We Are All Startups Again

Rob Holmes | April 27, 2020

I love travel and the travel industry. That is why I started a content marketing agency to serve the travel industry 12 years ago. As this industry has been hit hard during these challenging times, I have to focus on the positive. It is who I am and have always been.

When I graduated from college, armed with a degree in Wildlife Management, a passion for photography, and the yearning for an adventure, I traveled solo around the world for one year. Despite no email, no cell phone, fifteen rolls of slide film and only calling my mom the first Sunday of every month, that experience instilled the lifelong calling to make a significant positive impact within the travel industry. In addition, I met so many amazing people from around the world and those fun and crazy multi-cultural experiences made me truly love and appreciate the world’s diversity. It also got me to value lifelong global friendships, despite the distance and only speaking English (but that’s another story, lol).

Years later when I started GLP Films, originally known as Green Living Project, the goal was to combine my passions for travel, conservation, business and media into a new company. The challenge was that ‘green’ or conservation was still in the radical hippy or ‘tree hugger’ era. So, I was determined to leverage my business experience to tell positive and successful stories of travel and (what became) sustainability to make an impact and help move the industry forward.

I could not be more proud of where GLP stands today. We have had the honor to work with over 150 diverse film partners across 50 countries. We have spearheaded storytelling and marketing campaigns across the travel industry, including important issues such as sustainability, wildlife conservation, food, culture, adventure, education and more. We have also been recognized by the travel industry and our peers with the highest awards and honors for our high quality, impactful and positive storytelling. Based on these learnings and personal relationships, I have had the utmost honor of working with many of you in creative and strategic ways to advance travel and sustainable tourism.

Amidst these difficult times, GLP has been forced to delay certain projects and put campaigns on hold. But our mission carries on. Because there are still positive stories in the travel industry. This chaotic pandemic has truly united the world and the travel industry. The time at home with family has forced all of us to slow down and focus on what’s most important. Based on conversations with our global film partners, this dramatic change and disruption has its positives. It has been a profound disruption of our collective lives that has brought out the best in all of us. It has been a wake-up call that has forced each of us to rethink our businesses, to innovate, to connect with others, and to determine how we will survive and be impactful in this new world. We are all startups again. While this crisis is incredibly challenging, I also find the challenge to find solutions invigorating and inspiring. So much positivity has come out of the newfound companionship, unity, and trust we have established (or re-established) with our immediate family, neighbors, local community, and others around the world. We are all truly in this together.

So, let’s embrace this time -- this time to reconnect to our values, friends, and family. Let’s start with a blank piece of paper. Let’s innovate. Let’s transform. Because life should always be about community and making a positive impact. Let’s do this. Together. #TourismStrong

~ Rob