Melissa Biggs Bradley On Staying Home in the Age of Coronavirus

Over the past 13 years since I started Indagare, I have watched travel possibilities expand as we introduced our community to places like Iceland, Madagascar, Raja Ampat and Lebanon. But in the last few weeks the world has closed to travel. Both the U.S. State Department and the CDC have issued their highest warning levels against foreign travel, and many states, including New York, where we operate, have issued executive orders for non-essential workers to stay at home. Even before those orders, we asked our team to begin working remotely, both for their own well-being and because we are committed to playing our part in containing the spread of this virus.

It is time for us to stay put and to follow social distancing guidelines. Instead of exploring the globe, we need to protect its most vulnerable and show our solidarity in this effort. As UNWTO Secretary General Zurab Pololikashvili said last week, “Tourism is uniquely placed to lead future recovery. Our sector will provide the jobs people need to bounce back and will drive economic growth that will help whole communities and countries recover. But for now, we must be patient and stand ready. By staying home today, we can travel tomorrow.”

In the meantime, the Indagare Team is available to you as advisors and will continue to inform and inspire you with news and stories from around the world, as well as special new initiatives to allow you access to our global community from the safety of your home. We know that what is at the heart of travel—connecting with others across oceans and borders—continues to be important to you, as it is to us, and we will strive to find creative ways to do this through storytelling. In these times of global heartache, we can still feed our souls and slake our curiosity, no matter where we are. We also remain committed to providing you with the latest updates and travel guidelines.

We know that this is a stressful time, and we want you to know that our thoughts are with you and your families. Many of our fellow Indagare members are on the front lines as medical professionals and we know that the burden on you is great. We send our deepest and most heartfelt gratitude to the doctors, nurses and healthcare workers for their service to this country and the world.

Finally, we are deeply grateful for our Indagare Community—all of you. We have been receiving ideas for new and additional services that you would like to see from us—please keep those ideas coming—along with an amazing outpouring of support for our team and the recognition of the travel memories that we have helped to create over the years. We look forward to doing so again, when the time is right.

To address the questions we have been fielding about COVID-19, we have collected a list of FAQs and answers.