Travel has underpinned all of Gavin’s major decisions, shaping not just the trajectory of his life, but his own sense of self. At 15, he escaped his hometown of Edinburgh (UK) to set up home in the Far East, learning “Bahasa” (Malay), and travelling throughout Southeast Asia. A few years later, he swapped the tropics for a more frigid Montreal, and a degree International Relations and Mandarin. One-too-many winters later, the Chinese Government sponsored his return to Asia, where Mandarin night-classes were eventually traded for a position at a Shanghai-based travel magazine – his first, unexpected foray into the travel industry, from which he has never looked back. Travel affords a genuine connection with other peoples, cultures and ways of life and in its truest sense, teaches compassion, patience and humility and enriches our experience of this world – and sharing that with others inspires him on a daily basis.
Gavin Crawford
