Kevin Rushby

Kevin Rushby is a journalist facing an existential crisis, like many of us in the age of global warming – he is cursed with a love of travel but very aware of the impact of climate change. At the same time, his research has identified plenty of long-haul holidays that really do benefit local communities where tourism is vital. His solution has been to adapt a “flexitarian” approach to long-haul travel, whereby if we are going to fly, it should be for extraordinary and important reasons, for longer visits and where the money from the trip truly benefits host communities.

In 2023, Kevin made a month-long, 3,000-mile journey down the Amazon covering Peru, Bolivia and Brazil to write a series of articles on the benefits of community tourism in the region. One of Kevin’s great strengths as a travel writer is that he roots out less obvious cultural sites, and in doing so addresses the growing concern of overtourism. In Peru, he undertakes a tough hike culminating in a remote mountain “lost city” only accessible on foot. “Choquequirao is another abandoned Inca site, but in an entire year it sees the same number of visitors that Machu Picchu gets in a day, largely because there is no easy way to get there.” Kevin also often uncovers the human stories that inform the places he visits. “The advantages of this smaller-scale trek are quickly apparent: local communities get direct financial benefit and the visitors are absorbed into their world.”

For the majority of Kevin’s travels in Europe, he uses trains as his means of transport to encourage readers to appreciate that even far-flung corners of the continent, such as Galicia in northern Spain, are accessible with a little more time and effort. On this trip, Kevin set out to explore a lesser visited part of a country that has seen locals push back against over-tourism in certain areas. He sets out on a week-long trek through a region that was depopulated by an exodus starting in the early 19th century and continued into the late 20th century. But by travelling in a slower fashion, he meets people who have returned to their roots, including and one person who is restoring a fortified palace-cum-farmhouse who sheds light on the area’s tumultuous history.

Kevin is also keen to explore and share new technological advances in the approach to travel, such as when he embarked on a low-emission hybrid cruise to the top of Europe in winter. He writes in an engaging and colourful way about an issue that in other hands could be reduced to a technical spec sheet. Again, it is his ability to engage with the people around him that brings the story to life. But mostly, it is Kevin’s ability to impart a sense of adventure and the joy of travel that sets his writing apart: “It is really magical to swim surrounded by the Arctic winter in all its brutal glory.”