Travel Matters: Recent Episodes
TBEX, The Future of Travel Media and The Radio Vagabond Palle Bo
The official podcast from TBEX – The Future of Travel Media. In this podcast we will be sharing all the latest news, trends and tips for you, and interviewing the movers and shakers in the travel creative ecosystem.
In this electrifying episode of Travel Matters, Palle Bo and Rick Calvert sit down with Christine Lozada, famously known as the Drone Queen. Dive into the world of drone photography and videography as Christine shares her journey from a newbie to a renowned drone expert. Discover the secrets behind capturing breathtaking aerial shots, navigating legalities, and utilizing drones to land incredible travel partnerships. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just curious about drone technology, this episode is packed with insights and tips that will elevate your travel content creation to new heights.
Three Key Points
- Drone Photography and Videography Essentials: Christine Lozada reveals her top tips for capturing stunning aerial shots, including the importance of smooth, cinematic movements and understanding safety settings to prevent crashes.
- Strategic Use of Drones for Content Creation: Learn how Christine uses drones not only to enhance her travel videos but also to differentiate her content, land partnerships, and monetize her work. She emphasizes the accessibility and affordability of drones as powerful tools for storytellers.
- Memorable Drone Experiences and Safety Insights: Christine shares captivating stories from her drone adventures, including an encounter with a black tip shark migration and a daring drone retrieval from a cliff in Ethiopia. She also discusses the evolving ease of flying drones and how they have become essential tools for modern travel creatives.
In this episode of Travel Matters, join hosts Palle Bo and Rick Calvert as they sit down with travel blogger Mike Shubic from Mike’s Road Trip at TBEX North America 2023 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. They dive into Mike’s journey from early tech adoption to exploring the latest in AI tools, sharing invaluable insights for content creators. Tune in to hear about Mike's adventures, the transformative power of AI in the travel industry, and how technology is shaping the future of content creation.
Key Points
- AI Tools for Content Creation: Mike Shubic discusses various AI tools like ChatGPT, Luminar AI, and others, highlighting how they can enhance content creation, marketing, and video production, offering new revenue opportunities and audience engagement for travel creators.
- The Evolution of Travel Blogging: Mike shares his journey from starting Mike’s Road Trip in 2009 to becoming a travel influencer, discussing how early adoption of video and new technologies like AI have transformed his career and the travel blogging landscape.
Future of AI in Travel and Content Creation: The conversation explores the potential and challenges of AI, including its impact on white-collar jobs, the importance of maintaining human creativity and artistry in content, and how AI can be a valuable tool without replacing the authenticity of personal experiences.
In this final episode from TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, you can meet two guests.
First, Rick talks to Elena Sergeeva. With a decade-long career in Sales & Marketing, she co-founded Travel Bloggers Greece in 2015 with the purpose to unite like-minded individuals and to educate the Greek market on how to work with bloggers. She is the founder of several travel blogs. She also works with JayWay Travel, one of the sponsors of TBEX.
She did a session at this TBEX called “Destination Blogging Community and DMO Partnerships: Value and Opportunities” where she talked about how working with blogging communities provides new marketing opportunities and continued growth for Andros Island. The session covered the needs of a DMO from the local travel industry – Projects to empower the island’s footprint in the global tourism market.
And our last interview from TBEX Europe 2023 is with Ivan Bengeri from Croatia. In 2013 he quit his 9-to-5 job to travel around the world. In November 2014, www.bengeri.com travel blog happened, and since then, Ivan has been blogging and traveling full-time.
So far, he’s been to 60+ countries, walked a Camino de Santiago (800 km) in September 2018, represented Southeastern Europe (SEE) as a travel influencer on Kerala Blog Express 2019, and in 2020 he launched Bengeri.travel agency to share his love for traveling.
In this episode, you can meet travel blogger Eric Stoen from the family travel blog Travel Babbo. He used to work in healthcare but was addicted to travel. So, in 2014 he quit his job and started the travel blog to inspire more people.
So far, he’s been to 101 countries and seven continents. Hear how he got started and how he grew his blog. You can also hear him talk about the time he took his kids to Antarctica.
Rick has tried to get Eric to be a speaker, but he keeps saying no. Will this interview make him change his mind?
In this episode, we have two guests. Cazzy Magennis and Bradley Williams are the travel blogging duo behind Dream Big, Travel Far.
Using captivating content and an intelligent approach to sharing their stories on mainstream media, their website reaches as many as 350,000 page views a month.
In their session, they shared the step-by-step details of how they have landed a large number of high-profile mainstream media features in the last 18 months – which has, in turn, helped them to 3-4x their blog’s monthly traffic.
This is their first TBEX, their first time as a speaker, and their first time as guests on a podcast. Have a listen and hear how they did.
In this episode, we have two interviews. First, we meet Brennen Bliss, a US Search Award-winning SEO consultant and principal at the US-based travel and tourism-focused SEO agency, Propellic. The agency forms successful and creative SEO campaigns for its clients. Brennen is passionate about travel; sending more people to incredible places is part of his lifelong mission. Brennan did a double session called “Advanced SEO: Hidden Strategies to Compete in Search.”
Then we have a conversation with Anna Kalogeropoulou, Deputy Governor of Tourism for the Region of Peloponnese, a destination for all seasons. Kalamata is one of the fastest-developing cities in Greece. This modern city has been re-introduced to the world as a tourism destination.
In this episode, we meet Caroline Makepeace (Caz) from yTravelBlog and This is Raleigh about Raleigh, North Carolina.
