a documentary filmmaker and gifted storyteller, Céline has travelled the world working to help amplify the voices of the amazing individuals who are doing more to protect ecosystems, wildlife, and people. The daughter of ocean explorer and filmmaker Jean-Michel Cousteau and granddaughter of the legendary Jacques Yves Cousteau, Céline brings a profound understanding of the importance of legacy and the necessity to experience the world in a way that ensures future generations will have the opportunity to do the same. She has recently published her first book, in French, Le monde après mon grand-père (The World After My Grandfather).
“People protect what they love.”
This is what my grandfather taught us all. I believe this is why immersive travel experiences are so important, for they help us come to know our beautiful, fragile planet – and fall in love with it.
I have been thinking about this more lately, from my home in a small village in southern France. Since I returned here from travels last March, my journeys have been local, as you can see in this TreadRight video. As I write this, France has just entered a second lockdown.
We are but one of so many places that have slowed down or shut down now, which is especially difficult for communities worldwide that depend on travel and tourism. So many people are suffering, faced with uncertainty and loss of employment. While I am TreadRight’s Planet Ambassador, in truth it is impossible to see our planet as disconnected from people and wildlife too. During this pandemic I have thought particularly of the challenges faced by the women ofIraq-al-Amir, a TreadRight sponsored project in Jordan. Having worked with these women to build a business selling their beautiful, authentic creations to travelers, including guests of TTC brands such as Uniworld, Insight Vacations, Luxury Gold, Trafalgar, and Contiki, I know this past year has been exceedingly difficult for them.
Challenging as it has been, my hope is that this pandemic will serve as a reset for us humans, helping us to appreciate what a magnificent privilege travel is, and how fortunate we are to live on Earth. I have always thought of humans as just another species on our planet, one of many, but we’ve rarely seen ourselves in this light, nor have we treated our planet with the love it deserves. Now, as we see how an unseen virus can impact every country/culture/people/ population in the world, let us take this as a powerful reminder of just how interconnected we all are.
My hope is that when we do travel again, we will do so more thoughtfully, consciously, and intentionally. Businesses, for example, may discover that while some meetings ultimately require a flight half-way around the world, others can be as well accomplished on a video call. Travel should be special, a chance to go to places and have experiences that can only be done in person. And, when you do go somewhere – make the most of it.
This process of re-thinking travel is one that TreadRight and TTC have been engaged in since well before the pandemic. It led to the TreadRight Pledge to Make Travel Matter – if you’ve not yet taken it, I invite you to do so, as a guide to your future travels. But please, don’t just sign it – let it be a mantra that moves you to take action. I also invite you to look at the plan we have just released, How We Tread Right, our ambitious five year sustainability roadmap, which also identifies the 11 of the 17 United Nations’ sustainability goals which we will continue to contribute to and benefit. And, when we travel again, we will be introducing many more special Make Travel Matter (MTM) experiences over the next several years.
As you consider your future travels, I further invite you to think of the many ways to ensure your travel has a positive impact. Start by bringing your own water bottle and cutlery, as encouraged by our single use plastics elimination initiative. Rather than shopping for new clothes before you travel, buy them when you arrive, thereby supporting local businesses in these destinations. Give back to local initiatives when you can as well.
Most of all, when you do travel, take the time to really connect with the people you meet. Listen to their stories, then bring them back to share with others. So you – like my grandfather and I – can be an ambassador for our planet, helping others learn to love and protect it – when we travel again.
Sarain Fox – TreadRight’s People Ambassador Born in Batchawana First Nation in Canada, Sarain Fox is an Anishinaabe dancer, broadcaster, and activist and one of Canada’s most prominent Indigenous voices. She has worked professionally as a dancer and is a graduate of the New York Film Academy. Sarain’s work is rooted in her passion to represent and lift up Indigenous people and her commitment to climate justice, which includes her position as a board member for the Center of Biodiversity. Sarain believes that everything we do in our lives should contribute to positive change.
When I was two years old, my mother did something radical. She gave me a name. Not the kind of name that goes on your birth certificate – a name to connect me to our people, who are storytellers.
