Plus Sustainable Travel Adventures, An Exclusive Carnival Cruise Deal & How To Get More Money From Currency Exchange.
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!
FREE 3 NIGHT STAY AT UNIVERSAL PARKS AND RESORTS HOTEL: https://notouristsallowed.com/raffle/
Produced by The Greenville Podcast Company.
Transcript
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Good day. I’m Mike Putman.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
And I’m James Ferrara. And Mike, we have several spicy things we’re going to cover on today’s episode. And I am coming to you live from wine country in Sonoma, California. At the historic Sonoma mission in I’m sitting by the fireplace in my beautiful Spanish colonial style, 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, Custom Travel Solutions
Oh, I’m jealous now.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Actually, last night, we had dinner in the caves of the Gloria for rare sparkling wine, winery and vineyards. The day before, we were at serbest, Gianni, for lunch in the barrel room with these incredible historic wine barrels. And then one of the largest barrels in the world actually, together with its two sisters in Europe. They are the three largest barrels in the world. And it’s about two and a half storeys high wooden barrel that, you know, in my fantasies, you could jump into and have a little swim.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Yeah, tell you what a rough job you got James.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
It’s a tough job, someone’s got to do it. Mike, right, maybe the spiciest portion of our episode. Today is actually our very special guest. So I’d like to get right to it. And let’s do Yeah, we have a gentleman, a friend of both Mike’s and mine, we were all three of us together very recently, in Northern Ireland. Also a wonderful travel experience, which we’ve shared with you. He is a journalist for 40 years in the travel industry and elsewhere. But a known leader in publishing and journalism in travel is lead one of the top publications in the trade, so to travel industry professionals, and that’s called Travel mall 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. And he also it has been very active was a director of an organization that he helped found called responsible travel.com. And we’ve had conversations about responsible tourism, thoughtful travels, sustainability, and we’re going to touch on that today a critically important topic. And, you know, we’re lucky to have someone of his knowledge in that area and passion to share with us. So please welcome from travel mole and so much more. Graham McKenzie.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Yes. Welcome, Graham.
Graham McKenzie
Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me on. I appreciate it.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
So 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 have been to see the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, which, despite its name is actually a magnificent theatre complex just outside Montgomery. And I’ve been to the Montgomery Art Museum. And I have just been I’m literally hotfooted back from the Hank Williams Museum.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
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. I think it was Akron. Anyway somewhere in Ohio.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Oh, yes. Yes, Mike.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
We went to see a country music stars museum together in Nashville, didn’t we?
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Sort of the thing to do? Yeah, Johnny Cash right was a fantastic Museum and definitely suggest anyone visiting Nashville spend two or three hours at the Johnny Cash Museum, which is located right in the middle of of all the attractions. So
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Hank Williams to my list next trip to Alabama.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Well, Graham, we really do appreciate you joining. And what we do with our guests in the beginning, usually is we give you some quick questions, just so our listeners can learn a little bit more about you and your travel habits and styles. And what we might do that and if you’ll just give us kind of a one word or short phrase answer to these, we’ll go through these relatively quickly. So Graham, 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, Custom Travel Solutions
Nice. And do you have a favorite brand as well?
Graham McKenzie
I quite like the Moxie Marriott it might might seem a bit older than the two for that. But I’d quite like that. Dude,
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
we are outside the target profile for that.
Graham McKenzie
I appreciate that. But just shows how young at heart I am James. Probably. You’ve probably seen that from my dance and when when we’re in Belfast,
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Maxis have sometimes tattoo parlors in the lobby and and sort of funky barber shops. It’s a really cool, young, hip, big bar in the lobby kind of brand, right?
Graham McKenzie
Yeah, it is. I think if you go in there with the right mindset. If you’re in the baby boom generation, which I am, then I think it’s a good thing because it’s chilled out. People are very friendly. It’s relaxed. It’s not stuffy, the quality of the restaurants and quality of the service that I’ve enjoyed in the Moxie is when I’ve stayed there’s been very good. And the rooms are fairly basic. Functional. Suits me. I don’t need anything fancy. But I think the general vibe is nice. I like it. I mean, at first one I went to South Beach, Miami. Lovely rooftop bar. Rooftop chill out zone looking across South Beach. County, Atlantic summer breeze coming in. Nice not to like,
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
right. So Graham. You’re 40 plus years experience. What would you say your favorite destination? Is?
Graham McKenzie
Scotland.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Anywhere particularly Scotland,
Graham McKenzie
west coast of Scotland.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Oh, okay. Why? Why is that might ask?
Graham McKenzie
Well, I think there’s a couple of things. I think that you go up there, you get a very warm welcome, which is nice. And tourism, in my opinion is all about service and the people you meet and the stories and all you know, it’s a combination of things. But those things are extremely good. The food is exceptional, seafood in particular. And you just there’s a feeling of I suppose remoteness, there’s a feeling that you’re almost on the edge of the old world, coming from the new world into the old world. And I like that, and I suppose although I’ve never really had any direct direct experience, my heritage. My name is McKenzie my heritage is Scottish. And so I’ve I feel at home there and it’s dramatic scenery, the wildlife is really good. I’m not sure I would necessarily want to go there if I was a 19 year old. But now I would definitely say that’s and those contributory factors also determine where other places that I enjoy that and history and heritage, you know,
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
risk of the risk of sounding like a Johnny one note, the food’s also good.
