Meet Geordie Mackay-Lewis, Co-founder and CEO of Pelorus, London

We founded Pelorus in 2017 to approach experiential travel and yachting in a different way. We exist to transform people’s perspectives of the world and our impact on the planet through immersive and sustainable experiences.

Think about how you want to feel when you are on the plane home. Is it creatively inspired because you’ve devoured world-class art or feasted in sensational restaurants? Is it physically exhausted because you’ve conquered a lofty peak or celebrated into the early hours? Or is it calm and zen because your days have been spent practicing yoga deep in the jungle, cocooned from the outside world? Once you have decided on this, you can plan everything else around it.

Visiting the Island of Socotra, which is sandwiched between Yemen and Somalia. This culturally rich island consists of age-old fishing communities around its coastline and Bedouin herders in the mountains. It has four different environments and 70% endemic flora. It is a place stuck in time, a lost island forgotten by the rest of the world.

Cookie-cutter chain hotels that do not have a sense of place nor individual identity, or ones that have a brash theme that attracts the Instagram crowd.

I was lucky enough to be gifted a special Yemeni knife, with intricate carvings in silver that belonged to a tribesman in the Hadramout region of Yemen. Not long after that trip, the country descended into civil war, so it reminds me we must make the most of every opportunity to see the world now, as we don’t know what tomorrow holds. Sadly I could not bring the knife back.

The travel community remains incredibly positive in the face of adversity, and I hope that we can continue developing as a force for good and moving towards a more sustainably led approach.