Together with her husband, Craig, she’s been traveling the world since 1997 and since 2007 with their two daughters.
The White House invited them to attend a travel summit as one of the top digital travel influencers in the world in 2014, and in 2020 they were granted a green card for their ”extraordinary ability in the art of travel blogging.”
Caz and Craig are from the Central Coast of Australia and now live in North Carolina – but they like to call the world our home.
She was the Opening Keynote Speaker for TBEX North America in Billings, Montana, 2019. We planned to have her on Travel Matters back then, but it wasn’t possible to make it happen. So, better late than never… Enjoy this conversation with an extraordinary travel blogger.
In this episode, we have an interesting conversation with pioneer travel blogger Melvin Boecher from Germany.
Melvin is the founder and CEO of Travel Dudes, co-founder of the Social Travel Summit, former COO of iAmbassador, and with more than 15 years of successfully running his business, he is a pioneer of professional travel blogging.
His Social Media are very popular. On Twitter, he has accumulated around 250.000 followers, and Melvin appears on over 8.500 recommended Twitter lists – this ranks him in the top 3 in travel. His Facebook page has over 115,000 fans, and his Instagram has around 50,000 followers. He’s also on YouTube, where he and his team post some great videos.
Hear how he started as a travel blogger, how he built his travel blogging empire, and what he shared in his session at this TBEX.
In this episode, we have an interesting conversation with Catharina Fischer about sustainable travel.
Catharina is one of the leading experts in influencer marketing and a digital leader with over ten years of experience in tourism. At TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece, she gave an interesting talk about the impact of tourism trends on travel content creators.
Before she was Head of Social Media at the German National Tourist Board (GNTB), she was in various marketing positions in the tourism industry. At the GNTB, she implemented the international Social Media Strategy in over 12 markets & created in 2013 the first international influencer campaign for Germany.
Since 2015 she has been working for the consulting network Tourismuszukunft. Here she supports destinations, hotels, and tour operators, mainly in DACH countries, with their digital marketing. In 2016 she initiated the industry think tank ‘Change4Destination’ which is dealing with the question of the ‘future of public destination marketing’. The think tank white paper became a must-read in the German-speaking markets.
Furthermore, she created the VideoSummit – the leading conference for video in tourism with top videographers and video bloggers worldwide.
Connect to Catharina Fischer on LinkedIn.
In this episode we say “mojn” to Jessica Schmidt from Hamburg Marketing. By developing, communicating and coordinating the Hamburg brand, they highlight the locational attractiveness of Hamburg and the Hamburg Metropolitan Region in Germany and abroad.
Hear how they work with content creators.
Martin Solhaugen is a filmmaker, youTuber and photographer from Oslo, Norway. Martin has worked on global projects for Tourism-boards, luxury hotels, and high-profile clients. Martin has been traveling the world for the past 6 years in pursuit for cultural and visual expressions. With a big heart for visual storytelling and a unique eye for detail, he has worked on global projects for Tourism-boards, luxury hotels and high-profile clients.
He did two sessions at TBEX Europe 2023, and in this conversation, he shares some tips, and talks about how the same video made him more money on Facebook than on YouTube.
Chris Lau talks about his YouTube channel, SeeLauTravel and then we get into a long conversation about selling – an important skill to have as a travel content creator.
With 10+ years of experience in a professional-level sales role, being recommended by other world-class creators, and having helped almost 80 creators from around the world, Chris also has a Mentor Program where he teaches how to travel for free, get paid for your work, and really make this into a lifestyle. See more about that on SeeLauTravelMentorProgram.com.
In this one, we meet another experienced travel blogger and entrepreneur, Yeison, from the Costa Rica travel blog, Mytanfeet.
The keynote speaker at this TBEX, Yeison (pronounced like Jason), is Costa Rican, born and raised. He started Mytanfeet with his wife Samantha, who moved to Costa Rica in 2012 from the United States and ever since then.
Mytanfeet is a blog with local tips, detailed guides, photos, videos, and maps to help you plan the perfect trip to Costa Rica.
Welcome to Travel Matters, recorded at TBEX Europe 2023 in Kalamata, Greece.
In this one we have a conversation with the amazing couple, Mike and Anne Howard from HoneyTrek.com. They’re two Americans that realized life is short; the world is big, and the value of travel too great to wait another day. So, when it came time for their honeymoon, they decided to sell their stuff and embark on a trip around the world. They left on January 22, 2012, and are on “The World’s Longest Honeymoon” … 11 years and counting!
Books:Check out their National Geographic book “Ultimate Journeys for Two” and their glamping book “Comfortably Wild”.
Other links:
Facebook: https://Facebook.com/HoneyTrek
Twitter: https://Twitter.com/HoneyTrek
Instagram: https://Instagram.com/HoneyTrek
YouTube: https://YouTube.com/TheHoneyTrek
TikTok: https://TikTok.com/@honeytrek
Pinterest: https://Pinterest.com/HoneyTrek
Welcome to Travel Matters recorded live on tape at TBEX Europe 2023 in Kalamata, Greece.
In this one, we have a conversation with one of the speakers, Edu Giansante – a Brazilian who lives in Dublin. He’s the Founder and Content Creator at E-Dublin – a brand that has reached more than 50 million YouTube views and reaches 1 million accounts every month. For more than ten years, Edu has demonstrated his skills as a highly experienced strategic thinker for online communities for companies across the world. He was awarded the Community Professional of the Year 2020 at the CMX Awards – one of the most prestigious companies in the communities industry.
