Meet LiNGER: And get planning your big sabbatical
LiNGER is a luxury travel company specialising in sabbaticals and longer holidays, where travellers LiNGER longer, travel responsibly, immerse themselves in the culture, absorb, engage, and explore.
We talk to the founder of LiNGER, Steve Wilson, about where the idea for LiNGER first came from, how the travel industry has been affected by Coronavirus, and his top tips and advice for anyone who was planning to take a sabbatical.
Guyana, Kaieteur Falls
“The trips I plan encourage people to linger longer, the slow-life approach, taking time to explore as well as absorb a destination.”
Hello and welcome to The To Do List! Tell us a little bit about yourself.
A brief foray into the world of finance lead me to taking an indefinite time-out to travel a full circle overland through Latin America – from Mexico to the southern tip of Ushuaia in Argentina and then back up through Brazil. The impetus was a year spent in Mexico to learn Spanish and after that I just wanted to discover more. Planning my own travels, lead to planning for family and friends which eventually lead to my career path as a trip designer.
Colombia - LLanos
Where did the idea for LiNGER first come from?
One of the most powerful memories from my own travels was of the volunteer experiences in Nicaragua (working with a bakery micro-business where Dona Elvia would spend the day making pineapple pasteles and then sell them on the chicken buses); Belize (working with micro-finance for micro-businesses) and Bolivia (daily care of a mal-treated ocelot – walking, feeding for 10 hours a day). Having then spent over 15 years in luxury travel, I wanted to bring an element of ‘giving back’ and voluntourism to experiential luxury travel. LiNGER was created to fulfil a small, yet growing niche of people who want a longer tailor-made holiday or sabbatical and have the time and inclination to dedicate a part of their trip to getting involved and giving back.
Talk us through what you do and who you’re aiming it at
I provide a highly personalised private travel design service to Latin America and Asia with other destinations to follow as the company slowly expands. I try to meet all my clients in person and then work through a number of itinerary versions until the trip is agreed. Everything is then set up through my black-book of contacts and I remain in touch to support all travellers before, during and after they return. Sabbatical trips are often planned over a year in advance and the relationship with the client really develops and changes from that first formal encounter to more relaxed travel chats in a pub to run over the final details just before they set off. I work with a lot of law firm and accountancy partners, as well as clients on gardening leave or those taking a career break. Many of my clients are families and so the time together on a sabbatical trip really is about reconnecting and immersing themselves in a destination.
How did you go about launching? Did you need to raise any funds, create your own branding etc?
As a small niche in the travel industry, I tried a variety of marketing initiatives to get the brand launched from targeted print media to facebook ads and google PPC. Ultimately however a lot of the business is driven by word of mouth. It will be a slow burner but I’m in this for the long term.
“As a small niche in the travel industry, I tried a variety of marketing initiatives to get the brand launched from targeted print media to Facebook ads and Google.”
Tell us about the name - where does it come from and what does it mean?
I wanted a simple brand name which conjured up the image of travelling slowly for an extended period of time. The trips I plan encourage people to linger longer, the slow-life approach, taking time to explore as well as absorb a destination.
What steps of creating and launching LiNGER has surprised you the most? What parts have you enjoyed?
Costa Rica
It has felt hugely rewarding in going from concept to launch and seeing the company go live with the website, marketing ideas coming to fruition and generally seeing the business start to grow. Everything always takes longer than you imagine so being patient and accepting that there is always tomorrow to carry on working through the growing to-do list. The website in particular can feel arduous but after finally tagging correctly over 1500 photos, there is a sense of achievement as well as relief!
What parts of creating LiNGER have been the most tricky and what have you learnt along the way?
Getting the branding consistent throughout has felt challenging as well as the design of the itinerary presentation. Every tailormade trip is completely different to another and so there are limited opportunities to automate processes however I have learned quite a bit on the technology side to make the work more efficient.
