Travel Storytelling With 40 Year Travel Journalist Graham McKenzie.

What have been the biggest travel news headlines? The strangest? 40 year travel journalist, Graham McKemzie, shares the stories, people and places discovered along the way as leader of Travelmole (a top UK trade publication) and director at ResponsibleTravel.com. Plus Graham’s personal travel recommendations and insider tips, and the choices you can make as a thoughtful traveler.

Jessica Deverson continues the important sustainability discussion with curated examples of great deals on responsible travel, including African safaris and adventure excursions from 3 to 40 days. Don’t miss our exclusive savings on fun 2023 Carnival Cruises, and another chance to win a FREE 3 NIGHT STAY FOR 2 at a Universal Orlando resort!

Welcome to No Tourists Allowed, a podcast where two recognized travel industry executives with a combined 69 years on the inside of travel and technology give up their secrets to the thing everyone wants to do. Travel better, pay less, and see more of the world. Enjoy today's episode.

Introduction and Guest Welcome

Mike Putman: Good day. I'm Mike Putman.

James Ferrara: And I'm James Ferrara. Mike, we have several spicy things we're going to cover on today's episode. I am coming to you live from wine country in Sonoma, California, at the historic Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa.

I'm sitting by the fireplace in my beautiful Spanish mission-style room. It is spectacular weather, spectacular grounds, and we might be doing a little wine tasting while I'm here.

Mike Putman: Oh, I'm jealous now. I am jealous.

James Ferrara: Last night we had dinner in the caves of the Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards. The day before, we were at Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery for a lunch in the barrel room with these incredible historic wine barrels.

One of them is actually one of the largest barrels in the world, together with its two sisters in Europe. They are the three largest barrels in the world. It's about two and a half stories high. It is a wooden barrel that, in my fantasies, you could jump into and have a little swim.

Mike Putman: Tell you what, that is a rough job you've got, James.

James Ferrara: It's a tough job; someone's got to do it. Mike, maybe the spiciest portion of our episode today is actually our very special guest. I'd like to get right to it.

We have a gentleman and a friend of both Mike's and mine. We were all three together very recently in Northern Ireland. It was a wonderful travel experience, which we've shared with you.

He is a journalist with 40 years in the travel industry and elsewhere, and a known leader in publishing and journalism in travel. He's led one of the top publications in the trade for travel industry professionals called TravelMole in both the UK and the US.

He's been involved in various organizations in both places. If he doesn't actually have dual citizenship, we're going to grant him honorary dual citizenship because he spends a lot of time over here in the States. In fact, he's here now.

He also has been very active as a director of an organization that he helped found called ResponsibleTravel.com. We've had conversations about responsible tourism, thoughtful travel, and sustainability. We're going to touch on that today, as it is a critically important topic.

We're lucky to have someone of his knowledge and passion to share with us. Please welcome from TravelMole and so much more, Graham McKenzie.

Mike Putman: Yes, welcome Graham.

Graham McKenzie: Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me on. I appreciate it.

James Ferrara: Graham, you're in the US. Where exactly in the US are you today?

Graham McKenzie: Today I'm in the capital of Alabama. I'm in Montgomery. I have been to see the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, which despite its name is actually a magnificent theatre complex just outside Montgomery.

I've been to the Montgomery Art Museum and I have just returned—I'm literally hot-footed back—from the Hank Williams Museum.

Mike Putman: Oh, I love Hank Williams.

Graham McKenzie: There you go. I didn't realize that Hank Williams died so young and died so tragically in the back of a Cadillac on his way to a New Year's Day concert in Akron, somewhere in Ohio.

James Ferrara: Mike, we went to see a country music star's museum together in Nashville, didn't we?

Mike Putman: That's right, the Johnny Cash Museum. It was a fantastic museum. I definitely suggest anyone visiting Nashville spend two or three hours there. It is located right in the middle of all the attractions. So, I just added Hank Williams to my list for my next trip to Alabama.

Graham McKenzie’s Travel Favorites

Graham, we really do appreciate you joining. What we do with our guests in the beginning is ask some quick questions so our listeners can learn a little bit more about you and your travel habits. If you'll just give us a short phrase answer, we'll go through these relatively quickly. What is your favorite hotel brand or individual property?

Graham McKenzie: My favorite individual property would probably be the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.

Mike Putman: And do you have a favorite brand as well?

