The Power of Travel: Why Travel in 2017 is More Important Than Ever

As 2016 comes to a close, it brings us great happiness when past travelers personally take the time to contact our TTC team members to recount their life-changing experiences while traveling with us. As a four generations family-run business, we have learnt, grown and evolved together with our loyal guests who may have started their travel journeys as teenagers with our millennial brands, Contiki and Busabout, to experiencing multi-generational family adventures with Trafalgar or Uniworld, and then enjoying our premium and luxury style of travel with Insight Vacations and Uniworld in their golden years.

I will be sharing with you shortly my 2017 #TTCTop10 Bucket List with some exciting destinations and outstanding itineraries, which we sincerely hope will inspire you to create your own bucket list, since there is no better time to fulfill your travel dreams than the present moment and as a fresh new year begins. The best holiday gift that you can give to yourself and loved ones is a lifetime of unforgettable and enriching memories, rather than just collecting material ‘things”.

With all the festive holiday celebrations and the anticipation of ushering in the New Year, I always feel a sense of renewal and optimism for a better tomorrow. I also feel a sense of gratitude and heightened responsibility to be an active changemaker in our vibrant and ever-changing travel industry.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, my participation at UNWTO’s “Tourism for Peace and Development” Beijing conference in May reinforced that tourism is a force for good and is an ongoing a catalyst for positive change. We wholeheartedly support organizations such as Tourism Cares, the non-profit, philanthropic arm of the travel and tourism industry (which was started after the 9/11 attacks) where we collaborate as a united community to give back and champion our amazing industry’s corporate social responsibility. On November 4th, my wife Miranda and I participated in their New York Harbor restoration project including Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty and Liberty State Park with more than 300 other volunteers who represented 88 different travel companies from 23 states and 2 provinces.

As we welcome 2017 shortly, the United Nations 70th General Assembly and the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) have designated 2017 as the “Year of Sustainable Tourism” and we as a company are enthusiastically committed to supporting these outstanding initiatives with other industry leaders. Our organization will be making an announcement in the New Year regarding TTC’s global involvement with the UNWTO. Also, as the co-founder of our not-for-profit, TreadRight Foundation, we will continue to help ensure that we travel in a sustainable way, leaving behind smaller footprints and more respect and understanding for the local communities which we visit, while providing positive social and economic impacts.

Please join us on this journey as we celebrate this special year of sustainable tourism of what unites us and not what divides us. So please travel further, explore and protect our beautiful world and keep creating these positive interactions amongst each other.

Best wishes for a bright, healthy and wanderlust inspired New Year,

Brett