Conservation Conversations with Mountain Travel Sobek

Massimo Prioreschi is the president and CEO of Mountain Travel Sobek, based in Emeryville, California. It is North America’s oldest adventure travel company specializing in group and custom adventure travel across the globe, including hiking, trekking, rafting, wildlife, and cultural journeys. With a focus on sustainable and responsible tourism, MT Sobek aims to provide travelers with immersive experiences while minimizing their impact on the environment and local communities. Mountain Travel Sobek is a member of ATCF at the Adventure Steward level. “Sustainable and responsible travel is more important now than ever before,” says Prioreschi. “As we continue to grapple with the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss, it is imperative that we all take responsibility for our impact on the natural world.”

How does MT Sobek approach the issues of climate change, over-tourism, and other problems facing places?

We believe in the power of responsible, small-group tourism to support local communities and mitigate these problems. We offer off-the-beaten-path destinations such as Algeria, Turkmenistan, and Iraq, and we explore lesser-known trails in popular locations like Yosemite and the Alps. We promote traveling during shoulder seasons to spread out tourism throughout the year and reduce over-tourism during peak months. We mostly use local guides to reduce the carbon footprint of moving guides around the globe. We also use public transportation where possible. In our commitment to fighting climate change, we support conservation efforts, minimize waste, and encourage eco-friendly transportation and carbon offset programs for our travelers.

You’ve come in as an Adventure Steward of the ATCF, a $5,000-level annual commitment. Why?

I’m personally committed to supporting conservation efforts and, as an Adventure Steward of the ATCF, Mountain Travel Sobek can amplify its impact by banding together with like-minded companies. By supporting organizations like the ATCF, we can help to protect the places we love by supporting projects that solve sustainability issues in the places where we travel and help ensure that future generations can enjoy them as well.

The history of MTS is fascinating and goes back to the early days of modern adventure travel. What has that given you as you look to the future?

The company has always had a deep passion for sustainable and responsible travel. It has always been at the forefront of the small-group adventure travel industry, and since the beginning recognized the importance of respecting and protecting the local communities and environment that we visit.

One of our core values is to use local guides. Travelers not only get a more authentic and immersive experience, but it also supports the local economy by ensuring the benefits remain there. Local guides possess an intimate knowledge of the culture, history, and environment of their home regions, and they can offer insights and perspectives that would be impossible to gain otherwise.

In the future, we will continue to prioritize the protection of the natural environment and local cultures. This means reducing carbon footprints, minimizing waste and pollution both in the office and in the field, respecting local customs and traditions, and supporting local economies. By prioritizing these values, travel can become a force for positive change, promoting sustainable development and environmental conservation.

Tell us about a trip or place that changed you or your thinking.

A family trip to the Galapagos in 1997 had a profound impact on me. The wonder in my children's eyes as they interacted with the wildlife made me realize the importance of preserving these natural wonders for future generations. It was inspiring to see how wildlife can flourish while coexisting with travelers, but it requires a fiercely protective mindset from both visitors and locals.

The Galapagos Islands are an excellent example of the virtuous circle of conservation and tourism, balancing economic development with the protection of natural areas. The revenue generated from tourism provides the necessary funding for conservation efforts, which, in turn, helps to preserve the unique ecosystem that attracts visitors in the first place.

Learn more about Massimo Prioreschi and Mountain Travel Sobek on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube!

Conservation Conversation With Experience Plus! Bicycle Tours

Monica and Maria Elena Price are second-generation owners of two cycling travel companies, one based in the US and the other in Italy. The sisters (often mistaken for twins) own and operate BikesPlus (which supports tour operators and independent travelers on cycling tours and bike rentals in Europe) and Experience Plus! Bicycle Tours (the Colorado-based parent company that operates tours in over 10 different countries). This year the company celebrates 50 years since its first trip in 1972 when “our parents took 20 intrepid travelers from Pisa to Forli, across the Italian Apennines on bikes.” Experience Plus! has been an ATCF member since 2016. 

How does Experience Plus! tackle the issue of climate change?

While it can sometimes feel like a small company can’t do much, when we are out there helping people see the world from the bike saddle, it’s an opportunity to give them a different perspective from their usual perch. 

Climate change has become a part of our conversation at many stages of our trip management, sales, and development process. Interestingly, it is also now part of our communications with customers, especially when we talk about what to expect on tour. We now may have heat waves earlier in the season (think northern Europe in June or July). Many of the smaller, even four-star, hotels we like to use don’t have air conditioning, which in the past wasn’t an issue, but now it is getting warmer. So setting those expectations is key. 

The drought this year (2022) caused at least one of our “Bike and Boat” tours to divert from some of our normal canal routes, which required itinerary adjustments and communications just weeks before departures. As storms become more unpredictable and heat waves more intense, we have to train our tour leaders to make decisions on the ground for the comfort and safety of our travelers. It’s all very real to us, and to our travelers. The benefit is that it is an opportunity for conversation and ideas.

And what about overtourism?

Our travelers vividly see the contrast between riding on quiet roads in the countryside and then entering larger more popular towns. Our most iconic and best-selling trip is “Bike Across Italy,” which cycles from Venice to Pisa. This tour also passes through Florence. All three of these iconic Italian cities are currently trying to manage overtourism in different ways and our guests are directly affected. 

