Behind the Scenes with Vegan Adventure Holidays
Travelling can always cause a worry for vegans without local knowledge of where to find good plant-based food.
Lisa talks to Emma Fry about how she took her love of adventure, food and touring the world to create her Vegan Adventure Holidays business, and how she kept the business alive during a pandemic.
Everyone dreams about spending their life on holiday! How did you first get started running tours and is it as glamourous as it sounds?
I left the UK when I was just 17 with a rucksack and around £500 in my bank account on a mission to see the world! After living and working in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea I returned to Europe and started working as a Tour Manager for an adventure travel company in my early twenties. Fast forward ten years and that career took me around the world; I led trips in Europe, Africa, South & Central America and the USA, I had a blast! There’s absolutely nothing glamorous about running tours; it’s definitely a labour of love. The job is 24-7 with no days off, low wages and depending on which country you’re running trips in, it’s often pretty stressful having to navigate things like extreme weather conditions, civil unrest, travel delays and last-minute changes all while being responsible for the health, happiness and safety of a group of twenty people!
Many vegan companies don’t actually shout that they’re vegan, but you decided to put veganism front and centre. How did you know there would be demand for this?
The truth is I didn’t! This might be the part where I’m supposed to tell you all about how I researched my market but here’s what actually happened: I advertised one trip to Guatemala, it was a tough trip hiking 3 volcano hikes in one week and people booked, the trip sold out in a couple of weeks and that’s how it all began!
You would expect that most people booking a vegan holiday would be vegan themselves; is this always the case?
Interestingly, no. Although the majority of people who book on my trips are vegan, I still have a good percentage of people who are vegetarian or just curious about the vegan lifestyle. Everyone is welcome on a Vegan Adventure Holidays trip and a big part of what makes the groups fun is the diversity of the travellers.
The pandemic had almost totally shut down the holiday industry; how have you managed to scratch people’s travel itch when we’ve not been allowed to leave the country?
I have a really great community of vegan travellers in my Vegan Adventure Holidays Connect Facebook group, and since lockdown I’ve been doing a ‘virtual vegan travel festival’ online which has been so much fun! The live sessions have been with animal sanctuaries, vegan hotels and other vegan travellers, we’ve been ‘video bombed’ by a curious rooster in Colombia, met some of the cutest bunnies in America, found out the best top secret hiking spots in Scotland and so much more! All the replays are available on my website.
You take tours to some quite far out locations. What challenges do you have in ensuring people don’t just get vegan food but are also well fed?
This is something that’s been years in the making! I’ve been running trips in Latin America for 10+ years and have an extensive and wonderful network of local guides, accommodation owners, chefs, cooks and more who now all know and understand that not only do I need amazing vegan meals, I also need it to be nutritionally balanced. A whole plate of rice and half a carrot isn’t going to cut it for my highly valued guests!
We’re now more aware of the impact of travel on our environment. Is it possible to still visit amazing places in an ethical and environmentally responsible way?
Yes, whether you’re travelling independently or with a group spending some time really researching the area, culture, and customs of the country you intend on visiting is so important. By doing this you’ll be able to establish the most environmentally friendly way of travelling around once you arrive, have an idea of which areas might already be overpopulated when it comes to tourism and therefore be able to look for alternative locations, and have a better understanding of what is and isn’t acceptable when it comes to local customs and traditions.
Many people dream about setting up their own vegan business, but don’t always have the confidence or think they don’t have the skills or experience. What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about doing this?
Confidence comes with competence and sometimes the only way the gain competence in a specific area is to just get started! Setting up and running a business is definitely no small task and I would recommend making sure anybody doing this has a really good support system in place in order to be able to learn and grow both personally and professionally. The Vegan Business Tribe is the perfect example of this!
Lisa Fox says:
Emma has been incredibly creative with her business during a pandemic. Her innovative approach to Vegan Adventure Holidays during this time has kept her customers engaged and excited, and has also attracted new customers ready to book as soon as the industry restarts fully.