Graham McKenzie: I quite like Moxy Hotels. I might seem a bit long in the tooth for that, but I quite like that. I like the chill-out vibe.

James Ferrara: We are outside the target profile for that!

Graham McKenzie: I appreciate that, but it just shows how young at heart I am, James. You've probably seen that from my dancing when we were in Belfast.

Moxys sometimes have tattoo parlors in the lobby and funky barbershops. It's a really cool, young, hip brand with a big bar in the lobby. If you go in there with the right mindset, even in the baby boom generation, it's a good thing because it's chilled out.

The people are very friendly and it's not stuffy. The quality of the restaurants and the service I've enjoyed in the Moxys has been very good. The rooms are fairly basic and functional, which suits me.

I don't need anything fancy, but the general vibe is nice. The first one I went to was South Beach, Miami. It had a lovely rooftop bar and chill-out zone looking across South Beach out into the Atlantic with a summer breeze coming in. There is nothing not to like.

Mike Putman: Graham, of your forty plus years of experience, what would you say your favorite destination is?

Graham McKenzie: Scotland. Specifically, the West Coast of Scotland.

Mike Putman: Why is that?

Graham McKenzie: I think there are a couple of things. You get a very warm welcome. In my opinion, tourism is all about service, the people you meet, and the stories. It is a combination of things, but those elements are extremely good there.

The food is exceptional, especially the seafood. There's a feeling of remoteness, like you're almost on the edge of the old world. My name is McKenzie and my heritage is Scottish, so I feel at home there. The scenery is dramatic and the wildlife is really good.

James Ferrara: At the risk of sounding like a Johnny One Note, the food is absolutely excellent there.

Graham McKenzie: It is. If you like whiskey, you can just sit in a big armchair by a log fire and contemplate the various qualities of peaty, smoky Lagavulin versus a Highland malt.

The next day, even if the weather's not good, you can get out amongst it. There's an exceptional cruise line there called the Hebridean Princess. It spends from March until October cruising around the Western Isles and hugging the western coast.

You can go to Rum, Eigg, or Arran. It's not a cheap experience going on the Hebridean Princess, but it's very worthwhile.

Travel Hacks and Career Highlights

James Ferrara: That's the second note I'm making, and we're only at the beginning of the interview. We ask our guests to share a tip or a hack that helps your travel go easier. Do you have something you’d be willing to share?

Graham McKenzie: For me, it's a relatively modern innovation. Make sure your phone has some good music on it and make sure you have some Bluetooth earphones.

That can exclude an awful lot of annoyances when you're on a flight or at an airport. I'm privileged enough to get access to lounges because I fly a lot, but I know what life is like outside the lounge. It can be bloody annoying, particularly if you have a delay.

I try and exclude the rest of the world by just putting on music or listening to local radio if I can. It's not a particularly revolutionary tip, but that's what I do.

James Ferrara: No, it's a good one. It's very personal.

Mike Putman: I've got noise-canceling earphones, but just hearing white noise is kind of boring, so I tend to agree with Graham.

Thinking about your experience and all the years you've been doing this, what is the most memorable story that you've ever reported on?

Graham McKenzie: That's a good question. For me, it was fairly recent and plays to my age a little bit. I was in Ybor City in Tampa.

I was being given a guided tour of the history of the immigrants—the Italian and mainly Cuban immigrants who came for Vicente Martinez-Ybor to reclaim the capital of cigar making.

Bringing it up to modern times, there was the influence of organized crime and the potential influence that had on the presidency. Santo Trafficante Jr. apparently stood up in an Italian restaurant on November 18, 1963, which was four days before my eighth birthday.

He was supposed to have a meeting with President Kennedy to go over various things. President Kennedy didn't turn up, and Santo Trafficante Jr. apparently stood up in the restaurant and said "That M-F is dead" in a very public way before storming out.

Four days later, the president was assassinated in Dallas. I found that really interesting. It added a whole new level to my interest in Tampa.

Graham McKenzie: If I can have another one from this year, I went to Muscle Shoals in northeast Alabama. I went to the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and was told about the history there.

One afternoon in April 1969, there was a bang on the door. The Rolling Stones were there. They had driven all the way from Miami. That evening, they recorded and committed to tape "Brown Sugar," which was later a track on their Sticky Fingers album.

The soundtrack of my life was recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. I don't think many people outside Alabama have ever even heard of Muscle Shoals.