Edu did a session where he explained how community-led content is the new way to do business. No matter the industry, we’re seeing a shift in how companies and content creators with a strong community are leading businesses. We are moving from broadcasting to connecting, telling to hearing, and transactional comms to symbiotic.
You can download Edu's Community cheat sheet from his session on ed.community/tbex. His website for Brazilian expats in Dublin is called eDublin, and you can find also connect with Edu on LinkedIn, Instagram, twitter, and follow his popular YouTube channel.
We are also talking a lot about AI and the future. Edu mentions a cool app called Captions (download it in the iOS store) and we also talk about the app called Lemon8, and the documentary Transcendent Man.
Enjoy an interesting conversation with Edu, and please share if you like it.
Welcome to Travel Matters recorded live on tape at TBEX Europe 2023 in Kalamata, Greece.
In this one we have a conversation with one of the speakers, Itai Marshall. He’s a Social Media strategist from Israel who made the leap from YouTube to TikTok, where he has now amassed more than 200,000 followers and 12 million likes with his high-energy and snappy video style.
Itai is also a video marketing coach, and his work includes showing tourism professionals how to effectively create short-form video.
At TBEX in Greece he did two sessions: “Elevate your Online Presence and Personal Brand with TikTok” and “Creating the Ultimate Short Form Video”
You can follow Itai on TikTok, Instagram, and on any other SoMe channel as itaimarshall.
Welcome to Travel Matters, and the first of many episodes from TBEX Europe 2023 in Kalamata, Greece.
In this one – recorded today, two days before the conference, we talk to conference director Shane Dallas about what to expect from this conference.
Welcome to Travel Matters, and we’re joined by serial entrepreneur and travel-junkie Dannelle Gay, AKA the Traveling Cheesehead. She loves to talk about Travel, Partnerships with Destinations, and teach bloggers how to make money.
Her latest book '100 Things to Do in Wisconsin Before You Die' just came out and she is more than delighted that TBEX is coming to her home state!
LINKS:
Blog: TravelingCheesehead.com
Book: ‘100 Things to Do in Wisconsin Before You Die’ – or use your own Amazon affiliate link.
TheTravelingCheesehead on InstaGram.
Welcome to Travel Matters, and we’re joined by Pro Travel Photographer, Ajay Sood from Travelure.
‘Travelure‘ started on wordpress.com in 2007, and switched to this self-hosted site in May 2015. It began as an aggregation of Ajay Sood’s articles published in travel, photography, and in-flight publications like Condé Nast Traveller, Huffington Post, JetWings, Travel3Sixty°, Smart Photography, Taj Magazine, GoGetter, etc. Travelure simply means building a lure of travel among its readers.
Follow Ajay on Instagram and on Travelure.in
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
Welcome to Travel Matters, and we’re joined by four awesome content creators: Nathan Sado, Sarah Hughes, Dave Brett, and Dan Zeek.
Sarah and Nathan have several sites, but their main site is Live Dream Discover. Adventure traveler Dave Brett is better known as Travel Dave UK.
You can follow Dan Zeek on YouTube as Zeekman Eats and Zeekman Travels, on Instagram as Zeekman73 and Zeekman Travels, and on TikTok as ZeekmanDan.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
Welcome to Travel Matters and the two interesting conversations with three unique content creators. This one was also recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand.
In this episode, we’re joined by Paul Pruangkarn and Matt Gibson from Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).
Founded in 1951, PATA is a not-for-profit membership-based association that acts as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region.
By bringing together our private and public sector members, PATA facilitates meaningful partnerships to enhance the value, quality and sustainable growth of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
Welcome to Travel Matters, and the two interesting conversations with three unique content creators. This one was also recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand.
First you can meet two American Thailand experts. Jason does a lot of content from Thailand on his YouTube channel, and Ric has his base in Bangkok. We’re also joined by Filipino, travel blogger, Yosh Dimen.
Jason’s YouTube channel is called Travel & Pamper, and everywhere he goes, he visit the local barbershop for a haircut, hair wash, pedicure, facial, foot scrub, massage, or a straight razor hot towel shave. Now that’s a different angle to a travel YouTube channel. And he’s doing well with 579.000 subscribers and almost a quarter of a billion views.
Ric is an extreme traveler on a quest to travel to all 193 UN countries and he shares his unique experiences, must-see places, and off-the-beaten path locations on his blog, Global Gaz. He’s the host of the popular podcast, Counting Countries, where he interviews travelers who also are aiming to visit every country in the world. Also, he founded a new conference called Extraordinary Travel Festival, held for the first time in Yerevan, Armenia in October 2022. Co-host of Travel Matters, Palle Bo, was there and did a lot of interviews with some extraordinary travelers on his own podcast, The Radio Vagabond.
Yosh Dimen, started The Poor Traveler in 2010 with his friend Vins Carlos. The blog is about being smart when traveling, planning, and budgeting. And (as they say on the blog), in most cases, the cheapest is not always the wisest. The truth is, although they were struggling financially when they started, it wasn’t the reason for the name. They called it poor to mean “unfortunate or unlucky”. As in poor soul, poor choices, you poor thing.
Yosh and Vins are very successful with 855,000 followers on Facebook, 77,000 followers on Instagram, and almost 90,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel. Yosh was on the closing panel at TBEX Asia, and will be a keynote speaker at TBEX Europe 2023 in Greece.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
Welcome to Travel Matters, and the two interesting conversations with two unique content creators. This one was also recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand.
