entrepreneurs
still operate most of the business whilst out on the road.
The hero
Phil Colley, 46, from London The project The Oriental Caravan – in the footsteps of poets, pilgrims, merchants and explorers… www.theorientalcaravan.com
experience. We support local communities and grassroot projects whenever possible; avoiding the large charities and organisations and going for the projects where we know our money will reach the people on the ground rather than being wasted on petrol for 4x4s. A percentage of our turnover is donated to the conservation of endangered species throughout the world. We also just love what we do! In the office we are nearly all ex-guides or have worked in Africa or Asia for a fair stint…so we love to get back out there regularly and keep our knowledge up to date!
How did it all begin? When the original adventure travel companies that grew out of the overland ‘hippie dream’ at the end of the 60s and early 70s began to ‘sell out’ and become more commercial, I decided to try to keep the original spirit alive by setting up my own company. At the time I was working as a trek leader/tour guide for one of the biggest companies around and, though I have happy memories, when the new owners brought the ‘time and motion’ people in I realised it was time for me to move on. The original idea came to me in 2000 whilst working as Mandarin interpreter and ‘Mr Fix It’ on a vintage car rally that took me from Turkey right across Central Asia to Beijing. The idea was to set up the world’s first mobile travel company – a ‘travel company’ in its truest nomadic sense, because, although there is always the base in London, the company itself was travelling as I could
What is your travel philosophy?
Travel means meeting, learning and experiencing. It is one of the best educational tools that there is and it is through travel that you learn the most important lessons in life. Travel opens one’s eyes to other people’s challenges and everyday life scenarios which are very easy to ignore when sitting back in the comfort of the western world.
Miyajima torii – the floating gate to Itsukushima Shrine – at sunset
How did it come together?
It was a steep learning curve as I had to start everything completely from scratch. Having set up the first trip (to Japan!), I sent out a hand-written postcard to everyone on my list of former tour groups announcing the new venture. To my amazement I managed to get an almost full group for the very first departure. Since then the Caravan has pioneered some of the most exciting trips in the Far East and has certainly managed to visit the parts that other tourists seldom reach. What makes it so good?
We’re probably the smallest travel company in the world and remain totally independent. We’re certainly not dictated to by shareholders trying to squeeze as much profit as possible! We make a point of getting far beyond the ‘tourist façade’ to help our clients see a country as it really is – if the country has beautiful mountains you’ll see them, but if it has a dodgy human rights record, or a history it’s trying to hide, we’ll let you know about that, too. We travel in small, friendly groups, usually less than ten, escorted by the multilingual owner of the company (me!). This enables us to eat at small restaurants, drink at small bars where they know us well now, and stay in small, characterful accommodation. Obviously people have to make a certain leap of faith to travel with us but those that do generally never look back – we’ve been going for more than ten years, about half of our clients are multiple repeat customers and you only have to look at our client comments page to realise we must be doing something right. What is your travel philosophy? Travel is a privilege unavailable to most – those of us lucky enough to be able to travel have a duty to travel responsibly.
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