Describe yourself in 3-5 words: In scrupulous pursuit of betterment.
Describe your travel style in 3-5 words: Endurance-driven, thrill-seeking adventure.
Why did you choose to study travel & tourism? I have been exceptionally fortunate in my life and with my family’s central ethos of travel. It has been a luxury and a privilege, and has instilled values that have become a passion. More than anything else, asking the questions “Where did I feel the most engaged?” and “Where do I feel the happiest?” at my most directionless point was the start of this journey. It had always been, but the opportunity came at the right time.
What is your greatest professional strength? Optimism and a love for sharing in the feelings and experiences of adventure with others. I began my degree in September of 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and tourism looked, for many, as a casualty and an insecure decision. It has and always will persevere, and I believe I embody that sense of idealism. It was a mentality that was essential for surviving the last four years, and it will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
How many countries have you visited? I have had the privilege to have visited 20 countries in my life, thanks to my family.
I want to contribute to a mountain community. To be a part of a smaller British Columbia, Alberta, or international mountain community with a career I love and surrounded by familiar friendly faces in a community, is somewhere I would love to see myself in 2034.
Sebastien Laroye
What’s your dream travel & tourism job? The happiest times in my life have occurred in the alpine, so we can place that as the foundational setting of the job description. Providing access to enjoying this harsh yet sensitive and strikingly beautiful region, in Canada or abroad, would be my dream realized. That could be installing a crewed hut network, uncrewed hut network, trail building, conservation and Indigenous culture fostering and invigoration on this unceded land.
In your opinion, what’s the most exciting trend in travel right now and why? The most exciting trend to me presently in tourism is, surprisingly, not related to my love of sporting adventure. It emerges, in fact, from the culinary tourism realm. Restaurants and institutions like Noma, or Central in Peru, or like Salmon and Bannock, and Tamam here in BC revolutionize how we think about food, how we connect food to the land and its Indigenous peoples, how food connects people to each other, and how food can be a form of cultural preservation and protection, of respect and of sharing. We as culinary tourism consumers have tangible and direct power to build up these living and consumption principles that have holistic implications for bettering our world.
What is one thing you can’t travel without? I cannot travel without my favourite podcasts: Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell, and Hardcore History by Dan Carlin. These two podcasts make the slower times like flights go by, and help me fulfill my love of learning and exploring super niche yet deeply interesting topics I have been unable to find anywhere else! I highly recommend them.
Name your favourite travel experience so far: My favourite travel experience builds off multiple alpine trips; once in Peru, once in Switzerland, once in the Canadian Rockies and once in Austria. The common theme in these four excursions was being told “I am like a mountain goat” in the mountains. That, for one, identified my spirit animal, but also clarified, in no insignificant way, my path forward with where I wanted to go. These were comments I repeated over and over, during my time in choosing this academic path.
What’s on your travel bucket list? I have been obsessing over a trip to Baffin Island and Auyuittuq National Park in Canada’s Nunavut Territory for quite a few years. I also have itching objectives to visit Mount Moran in Wyoming, the Eiger in Switzerland and (a more leisurely) trip to Costa Rica on my bucket list. It is also worth mentioning, any trips with family are always on the bucket list; it doesn’t matter the destination.
Name your greatest achievement so far: I seldom dwell on achievements, as there can and, in my case, always is a more ambitious one down the road. Most of my achievements to date have been steps, in many directions. Professionally, it is clarifying specifically where I want to go and beginning that journey with, in reality, really dream jobs. Academically, it would be graduating from this program with a sense of focus and an energy to continue to pursue further learning, whether that be a master’s degree or an alternative form. The instilling of a love of and a sort of need for learning is my greatest academic achievement.
What’s the best OR worst piece of travel advice you’ve received? The best piece of travel advice I ever received is to “give it a try”. A new dish, a new experience, a new conversation; something that very well makes one feel initially uncomfortable. But if one does not take the step, their limits can become static. And for better or for worse, and if nothing else, it will provide a new story to tell.
