Travel Companies That Are Thriving Amid the Pandemic
The industry is generally struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But these six businesses offer hope.
Real del Mar in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Source: Exclusive Resorts
In January, the experiential travel platform Peek celebrated $1 billion in bookings since its founding in 2012. Then the novel coronavirus hit. Ruzwana Bashir, founder of the San Francisco-based startup, watched business vanish overnight. “By April, we were at zero,” she says. “With America in lockdown, people couldn’t experience anything. Things looked dire.”
Fast-forward through the turbulent spring and early summer months, which saw travel slow to a crawl, and now Bashir is telling a different story. Hers is one of the few nimble travel businesses that have found themselves booming; in July, Peek saw $50 million in bookings and has continued to break monthly sales records since, as travelers eagerly look for exciting ways to explore their own backyards.