By Rick Schleicher
Before the pandemic, Come To Galápagos, as a company, was cruising along, practically running and promoting itself. Everyone knew what to do and what to do when something snagged. For the last few years all of our guests were referred by others and we were as busy as we had ever been. We even had to add an extra marathon date in order to keep the field and impact small.
Enter the pandemic…
We have survived other crashes in the flow of tourism dollars. September 11, 2001. Everyone suddenly stopped flying internationally. 2008, economic meltdown, vacations are the first thing to get cut out of a budget, but the pandemic…
After a few months there was literally no money, no one had any money. So, what you would do, your kids are hungry, you fish, eat the eggs from your chickens, small amount of vegetables you have in your garden, but a day arrives when you take your wedding shirt, iron it, but it on a hanger and take it to the grocery market and ask if you can exchange it for a bag of rice. Next week you are taking your iron there. It has been almost a year and half since tourism has made any money in the Galápagos.
We were fortunate enough in that tourism isn’t our only source of income, but a lot of our friends, the extended family of Come To Galápagos, had relied on the guests we brought for their livelihood.
In an effort to get the ball rolling as fast as possible for our extended family, we refreshed our brand and redesigned our Come To Galápagos site–truth be told, Come To Galápagos needed a bit of a facelift anyway.
Aside from the new look and feel, we’ve also added greater functionality, navigation and a couple of exciting new areas like events and a blog page, starting with this one written by yours truly.
What we haven’t ‘redesigned’ however, and even more importantly, is our mission and goal which is to give you, our guests, the best vacation experience in the most eco-conscious manner.
We hope you enjoy our new Come To Galápagos site and would love your feedback. Even better, we hope you make plans to visit us this summer!