Graham McKenzie
The food is excellent. I mean, the food is absolutely excellent. And if you like, if you like game whiskey, yeah, if you like whiskey, and you can just sit in a big armchair by a big log fire and contemplate the various qualities of PT smokey lag of Berlin, versus a highland malt and things of that nature. And it’s just really, really nice. I like it. And then the next day, even if the weather’s not really good, you can get out and amongst it, there was an exceptional cruiseline there and it’s where the main ship is the Hebridean princess and that basically spends most of the from about March until October I think maybe November even just cruising around the the West As denials of Scotland and hugging the western coast of Scotland, and you can go to rum and you can go to Erin and you can go to is all sorts of smaller islands you can go to and get a just really nice. It’s not cheap experience going on everyday Emery Express, Aberdeen princess, but it’s very worthwhile.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
That’s the second note, by making him we’re only at the beginning of the interview. So we ask it’s a tradition can I call it a tradition? Mike, we’re only doing this for a couple of months so far. But we We ask our guests because it is the ethos of our podcast. We ask them to share, a tip, a hack, something that you do that helps your travel through the airport go easier, or something that you do when you arrive at a destination or first at the hotel, anything that would help our listeners make their travels better, would you be willing to share something with us?
Graham McKenzie
For me, absolutely. It’s a relatively modern innovation, I haven’t had it on all my life. But make sure your phone has got some good music on and make sure you got some earphones, Bluetooth. And that can exclude an awful lot of annoyances when you’re on a flight or you’re an airport. I’m privileged enough because I fly a lot to get access to lounges. But I know what life is like outside the lounge, and it can be bloody annoying, particularly if you have a delay. So I try and exclude the rest of the world by just putting on music and listening to that and maybe listening to Radio local radio if I can. It’s not particularly revolutionary tip, but that’s what I do.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Yeah, I think it’s a good it’s very personal. And I think our listeners will really appreciate it.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Yeah, that’s that is a good tip. And, you know, I’ve got some of the noise counts canceling earphones. But just having those and just hearing kind of white noise is kind of boring. So I tend to agree with Graham on that tip. Graham thinking about your vast experience in writing for in travel mode for our listeners is a travel trade magazine, one of the leading travel trade magazines in the world or periodicals. But thinking about your experience, and all the years that you’ve been doing it, even though you stay in Moxie hotels. What is what is the most memorable story that you’ve ever reported upon?
Graham McKenzie
That’s a good question. I would say. I was, I suppose. For me, it was fairly recent. And it plays to my age a little bit. And that I was in Ybor City in Tampa. And I was given being given a guided tour of Ybor City, its history about the immigrants, the Italian and mainly Cuban immigrants, to for Mr. Ybor to reclaim the capital of cigar making, and how that diminished and bringing it up to modern times was the influence of organized crime and the potential influence that had on the destiny of the presidency of the United States of America. And how Santo trafficante apparently stood up in an Italian restaurant on November the 18th 1963, which was four days before my eighth birthday and was supposed to have a meeting with President Kennedy to go over various things that they had to discuss. And President Kennedy didn’t turn up and center traffic counties apparently stood up in the restaurant and said that MF is dead in a very public way in a very public Italian restaurant, and stormed out. And then two, four days later, the President was assassinated in Dallas. I found that really, really, really interesting. I mean, I think Tampa is a great place. But that just added a whole new level of my interest in Tampa. And I reported and wrote a little bit about that earlier this year. And yeah, that I would think that’s the one that’s had most resonance with me. And probably if I can have another one. Also, this year, I went to Muscle Shoals in northeast Alabama, and went to the Muscle Shoals sound studio and was told about the history there about that one afternoon in April 1969 613. Evening banging on the door Rolling Stones are at the door. They driven all the way from Miami. And that evening, they recorded and committed to tape brown sugar, which was later a track on their sticky fingers album. And the song track of my life was recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. And I don’t think anybody outside Alabama has ever even heard of Muscle Shoals
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
there is a wonderful documentary film called Muscle Shoals. It has not gotten any sort of wide audience or release. But it talks about the musicians who became the backbone of that studio and then and they influence Swampers, Jada. Swampers. Yeah, and they influenced the major recording stars who came to play there. So that’s a really cool story for you to bring up.
