publive-imageCultural and Natural Heritage Tours (CNH Tours) specializes in curating once in a lifetime experiences. The company designs small-scale and custom tours to iconic cultural and natural heritage sites around the world. Its owners and associates have all lived in and remained deeply connected to the land and people in the destinations it serves. Beginning with the remote oceanic archipelago of Galapagos, CNH Tours is now branching out to offer its authenticity-led tours in Africa (Okavango Delta, Kalahari), and soon, Antarctica. 

In Galapagos, few cruise agencies know the islands and their ships better than Heather Blenkiron, Co-Owner of CNH Tours, and her team. They help their guests find the ship that best meets their needs based on their 20 years of experience in the destination. CNH Tours allows individuals, couples, families, and private charter groups of friends or families to reserve their perfect Galapagos cruise (at the right time of year, on the right sized-ship, at the right price point), whether it be on its hallmark Active Galapagos tour on the Samba or a ship of their choice based on their unique parameters. Beyond Active, Naturalist and Dive cruises, CNH Tours' team has partnered with experts in organizing tours for less-abled travelers to make the most of their time in this unforgettable destination. 

Heather helps her guests complement their time in Galapagos with land extensions in continental Ecuador to visit the Amazon Basin, the Avenue of the Volcanoes that runs along the spine of the Andes, the Cloud Forest, and the Pacific Coast, all with guests' unique needs and budget. She even helps them organize side-trips to Cuzco and Machu Picchu in neighbouring Peru.   

In Africa’s Okavango Delta, CNH Tours collaborates with wildlife conservation champion of the region, Karen Ross. This helps assemble the elements of a one-of-a-kind 14-day small group taste of Southern Africa to some of the world's most iconic wildlife destinations, including:  

  • Magic and history at the breath-taking Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe).  
  • Ancient secrets of Tsodilo Hills (Botswana).  
  • Magnificent African wildlife of Okavango – both at its panhandle and in the Delta (Botswana).  
  • Rugged desert ecosystems of the Kalahari, guided by local bushmen (Botswana).  
  • Stunning land and seascapes of Cape Town along with the region's cultural vibrancy (South Africa). 

Antarctica is CNH Tours' newest destination. As it is in the design phase now, the company's Antarctica offerings can be expected to be custom designed and orchestrated by its in-house expert with years of experience in the region. 

An Adventurous Leader 

Heather is a native of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, who grew up exploring the Gulf Islands by sailboat with her family. A love of the sea and exploration, and comfortable with making new friends are integral to Heather's serendipitous spirit. Heather graduated from the University of Victoria with a BA (Hons) in Geography and English and pursued her graduation in Cultural Resource Management. This led to her first job where she managed the renewal of the visitor experience at the shared Charles Darwin Research Station and Galapagos National Park Service site located on the shores of Academy Bay, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos.  

Over the four years that Heather resided in Galapagos together with her husband, Marc Patry (1998-2002), she understood and appreciated the complexity of balancing the conservation challenges with sustainable tourism and community development in a remote oceanic archipelago. Their first tour was a private Galapagos charter for a handful of good friends scattered around the world. From there, CNH Tours grew organically, through word of mouth. Although Marc initiated the company, Heather took the helm in 2003 and carried it on her own until 2015, when they returned home to Canada after 17 years of living abroad (Paris and Nairobi). 

During those years, CNH Tours retained its strong connection to Galapagos.  Heather volunteered her time in answering thousands of questions on TripAdvisor’s Galapagos forum – so much so that she was invited by TripAdvisor to become its “Destination Expert” for the archipelago. CNH Tours’ collaborative work with the owner of the 14-passenger family-owned and operated Samba allows it to offer the only “Active Galapagos” tour in Galapagos – for those guests who don’t mind getting up at 5:30 AM to be ready for a sunrise snorkel with hammerhead sharks – this is the trip. CNH Tours also nurtures long-term relationships with dozens of other key tourism and conservation stakeholders in the islands.   

After coming back to Canada, Heather was appointed the President of CNH Tours, holding a majority shareholder in the company, while Marc provides strategic vision and back-up. In 2018, CNH Tours hired a Senior Associate, Kelsey Bradley, who also has a long and storied eight-year history with Galapagos, assisting its global clientele in planning their perfect Galapagos holiday.  

Heather says that through the pandemic, Kelsey manages CNH Tours' existing guests – helping them to reschedule trips and activities.    

Providing Exceptional Tour Experience 

According to Heather, crafting CNH Tours' Active Galapagos tour came naturally. "During our time living in the islands, we noticed that there were two types of Galapagos cruises available for travelers: Naturalist and Dive," she said. The genesis of CNH Tour's Active Galapagos tour arose when Heather organized a trip for her friends to join it in the islands and designed the trip with early morning site visits (when the wildlife is at its most active and light levels are spectacular for photography), longer hikes, and extended snorkeling sessions. The trip also allows them to share their experiences with others who had always dreamed of visiting the Enchanted Isles made famous as Darwin's "living laboratory of evolution." 

At the same time, Heather recognized that not everyone was necessarily keen on a 5:30 AM wake-up call! The company listened attentively to its guests' needs and desires, honing a range of custom options that draw upon each guests' vision of their perfect Galapagos holiday. Through an iterative process and with a foundation based on its guests' desires, CNH Tours proposes a trip that best suits each of its client’s particular interests and preferences.    

