Dear reader,
I have been covering the travel industry since I joined industry newspaper Travel Weekly (prior to AFAR) as a budding reporter in 2007. My initiation party was the global financial collapse. I will never forget watching the markets unravel and bring down with them demand for travel and the travel companies that rely on that demand. At the height of the crisis, it seemed like almost weekly (if not daily at times) readers were emailing us their desperate pleas as they tried to track down companies (and the payments they were holding) that were no longer picking up the phones. I felt compelled to find and provide answers, as I am now, even as the industry that supplied my livelihood appeared to be crumbling right before my eyes. The coronavirus is one of numerous crises affecting the travel industry over the past 13 years that Michelle Baran has covered. In the following years, I covered crisis after crisis: the H1N1 pandemic (which resulted in upwards of 60 million cases and more than 12,000 deaths in the USA alone); the Arab Spring (I was sent to Egypt one month after the 2011 uprisings began); Ebola (ooof); the 2015 Paris terror attacks (I traveled to Paris one day after they took place); Zika (I was pregnant so this one hit close to home); and devastating hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes among so many others. (Remember the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic ash cloud? The name alone was a nightmare for anyone covering it.)
Each time, in the heat of the moment, it often felt so incredibly overwhelming and all-consuming and like it might never end, not unlike the current coronavirus outbreak. Yet each time, we came out on the other side. Likewise, this too shall pass. Not today, unfortunately not tomorrow either, but this too will eventually be in the rearview mirror. And until COVID-19 is behind us, AFAR will be here to provide useful information, resources, and perspectives—such as the answers to your burning travel-related coronavirus questions. But just as importantly, we will continue to provide you with the inspirational travel stories that inform everything that we’re about at AFAR. Still want to go on spring break this year? Consider a domestic road trip instead. These are the stories on AFAR.com that have brought a much-needed smile to my face in recent days:
Escape the news cycle for a little bit and read about Zenith Irfan, the motorcycle woman of Pakistan. If you’re anything like us, you’ve been eager for anything humorous and heart-warming of late. These are some of things we’re loving away from AFAR that are getting us through:
If you still have questions or concerns about coronavirus, or just want to share some encouraging COVID-19 developments or anecdotes (we’d love to hear where you are still going this spring), reply to this email with your questions or comments, or send us a note at news@afar.com.
Deep breaths and positive thoughts. We’re all in this together,
Michelle Baran Travel news editor
Afar Media 130 Battery St. Ste. 600 San Francisco, CA 94111
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