Graham McKenzie
Yeah, it was fantastic. I mean, further down the road. There’s another recording studio called fame where Etta James and Leonard Skinner and all sorts of other people recorded there. But for me, this little, almost like a little heart in the middle of nowhere. And he was so well known amongst musicians. These the Swampers had such a high reputation that the Rolling Stones drove all the way from Miami and recorded not that track. Not only that track late in the morning, they came back. And Keith Richards wrote there in the studio wild horses, and they recorded that in, it was just, I found it difficult to take it all in, quite frankly. It was amazing.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Wow, that is amazing. So those stories had resonance with you. What do you think are the stories that had the most resonance with readers? What were your What was your most popular story? The biggest news story that you ever
Graham McKenzie
Again, Pretty good, pretty good question. I suppose that I’ve done interviews, video interviews have probably had more recently, you know, in the last well, we’ve been doing it for 10 or 15 years now. And I did one with I did one with famous cricketer in the in the Caribbean called so Vivian Richards is a Knight of the realm. And we just spoke about his life climate being bought up in Antigua, and how poor he was and how he made his way because of cricket, but how much he appreciated what his country had done for him and what his family had done for him. And indeed, what cricket had done for him and he’d never forgotten it. And given that he’s probably one of the top most you know, he’s in the top five famous most famous cricketers ever bought, the man is so down to earth, he’s so friendly. And that was really popular. I mean, that got a lot of hits a lot of reads a lot of views. And I wrote a supplementary story with it. And when you go to Antigua the man is you know, he’s you can meet him in the street, and he’s just like an ordinary bloke. But he as I said, He’s it’s like, it’s like meeting trying, trying to think of the famous quarterback for the green Green Bay Packers. bred for ever someone like Yeah, it’s like meeting Brett five in the street, and him being just like an ordinary chap, and being down to earth. He may well be I’ve never met Brett five, but it’s that type of thing. And Vivian Richards was great. And it was related to tourism, why we should be going to Antigua, what’s so great about it. And there are some fantastic, you know, a beach every day of the year, fantastic restaurant just outside St. John’s called Papa Zooks, where the guy tells you what you’re going to eat rather than the other way around. You know, it’s just, it’s a really, really, and Tegan and Barbuda is a fantastic place to go. And the fact that this chap site live in Richards, sub Vivian Richards, who around who are just ordinary guys has more power to their elbow, I would say, Well, I’d
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
say it’s pretty life affirming that your most popular story has to do with gratefulness and humility. And, and you know, because we can be cynical and think that the most popular stories are about, you know, train wrecks. So I’m really honored to hear that
Graham McKenzie
To be honest, the most popular story ever written on travel model has been about airline crashes. You know, the Air Berlin flight that crashed into the Alps. That’s easily the most read story we’ve ever we’ve ever put out on our website. But for me personally, that’s the one that that has been. I’m probably best known for put it that way.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
So great. I’m sure you’ve interviewed hundreds of or 1000s of people who would be the most, who would be the oddest person you’ve ever interviewed.
Graham McKenzie
You Oh, these are not easy questions. The artist person and
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
you’re not allowed to say me. Great. Just to be clear.
Graham McKenzie
You’re in the top three. Yeah, I’ve interviewed, I’ve interviewed people that the oddest person is from Greece from an airline in Greece. And I was talking to interviewing him at World Travel Market. And beforehand, I said, look over, this is a video interview. You need to keep your answers short and sweet. And because other people will just get bored with it, and they will switch off and he said, Yeah, of course, I know. I’ve done these hundreds of times. and proceeded to answer the first question where they’re like a 15 minute diatribe about his hairline. By which time the camera had been shut off. I’d walked away and the guy was still thinking that we were recording it. It was just awful. And I’ve never seen him again. And I don’t suppose he’s got very high regard for me either. But that was the weirdest one. I mean, the guide. He’d lost something there. I don’t know what the hell it was. He spoke very good English. But he just went on and on and on. There is also a famous Minister of Tourism in the Caribbean, who’s speaks so much within travel circles. We’ve used his name as another word for verbose. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Guys, I’ve seen some of those guys from the Caribbean. I think it’s a cultural thing. Some of them speak like ministers, you know, and they have a cadence and a big presentation and it’s quite florid, the way they speak.
Graham McKenzie
They often put big pauses in between and within a sentence to almost emphasize the importance of what they’re saying. And that’s that’s a cultural thing. I think. I think you’re right. But I think a lot of the presentation skills indeed, you’re quite right are derived from the church.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Graham, you know, there’s the speaking of cricketer, there is a cricketer from Australia, quite well known. Whose name is Graham McKenzie, is that you?
Graham McKenzie
I wish it was. I wish it was his his his nickname was golf. Yeah. He played for Australia, and he played for Queensland, and he played for Leicester, in Leicestershire. In the United Kingdom, he took loads and loads of a test match wickets. He is probably about 25 years older than me. I think he’s still alive. But he was a fantastic bowler, his action was so smooth. And he could swing the ball. You know, I know. You had a fastball you had, you know, in team baseball parlance. He had everything. He was a great, great bowler.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Yes. Well, I know you’ve had, you have many accomplishments. So I was just
Graham McKenzie
checking Yeah, not.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
So sorry. What is? Yeah. So as you think about the travel industry, and you’ve seen so much that’s happened, and there’s been so much evolution in the business? You know, as of today, what would you say the travel industry is doing, right?
