Julian Matthews

Julian is a conservationist, a rewilder, a pioneer in sustainable travel and an eco-entrepreneur. His tiger knowledge is far reaching and his passion for wildlife and wild places is infectious.

He founded in the early 1990’s a conservation travel business, Discovery Initiatives, now part of Steppes Travel, which took him across the globe, visiting well known and little known wildernesses areas on seven continents. The result was a business that raised significant funds for conservation charities and researchers. In 2004, he founded the campaign organisation, TOFTigers, to support tiger conservation and encourage nature tourism, recognising that it was the economics that would ultimately save tigers; what he calls ‘Tigernomics’.

In 2004 his concern at the tiger’s continuing demise prompted him to launch the TOFTigers campaign to get the expanding nature tourism sector to support more sustainable nature tourism practices in tiger parks across the Indian subcontinent. Today it has over 220 travel businesses involved from around the world. Julian’s involvement with tourism and rewilding in India has seen him forge long lasting relationships with the key players making a difference in the world of tiger conservation.