James Ferrara: There is a wonderful documentary film called Muscle Shoals. It talks about the musicians who became the backbone of that studio, the Swampers. They influenced the major recording stars who came to play there.

Graham McKenzie: It was fantastic. Further down the road, there's another recording studio called Fame where Etta James and Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded.

But for me, this little hut in the middle of nowhere was so well known amongst musicians. The Rolling Stones recorded not only that track, but in the morning, Keith Richards wrote "Wild Horses" right there in the studio. It was amazing.

James Ferrara: Those stories had resonance with you. What do you think are the stories that had the most resonance with readers? What was your most popular story?

Graham McKenzie: I did a video interview with a famous cricketer in the Caribbean called Sir Vivian Richards. He's a knight of the realm. We spoke about his life being brought up in Antigua and how he made his way because of cricket, but how much he appreciated what his country and his family had done for him.

Given that he's probably one of the top five most famous cricketers ever born, the man is so down to earth. That story got a lot of hits and views. When you go to Antigua, you can meet him in the street and he's just like an ordinary bloke.

It’s like meeting a famous quarterback like Brett Favre in the street and him being just an ordinary chap. It was related to tourism—why we should be going to Antigua. There is a beach for every day of the year and a fantastic restaurant just outside St. John's called Papa Zouk where the guy tells you what you're going to eat rather than the other way around.

James Ferrara: It's pretty life-affirming that your most popular story has to do with gratefulness and humility. We can be cynical and think that the most popular stories are about train wrecks.

Graham McKenzie: To be honest, the most popular story ever written on TravelMole has been about air crashes. The air crash that happened in the Alps was easily the most read story we've ever put out. But for me personally, the interview with Vivian Richards is the one I’m best known for.

Mike Putman: Graham, I'm sure you've interviewed thousands of people. Who would be the oddest person you've ever interviewed?

Graham McKenzie: These are not easy questions! The oddest person was an executive from an airline in Greece. I was interviewing him at World Travel Market.

Beforehand, I told him it was a video interview and he needed to keep his answers short and sweet so people wouldn't get bored. He said he knew and had done it hundreds of times.

He then proceeded to answer the first question with a fifteen-minute diatribe. By the time he finished, the camera had been shut off, I'd walked away, and the guy still thought we were recording. It was awful.

In TravelMole circles, we have also used the name of a certain minister of tourism in the Caribbean as another word for "verbose."

James Ferrara: I've seen some of those guys. I think it's a cultural thing. They speak like ministers with a certain cadence and a big, florid presentation.

Graham McKenzie: I think a lot of their presentation skills are derived from the church.

Sustainability and Future Trends in Tourism

James Ferrara: Speaking of cricketers, there is a famous cricketer from Australia named Graham McKenzie. Is that you?

Graham McKenzie: I wish it was! His nickname was Garth. He played for Australia and Leicestershire. He took loads of Test match wickets.

He is probably about twenty-five years older than me. He was a fantastic bowler; his action was so smooth and he could swing the ball. In baseball parlance, he had everything.

James Ferrara: You’ve seen so much evolution in the business. As of today, what would you say the travel industry is doing right?

Graham McKenzie: I think they are moving back toward the quality of the experience. I think they lost that for a while. I see that particularly in destination marketing, where the experience is as important, if not more important, than pure numbers.

When I first started coming to International Pow Wow, you would go to a press conference and the CEO of a destination or hotel group would only talk about numbers—how many new hotels they built or how many visitors they had.

You don't hear that so much anymore. What you hear now is about how they're integrating with the community. Resident sentiment is more important than almost anything now.

If it's no good for the citizens, what's the point of tourism? Is it purely to line the pockets of some distant shareholder, or is it to actually make the lives of the citizens better?

If it makes the life of the citizens better, you're going to enjoy a much better vacation because you're going to get a better welcome and a more authentic experience. People don't want to go to a clone destination where everything is the same.

Even big branded hotels are now trying to make themselves more local. The Moxy in Miami South Beach is a great example. You wouldn't even know it was owned by Marriott. It feels like an independently owned hotel with local people and local products.

James Ferrara: That's a lot of what this podcast is about—having a real experience. Let's flip the coin. What do you think the travel industry is doing wrong?

Graham McKenzie: I think there's a long way to go for environmental sustainability. I'm always disappointed when I come to North America by the ease with which single-use plastics are used and the disregard for the use of water and energy.