Graham McKenzie
I think what the travel industry is moving towards, and I think they lost it a little bit is they’re moving towards the quality of experience that you’re going to get when you go on vacation or on holiday. And I think people lost that a little bit. And I see that particularly in destination marketing, where the quality of the experience you’re going to get in a destination is important. And as important if not more important than just pure numbers. And I’ll give you an example. I come to IP w which is international power, Ichi. And I’ve been coming for a number of years. And when I first came here, you would go to a press conference and the president or the CEO, or whoever it might be from a destination or from a hotel group or whatever. All they were talking about was numbers. How many new hotels, or how many more bedrooms they got, how many bed spaces they got, how many visitors they’d had, and you don’t hear that so much anymore. What you hear more about is about how they’re integrating with the community how residents sentiment is more important than almost anything now, that may I think COVID bizarrely helped in that movement towards that. And I think that that is an important aspect because at the end of the day, 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 owner? Or is it to actually make the lives of the citizens better? And I think it’s To make the life of citizens better, then you’re going to enjoy a much, much better vacation. Because you’re going to get a better welcome, you’re going to get better service. And you’re going to get a more authentic and unique experience than if you just get a cookie cutter experience. And what what people don’t want to do, what I don’t want to do is to go to a clone destination, I don’t want to go where everything’s the same. The food, the hotel room, the shops, the food, you’re served, everything. If that’s all the same, then you start to wonder why, why you’re going on vacation. And in Europe, we suffered from that a great deal with some of the Mediterranean countries. They’re moving away from that quite rapidly. And here in the States, you should talk to any destination marketeer. And that’s what they’ll be talking about. And even big branded hotels are now trying to make themselves more local. Give an example the Moxie Miami South Beach, you wouldn’t know it was owned by Marriott, you would think it was an independently owned hotel, local people working in local product, local language, if you like, local, all sorts of things, local references. And I think that’s a good thing. And I would say the travel industry is moving towards that rapidly, in a good way.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
And that’s a lot about what we about what this podcast is about, is having a real experience a local experience, and very refreshing to hear you say that. And for that to be your point of view. But let’s flip the coin on the other side. What do you think the travel industry is doing wrong?
Graham McKenzie
Well, I think there’s a long way to go for even environmental sustainability to be achieved. I’m always I’ll be frank with you, I’m always disappointed when I come to North America, about the ease of which single use plastics are used by the disregard for use of water, the disregard for use of energy. The still the persistent use of plastic cutlery, the persistent use of overuse, you know, almost to the point of wastage. And that’s, I find that surprising. And each and every since I’ve been coming here, I remember I look on the television, you see adverts less so now actually post COVID. But you see commercials for cars, and they’re whipping it up that you can get 20 miles to the gallon out of this car. Well, you’d be laughed out of the street in Europe, if you said you got 20 miles per gallon, you know, Rolls Royce gets 20 Min, 20 miles to the gallon, what you’d be looking for is 50 or 60 miles to the gallon. And that I think that is related to travel. And that that sort of culture is disappointing in terms of environmental sustainability, how many times you’ve been in total and you say, Look, I don’t want the I don’t want the it’s probably better post COVID. But I don’t want the towels changed. I don’t want the sheets change. I’m only here for one night or two nights. Christ, I wouldn’t do that home, why would I want it here? Yet? Sure enough, you come in the morning. And this new towels and someone’s changed the bed and put new soap containers in there. And it’s just wasteful. So I think there’s a long way to go there. And I think there’s still a long way to go to make sure that the benefit of tourism is kept in the local economy. There’s a long long way to go for that. And
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
you were in your in the headlines yourself about an event. Where was it? Was it Jamaica? someplace in the Caribbean?
Graham McKenzie
Yes. I think I remember the Jamaican one. Yeah, I’ll give you an example where I was at a conference in Jamaica where we’re talking about sustainability and making sure that you know you get an authentic experience when your character Caribbean and again, you know, we are all the all the delegates in particular the press are given this big bag of giveaways. And they’re all made in Taiwan and they’re all plastic and the plastic was covered it was capacity it was in a plastic bag. And so I asked the Minister You know, you’re you’re preaching this on stage, what the hell you’re doing with this? You know, it’s a plastic bag within a plastic bag within a plastic bag that’s come all the way from Taiwan. I don’t I don’t understand there’s surely must be someone in Jamaica or in the Caribbean that could make something authentic that would be useful. I mean, I I must have had or not given them away or refused them the conservative estimate would be say 90 water bottles
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
that I’ve been given. Yeah, made out of plastic.
Graham McKenzie
Made a majority made out of plastic not all but the majority appreciate that saves water even if they’re made out of plastic, but you know, it’s there’s a long way to go until we get there. And of course you’re talking about people think that if I offset my carbon, then I’m a good boy. Well, yeah, that’s something that a lot of that is just bullshit, we got to reduce the amount of carbon we use, including flights, you know, you got to stay longer, fly less, stay longer.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Yeah, I don’t think most travelers in our audience included, understand the full breadth of options, they have the choices they can make, that can help improve this area where you think the travel industry is doing things wrong. And and it includes, you know, buying local and includes avoiding single use plastics. But you and I’ve also talked about, you know, sort of cultural conservation, cultural sustainability. And I think that’s a really important point you make about these bags being made, you know, halfway across the world, and all of the carbon that takes to get those bags, you know, to the location on top of it. So these are just things we need to think about.