We stopped spending the night in Pisa almost 20 years ago when we realized that the hotel we used to use (right across from the Leaning Tower) wasn’t a comfortable place to stay because of noise, traffic restrictions, and crowds. We have conversations with our travelers about these issues and the possible solutions and we’re pleased that many come away realizing “off-the-beaten-track” towns such as Ravenna and Ferrara are equally rich in culture and history. So it’s not just about setting expectations but educating our guests, who will hopefully share what they have learned and take actions that make a positive difference. 

Many of our travelers become wonderful ambassadors for exploring the world by bike and cycling in general, so they are already making a difference.

Experience Plus! has been a supporter of the ATCF since the beginning. Why?

Few of our trips are in locations that ATCF typically ends up supporting the most, yet we truly believe in the industry coming together to sustain local people and fragile places wherever the funding is most needed. We are all part of the same community. 

It is important that all the stakeholders in the industry understand each has a part to play in protecting the planet. Sometimes we get so siloed in our own niches we forget the benefits of different groups coming together. Incredible ideas and solutions can come out of that. We think this is fundamentally important in how we address problems in the future. It’s the essence of community and we’re honored to be part of this one.

Why travel by bike? 

There’s something about exploring the world on two wheels. You can cover a lot of ground and feel it under your wheels so it’s a great way to immerse in the place. And there’s a general sense that people on bikes are approachable, so making connections between people is easy. We even design our trips and train our guides to facilitate planned and serendipitous connections. I [Maria Elena] recently was able to introduce some of my own friends to the world of bike travel. These were people who wouldn’t have chosen a bike trip otherwise—and the best part of the trip was hearing their exclamations of wonder and fun. They loved the freedom to explore and stop whenever they wanted and really valued the insider knowledge of our local guides. It was eye-opening for them and a good reminder for me about why we do what we do!

Learn more about Experience Plus! on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Conservation Conversation With Journalist Stephanie Pearson

Stephanie Pearson, contributing editor to Outside Magazine, author of the recent National Geographic book 100 Great American Parks, and ATCF member.

For Stephanie Pearson, the outdoors has always been a primary force, the reason she pursued a job as a wilderness canoe guide during her college years and at Outside magazine out of graduate school in 1995. During her junior year of college, she studied in Ecuador and Colombia, which cemented her love for and intrigue with Latin America. She started working at Outside and it further opened the world. The first ATTA event I attended was in Chiapas, Mexico, in 2011. “It was the first time I’d ever met so many like-minded travelers and it was an absolute blast.” She joined the ATCF when it launched in 2016.

Tell us about a story you’ve written that has meant a lot to you.

Stephanie in Colombia in 2012. Photo by Joao Canziani.

I was an exchange student in the early ‘90s in Colombia when the semester was cut short because of drug violence. Many years after, around 2011, the FARC announced a moratorium on kidnapping foreigners in order to start the peace process with the government. Through my ATTA friend Gregg Bleakney, who had recently moved to Bogota, I met tour operator and pilot Hernan Acevedo. He arranged to take the photographer Joao Canziani and me to formerly FARC-controlled regions. It was a logistically challenging, risky trip and we flew all over the place in a borrowed Cessna plane. But to see those stunning places—Pacific coastlines, llanos, mountain regions—in their near-natural states left an enormous impression on me and I am forever grateful to Gregg and Hernan. The resulting story, “Love in the Time of Coca," ran in Outside magazine.

Given everything, how does travel need to change and what are you doing personally and professionally?

Stephanie in Colombia in 2012. Photo by Joao Canziani.

I try to live by the general philosophy that I need to take personal responsibility for my choices. Translating that to travel, I am constantly weighing the risk versus reward ratio for my travel. Is it necessary that I go? Are there more sustainable options for getting there? When I do get there, what will I be doing and where will I be staying, and how does that affect the community? If it’s a work trip, will the resulting story have the opportunity to inform or change opinion? I’ve always been a writer who likes to stay put for a few weeks in a place to try to better understand it, so the no-brainer solution for me is to travel less (which I have generally been doing for the past five years), stay in places longer, and appreciate the experience more when I do go.

You’ve been a supporter of the ATCF since almost the beginning. Why?

Stephanie in Colombia in 2012. Photo by Joao Canziani.

The ATCF is a fundamental pillar of the ATTA. It’s at the core of the mission of the organization. We have to understand and support the people who live in the regions we’re traveling to, first to find out if they even want us there, and second to empower them to make their own decisions about how they can better live and intersect with visitors. I really appreciate the soul searching and awareness both the ATTA and ATCF are doing around travel and conservation. We are all hard-wired to wander, but we have to do it more thoughtfully.

Tell us about a trip or place that changed you or your thinking.

I recently wrote about this in Outside, but my last trip to Sedona, Arizona, was a wake-up call. My parents have traveled there to hike every winter since the 1990s. It’s a deeply spiritual place for me, but it’s also becoming increasingly overrun and overcrowded and I have begun to ask myself if I should be there or anywhere that cannot sustain the overwhelming amount of visitors it receives.

Check out Stephanie Pearson’s work at Outside and on her site.