Meet Scott Gurian from Far From Home Podcast and Maria Haase from San Diego Explorer. Scott mentioned his podcast where he met a Medicine Man in Peru and went to an ayahuasca ceremony.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
Welcome to Travel Matters, and another episode recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand.
Meet Australian Sharon Gourlay from DigitalNomadWannaBe. Sharon is an SEO expert and runs 15-20 sites, does training, and hosts the weekly podcast “Make Money Blogging with Digital Nomad Wannabe”. Here she teaches you how to turn your blog into a business with sustainable passive income.
Our second guest is a Kiwi. Megan Singleton from Blogger at Large, has been travel writing full time since 2000 and blogging since 2006. She’s also also the travel correspondent on Newstalk ZB radio on Sundays and also love to host tours for her readers around New Zealand, her home country.
Megan did a session with the simple title “Extraordinary Creative Collaboration Ideas for Content Creators and DMOs”, where she shared how to create and host tours for our readers. The session covered how to plan a tour, how to determine pricing, how to market it and most of all, how to make sure it’s fail safe in this post-Covid environment.
This episode of Travel Matters is hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
Welcome to Travel Matters and the first episode of 2023. This one was also recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand.
Meet Kyle Jennermann, a Canadian national who found himself falling in love with the Philippines and its people. He calls himself “Kulas”, a nickname he was given several years ago by one of the people he met on one of his trips there. He decided to introduce the Philippines to the rest of the world in his YouTube channel, "Becoming Filipino”.
And that is happening. Click this link and see an act from a senator, to grant him citizenship.
Even though his channel has more than a million subscribers, and he’s able to live of it, he’s very modest and very sharing.
Follow Kulas on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and soon also on TikTok. Finally, here is a link to the "Lucky Me! Lomi" TV commercial we’re talking about.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
Happy New Year!
Welcome to the Christmas episode of Travel Matters, also recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand.
In this one Tomiko is sitting in for Rick in the interview with Indonesian travel blogger and author Trinity Traveler aka “The Naked Traveler”.
Trinity is Indonesia's leading travel writer, author of 15 best-selling books incl. The Naked Traveler series and a blogger since 2005. She’s had such an interesting life that her life story was turned into two movies. Not many of us can say that.
You can also hear about Rick chasing his new Alaska dog in the rain and about him being afraid of being replaced on the podcast.
Follow Trinity on Instagram and Facebook.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
Happy Christmas!
Time to kick off the episodes recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand. And we start with the men of the hour, Conference Directors Shane Dallas and Anton Diaz.
Hear about the biggest TBEX of the year and what was so unique about it. You can also hear a bit about some of the upcoming guests.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Lafayette and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
In this episode, Rick speaks with travel blogger and Airbnb expert Toby Doré about connecting travel influencers to short-term rental hosts. His blog is The Cajun Traveler, and he’s on Instagram as @TheCajunTraveler.
We also meet Nicole from Explore Houma, Louisiana. Just 55 miles from New Orleans, Louisiana's BayouCountry contains over 2500 sq. miles of mysterious swamps and vast wetlands.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Lafayette and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert.
In this episode, Rick speaks with Frederic Aouad from Stay22 and Allie Eggert Visit Billings.
If you’re interested in working with Visit Billings at alyson@visitbillings.com.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Lafayette and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert.
In this episode, Rick speaks with Shelia Scarborough from Tourism Currents and Dianne McNamara from Go RVing.
If you’re a content creator and would like to work with Go RVing, you can reach out to christy@fireituppr.com
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Lafayette and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
In this episode, Rick speaks with Vivian Trova Trip and Susan Melton from Janesville, Wisconsin.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Lafayette and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
In this episode, Rick speaks with Sven and Rene from Tripello. Tripello does Travel in a new and different way, it’s a platform that can get you up to 60% discount hotel rooms. Also, they have an affiliate program that might interest you.
He also has an interesting conversation with the closing keynote speaker, Gerald Gruenig. He’s a local TV host in Lafayette but now also very active on social media. On TikTok he’s @GeraldGruenig, on Facebook “KLFY Gerald Gruenig”, on Instagram @GeraldGruenigTV and on Twitter @GeraldGruenig.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Lafayette and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
In this episode, Rick speaks with his homeboy San Diego Travel Host Jay Jay Maniquis from the YouTube channel, Jaycation, and TBEX Conference Director for North America Tim Leffel. Tim is a veteran travel writer who has dispatched articles from five continents. He is an author of multiple books, editor of Perceptive Travel, and a long time travel blogger. His company, Al Centro Media, produces a variety of additional websites including Hotel Scoop.
This episode of Travel Matters is hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and produced by The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
In this first episode from TBEX North America in Lafayette, 2022, Rick speaks with Radio host and culinary personality Jay Ducote and Ines Boutamagia from SafetyWing.
Not only does SafetyWing have Nomad Insurance, but they also plan to build a country on the internet, calling it Plumania.
This episode of Travel Matters is hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
A vagabond is a person who wanders from place to place without a fixed home.
Our guest today is the bestselling author of the widely celebrated Vagabonding. Now, Rolf Potts has written a new book called ”The Vagabond’s Way”
This book is a bit different, containing 366 Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel.
We’re super excited to have him on the show today.