Connecting People with Nature 

Heather believes that the rise of informal tourism is the greatest disruptive force in her field today (as evidenced by Airbnb, land-based, as opposed to cruise-based tourism in Galapagos, etc.). Despite this, she feels that this disruption only helps to highlight the value-added in working with a specialist agency – one that can provide unmatched personalized services to each of its guests.  The word most often mentioned to Heather as she receives calls and emails is “overwhelming” she says. Trying to organize your own Galapagos trip of a lifetime on-line, with no help, quickly has one running in circles, as there are many different websites offering many different combinations of many different options.  When guests finally reach Heather, they feel like they’ve found an expert who can sift through all the confusion and guide them in their decision-making.    

Heather invested in a custom-designed guest information management system that allows her to manage her guests' personal details and services according to Canadian privacy laws as CNH Tours has grown while ensuring the smooth flow of information to her suppliers. 

CNH Tours also has one of the most active Galapagos News blogs. Over the last ten years, the company has posted over 422 news stories – with titles that are always a little tongue in cheek – related to current events in Galapagos that it feels would be of interest to its guests. CNH Tours is also active on Facebook. 

CNH Tours' current initiatives include integrating carbon offsets into each guests' tour (for the duration of their time in Ecuador) and joining the Global Compact (Canada) to implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals across its operations both in Canada and Ecuador. Heather's vision for guests is to disconnect from the noise and haste of modern life and reconnect with the natural world with the knowledge that they are leaving only footprints behind. 

Practical Exposure to Exceptional Leadership Traits 

Attributing to actionable and transformational leadership qualities, Heather articulates that leaders should think of others before themselves. 

Heather is committed to connecting with every CNH Tours' guest to craft and fulfill memories to last a lifetime. The company's guests seek the company's expertise as CNH Tours is discerning, curious, intellectual, connected, knowledgeable, trusted, organized, proactive, focused, respectful, respected, and always ready to help. To support the guests through each stage of their journey, CNH Tours has a multinational team who share an equivalent passion for cultivating a worry-free "mind trip”, which is designed to nurture all of their senses. The team takes their responsibility seriously to ensure that each guest experiences their dream destination as authentically, safely, and seamlessly as they can manage. 

Moreover, when Galapagos was closed due to the pandemic, Heather knew that it would be some time before tourism would resume. Like many other tour companies, CNH Tours also focussed primarily on evacuating its guests from the islands. The company took its stewardship role seriously, focusing on laying the foundation of security and calm for its guests as it shepherded them home when borders were closed and international flights canceled. CNH Tours also paid for its guests' new flights to their continents and homes on the understanding that her guests would reimburse the company on their return – illustrating the level of trust that exists between CNH Tours and its guests.   

CNH Tours is a recognized world leader with over 20 years of experience in planning trips of a lifetime to the Galapagos. As Heather and her team come from a wide-ranging geography, cultural heritage planning, rural planning and development, scientific and international relations background, they enlighten their guests about the islands' conservation challenges through the news section of their website. They implement ways wherein their guests can give back to the local community through the books' donations to the public library and involvement to a wide variety of local projects and programs through their contribution to the International Galapagos Tour Operators Association Traveller Conservation Fund. 

Since CNH Tours has decades-long relationships with the islands and their inhabitants, it knew the catastrophic impact on the local economy due to COVID-19 led-closure of the Galapagos National Park to the public and nationals as well. More than 70% of the resident population depends on tourism for their income. To curb this challenge, CNH Tours created a Go Fund Me fundraising platform together with a former guest, for the staff, guides and ship crew members of the Samba, the local yacht it uses for its very own Active Galapagos tour. Over the course of four weeks, the company received donations from former, current (and even future!) guests totaling over US$54,000. The money was then distributed to the team that supports the Samba operations. 

Heather is immensely proud that CNH Tours, together with its guests, supported the crew, guides and staff of the Samba during this extremely challenging time for Galapagos. 

Addressing Initial Challenges  

Heather began managing CNH Tours on her own in the fall of 2003 after her husband, Marc Patry, took a job with the United Nations (her husband rejoined her in 2015 when they returned to Canada). The company was very small, just 25 guests per year, and she did it all from the hallway of her Paris apartment, taking care of her two children. As CNH Tours grew, Heather's business acumen also grew. Together with her Ecuadorian colleagues (most of them were women), she embraced the challenges of scaling a company independently, balancing both growth and development of the operational platform, to manage each of her guests’ holiday plans with a commitment to personal service that would go above and beyond. 

Creating a Lasting Trip Experience 

Heather's vision for the future of CNH Tours involves enabling its guests to awaken their sense of wonder on its custom green, small-group tours to iconic destinations with destination experts at their side from the moment of initial contact until their return home. CNH Tours will continue to invite its guests from around the world to embark with it on an authentic and personalized journey of a lifetime. 

Cultivating Young Women Business Leaders 

Advising emerging women leaders, Heather advocates choosing to work with local owners and operators, especially ones that are women-led. She encourages young professionals to nurture their relationships, whether this be with guests, professional colleagues, or competitors. Beyond this, she encourages young women to pursue their passion, and focus on the one thing they excel in. “Find your niche and cultivate it – this is your competitive advantage as there is only one unique and beautiful you,” says Heather.