Graham McKenzie
Yeah, I think unconscious sustainability is not an easy thing to achieve. Actually, I think it’s with environmental sustainability. It’s a science, you either do it or you don’t. With culture of sustainability, and it’s a little bit more difficult. And What measures do you put in place? For example, in France, some point they said, Right, we’re not gonna have any menus in English, and we’re not going to speak English in certain places. Is that is that the right way to go about it? I’m not sure. But it’s one way. I mean, I would hate to go to France and not be confronted by the challenge of saying Bonjour to Baghdad, you know, I would, you know, I think as part of the holiday experience, so, it’s an interesting one, I think that it’s one worth preserving for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Because if it’s not preserving, then you’re you’re going to do is have cloned destinations. And climate, you know, the old days of Rob, we’re gonna go on holiday from the UK to Spain, because the climate is better, doesn’t hold water anymore. When we’re suffering 40 degree centigrade summers, you know, you’re not going to do that anymore. Just in fact, you might do the opposite, you might get further up north to get away from those. And that’s an interesting aspect that might happen over the next 20 years, that you might go to destinations to get away from the heat.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Well, another choice that travelers can make, is to spread that footprint, right? Instead of everyone flocking to Florence, Venice, Rome. You know, there are incredible places in Italy, and now with our with resources available to us on the internet, with the way people share their experiences on social media. It’s no longer hard to identify these places with, of course, good travel professionals to support you. You can go and have a better experience in a less trodden place. And it’s ultimately better for the planet. And for the culture. Yeah,
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
definitely. So Graham, tell, tell our listeners a little bit more about some of the other projects you’re working on other publications you’re involved with.
Graham McKenzie
Yeah, I’m right, occasionally for a woman’s magazine in the UK called Best, which is a weekly magazine, and it’s owned by Hearst empire, developing a relationship with an organization called Silver traveler. And it does what it says on the tin, it’s aiming at Silver Travel Market. I’m a great believer, and that silver travelers want to remain active physically and mentally. That they don’t just want to go and do the waltz on a cruise like my mom and dad might have done. I mean, I think people that are in their late 50s and 60s and 70s now are a different breed than the postwar generation, we were talking about a baby boom generation want to go cycling and want to go kayaking, and so on. So that’s some of those. And the final one. She’s more recent, which is the one I’m delighted over the moon about is I’m going to be doing a little bit of writing for golf news in the UK. While so that’s that’s the ones I’m working on. But I think as James mentioned earlier, you know, my, even with, even with golf courses, there’s a lot of work to be done on sustainability when you go around a golf course. And you see single use plastic cups. You see plastic teas. For example, in Estonia, where you play golf, they banned plastic teas because animals can come along and they see brightly colored teas and they might eat them and then die. We don’t want that. So there’s all sorts of things that, you know, wherever I go, I’m looking at those aspects. And golf is no different. And I played at a place called the peninsula club at Gulf Shores, Alabama at the weekend. 27 holes as well. But to go around it, it was from a wildlife perspective. It was absolutely marvelous. I mean, it’s fantastic. You know, it sounds ridiculous, but it was fabulous amount of insects, which will attract birds. There was alligators. There were bald eagles. It was just, it was excellent. You know? Yeah. I played like crap. But the rest of it is really good.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Yeah, I’ve had the opportunity to play there as well. Such a such a nice place. Well, Graham, you had been I know, you’ve got to, you’ve got to catch a flight or move on to your next destination. So, James, and I really appreciate you coming on the podcast and sharing some of your experiences with us. And you’re a great friend. And we hope to have you back real soon.
Graham McKenzie
Lovely. Well, thank you very much for inviting me.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Well, that was great having Graham in from Alabama. And luckily, we also have Miss Jessica deverson. With us again this week, who is going to bring us some of the great specials and values that she’s been able to dig up over the last seven days. So welcome, Jessica.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Our deal guru.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
I get in trouble when I call her the deal diva. So I’ve just kind of laid off of all the branding of it.
Jessica Deverson
I’m gonna say you gotta work on your synonyms, right? Um, also, I was just wondering, like, at what point I get, like a theme song or like a walk on song. So keep that in mind.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
we have to get our producer Nathaniel to work on that for us. But yes, that can be arranged. All right,
Jessica Deverson
great. Well, thanks for having me again. So I’ll just get right to it. We have three great offers today that I wanted to share with you. And the first is Carnival Cruise Line. Everyone’s familiar with Carnival Cruise Line. You know, they’re known as the Fun Ships, you know, you come as you are and you do what you want. And it’s always a good time. But right now there’s an exclusive sale with carnival for on Carnival Cruise Line, but it’s exclusively an Intel it add intelli travel. So that’s actually the agency I refer the travel company I work with. And I usually say book with a Travel Advisor, any Travel Advisor, but this is actually specific to Intel a travel. So right now there’s an exclusive sale and it includes early saver rates, which are really great low rates, you’ll also get 50% reduced deposits, and you’ll receive up to $50 onboard credit. And this is available on nearly any sailing from 2023 forward. So good deal really good, great low rates plus the extra onboard credit. And it’s available on nearly every sailing from like I said January 2023. Forward, and you have until the end of November to book so it’s actually a really great booking window. Good time to get your Carnival cruises booked from you know, for next year for the year after year after that. So good are
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
some amazing new carnival ships by the way, incredible high technology, you know, mega ships, that Carnival has put out the last year or two and also coming this year. In fact, I’m doing the sale out of the new Carnival celebration in Helsinki, Finland. I’m going to the actual shipyard to see the ship finished. And then we’re sailing her for the first time. It’s not even a maiden voyage because it’s not open to the public. We’re sailing to Southampton, England with just a handful of us on board this four or 5000 passenger ship carnival. It’s not your, your father’s carnival, right. It’s a new brand with new hardware, new ships. And still that great fun. So I think that’s an amazing offer for all of next year like
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
