A glimpse back and forward

Well, 2018 was a busy year for us. We delved deeper in to family travel with our development of our exciting Kids Kouncil™ as we held our first three round-tables with our junior board members. With their help we are working on our first Kids Kouncil Approved™ adventure, which will debut soon.

Through the year, we launched three sustainable travel websites – Galapagos.com, Safaritours.com and Visibleasia.com to serve as an information resource for both you and your clients. This is an easy way to begin to explore the hot topic of sustainability in the destinations to which Big Five travels. The country listings tell you a bit about what’s going on, and each country is ranked.

The Spirit of Big Five added two new nonprofit projects in 2018. Awamaki is a project that helps women who are artisan textiles makers and weavers to learn how to run small businesses. In the Andean Mountains of Peru, women who had few opportunities to earn income and help support their families are now being empowered. The second project is the nonprofit Jetwing Youth Development Program (JYDP), which helps fund training for children of war in northern Sri Lanka. The Spirit of Big Five Foundation was attracted to this project because it offered hands-on help to young people in the area to encourage them to consider careers in the hospitality industry. For more about these projects, you can visit the Spirit of Big Five Foundation.

We also added Ethiopia to our list of destinations. This endlessly fascinating country offers ancient cultures, history, natural beauty and a variety of adventures. Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa and the second-oldest official Christian nation in the world after Armenia. Its medieval rock-hewn churches of Lalibela and Gheralta, palaces and temples date back 3,000 years. It is home to the world’s fourth-holiest Islamic city as well as the oldest continuously occupied town south of the Sahara. Ethiopia also has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Africa. As the country begins to return to the international stage, we at Big Five are thrilled to share our enthusiasm for this dynamic re-emerging destination.

And as we launch into 2019, our newest edition of our ever-popular Navigator Series® Edition IV books will be here shortly. Very soon now, you will be able to get your own copy. You can order your copy on our website under the Contact Us section or follow this link to fill out an order form.

We look forward to a year of fabulous adventures. And we wish you the very best as we head into 2019.