Geographic Expeditions has partnered with Boston-based crisis-response organization Global Rescue, the companies announced today, citing the limitations of conventional travel insurance and their continuing commitment to traveler safety.

Geographic Expeditions President Jim Sano, who began his career with the National Park Service at Yosemite and is a frequent lecturer on risk management, said the first step in mitigating risk is having a plan for emergencies in remote areas. Sano said that Geographic Expeditions makes it clear to travelers that medical, security, and natural disasters can and do happen, and that “luck favors the well-prepared.”

“We have placed a high priority on continuously assessing and managing the inherent risks associated with our trips, and that has led us to Global Rescue,” Sano said. “For example, one reason we chose Global Rescue is that, when someone first calls in, the quality of the response is at a much higher level than at conventional assistance companies. From the first call until the client arrives home, there is a team of critical care paramedics, physicians, specialists at the John Hopkins Medical Center, search and rescue experts, and former military special operations personnel working on behalf of the traveler.  This is vastly superior to the old call-center /case manager model.”

Global Rescue staffs its operations center 24/7 with critical-care paramedics, who regularly deploy to the traveler’s bedside if he or she requires hospitalization. It is also the only company with field rescue capability, routinely evacuating members from canyons, mountainsides and the furthest reaches of the Earth, returning them to their home hospitals of choice.

About Geographic Expeditions

One of the pioneers in travel to the ends of the Earth, San Francisco-based Geographic Expeditions (http://www.geoex.com/) offers a sensationally varied roster of overland expeditions, treks, and expeditionary voyages to the world’s most beguiling places. It operates worldwide and specializes in destinations that are difficult or impossible to reach on one’s own. Half or more of its business comes from customized trips, and the company is much sought after as location and logistics managers for movie companies, museums and academic institutions. 

Geographic Expeditions has been consistently recognized by Travel + Leisure as one of the “World’s Top Ten Tour Operators and Safari Outfitters.”  Condé Nast Traveler also honors the company by naming three GeoEx Regional Directors in its “125 Greatest Travel Pros on Earth.” In addition, Departures and National Geographic Traveler regularly feature the outfitter’s trips in their annual best trips lists.