Here is an edited excerpt from this week’s CxO newsletter. To get this to your inbox, sign up here.
Greetings from Doha, where I’ve spent several hours in an airport lounge, waiting for a connecting flight home as my three kids slept in a transit hotel. What’s a 15-hour wait when I can get from New York to Nairobi for 80,000 American Airlines mileage points in this summer of sky-high ticket prices?
We spent the night at Doha’s airport because a Qatar immigration official wouldn’t issue my son a transit visa on an emergency U.S. passport issued. (Surprise!) Oryx Airport Hotel had a room with three single beds, so my kids were sent to their room while I set up camp by a giant yellow teddy bear. Luckily, I had a chance to see the stunning National Museum of Qatar with Sheikh Khalifa Bin Abdulla Al-Thani, a Qatari filmmaker, curator and visual artist, on my way to Kenya.
Tourism is a leap of faith on all sides. The traveler spends an often-significant chunk of change to go somewhere unfamiliar, hoping for good weather, even tempers, and joyful memories of unique experiences. The host tries to create those experiences, hoping for happy customers, healthy profits and plenty of five-star reviews. Neither typically gets exactly what they want. That seems to be especially true for those hitting the road this summer—or winter, if you’re south of the equator.
A Silent Predator
For one thing, the weather is increasingly unpredictable–or, some would argue, predictably less tolerable because of climate change. My 18-year-old son has been saving to travel to a part of Europe that’s now scorched by a record-shattering heatwave. Suddenly, the campgrounds that seemed like a smart way to see the Amalfi Coast on a tight budget sound stifling, if not dangerous. Access to an air conditioner is more important than a nice view. Those long hikes. Um, don’t.
Unlike hurricanes and wildfires, which most sane travelers try to avoid, extreme temperatures can be deceiving. As Jeff Goodell points out in his new book, ‘The Heat Will Kill You First,’ heat is a silent killer. And yet kill it does, with almost twice as many people dying from extreme heat as from firearms every year–a figure that’s likely to increase as the world gets hotter. Anyone who’s experienced sunburn on vacation knows adapting to new climates can be a trial-and-error exercise.
Buyer Beware
Record-breaking temperatures also impact tourism services—or at least they should. While employers may not be legally required to protect workers from the risks of extreme heat–only three U.S. states have heat exposure standards for all outdoor workers–they can’t put lives at risk. Tourism operators may also find themselves liable for the consequences if they don’t provide adequate protection to customers.
Then again, liability can be a fickle thing, especially outside the U.S. When half a dozen kids started violently throwing up within an hour of each other at Laikipia Wilderness Camp–two of whom were mine–staff were quick to blame the river (though my daughter hadn’t swam in it) and the sun. I saw owner/manager Steve Carey only once in the next three days, when I insisted he visit my dehydrated son was running a fever. But he did call a doctor and tell our guide that his son, who’d arrived from boarding school after the drama started, was also a bit sick so it couldn’t have been food poisoning. On with the show!
When Peponi Hotel’s Carol Korschen encouraged my sons to try slalom waterskiing with a few minutes’ notice and virtually no training, only to have one return with a four-inch gash on the back of his head that required stitches and a CT scan, she shrugged it off as a “freak accident”—noting that she’s trained the staff how to ski herself and sent three year olds off to do it.
I believe her. Prior to my sons’ impromptu trip, Korschen did get down on the floor to demonstrate a masterful stance honed through years of 7 a.m. slaloms. This is adventure travel and I’m talking to a native Kenyan who’s kept a hotel started by her in-laws alive despite the pandemic, the death of her husband and challenges from heroin addiction to terrorist activity that’s impacted travel to Lamu Old Town, the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa. Like many of her peers, she’s also invested in protecting wildlife and the environment.
For white Africans whose families have held fast to their property, power or other privileges through decades of political change and wildlife attacks–Laikipia’s white staff swapped tales of warding off lions and wild boars as the night air was punctuated with the sound of people throwing up–a possible virus or bang on the head must seem like kids’ stuff. Caveat emptor.
The Joy Of Travel
In the end, it was all part of the adventure–the highlight of which was meeting local Kenyans who introduced us to floating bars, roadside restaurants, artisan guilds, studios, safari parks and their homes. The vistas and wildlife were stunning. It would be a shame if tourist numbers start to drop again amid recent anti-government protests in Nairobi and stepped-up attacks on locals by the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab in Lamu country. While the trip was a financial stretch for this single mom (and University of Nairobi grad), it was worth it.
Kenya remains a hub of entrepreneurship and innovation. Initiatives like Octavia Carbon, Mwale Medical & Technology City, and the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (more on that later) are models for the world, not just Kenya. Relative newcomers like the Chapman family of Ololo Safari Lodge in Nairobi and Jose Serrano of Masai Mara’s Enkewa Camp are working closely with local guides, partners and entrepreneurs to invest in the communities in which they operate.
And forgive those of us who do dumb things like extreme sports without training or knowing the cost (Korschen waived the waterskiing charge) or taking a selfie that causes a huge crash during the Tour de France. Whether travel insurers are willing to cover such mishaps is another matter. Happy travels.
Read the full article here