Social media too can be difficult to maintain momentum when it isn’t something you’ve ever done a lot of beyond the occasional photo post. There is a lot of pressure to be posting on ever-growing platforms which takes time when trying to be creative and relevant and this is something I need to improve and be more consistent with.
Who do you see as your main competitors and why is LiNGER different and better?
Travel companies traditionally focus on a specific market be it mainstream travel to 5 star luxury. LiNGER trips will typically have everything from a night under canvas to a boutique luxury hotel as part of the experience. It’s the less-obvious side of luxury travel, heavily focused on life experiences and fully planned around an individual’s interests and wish-list. Nothing is cookie-cutter.
Tikal - Guatemala
The travel industry has understandably been hugely affected by Coronavirus around the world. What are your predictions for travel post lockdown?
The bounce-back for the travel industry is going to be a slow one and this will be one of the last industries I think to re-emerge. Initially, I assume the domestic travel markets will kickstart the industry with Brits travelling in the UK, then perhaps venturing to safe havens in Western Europe and eventually to further afield. Aside from the die-hard traveller-types, I see people being more cautious with where they go, ensuring their comfort zone isn’t breached and knowing they have access to good healthcare. We also have to wait and watch as new entry/exit requirements are introduced based around a person’s health records, self-isolation, new checks at airports and immigration procedures. I can imagine private villas, private aviation, yacht charters and self-catering being popular as a way to minimise contact with others and that larger midrange hotels will struggle as social distancing is harder in a busy resort which functions on volume.
Do you have any tips and advice for anyone who was planning to take a sabbatical - is there anything they can still do and plan whilst lockdown is in place?
The lockdown is the ideal time to start the planning process. Planning early is always highly recommended and essential when a trip is logistically complex. Most of us are spending more time at home than ever before with perhaps more time to read, research and engage in future life/travel plans and so a great opportunity to have an itinerary setup for the future.
What are your plans and hopes for the future of LiNGER...what’s next?
At the moment it’s a case of survival, as with all of us in the travel industry, work dried up and will remain that way for the bulk of this year I imagine. My hope is seeing the revival of the travel industry but in a considered and conscious way that is less damaging to the environment and continuing with a sustainable and regenerative approach. Supporting local individuals and businesses, travelling less frequently on longer trips, moving around slowly overland, with fewer flights. These are all elements that I encourage on a LiNGER trip.
“My hope is seeing the revival of the travel industry but in a considered and conscious way that is less damaging to the environment and continuing with a sustainable approach.”
What are your top 3 recommendations - podcasts, books, people to follow, sources of inspiration etc. and why?
I’m a big fan of Charlie Boorman and Ewan MacGregor’s Long Way Up and Long Way Round series as they encompass everything I look for in an extended trip. Adventure, off the beaten path, a sense of the unknown, physical challenges, local encounters, life-changing experiences, exploring at your own pace.
I also like to watch the early Michael Palin series of 80 Days, Pole to Pole and Full Circle as he was a childhood inspiration for what my eventual career became.
Simon Reeve has also produced some excellent travel shows which are insightful and hard-hitting.
What were you doing this time last year? What have you learnt or how have you changed since then?
This time last year I had just returned from a research trip to Bhutan, a new destination for me. It was kind of life-changing and if anywhere in the world epitomises what I’m trying to achieve with LiNGER, it is Bhutan. The country has a calming effect with its general ethos on how people live, feel fulfilled and respect for their natural environment. The remote mountain kingdom with a small population, an unhurried pace, tasteful homestays and boutique hotels as well as plenty to do to keep active is a possible perfect destination post lockdown.
Lake Peten - Guatemala
One Year On
Following what's happened over the past year - how have the various lockdowns and impact on travel impacted you and your business idea and what have you had to change?