This episode of Travel Matters is hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
In this episode, we will tell you when and where the next TBEX Europe is taking place. Also, a few more details about TBEX North America in Lafayette and TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand.
This episode of Travel Matters is hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
In this episode, we speak with Anton Diaz from Our Awesome Planet and Max Hartshorne from GoNOMAD.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Europe in Marbella, Spain and hosted by TBEX CEO Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
In this episode we speak with Fierita Catalano about how he livestreams wherever he goes – to a huge following.
Fierita is the winner of the 2021 MoJo Travel Journalism prize from Agencia EFE, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and Vueling. Fierita Catalano went from a 20-year career in mainstream television in Argentina (that included hosting game shows and a sports broadcaster) and shifted to an interactive travel format through his Decidilo website and Social Media. Fierita has travelled through 39 countries with no external funding, and he built up a community of more than one million followers.
We speak with Fierita about the benefits of livestreaming, including how to use it to build your community.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Europe in Marbella, Spain and hosted by TBEX CEO, Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
In this episode we speak with Francis Tapon who is an extreme traveler. He spent five years visiting every country in Africa – and climbing the highest mountain in each country. Now he’s writing a book about that journey. You can see more about him on ftapon.com and follow him as ftapon on social media.
We also have Michael Collins from TravelMedia.ie back for a conversation about social media.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Europe in Marbella, Spain and hosted by TBEX CEO, Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
Rachel Heller of Rachel’s Ruminations and Shobha George of JustGoPlacesBlog did a session called Promoting Responsible Tourism in Content Creation at TBEX Europe in Marbella, Spain. This is a big, important, and interesting topic that we had to have a conversation about. We’re four people in this week’s Travel Matters and more or less four different opinions. And you might not agree with any of us, so we’d love to hear what you think. So, join the conversation on TBEX on Facebook.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Europe in Marbella, Spain and hosted by TBEX CEO, Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
In this episode we first talk about Rick leaving California after having lived there his whole life. He and his family are moving to Utah. Before two interesting interviews from TBEX Spain, he tells us how that happened.
Then we speak to Fuse who comes from a background of teaching SEO to photographers as she has been a photographer for a decade. Now she’s the first and (according to Rick) only TBEX volunteer helping out with photography and so much more.
She also has her own travelblog, FuseTravels.com and you can follow her on TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest.
We also have an interesting conversation with Alastair McKenzie. He has been a travel journalist/editor since 1989, originally in local, then national radio before moving online just before the millennium. He’s been an active member of the travel blogger & social media community since it started, a regular speaker at social media travel conferences, and write about social travel. He’s also a member of the Captivate Digital Media collective, and the British Guild of Travel Writers.
His blog MechTraveller.com is a niche blog about geeky travel, attractions, history, and transport. At this conference he moderated a keynote panel on the big stage and in this episode of Travel Matters he shares his thoughts on the travel media industry – and the difference between traditional media and travel blogging.
This episode of Travel Matters recorded at TBEX Europe in Marbella, Spain and hosted by TBEX CEO, Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
Leo Long is a travel writer from China and a first timer at TBEX. Hear what he thinks about being here just a few hours into TBEX Europe in Marbella, Spain.
In this episode we also talk to Kerwin McKenzie. Kerwin is originally from Jamaica, and is an ex-airline employee who is now a travel content creator, author, and public speaker. He’s worked in various capacities at four U.S.-based airlines for 14.5 years, flown 181 airlines, and visited 137 countries/territories (105 UN).
Today, he runs Passrider.com for airline employees, Cruisinaltitude.com with information about airline travel, Unfamiliardestinations.com with details about 365 under-visited destinations, and DiscoveringHouston.net, which provides travel information for Houston, Texas. He also cooks Jamaican food at CookingWithkerwin.com.
Kerwin has attended 17 TBEX conferences, again here at TBEX Europe he did the first timers’ briefing. What is the best way to get the most out of a TBEX conference?
We’re also talking to Kerwin about Black Travel Alliance, a professional non-profit organization, created in 2020 to encourage, educate, equip and excel black travel professionals in education, media, and corporate positions.
You can follow Kerwin on TikTok and on Instagram as @LoyaltyTravels. Also, you can follow TBEX on TikTokand on Instagram.
This episode of Travel Matters recorded at TBEX Europe in Marbella, Spain and hosted by TBEX CEO, Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
We’re just hours away from TBEX Europe in Marbella, Spain. We have The Travel Camel, Shane Dallas, Conference Director for TBEX Europe, as a special co-host as we talk about what to expect the next two days – and much more.
In this last episode recorded at TBEX North America in Tri-Cities, WA, we speak with Candy Krajangsri from Amazing Thailand. Candy is working at their Los Angeles office, and we talk about what to expect when we go to TBEX Asia in Phuket in November.
Then we’re also joined by our good friend Michael Collins from TravelMedia.ie – a full-service public relations, marketing, events, communications, and travel trade representation company, founded in 2006, and managed by Michael Collins. Hear how he managed to travel during the pandemic.
See y’all in person at TBEX Europe in Marbella Spain tomorrow.
This episode of Travel Matters recorded at TBEX North America in Tri-Cities and hosted by TBEX CEO, Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
In this week’s episode, we have a conversation with Jen Ruiz from Jen on a Jet Plane about how we as travel content creators should use TikTok.
And then Rick Calvert also shares some of the highlights for the upcoming TBEX Europe happening in Marbella, Spain next week.
This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX North America in Tri-Cities and hosted by TBEX CEO, Rick Calvert and The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo.