Wabunangokwe.
It is a name with many meanings – Truth teller. Reconciler. The star in the East. Light at the end of the dark.
As TreadRight’s People Ambassador, it is my privilege and responsibility to be all these things, starting by telling you the truth about how this pandemic has impacted native communities we support. While not an easy truth, per the other meaning in my name, there is light at the end of the dark.
For my people, this is not our first pandemic. As with so many indigenous tribes just a century or two ago, those early settlers arrived with diseases including tuberculosis and small pox that killed many of our people. Some of these were intentional, offering infected blankets as “gifts.” Our grandparents tell stories of these times. They therefore make us sensitive to what we may bring with us, whether we know it or not, when we travel.
Covid-19 is a virus that teaches us all this same lesson. We must all become more conscious of what we carry with us when we travel. As the name TreadRight implies, this is our purpose. While I’ve always tried to be a conscious traveler, these past months have given me an even greater understanding and appreciation of what it means to have the privilege of visiting another person’s homeland, knowing the harm we can do if we are not careful.
TreadRight exists to make travel a force for good, as in the example of a project I have worked with here in Toronto, Manitobah Mukluks Storyboot School.
Based at the Bata Shoe museum, the project is a win-win situation. Artisans create beautiful footwear, and receive one hundred per cent of the proceeds from their work. What’s more, they teach traditional methods to indigenous students and visitors from around the world, so the culture is passed on. It has been a regular stop for guests of TTC companies such as Trafalgar,Insight Vacations, Contiki, and Costsaver. The picture above is of me learning from my dear friend Sage Petahtegoose, a craftswoman and teacher at the school. You can also see a short video we made about the school here.
The arrival of Covid-19 instantly ground the classes to a halt, shutting down the program. Very soon, sixty per cent of the staff, including Sage, were laid off. I think of the challenges that Sage and others have faced with the loss, both of income and of shared culture. This is just one of many such TreadRight programs around the world promoting indigenous culture through crafts, including Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco, (Peru), Ock Pop Tok Village Weavers (Laos), and Tria, Etc. (Greece). All these programs await the return of travelers, though I am pleased to confirm that TreadRight did fund all of its projects this year.
And yet, such challenging times bring gifts as well. I have noticed that with offices closed and people working from home, vulnerability has become more acceptable. We are becoming more honest about who we are – our race, our gender, our diversity. Now is a time when we are invited to see the truth. This attitude toward openness and honesty is good for the world. It lets us open our doors to the world and share our stories.
This has been the case for me, personally, as a storyteller. I have long meant to make a documentary telling the stories of my Auntie Marie, the oldest living matriarch in my family. I have just completed “Inendi,” which tells her story. What’s more, as you can see in the picture below, I was able to hire Sage as camerawoman for the film, another outlet for her creative spirit.
This is the way it is in hard times – even when doors are closed, the creative spirit finds a way. That is the spirit which keeps me optimistic. It is the star in the east, the light at the end of the dark, and the one that will guide us – when we travel again.
Ami Vitale, TreadRight’s Willdlife Ambassador Ami Vitale’s journey as a photographer, writer and filmmaker has taken her to over 100 countries where she has witnessed civil unrest and violence, but also surreal beauty and the enduring power of the human spirit. Ami is a founding member of Ripple Effect Images, a collective of scientists, writers, photographers and filmmakers with a mission of creating powerful stories illustrating the very specific issues women in developing countries face. She is also an Ambassador for Nikon and a National Geographic magazine photographer, explorer and speaker. Her talks shed light on the conservation value that tourism holds for wildlife – when done right.
Nature has sent us a strong message with this pandemic, reminding us just how small and deeply interconnected our world is. This is a powerful moment to reimagine our relationship to nature and to one another.
In the early days of the pandemic, we were hearing heartwarming stories. It seemed that wildlife was getting a much needed break from humans and thriving in the era of lockdowns. Finally, we thought, animals were able to roam freely in our cities and national parks!