I see the persistent use of plastic cutlery and overuse to the point of wastage. You see commercials for cars whooping it up because they get twenty miles to the gallon. You'd be laughed out of the street in Europe if you said that. We look for fifty or sixty miles to the gallon.

How many times have you been to a hotel and said you don't want the towels or sheets changed? You come back in the morning and there are new towels and new soap containers. It's just wasteful.

There's also a long way to go to make sure the benefit of tourism is kept in the local economy. I remember being at a conference in Jamaica where we were talking about sustainability.

All the delegates were given a big bag of giveaways made of plastic, all made in Taiwan, and wrapped in plastic bags. I asked the minister why they were preaching sustainability on stage while giving out plastic from Taiwan. Surely someone in Jamaica or the Caribbean could make something authentic.

We’ve got to reduce the amount of carbon we use. Fly less, stay longer.

James Ferrara: I don't think most travelers understand the full breadth of choices they have, including buying local and avoiding single-use plastics. We've also talked about cultural sustainability.

Graham McKenzie: Cultural sustainability is not an easy thing to achieve. Environmental sustainability is a science; you either do it or you don't. Cultural sustainability is more difficult.

In France, they once said they weren't going to have menus in English or speak English in certain places. Is that the right way? I'm not sure. But I would hate to go to France and not be confronted by the challenge of saying, "Bonjour, une baguette, s'il vous plaît."

If we don't preserve culture, all we'll have are clone destinations. And the old idea of going to Spain just because the climate is better doesn't hold water when we're suffering forty-degree summers. People might start going further north to get away from the heat.

James Ferrara: Another choice travelers can make is to spread that footprint. Instead of everyone flocking to Florence or Venice, there are incredible places that are less trodden. It is ultimately better for the planet and for the culture.

Mike Putman: Graham, tell our listeners a bit more about the other projects you're working on.

Graham McKenzie: I write occasionally for a woman's magazine in the UK called Best. I’m also developing a relationship with an organization called Silver Traveller.

It aims at the silver travel market. I believe silver travelers want to remain active physically and mentally. They don’t just want to do the waltz on a cruise like the post-war generation. People in their sixties and seventies now want to go cycling and kayaking.

I’m also going to be doing some writing for Golf News in the UK. Even with golf courses, there's a lot of work to be done on sustainability. In Estonia, they banned plastic tees because animals might eat them.

I played at the Peninsula Golf & Racquet Club at Gulf Shores, Alabama, this weekend. From a wildlife perspective, it was marvelous—alligators, bald eagles, and a fabulous amount of insects to attract birds. I played like crap, but the rest of it was really good.

Mike Putman: I've had the opportunity to play there as well; it's a nice place. Graham, I know you've got to catch a flight. We really appreciate you coming on the podcast. You're a great friend and we hope to have you back real soon.

Weekly Travel Deals with Jessica Deverson

Graham McKenzie: Well, thank you very much for inviting me. Cheers, James.

James Ferrara: That was great having Graham. Luckily, we also have Jessica Deverson with us again this week. She is going to bring us some of the great specials she’s been able to dig up. Welcome, Jessica.

Jessica Deverson: Thanks for having me again. I'll get right to it. We have three great offers today. The first is Carnival Cruise Line.

Right now there's an exclusive sale for Carnival Cruise Line through InteleTravel. This includes early saver rates, 50% reduced deposits, and up to $50 in onboard credit.

This is available on nearly any sailing from 2023 forward. You have until the end of November to book. It's a really great booking window to get your cruises booked for next year or the year after.

James Ferrara: There are some amazing new Carnival ships. I'm actually doing the sail-out of the new Carnival Celebration in Helsinki, Finland. I'm going to the shipyard to see the ship finished. Carnival is not your father's carnival anymore; it’s a new brand with new hardware.

Mike Putman: Carnival must be doing something right. I’m looking at my ticker and their stock is up eleven percent today.

Jessica Deverson: Next up, you guys were talking about sustainability and responsible travel. 87% of people say they care about traveling sustainably.

One brand that does this well is African Travel. They are one of the longest-established luxury safari operators focused on Africa. They just came out with new sustainable journeys that feature "Make Travel Matter" experiences to aid Africa's wildlife and communities.

