Meet the Lotus Travel Staff
Louie Yi President and Expedition Specialist
Louie Yi is our founder and tour expert. The son of geologists, as a child, he traveled extensively in China with his parents. Louie worked in the tourism industry in China for over 10 years, leading groups of western visitors all over China and Southeast Asia before establishing Lotus Travel in Seattle, Washington in 1995. Louie enjoys spending time with his family, cooking, gardening, photography, fishing and hiking. Louie travels to China and Southeast Asia often to ensure the smooth operation of our China office and to explore new routes for our tours. From his visits to China, Louie created our extensive tour packages specifically for our clients. The Guilin Hiking Tour in our Asian Explorer Series is the product of one of his hiking trips in Guilin.
Iris Culp Director of Homeland Heritage Tour Programs and Lotus Travel Communications Manager
Iris Culp
is the Director of Homeland Heritage Tour Programs and Lotus Travel Communications
Manager. She comes to Lotus Travel from a background of consulting in
the fields of human resources and communications. She has a master’s
degree in adult education and a bachelor’s degree in communications.
Prior to joining Lotus Travel she worked as a manager at Sabre and American
Airlines within the travel industry. She has more than twenty years of
professional experience in diverse industries including the health care,
education and finance. She is also proud to be called “mom” to
two wonderful kiddos from China. Iris says she enjoys the opportunity
to combine her passion for adoption and her deep fascination for China
and its culture in her work with Lotus Travel.
When not working,
one can find Iris enjoying reading, or spending time with her children. She
has been married to her husband Even Culp, a university professor, for more
than 25 years. They are proud their family has a Scandanavian/Chinese/American
heritage. She says, “Hey,
it’s great to have the blend -- we get to enjoy kuchen from Sweden;
dumplings from China, and lots of holidays this way!”