Lars-Eric Lindblad

Lars-Eric Lindblad (January 23, 1927 – July 8, 1994) was a Swedish-American entrepreneur and explorer, who pioneered tourism to many remote and exotic parts of the world. He led the first tourist expedition to Antarctica in 1966 in a chartered Argentine navy ship, and for many years operated his own vessel, the MS Lindblad Explorer, in the region. Observers point to the Lindblad Explorer’s 1969 expeditionary cruise to Antarctica as the frontrunner to today’s sea-based tourism there.

Lars-Eric Lindblad was born in 1927 in Solna north of , Sweden. He immigrated to the United States in 1951 and later became an American citizen. Lindblad pioneered cruising to the Arctic, Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, but also to places such as the Seychelles and the islands east of Bali. In 1984, he led the first voyage by a tourist ship through the Northwest Passage from Newfoundland over the American continent and via Bering Strait to Yokohama, Japan. The voyage took 40 days and a distance of 8,920 nautical miles (16,520 km) and the adventure was covered by most news media in North America and Europe.

Lindblad was president and chief executive officer of Lindblad Travel in Westport, Connecticut, for more than 30 years. The company introduced tourism in some of the most exotic parts of the globe including cruises to Antarctica, in 1966; to Easter Island and the Galápagos Islands, in 1967, and along the coast of China and Bhutan in 1978. Many of these places had no facilities for visitors in the late 1950s and early 60s, when Lindblad Travel was in its infancy. In 1972, one of his company's ships, the MS Explorer, ran aground in Antarctica – its passengers, including Lars-Eric Lindblad, were rescued by the Chilean Navy.

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