It has been a little over a year since that tragic incident in San Diego. I was very much overwhelmed with the outpouring of support that many of you have shown in the course of my recovery from that unfortunate incident. Throughout the year, I have had to question many things. One of them is the reason why I became a journalist in the first place. I firmly believed that my chosen profession could actually be the catalyst for making a difference. That came into question on January 31, 2010. I really thought I was doing the right thing by intervening, but why did I feel like I was being punished for it? That incident altered my life forever.

The year 2010 was a very dark year in many respects, but more so on a personal level for me. That incident affected my work, it affected my job, and ultimately, we lost some readers. In recent weeks, our subscription increased dramatically again. I can’t take full credit for this. In fact, I want to thank my dedicated staff from many parts of the world for going about their work even with a very “discouraged” editor-in-chief.

It is worth noting, however, that I feel invigorated yet again like I did the day we founded eTN. My recent trips to Puerto Rico, Andorra for the United Nations World Tourism’s first-ever Global Tourism Forum, and Berlin for this year’s edition of ITB Berlin, have all inspired me to resume my duties. To everyone I’ve met during these trips, THANK YOU!

Unfortunately, the incident in San Diego has indisputably affected eTN’s operations. While we have remained true to being one of the industry’s independent publications, we still rely on advertising and marketing arms to fund our operations.

As you know, subscription to our various eTN editions is free, and we have very limited space for advertising. This has always been intentional, and with the current economic environment, this is precisely the reason why I have decided to bring back our “Friends of eTN” program, so that readers who have enjoyed receiving our editions for the past ten years and find the information that we disseminate useful, may have the opportunity to make a donation to eTurboNews. Any amount is neither too big nor too small. What matters is that we have you to call a “Friend of eTN.” Click here to sign up.