NATGEOTRAVEL.COM
85th birthday in Iceland. My next trip is to Guatemala.
You never get too old to travel,” she wrote. Since then
she turned 88 at Petra and has planned journeys to the
Philippines, Vietnam, and Cambodia in 2020.
Traveler was launched in 1984 as “an educational
travel resource.” At that time, National Geographic
Society president Gilbert M. Grosvenor said that he
wanted this magazine to “inspire members to go and
experience” the world in a way that would complement
National Geographic, “which has taken its readers to
places most of us will never reach.” North America
was the magazine’s initial focus, but our coverage
quickly expanded to include the world—places, people,
experiences, ideas, and, increasingly, sustainability
challenges, now that some 1.4 billion people travel each
year. Along the way, and with credit to visionary editors
including Keith Bellows, we went online, published
books and special editions, pioneered new mediums
with our Digital Nomads, and gobbled up Instagram,
where we now have nearly 35 million followers.
While it’s bittersweet to say bon voyage to Traveler,we are going out with a bang. The week we shipped this
issue to press, the Society of American Travel Writers
Foundation honored us with our industry’s version of
the Oscars. We nabbed eight awards, including best
travel magazine and travel website in the country.
Editors often get credit for the extraordinary efforts
of their teams. But it’s the collective work of dozens of
people that make any endeavor successful. Brilliant
photo and design teams, text editors with wise ideas
and sharp pencils, digital wunderkinds, wordsmiths,
fact-checkers, sales and communications superstars,
and production experts who ensure that National
Geographic yellow #ffce00 rolls off the press looking
exactly like National Geographic yellow #ffce00.
As it happens, I have been affiliated with this title
for 21 years. Things have changed. But what hasn’t is
our passion for a great tale. The writers, photographers,
and illustrators we have worked with are the best in
the world. They are our eyes and ears, our braver alter
egos, our creativity, our ambition, our heart. We cannot
begin to list them all, but we can extend our gratitude
for their nomadic magic. The goal of a travel story is to
inspire curiosity, engage the senses, and stir a desire
to see faraway places—perhaps, as T.S. Eliot wrote, to
arrive where you started and know the place for the first
time. Here’s a secret: we never expected readers to go
everywhere. Some journeys remain in the imagination;
maybe that’s where they live most fully. But others take
wing in the world. Armchair traveler or expeditioner:
if you start with a good story, you’ll end with a good
story. What happens in the middle is up to you.
What has changed in travel storytelling over the
years? I think we are seeing a shift away from the exte-
rior and toward the interior, away from the individual
and toward the collective. Tales of heroic exploits are
giving way to journeys that reveal the layered world we
share and the inner realms that make us human. This
shift reflects an emerging sense of connectedness in
the world as we face serious ecological, political, and
economic challenges. Travel—immersion in a new
place, exchange of ideas with other people—can be a
remedy to these problems. The future of travel writing
will be to see what we have been missing all along.
Caring for the planet has been a defining value of
National Geographic since our founding in 1888. These
days, travelers are increasingly aware of the footprint
they leave behind. Sustainable tourism—including
efforts to protect the environment, address climate
change, minimize plastic consumption, and expand
economic development in communities affected by
tourism—is the urgent topic we will continue to cover
to help travelers explore the world with local benefit
and at a diminished ecological impact.
You might say that in redoubling our efforts online,
we will be reducing the environmental impact of these
pages. True! But I know that our magazine has brought
inspiration, discovery, and joy to readers. That has
been our goal, and with your support we have been
able to explore the world, come home with a tale, and
complete the journey by sharing it with you. Thank
you for traveling with us. We await our next adventures
together. —George W. Stone, Editor in ChiefEDITOR’S NOTE
BY GEORGE!
Cover Story
“The Grand Canyon belongs to all—
and to no one. Whereas those who
love the canyon belong to it,” wrote
environmentalist Edward Abbey in
the debut issue of Traveler, in 1984.
The cover of our final issue pays
homage to the first, and to the writers
and photographers whose voices
have graced our pages. We will
continue to publish monthly cover
stories and visual travel narratives
online at natgeotravel.com.REBECCA^
HALE/NATIONAL^ GEOGRAPHI
C