They have six safaris on sale. One of their top ones, South Africa at Leisure, is 10 days from $5,599 per person. You visit Cape Town, the wine lands, and Robben Island, and then journey to the Shamwari Private Game Reserve to see the Big Five.

James Ferrara: Oh, that sounds like an amazing trip. That’s the next big trip I’m planning for my family.

Mike Putman: Is part of the sustainability that you eat the animals in the restaurant there?

Jessica Deverson: No! You're banned from Africa now, Mike.

Lastly, we have G Adventures. Their goal since 1990 has been to change the world through travel. They believe community tourism can help marginalized groups.

A perfect illustration of this is their partnership with Planeterra, a non-profit that uses community tourism to change lives. Many local businesses don't benefit from tourism, and Planeterra works to break that cycle.

Right now, G Adventures has last-minute travel deals for the remainder of 2022. There are rates on over 130 tours. You can find three-day trips starting at $172 or 40-day trips through Africa or Southeast Asia. If you can travel in 2022, you can get amazing low rates.

James Ferrara: I've done a trip with G Adventures and you really do feel like they're supporting local communities. They don't bring you to chains; everything is authentic and unique.

Travel News and Financial Tips

Mike Putman: Thanks, Jessica. So James, there's been some things in the news.

James Ferrara: Yeah, a lot in the news. I wanted to share a recent travel experience. Coming back from Ireland a couple of weeks ago, I was on an American Airlines flight from Dublin to Charlotte.

About two and a half hours into the eight-hour flight, the purser announced that they had completed the meal service and were going to take a two-and-a-half-hour break. He said there was water and pretzels in the back, but basically, "don't bother us for the next two and a half hours."

I thought that was very uncharacteristic for an international flight crew. For a third of the flight, there were no flight attendants visible.

James Ferrara: It likely has to do with reduced crews. They either can't get the people or it's cost-saving. I've encountered it a few times myself.

Mike Putman: One positive thing I want to mention is an app called Wise. This is a FinTech solution, like a bank account, where you can load money in US dollars and they send you a debit card.

Within the app, you can move money to another currency. When I was in Dublin, I moved some US dollars into Euros. It cost about thirty-nine cents to move 200 Euros and I got a very favorable rate.

When I used the debit card in Dublin, they charged it in Euros, so I didn't get a marked-up conversion rate. When I went to Belfast, I transferred money into British pounds.

It solves the problem of local banks giving unfavorable exchange rates or credit cards charging a service fee. I highly suggest looking into a Wise account.

James Ferrara: I'm definitely going to look into it. What else is in the news, Mike?

Mike Putman: An interesting article came out from Airports Council International (ACI) revealing that the seven busiest airports in the world are all US airports.

Atlanta is number one, Dallas is two, Denver is three, Chicago is four, Los Angeles is five, Charlotte is six, and Orlando is seven. Then it goes to Guangzhou and Chengdu in China.

James Ferrara: The New York area is misleading because we have three major airports that serve the area, so the traffic gets split. You can have the highest traffic; I'm happy to let that be somewhere else!

Mike Putman: One other fact: Hong Kong has recently reopened for tourists. Prior to the pandemic, they had around 55 million visitors a year, but they’ve been shut down for two years.

To bring tourists back, they are offering 500,000 free airline tickets. They pre-purchased these from airlines like Cathay Pacific as part of a government support package. If you’re interested, you can just Google "Hong Kong free airline tickets."

James Ferrara: Hong Kong is one of the great food destinations of the world. It has some of the most sophisticated cuisine and great street food.

Universal Orlando Giveaway and Final Remarks

Well, I think we've come to the end of our time for this episode. We should mention our giveaway for a three-night stay at Universal Parks & Resorts in Orlando.

Mike Putman: To enter, you have to go to our website, notouristsallowed.com. Scroll to the bottom of our homepage for the contest info.

If you register, you get two entries. If you subscribe to our podcast, you get five. And if you correctly answer the mystery question of the day, you get five additional entries. James, what is the question?

James Ferrara: Graham McKenzie was our guest today. What was Graham McKenzie's favorite hotel brand? Not the individual property, but the hotel chain he mentioned as his favorite.

Mike Putman: You can't miss this one, because he brought it up about three times! Thank you, listeners, for all the positive feedback. If you have topics you'd like us to cover, go to the contact page on our website. Stay tuned; we’ll have another podcast for you next week.

James Ferrara: Thank you, everybody.