and carnival must be doing something right in the background. I’m looking at my ticker screen and their stock is up 11% Today, so maybe it’s just Jessica’s announcing this deal. What a great day to sell or buy carnival stock
Jessica Deverson
market. Alright, so yeah, Carnival has lots of great things coming and all those new ships all of those apply to the offer as well. brand new ships. So yeah, really great offer for Carnival. Next up, but you know, you guys were talking sustainability and you know, responsible travel and that sort of thing. And it’s a huge trend and travel. You know, 87% of people say they care about traveling sustainably and more and more you’re seeing people are travelers choosing travel agencies and travel companies that align with their values and those values being sustainable, responsible, ethical, you know, travel, and one brand that that does this well is African travel. And so this is one of the longest established luxury Safari operators, exclusively focused on Africa. And they’re highly awarded, including new Travel and Leisure Awards for Best Safari, triple A, has voted them best in member services. So that’s just a few. But their team has lived and traveled extensively throughout the continent. So they’re really knowledgeable, are really passionate about the product. And their experts have over 300 years experience combined selling luxury travel. So they’re able to provide five star service every step of the way. And they just came out with some new sustainable journeys, a handful of journeys that are considered, you know, sustainable, because they really understand that tourism is the lifeblood in Africa. And you know, every dollar makes a difference. And African travel, they want to guide everybody, you know, to the best, most ethically responsible and engaging experiences. And their new tours feature, what they call make travel matter experiences. And so these are experiences featured on each trip and helps to aid Africa’s wildlife and communities. And so you’ll leave knowing that you made a positive, positive impact. And you really will be, you know, making travel matter during those experiences. So, right now, they actually have six safaris on sale anywhere from nine to 12 days, but they’re running a really great special, one of their top safaris called South Africa at leisure. And it’s 10 days from 5599 per person, 5599 per person for 10 days. And if you’ve been on safaris, you know, they’re quite pricey. So 10 days from, you know, under 5600 is a great deal. And you’ll check out South Africa voted one of Cape Town, South Africa voted one of the world’s most beautiful cities and the coast and the wine lens and the culture and the waterfront, you’ll go to the peninsula, you’ll take CableCARD, at the top of a mountain, you’ll visit Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. And then you’ll actually spend your journey to the Shamwari Game Reserve. And you’ll have close encounters with the big five. So that includes lions, leopards, buffalo, elephant, and Rhino. So really amazing Safari, and then they’re make travel matter experience on that Safari, or on that trip, you’ll actually have an immersive culinary and cultural experience at Gold restaurant. And you’ll learn about all the groundbreaking work they do with the wildlife at the Private Reserve. So really cool experience really great travel company, and then you know, doing their part to make travel matter and to be sustainable and travel, you know, ethically and responsibly
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
as part of that sustainability that you eat the animals in the restaurant there on site.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Yeah, no.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
it’s sustainable. I mean, why would you waste the meat right? If they happen to die?
Jessica Deverson
You’re banned from Africa now. So?
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Yeah. Oh, that sounds like an amazing trip. And it’s actually that’s the next big trip. I’m planning for my family and African Safari. And I actually am doing it with African travel. And, you know, they’re just a really trusted luxury, brand. Great choice. Jessica. Thank you.
Jessica Deverson
Yes. And, you know, if you need a plus one on the Safari, I’ll bring my kill, he’ll eat animals. So and then last but not least, so keeping with the, you know, sustainability responsibility, the theme, we have G adventures, and so G Adventures is a really great travel company, you know, their, their goal is to change the world through travel. And that’s been their goal since they opened their doors in 1990. And that’s kind of a you know, that idea is at the heart of everything they do and has actually helped them grow into one of the biggest adventure travel companies in the world. So G adventures believes that travel can help local communities indigenous people, women, youth, really anyone who has or any group who has been traditionally marginalized or undervalued. And so, you know, community tourism means that everything that they do they believe everything they do, doesn’t just impact the communities that they visit but just ripples far beyond just the locally the You know, the places they visit, but you know those impacts are go far beyond that. And so they built their company to support local communities. And they create their tours by building meaningful relationships with local communities directly benefiting the people in the places that their trips visit. And then when you travel with G adventures, you’ll experience this firsthand, you’ll you’ll, you’ll really experience their commitment to making travel a force for good of force for the better. And a perfect illustration of that would actually be their partnership with planets Hara, which is the leading nonprofit, or the leading nonprofit that uses community travel and community tourism to change lives. And so, you know, tourism is an $8 trillion global industry. But many local businesses and communities are actually benefit from the travel and the tourism in their area, there are some forms of tourism where no money reaches the hands of the local people. And so planetary planetary really works to break that cycle by supporting and uplifting community tourism and strengthening community tourism around the world. Building economic opportunities, you know, places become protected, cultures are celebrated. So it’s a really great relationship Jihad Ventures has with planetary, and you know, they’re just, again, G Adventures is always looking to do their part to change the world for the better through travel. And so right now, they actually have some last minute travel offers. So if you’re able to travel from now until the end of the year, they have Last Minute Travel deal. So really, really great low, low rates on over 130 tours, for the remaining the remainder of 2022. So you’ll see trips, you know, you’ll hear about three trips, skipping trips that are three days, starting at only $172, all the way up to a 40 day trips through, you know, eight countries in Africa, complete with safaris and waterfalls, and you know, third day trips, 35 day trips through Southeast Asia and that sort of thing. So, any, like I said, anywhere from three days to 40 days and everything in between, but if you’re able to travel in 2022, you can get some really amazing low rates on these trips. And you just have to call your Travel Advisor to figure out those itineraries and book. So
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
yeah, the adventure is another trusted, great brand. I would go on one of those trips. I several people in our organization have an that’s on my list too.