I don’t think anyone could have imagined that one year on, the restrictions from a travel point of view would be stricter than they were at the very beginning of the pandemic. It is still about survival but also about the reawakening of travel and tourism and how to prepare for that. Whereas a year ago I would have said to avoid travel to not feel like you’re part of a confusing science experiment, I now feel that the future of travel will rely on us adapting, accepting and living with new measures, restrictions and procedures from airport formalities to individual country regulations. So many countries rely on tourism, especially developing nations where there just isn’t the financial support to individuals, small businesses, conservation or wildlife projects and so the sooner it is safe and legal to travel again, the sooner small communities, wildlife protection and conservation initiatives can look forward to an income from tourism to sustain themselves. LiNGER’s approach has always been to support local and this ideology will only strengthen as we take on an even more granular approach to the supply and partner chain ensuring that funds from tourism are going to those that need it most.
Sabbatical travel for many will be a strange and new concept but the established new-norm of working from home / anywhere-in-the-world does open the door to longer, extended stays combining ‘living’ with travel and here I see a huge opportunity for tourism to slow down and be more immersive. In light of this, I have been working on a major project to roll out signature sabbatical trips to lesser-known destinations and showcase local projects where someone could volunteer and get involved in-country. The goal is to highlight the opportunity of a month in Costa Rica for example taking in the must-sees as well as regions in their tourism infancy, emerging destinations and ensure tourism wealth has a wider spread instead of one or two bucket-list highlights where over-tourism is a concern. Costa Rica is the ultimate nature and family-friendly destination which has coped incredibly well with the pandemic and has been open to tourists since November 2020 with no PCR or quarantine requirements. It is inspiring to see a destination like this reopen borders, manage a restart to tourism and not see a huge new wave of covid infections or a healthcare system overwhelmed and my hope is for many destinations to follow suit over the coming months and year.
The impact of the pandemic has highlighted the importance to protect our planet and everything within it and some powerful David Attenborough documentaries really have stressed the urgency of this. As we have endured the pandemic, my hope is that tourism will play a strong role in educating us in the need to do more. If we all did a little, the global impact will be huge. My other key project in covid-time has been to partner with an old university friend on a new project to offer free online video English lessons to children in poorer communities around the world. The Grammar Goat Foundation will be launched as the non-profit arm of a profit-with-purpose English language online learning initiative tailored to the travel industry in countries where English isn’t the mother tongue and where education opportunities are more limited.
This has arisen now that Zoom calls are globally accepted as a far more connecting means of communication compared to impersonal emails or just simple phone calls. The opportunity to teach and learn via video call is a direct result of lockdown living and the hope is to be able to connect more easily with far-flung destinations and give someone the opportunity to improve their English.
THE GRAMMAR GOAT FOUNDATION
SUPPORTING CHILDREN IN THEIR ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION
The Grammar Goat Foundation is a non-profit enterprise with a mission to deliver free English language lessons to children who live in areas that may not benefit from a multi-cultural, global education. We believe in progress for every child. We believe in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and we are committed to creating a shared future as a global community. We believe in giving every child the chance to progress in our SDG era.
Our English lessons are for children aged 5-17. Like the goat, our students must be intrepid explorers, in search of English language powers they never knew they had!
For more information about our foundation, our mission and how to apply for free lessons for children in your community, please email us: foundation@thegrammargoat.com
How are you feeling as we slowly come out of lockdown this time around?
Cautiously optimistic and more driven than ever. There is a sense of frustration of having so much productive work time taken away by the pandemic but this has allowed time to reflect and improve on the existing and explore new ventures which are more meaningful.
“The travel ‘bug’ remains as strong as ever and the desire to be back on the road is a major itch needing a major scratch but travelling with more purpose will be just as much fun and rewarding if not more than previously. One thing is for sure, we all need a holiday!”
Want to learn more about LiNGER? Visit their website www.linger.co.uk and give them a follow on Instagram @linger.travel.sabbaticals, Facebook @linger.travel.sabbaticals or LinkedIn @linger-travel.
