Three-Time Sustainable Tourism Leadership Award

This Award is for You Mahen

Back In 2014, I was in shock when Big Five won the first of what would later be three of the Virtuoso sustainable tourism awards. At the time I was recovering in my hotel room after being under the weather when the phone rang over and over again. When I noticed the missed calls and heard the voicemails, each one started with the same message. “Where are you? you won!” honestly, I was stunned and overcome with emotion as I really didn’t expect to win, considering the great work others were doing. It was an affirmation that the journey we had embarked on 10 years before was indeed the right one, moving all in on sustainable tourism, a bold move that many years ago. We knew we were ahead of the curve and that the travel world was heading this way, and we would not waiver no matter what. It was in 2004 when we made this shift and knew this would define us as a company going forward as it was the foundation of Big Five. The notion of social responsibility was the entire reason I left a Fortune 500 financial firm to come back to the family business in 2002.

Once I made my way to the room, fashionably late of course, and received my award, I walked over to my mentor, who was sitting in the audience and asked him the same question I ask after receiving any award. “Did we earn this?” I was fully prepared to surrender the award, our first Virtuoso Sustainable Tourism Leadership award, if we didn’t earn it. I felt that strongly about the belief in giving a voice to the voiceless. Once I was comfortable receiving the award, I left the room quietly and called my parents, waking my father back in Florida. I exclaimed. We won with whatever voice I had left before crumbling into tears of joy. I heard my mother cry, and I heard my father clearly say, “We are not supposed to be here, but we dared to believe. Your mother and I are so proud of you.” He was emotional, too, though he was half asleep, so it was hard to hear a discernible difference. That moment was etched into my memory.

Fast forward to 2016, our second nomination. This time, my mother was home, recovering from a health scare earlier in the year while visiting family in India. My father was with me. He sat at a cheery table with friends from Direct Travel, and I sat at a table with friends from different adventure companies. I didn’t realize it but the last time we were both together like this was my college graduation! Big Five is called as the winner again, and I go racing up to the stage excited to meet my father up there, again overcome with emotion, this time because the images of my mother entered my thoughts immediately. You see, I watched my parents struggle from nothing when we arrived in America. They watched me struggle. At 17, I was told by many that I would never amount to what I believed I could be and that I should lower my expectations. It was the same when my father started hearing that about his future. It made our presence on that stage even more of a special occurrence. I didn’t know it yet; that would be the last time my father and I were ever in the same place again to receive an earned accolade.

In March of 2024, as many of you know, I lost my father to a head injury. This year’s VTW was my first without him, and we were nominated again for the Sustainable Tourism Leadership Award. To this day, I have to share all the drawers of trophies I have, academic and sports, which meant nothing because my father wasn’t there to watch them being received. The only award I cared about, and still care about, is this one. As our name was called for a rare third-time winner, all I could think about was my father. A jolt of energy like I had never felt before ran through me, and I just knew! my father was in the room. Overcome by emotions, all I could see was my father’s eyes, filled with pride. You may see a photo of me accepting, and yes, I was ugly crying. Those of you who have lost a parent know that they are always with you and likely know this energy I am talking about. I had never felt it to this degree like I did on this day. As I walked back to the table, award in hand, I looked up and said one thing… “What ya think Dad.” It was a day I will never forget.

The foundation project that allowed us this honor and put us in rare company funds the delivery of robots named mini Kipi to remote, underserved communities in Peru, providing education and preserving Indigenous languages in danger of being lost. Mini Kipi speaks 13 of the over 40 dialects in Peru and is growing. We brought her to Las Vegas to demonstrate a fraction of her capabilities for our advisor partners. This week’s video shares that experience.