Social Responsibility

The Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge shelters solitary manatees year-round, but their numbers increase to around 600 individuals from mid-November through March, when they retreat to the Three Sisters and other natural hot springs as ocean temperatures drop. 

With everything taking place in the world from the coronavirus pandemic, global recession, and America’s racial reckoning, even a brief escape from these problems can be an elixir for the body, mind, spirit, and soul.

    It’s evening in the small African nation of Burundi, and the waning sun throws shadows over the city of Bujumbura. In the old Land Rover, we bump and jostle our way through the crowded dirt roads of the capital. Before we left the mission station where my husband’s family lives, we picked up a few Burundian friends who were going the same direction. I struggle to make casual conversation in Swahili, the unfamiliar syllables falling heavily from my tongue. The boy next to me is patient, and he smiles broadly at each clumsy attempt to communicate. Something I have learned during my short time in Burundi is that the people are rarely judgmental. They appreciate your interest in their culture, although they don’t mind laughing good-naturedly at your fumbles. Children of Burundi We pull up to our destination: a modest two-room home built of mudbricks. Small children stare [...]

  On January 13, 1888, a small group of explorers and scientists, 33 in all, gathered at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC. (A place where DC members of the famed Explorers Club, including World Footprints, meet today.) They proposed to organize a society "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural, historical, and natural resources." Two weeks later, they incorporated the National Geographic Society . Alexander Graham Bell, the Society's second president, proposed a magazine, sales of which would help fund the Society's activities. In 1899, Bell's son-in-law Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor was named the first full-time editor of National Geographic magazine. He served the organization for fifty-five years (until 1954), and members of the Grosvenor family have played important roles in the organization since. Bell and Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor devised the successful marketing notion of Society membership and the first major use of [...]

World Footprints commemorates the anniversary of the terrifying attack that changed the world and brought heroes to the front-line. You will hear from survivors their first-hand account of the events as they experienced them.

In a small town in the southwestern region of Nepal, Eva the rescue elephant and her new companion Lhamo are sprouting a charming kinship.

Today on World Footprints, we welcome back, author and television host, Rick Steves. We enjoy a very thought-provoking discussion about a range of topics from the current pandemic and social issues to the challenging issues facing the travel industry today.

For many people, including myself, while travelling the world is a passion, it is important to simultaneously make a positive change in communities and the environment in which we are exploring. This is known as social impact travel.

As if Bali hasn’t been suffering enough with the economic blow of COVID-19, locals are also battling a catastrophic environmental disaster as an abnormal amount of plastic washes up along popular tourist beaches Kuta & Seminyak.

My last trip was in February 2020, just a month before the coronavirus pandemic shut much of the world down for months on end.

Looking back at the previous year is seriously lacking in travel nostalgia. Looking forward is shrouded in uncertainty.

It’s the statement no traveller wants to hear: “Please Don’t Come Here”.