In this week’s episode we first have a conversation with Christopher Mitchell and Jeremy Jones. Together they cofounded the blogging newsletter, This Week in Blogging.
Chris is a travel content creator and runs sites and brands such as TravelingMitch and Ultimate Ontario, and communities such as the Toronto Blogger Collective. Jeremy also runs several blogs on the topics of travel, Pittsburgh, wine, and home & gardening.
We also have a conversation with Engin Kaban from Turkey. He’s technically an engineer, practically a traveler. That’s where the name of his blog EnginEER Travel comes from.
This episode of Travel Matters recorded at TBEX North America in Tri-Cities.
Welcome to another episode of Travel Matters recorded at TBEX North America in Tri-Cities. We have a conversation with Juliana Broste aka Traveling Jules, a filmmaker and YouTuber who gave a session with tips on how to improve your travel videos. Jules is an 11-time Heartland Emmy award winning Travel Video Journalist, a producer, shooter, writer, editor and host. She also shares inspiration and education for creators and video production professionals in The Video Hustle.
Also, we speak to TaKenya Hampton, who is an author, blogger, podcaster, and life and business coach helping people tap into their full power to live a life that’s led by their desires. We talk about her session, “The Travel Blogger’s Guide to Maintaining the Back End of WordPress”.
This episode is recorded at TBEX North America in Tri-Cities. We have a conversation with Ron Williams from the Tri-Cities area about what they have to offer and tourism in Washington State.
Also, we talk a bit about what it means to be part of a FAM Trip after a TBEX.
The first TBEX conference since the pandemic changed everything was taking place in Tri-Cities in April.
At the conference, Palle Bo talked to a few first-timers, and after that, he and Rick Calvert spoke to one of the Conference Directors, Tomiko Harvey.
TBEX CEO Rick Calvert picks up The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo, in Tri-Cities, and on a drive, through the beautiful city, they talk about the pleasure of driving all the way from Southern California to here and back.
Later they sit down with a view of the Colombia River and talk about what to expect from the first TBEX conference in more than two years.
TBEX North America is just a few days away; the event kicks off Wednesday morning.
Get the scoop on where and when the next TBEX Europe will take place.
Listen now, and get the news before anyone else.
We have missed you!
Listen to this episode of Travel Matters, and read the newsletter from Rick below:
We hope you have been safe and healthy throughout the last year and are looking forward to traveling again soon. We are very optimistic about the future of travel and TBEX events. This is going to be a long one but there is good news so please stay with me.
The last several months the vaccine distribution here in the US has been going very well. At our peak, we were vaccinating as many as three million people per day! All signs and trends point to domestic US travel being the first sector to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic along with all related travel restrictions and safety protocols. Based on the status of Covid 19 pandemic right now, here are our current plans:
TBEX Tri-Cities Washington, October 12-14, 2021 is ON!
If you would like to join us in Tri-Cities, please register HERE
If you registered for TBEX Lafayette in 2020, you should have already received an email from us offering to transfer your ticket over to the Tri-Cities event or to Lafayette in 2022. If you have already replied we have noted your request and made those changes. If you missed that email please reply directly to me here rick@tbexcon.com
About a month ago we emailed everyone who had registered for TBEX North America 2021 in Tri-Cities and everyone who had registered for TBEX North America 2020 in Lafayette and let them know we were considering new dates for TBEX Tri-Cities. We asked them if they could attend Tri-Cities in October and if they would feel safe and comfortable doing so.
70% replied yes they definitely plan to attend. 20% told us they needed to wait a bit longer to make sure conditions are safe. Another 10% said it would still be some time before they were making plans to travel or meet with large groups.
Thank you to everyone who responded. Your feedback was critical in helping us finalize our decision to confirm our new dates for TBEX Tri-Cities October 12 to 14 of this year.
I was in Tri-Cities for a site visit last week and the Tri-Cities team is working hard to put together an amazing program for all of us. It is going to be GREAT! Being able to share our love of travel and see each other again will bring out lots of emotions.
Stay tuned for lots of updates coming the next couple of weeks TBEX North America in Tri-Cities with speaker announcements, evening events, Pre-Bex and post TBEX FAM Trips.
TBEX Europe 2021 in Catania Italy has been postponed.
Our host partners in Catania really wanted to reschedule TBEX Europe for this November, but as you may have seen or as some of you are living through it; Europe is experiencing another wave right now. Vaccine distribution there is ramping up quickly and things should be improving soon. Because of the current conditions, we have notified our friends in Catania that we cannot produce TBEX Europe in 2021. We are working on new future dates with them now.
There will be TBEX Europe in 2022!
We will have an update for you with dates for TBEX Europe 2022 very very soon… Keep your eyes and ears on Travel Matters and get the news here first!
TBEX Asia Phuket, Thailand has been postponed to 2022.
We have agreed with our partners in Thailand that the best course is to postpone until 2022. We are coordinating new dates with them right now and are planning to announce those new dates any day now. If you registered for 2021 Thailand, your registration will be automatically transferred to 2022.
TBEX North America, Layfette, Louisiana October 14-16, 2022 is ON!
You can register for TBEX North America 2022 HERE.
We know this global crisis is over just yet. We will suffer more setbacks and losses before it completely ends, but for the first time in a long time, there is real hope. I am so looking forward to seeing you all again in the not-so-distant future and celebrating our life of travel again.
