Meet Alex Stratikis, the Autistic Traveler
Join Alex on his journey of self-discovery as he travels the world, finding himself and what it means to be human, while also understanding more about his autism and about the needs of neurodivergent individuals more generally.
My name is Alex Stratikis, I’m a 20-something autistic travel writer, blogger and photographer of Scottish/Greek heritage . I was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 6. I identify as “houseless not homeless” as I travel the world in a bid to understand myself and this vast, interesting planet we live on. My work focusses on the travel experience for autistic individuals, probably one of the largest under-represented sections of society within the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors – a massive untapped customer base. To date, I have worked with a diverse range of UK and US companies and organisations. I use these experiences to identify the barriers that exist for neurodivergent travelers, and work with travel, tourism and hospitality companies and organisations supporting them to understand what they need to do to remove these barriers and increase their autistic customer base.
Having graduated with an Honours degree in Japanese in 2019, and previously living in Tokyo before starting university, my dream was to live and work in Japan as a Japanese to English translator. When COVID and the international lockdowns put the final nails in the coffins in my attempts to establish a professional career – which was already presenting major challenges as an autistic adult – I realized I had a lot of reevaluating to do.
A year back at my family home during the lockdowns and international travel bans enabled me to come up with the idea of exploring in more detail the idea of writing about how travel had helped me to come to terms with and understand how my autism intersected with my travel experiences to date. I came up with the idea of establishing Autism Adventures Abroad with the aim of using my personal travel history to encourage more autistic people to travel with confidence, whilst also working with the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors to explore how their services could accommodate the needs of autistic people – to provide truly accessible and inclusive experiences.
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