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Something clicked the day I discovered a stack of Transitions
Abroad magazines in the Quito
office of South American Explorers in the early 1990s. It was
a perfect moment and I devoured the available issues. The magazine
was insightful and carried the voice of friendly travelers,
the fellow readers with whom you would want to travel. The voice
was one that respected people and place and invited others to
join the adventure.
I corresponded with the publisher Clay Hubbs and came on board
to help edit the Latin America and ecotourism sections. There
is so much I learned from this experience.
Clay Hubbs passed away on March 29, 2007.
Clay pioneered a different way of seeing travel. There are
many ways that Transitions Abroad broke the mould, but the most
important was Clay's insistence on responsible travel. "My
simple reasoning was that if we visit other countries for our
benefit in order to learn from them, it doesn't make a lot of
sense to mess up their culture and environment," Clay told
me a few years ago in an interview.
Transitions Abroad provided a space for documenting first-hand
experiences, not just of where to but how to travel. The mission
of the magazine would be to document travel that changes us,
travel that is mind-expanding and travel that involves learning.
Clay and had a number of sublime conversations and I was surprised
when his son Greg told me that his father wasn't too eager to
talk on the phone.
COLLABORATION
Some of my all-time favorite collaborative experiences have
been with Transitions Abroad. In we conducted research
on responsible travel that was incorporated into the November/December
issue. It was the culmination of several years of documenting
ecotourism and responsible tourism providers and this time around
we asked how well the organizations walked their own talk. It
made a good resource even better.
In 2006 Sherry Schwartz asked for assistance in developing
a PDF manual, the Responsible
Tourism Handbook. It's one of the best manuals of its kind.
Working with Clay's son, I have contributed special features
to the website.
As the website takes on a stronger role in 2008, I look forward
to continuing to honor Clay's memory by continuing to contribute
to the responsible travel section.
RESPONSES
Another Transitions Abroad contributor, Deborah McLaren, also
pays tribute to Clay, saying that "he laid the groundwork
for responsible tourism. I will greatly miss him. He was the
first to print our stories and cheer us onward!"
REFERENCES
Clay
Hubbs: Transitions Abroad
Conversation
with Clay Hubbs - Rolf Potts
Gregory
Hubbs: Remembering Transitions Abroad Founder Clay Hubbs - World
Hum
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