As we begin to roam the world again we will find the TBEX experience shaped and changed by this pandemic -- We cannot wait to learn, grow, and socialize safely together with all of you while we help our beloved travel industry rebuild.
See more on TBEXcon.com
Travel Matters is hosted by The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo and TBEX CEO, Rick Calbert, and produced by RadioGuru.
If you have questions about any of our events and current plans or need anything please email Rick Calvert directly rick@tbexcon.com
Welcome to the second episode of Travel Matters. Rick Calvert and Palle Bo talk about TBEX North America 2019 in Billings, Montana. How did it go, and how was it different than previous events? Rick reveals that there were more older people than usual. TIPS FOR FIRST TIMERS There were many new faces again this year, and we talk to Kerwin McKenzie who did a pre-session for TBEX first-timers. Kerwin is an Amazon.com #1 best selling author, speaker, and ex-airline employee who travels on average over 250,000 miles a year. He writes up-to-date airport, destination and ground transportation guides plus airline flight and hotel reviews with a mission to motivate airline employees to use their travel benefits at Passrider.com. He’s flown 176 airlines and visited 125 countries and teaches travelers how to be loyal to travel brands at Cruisinaltitude.com and shares 365 unfamiliar destinations at UnfamiliarDestinations.com. Kerwin has been to 17 TBEXs, and he knows that going to a conference like this one is all about the network and building relationships, so one of Kerwin’s advice was always to sit next to someone you don’t know. CREATOR OF THE MONTH In this episode, we feature Lauren from Misadventures of an Outdoorsy Diva. Hear her story, what she does, and how she works with brands in this episode. We also talk about her podcast and how SEO has helped her blog after taking a course with Gemma and Laura of MakeTrafficHappen.com. PAID OR TRADE? Angie Orth did a session on how to work with brands called “Paid or Trade? When (and How Much) to Pay Influencers for Content.” Angie is a recovering agency publicist with more than 15 years in the marketing industry and 13 years as an award-winning content creator. She created AngieAway.com to chronicle a yearlong round-the-world trip that accidentally became a career. She currently produces and co-hosts The Jet Sisters, a video series focusing on Millennial travel. At the closing party, we talked to the two Jet Sisters, Angie, and Rachel. Angie wrote a fascinating blog post called “The 17 Essential Commandments of Influencer Marketing” that you should read. In the next episode, we talk to Michael Collins from TravelMedia.ie. Travel Matters is hosted by Rick Calvert, CEO of TBEX and Palle Bo, The Radio Vagabond and produced by RadioGuru.
This is a quick bonus episode, where TBEX CEO, Rick Calbert shares some breaking news about upcoming TBEX events.
See more on TBEXcon.com
Travel Matters is hosted by The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo and TBEX CEO, Rick Calbert, and produced by RadioGuru.
Today our guest is Martinique Lewis one of the founders of Black Travel Alliance. Martinique is a digital disrupter in love with all things travel.
She is a TBEX Speaker Alum and has been in the travel industry for three years now as a creator, a diversity in travel consultant, and as an influencer and creator manager.
Martinique tells us how Black Travel Alliance was formed and the mission of the group.
The Black Travel Alliance was launched by 17 creators.
Our guest for this episode is TBEX North America Conference Director Tim Leffel. Tim started backpacking around the world and writing for travel magazines as a freelancer in the mid-1990s. He has published several books and now runs five different websites.
Tim joins us today to talk about the results from a recent survey he conducted asking 160 travel writers and DMOs what they about The Future Of Press Trips in a post-COVID-19 world.
- at 6:38 we talk about the difference between solo trips vs. group trips
- at 10:20 we talk about how budget cuts will impact trips
- at 12:15 we talk about 4 recommendations based on the results of the survey
- at 28:32 we talk about the current trend in ad revenue on travel blogs
- at 29:42 we talk about our latest keynote speaker for TBEX North America
- at 30:35 we talk about how COVID-19 may impact our current plans for the timing of TBEX North America and current safety measures we are taking for all attendees.
- at 35:15 we announce plans for TBEX North America 2021 and TBEX Europe 2021, and TBEX Asia 2021
In this special episode, Leslie Walker founder of Tourism Worx shares 15 things DMO’s travel brands and content creators can do right now to help seem them through the Covid19 crisis.
She shares the example of how the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum used transparency and being human to gain tens of thousands of new followers when they put a security guard in charge of social media when the museum temporarily closed due to Covid19 restrictions.
Rick rants about how important it is for DMO’s to work with local creators and Palle updates us on how long he has gone without wine during the lockdown.
We also discuss TBEX North America 2019 in Lafayette keynote speakers Brandy Evans and Jada Durden.
Leslie Walker has more than 20 years of experience in tourism. Having worked for IHG and Ramada hotels and the Huntsville CVB.
In this episode, we talk continue talking with several TBEX Europe attendees who still went to Catania Italy after TBEX Europe 2020 had been postponed.
We will hear about their impressions of Sicily and Catania; what it was like to be traveling when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the entire country of Italy on March 10th; How they got home and how things are on the ground where they are now.
Their stories give great context to how fast the Covid-19 Pandemic broke out of Wuhan China and quickly consumed the entire world.
Doro Staub is our first guest. Her blog is MissMove.ch where she writes about cycling in Italy. Doro is still in Sicily, staying in Aci Castello a neighboring seaside town to Catania.
Our next guest is long time travel writer Carla Rupp who is in New York City on lockdown and self-quarantine with her son Jason Rupp. She explains what it is like to be social distancing at home in the center of the Covid19 pandemic. Here is a recent example of Carla’s writing at Jim Ferri’s Never Stop Traveling Site.