Jessica Deverson
Yeah, absolutely. I’ve actually done a trip with G adventures. And you really do feel like, you know, they’re supporting the local communities, they don’t bring you to any chains or anything like that everything is really local, really authentic, really great experiences very unique. So
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
yeah, this trip that I’m on in one country in snowman, California, actually includes a component like that, where we are rescuing unharvested fruit and vegetables that then go to a meal program for people who need need food, people who are hungry. So it’s really it puts a whole other dimension into your trip. And and Mike and I and you’ve talked about this before. And and it’s important for a lot of reasons, but it certainly does make you feel good, too.
Jessica Deverson
Absolutely. Like I spoke about wellness on a previous episode. But you know, part of wellness travel is also feeling good about yourself feeling good that you’re doing something good for the world, and for people around you in communities around you. So the you know, these types of trips where you know, you’re you’re traveling and traveling for good and you know, giving your money to local communities and that sort of thing, you know, really does.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Thank you. Yes, thanks, Jessica. Thank
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
you, Jessica. I know you had, you have a lot to choose from every week in terms of deals and promotions and specials, and you apply your expertise to really bring us to find us. So we really appreciate it.
Jessica Deverson
Absolutely. Thanks for having me again, guys.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Thanks, Mike. There’s been some things in the news, huh?
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Yeah, there’s been a lot of things in the news. And a couple of things I wanted to share about kind of some recent travel experiences that I’ve had, which were I would say a little bit unusual to say the least. But coming back from Ireland just a couple of weeks ago now. I was on a flight with American Airlines, which is the airline choose to fly with most of the time and I’ve got a status with them so I get some extra perks and things. But it was really unusual. I was on the flight and this is about a from I was actually flying from Dublin, not Belfast but from Dublin back to Charlotte. It’s about an eight hour flight, give or take. And after the flight took off off, we had our meal service, and we’re about two and a half hours into the flight. And the Purser comes on. And the Purser says, you know, we’ve now completed our meal and beverage service. And we’re going to take a two and a half hour break. There’s water and pretzels in the back of the plane, if you like some, but basically, and he didn’t say this, but just don’t bother us for the next two and a half hours. And I thought that is that’s pretty strange, and very uncharacteristic of an international flight crew. So for a third of the flight, there were no flight attendants visible. And they were taking a break. And I guess they work two and a half hours, take a break two and a half hours and then work the last two and a half hours on the on the flight.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Yeah, it has to do with reduced crews, right, because they used to carry enough crew to alternate on long flights. And they either can’t get those people yet or, you know, it could be cost saving, but I think encountered it a few times myself.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Yeah, and it’s, I just don’t think on the on an US base carrier, you would find that I don’t think that would happen on most international carriers. So a little bit disappointing experience from American. One other positive thing I want to tell you about was my experience with a company called wise wi SE. And this is not a paid promotion either. But I just want to tell you about something that actually a friend of mine told me about. And this is an app that you can download. And it’s wi se was, and it is a FinTech solution. So it’s a bank account, if you will, and you can load money into this bank account in US dollars, or whatever currency that you want to load it into. And then they will send you a debit card. And then once you have this downloaded and you have money into the account, which by the way, this is a, I believe Richard Branson, this is one of his companies, if I’m not mistaken, but you have the ability within the app to move currencies to another currency. So when I was in Belfast, as an example, actually, when I was in Dublin, I moved some of my US dollars into Euros because in Dublin, they use the euro as the currency. And I could do it on my app, and it cost maybe, I think it was 39 cents to move 200 euros, and I got a very favorable rate. So then when I use my debit card in Dublin, they charged my debit card in euros, and I didn’t get one of those marked up conversion rates. And then as I went into Northern Ireland, Ireland, to Belfast where the British pound is in, is used as the currency transferred money into the British pound. So then when I use my debit card, he came out in British pounds at the end of the trip if I if I chose to do so, which I didn’t, but I could reconvert all that back into US dollars. So this is a great tool to travel. And I’m just really excited about this, because it solves a lot of problems. You know, in the travel business, we hear people, should I get my should I get currency converted in the US before I go overseas? And almost always the answer that is no by the way, because the local banks here are not going to give you a favorable exchange rate. And even when you’re in Europe, depending upon or in outside the US when depending upon what type of credit cards you have, you may be subjected to a conversion expense, where they charge a service fee of one to one and a half percent on top of not a favorable conversion rate that you get when your charges in euros as an example gets spilled back to your US dollar credit card. So and that’s a little bit confusing, a little bit technical, but I really do suggest that you open up a wise account or at least look into it. And the the conversion rates are great. The the Commission’s are very small, and I now have on my phone five or six currency accounts. It’s one centralized account but you have accounts with each different currency in them. So I really suggest you given that a try James.