If you have been following our blog for long enough, you may have heard this story already. But now that we’re a mature 20 years old, we feel like we can start repeating ourselves a little.
On April 4, 1997, Allan Wright quit his corporate job with the food company Cargill and launched Zephyr Adventures. That was twenty years ago today, which is why we are claiming April 4 as National Zephyr Day!
Back in 1997, inline skating was popular, it was growing as a sport, and skate travel was in its infancy – we ran three very small inline skating tours in the Netherlands that year. Just five years after Zephyr started, skate travel hit its apex and the sport began a steady decline in popularity.
The beauty of a small and efficient company like ours is that we can pivot rather quickly and adapt, and over the years we have done just that – branching out into other niche travel markets and events. With nine employees (who work and live in five states) between our tour and conference teams, we remain nimble and ready for whatever our entrepreneurial leader Allan dreams up next.
To helps us celebrate National Zephyr Day, we invite our awesome alumni to share a photo of yourself enjoying your very first Zephyr Adventure on our Zephyr Alumni Neighborhood on Facebook.
Thanks for being a part of our first twenty years and cheers to twenty more!