Unfortunately, the reality was much different. Tourism is what has largely funded major conservation projects around the world, protecting wildlife, restoring habitats and creating awareness. When travel crashed this past spring, so did the much needed protection for these animals and ecosystems. Contrary to popular belief, an empty national park is not always a good thing for wildlife. During this pandemic we have seen a dramatic rise in poaching in wildlife parks. What people need to understand is that tourism is what keeps wildlife alive in many parts of the world – including giant pandas, as in my photograph below – and international travel is essential for that. You can see examples of this connection in TreadRight projects such as Wildlife SOS, the WCS Big Cat Fund, and The Endangered Wildlife Trust.
When we travel again, I hope people will focus on traveling responsibly, to destinations that act to sustain wildlife areas, choosing companies that put money back into supporting habitats and ecosystems. We may also wish to think about the range and pace of our travels. When we go abroad, rather than trying to see it all, we need to slow down and really engage with one place at a time. In addition to reducing our environmental footprint, this kind of travel is what allows us to truly build relationships with people and places, creating authentic connections.
My own travels have slowed dramatically since the start of the pandemic. I have lived out of my suitcase and on the road for many years, and for the past few years have been home no more than 21 days in a year. The pandemic changed all that overnight, as it did for the rest of the world, when my work came to a grinding halt. Difficult as this has been, there has been an upside as well. Like so many these times, I have turned my attention to exploring my own back yard. For me, that is Montana, which is rich in wildlife, as you can see in this TreadRight video and the photograph at the very top of this blog, as well as the one below, taken in Centennial Valley.
People connect to the horses in Montana’s Centennial Valley just outside of Yellowstone National Park in July, 2020. Here, people seem to measure worth by how comfortable you are around animals and they are around you. I have seen young toddlers on horseback nestled between mother and mane. By the age of two, they are nuzzling calves. Children learn to throw a rope before they can talk. It is a place where people are shaped by the land itself and they in turn help shape the land. (Photo by Ami Vitale)
While this pandemic has been devastating in so many ways, it has also shown us how we are able to unite and act as individuals for the collective good. This is a moment when we can look outside ourselves and take individual action for the good of the planet. With the sudden stopping of travel this year, I wanted to find a way to raise much needed funds for communities and conservation. I reached out to some of my favorite photographers and asked for their support to start a fine art prints sale. Have a look at Printsfornature.com, where you’ll see stunning prints by some of the most acclaimed photographers in the world, who have all donated their work. All these prints are available for purchase for holiday gift giving, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Conservation International. It is a unique way to collect fine art for a fraction of what it normally costs, and your purchase will be helping wildlife around the planet.
In the end, saving nature is really about saving ourselves. Our fates are linked and interconnected. We all need to do all we can to care for the plants and critters that inhabit the earth. They are fellow travelers, and our only friends, in this cold dark universe. Our future happiness depends on them.
Let us keep that in mind – when we travel again.
When We Travel Again
When We Travel Again…We shall go forth with renewed gratitude for the amazing gift that travel can be – and the awe that comes from finding ourselves at home in places we have never been.
When We Travel Again…We will see the world through new eyes and deepened appreciation for this truly magnificent planet we all share. Not only will we take in the sights, but we will hear the sounds. Breathe in the smells. And savor the tastes – all waiting to be experienced.
When We Travel Again…We will do so with renewed joy and purpose – Joy as we create memories that last a lifetime, and purpose that comes from knowing our travels play a crucial role in the recovery of communities we visit around the world.
When We Travel Again…We will venture forth with open hearts, letting ourselves be guided by wonder and curiosity ready to connect to those we meet along the way – our hosts, our guides, and our fellow travelers, joined together in a journey of discovery.
When We Travel Again…We will make travel matter more than ever before. Knowing that how we travel is just as important as where, as we explore this wild and precious planet we call home, meet people around the globe who welcome us into their homes. And discover magnificent wild creatures whose homes we visit.
When We Travel Again…We will journey to places both near and far with those we love – our partners, our parents, our children, and grandchildren and dear friends, some we’ve known for years – and others we have yet to meet, making memories all over the world. When the time is right, we shall go forth again. Until then, we shall do what we have always done – and dream of distant shores. For while something deep inside us sleeps, we know the sleeper will awaken –