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Yeah, we’ve mentioned that and I’m gonna look into it. I mean, the one thing that I do when I get in destination is I go to a local bank and either withdraw money from their ATM or use the local bank to make the change Rather than going to one of these change bureaus, they give you very unfavorable rates. But a bank bank will give you a market competitive rate. But you have a more sophisticated solution here. And I’m definitely going to look into it. What else has been going on? In the sort of insider? Industry? News, Mike, I know we had one or two things we thought we could share.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Yeah, a really interesting article came out this week from ACI arrow, and it revealed that the and that did not know this in a bit, this will be a surprise to us. Well, that seven of the 10 top busiest airports in the world. As a matter of fact, the seven top busiest airports in the world are all US airports. And I would not have, I would have thought maybe we had one or two. But the likes of Heathrow or the likes of Tokyo, maybe even Singapore might have more traffic or more passengers. But actually the top seven airports in the world in terms of traffic are all based here in the US.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Yeah, the top airport in terms of traffic is usually whatever airport I’m at at the moment, but yeah, I
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
hear you. Yeah, so it’s Atlanta, just just for our listeners is Atlanta’s number one. Dallas is number two. Denver’s three Chicago’s for Los Angeles is five, Charlotte, believe it or not as six, and Orlando is seven. And then it goes into a couple, Guangzhou Chengdu, both in China. And then Vegas is number 10.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
The new New York area is a little misleading because we have three major airports. This is where I live. And we have three major airports that serve the area. So the traffic gets split between three airports. You know,
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
this is you just been jealous that the number one airports in the South
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
that no really you can come you can have the airport with the highest traffic, I’m very happy to allow that to be somewhere else.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Yeah. But yeah, that’s a very interesting, in my opinion. One other report. And this is actually a fact that Hong Kong, as James, as you know, they’ve just recently reopened up for looking for tourists to come in. And prior to the pandemic, they would have around 55 56 million visitors a year. And they’ve basically been shut down for two years now. And so they’re taking very significant steps to bring tourists back. And they are offering 500,000, free airline tickets to bring the tourists back to to Hong Kong. So if you’ve, if you’re interested in going to Hong Kong, now might be a good time to do it, because they’re giving away half a million free airline tickets. And I think what they did is they pre purchased airline tickets or airline credits from the airlines, probably as part of the government support of the airlines being basically shut down Cathay Pacific. And so they they have, I guess, rather than giving them money, they pre bought tickets. And now this, they’re going to use that currency in a self serving way, but a positive self serving way of giving away airline tickets. So if you’re interested, you can just Google Hong Kong free airline tickets. And that should take you to the link that will give you the information on how to qualify for those.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
You’ll be surprised to hear me focus on this. But Hong Kong is one of the great food destinations of all this. I mean, it is considered to have some of the most sophisticated cuisine in the world. And there are, you know, incredible dining opportunities. Both you know, very, very high end and super luxurious, but also affordable. You know, there’s just really great food in Hong Kong amongst all the other reasons to go there.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Yeah, that’s a great place for street food in Hong Kong as well. Very interesting. Destination.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
All right, Mike. I think we’ve come to the end of our time for this episode. But we should meant One that we have a giveaway going on. And it is for a three night stay on property at Universal parks and resorts in Orlando. And that’s, I mean, that has to be worth $750,000 Just for the hotel stay, and we’re giving it away. Yeah. It’s based. It’s based on a question. So each week we asked a question, you have to go to our website, no tourists allowed.com? and answer the question correctly. And that gives you is it five entries in the drawing,
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
Mike gives you a yes, five entry. So if you go to first you have to register. So if you’ll go to no tourist allowed.com. If you’ll scroll to the bottom of our homepage, you’ll see information about the contest. Please read all the rules. And then you can enter there. Once you enter, you’re going to get to we’re going to drop your name in the hat two times, you can refer a friend you get a few more entries, you can subscribe to our podcast, which we suggest you do. And you get five entries. And then also, if you’ll answer the mystery Question of the day, which James is going to provide you in just a second. And you correctly answer, it’s not just answering it because anybody can answer it. But if you correctly answer it, then you will gain five additional entries into our contests. And these will accumulate. And if you’re a weekly listener, like I know a lot of you guys are you’ll have a greater and greater chance of being the winner of the prize. So James, why don’t you take it away with our question?
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Sure. Well, Graham McKenzie, from travel mall was with us today as our special guest, of course. And he had a number of surprises for us. But let me let me pick one. What was Graham McKenzie’s favorite hotel brand, not an individual property that he mentioned, but a hotel chain or hotel brand that he mentioned as his favorite hotel experience.
Mike Putman, Custom Travel Solutions
And he can’t miss this one guys, because he brought it up about three times. So he would have thought he was a paid endorser. So that’s that’s an easy one. But thanks for that, James. And thank you listeners, we really appreciate all the positive feedback we’ve gotten. Also, if you have some things that you would like James and other cover, you can go to no tourist allowed, go to the contact us page, and then you could submit your ideas, and we will hopefully be able to cover some of those that come in. But we really do appreciate you listening. And please stay tuned and we will have another podcast out for you next week.
James Ferrara, InteleTravel
Yeah, thank you everybody.