Then we talk with full time nomads Nathan Sado and Sara Hughes of Live Dream Discover. They are currently sheltering in place in Budapest Hungary. Nathan and Sarah were two months into scheduled months long trip through Europe including six weeks in Sicily when the pandemic struck. They have a great post on their short time in Florence here and have lots more content coming about Sicily.
Then we talk with Alex Kalimanis publisher of Wanderlust Marriage from Washington DC. Alex has a great post here where he details what he went through to get home here.
Lastly, our co-host, Radio Vagabond Palle Bo is currently weathering the lockdown in Cape Town South Africa. While he isn’t able to explore on this trip, In this episode he shares the Top Ten Things You Can See in Cape Town in a Week during normal times.
In this episode, we talk to several TBEX Europe attendees who still went to Catania after the event was postponed. They share their impressions of Sicily and Catania. They share what it was like to be traveling when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the entire country of Italy. Little did anyone know this was just the second step in the CoronaVirus’ march across the world. They also share how they got home and what it is like in their home countries or next destination.
We start this episode with Kemkem Casanelli who runs Next Bite of Life with her partner Frederico. KemKem joins us from Spain.
We then talk to Penny Zebula and Simon Lock from Six Legs Will Travel. Penny has a blog post about her thoughts on the Pandemic titled Blog post: Coronavirus, Europe, and “What the Hell Do We Do Now?"
YouTuber Jason Rupp joins us to explain how the CoronaVirus chased him around the world from Wuhan, to Catania and finally to New York where he is now in isolation with his mom and fellow travel writer Carla Rupp. This post give you a sense of the unique travel content on Jason’s site:
"HAIRCUT on the BEACH by Transgender FEMALE BARBER "Nin" PATTAYA THAILAND"
Jason also shared a post with us from an American Expat YouTuber who claims to see where CoronaVirus actually originated. This YouTuber Laowhy86’s research has not been repeated in several mainstream American media including the Washington Post. His normal content is simply about living in China as an expat and his view of Chinese people’s perspectives on the world. Yet another example of the power of independent content creators.
Lastly, here is a link to our co-host Palle Bo’s The Radio Vagabond Podcast episode where speaks to bloggers, nomads and tour operators all over the world.
In this episode, we talk about COVID19’s impact on the travel industry and our daily lives.
We start with how fast the pandemic spread in Italy, and our decision-making process to reschedule TBEX Europe 2020 in Catania Italy. We also talk about new dates for TBEX Europe 2020.
We then have an in-depth discussion with Angelo Carotenuto; Founder and CEO of LivItaly Tours. Angelo is joining us from Rome and his story gives you a glimpse into what a tour operator’s business looks like and how COVID19 changed everything. We discuss how Covid-19 has impacted their business, the travel industry and daily life in Italy.
We also check in with our NEW Co-Conference Director for TBEX North America; Tomiko Harvey and TBEX Europe Conference Director Shane Dallas to hear about life on the ground in Murfreesboro Tennessee and Nairobi Kenya. Tomiko and Shane share some tips and suggestions that content creators work on while the world is standing still.
Palle talks about the current status in Cape Town, South Africa, and Rick shares what life is like Temecula California during the COVID19 Pandemic.
HOSTS:
Rick Calvert, TBEX.
Palle Bo, The Radio Vagabond.
Produced by Radioguru.
In this episode we speak with Keith and Tina Paul from Retire Early And Travel. As they write on their about page, they are lovers of travel and wine.
Fueled by their passion for learning, experiencing other cultures, and meeting people, they want to see the world. They consider themselves forever students.
Keith and Tina have been together since they were 18. They believe in collecting memories and experiences, not things.
On TBEX North America in Billings, Keith and Tina Paul spoke about how they achieved 1 million site visitors in just 7 months.
CATANIA
We also speak with Mario from Catania, Sicily, Italy about what kind of place we can expect to visit when we go to TBEX Europe in 2020.
Hear the full Catania song by clicking here.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE FEATURED ON TRAVEL MATTERS?
If you're going to World Travel Market (WTM) in London in the coming days, and would like to be featured here on Travel Matters, get in touch.
You can reach Rick on rick@tbexcon.com and Palle Bo on palle@theradiovagabond.com.
In this episode of Travel Matters, Rick Calvert talks to Michael Collins from TravelMedia.ie.
TravelMedia.ie is a full service public relations, marketing, events, communications and travel trade representation company, founded in 2006, and managed by Michael Collins.
The company is one of Europe’s leading travel media companies – specialising in PR, events, media buying, strategic advice, industry consultancy, digital communications and social media within the travel industry for both trade and consumer – delivering measurable results for clients.
Watch Michael's conversation with Sante J Achille about advanced SEO and structured data by clicking here.
Travel Matters is hosted by Rick Calvert, CEO of TBEX and Palle Bo, The Radio Vagabond and produced by RadioGuru.
This is the first episode of Travel Matters, the official podcast from TBEX.
Here we introduce the two hosts, Rick Calvert, CEO of TBEX and Palle Bo, The Radio Vagabond.
We also speak to Travel Camel, Shane Dallas, conference director of TBEX Europe about what is coming up on the conference in Catania, Sicily, Italy in March 2020.
And of course a bit about the upcoming event, TBEX North America in Billings Montana this week.
Travel Matters is produced by RadioGuru.