With the summer travel season now underway, senior editor for hotels Christina Jelski and Jon Makhmaltchi, the founder of the J.Mak Hospitality Group, talk with host Rebecca Tobin about what travelers might encounter when they book their summer plans.

Among our topics on this episode: Rising hotel rates, availability, pent-up demand, popular markets (Europe!) and the importance of great customer service from the start of the booking process.

This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

Episode sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Windstar Cruises.

Related reports:

Hotel revenue in 2022 expected to bypass 2019 levels

Many Americans are planning a European vacation this summer

An early-pandemic trend: Drive-market bright spots

Sponsored bonus interview: Stay on after our discussion on hotels for a bonus interview with Windstar president Chris Prelog, conducted by Mary Pat Sullivan, senior vice president of marketing for Travel Weekly and the Travel Group. 

Related report:

Focus on Cruise: Windstar's Tahiti turn

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What do you do if your travel company is confronting the perfect storm of being down staff and up on inquiries from travel advisors and consumers – who may or may not be ready to make a booking?

One tour operator, eager to reduce the number of window shoppers, has taken a page from the travel advisors’ playbook. We get into it here with Authentic Vacations CEO Simon Russell and tours editor Nicole Edenedo.

This episode was recorded May 23 and has been edited for length and clarity.

Sponsor:

This episode is sponsored by Windstar Cruises

Related:

With more calls and less staff, tour operator turns to pre-booking deposit

Ire builds over hold times as suppliers rush to hire and train call staff 

Previously on the Folo podcast: How the rush to travel created hurdles for travel agents

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Generally speaking, the news is good, if not great, for travel advisors. Travelers are ready to hit the road this year, and a Travel Weekly poll of readers in April found that more than three-quarters of respondents said they were optimistic about their agency’s future.

But the survey also asked advisors to describe their biggest challenges, and as one person put it: “Everything.”

In this episode of the Folo, we’re talking with senior editor Jamie Biesiada and Global Travel Collection president Angie Licea some of the biggest agency challenges: Staffing, long hold times, how to get information for clients and how to combat pandemic-era burnout.

This conversation was recorded May 19 and has been edited for length and clarity.

Sponsor:

This episode is sponsored by Windstar Cruises

Related:

Cover story: Hurdles ahead for travel advisors

Suppliers rush to hire and train staff as frustration builds over wait times

Travel advisors are optimistic about the future of their agencies

Global Travel Collection refreshes its learning library

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Four times a year we get a chance to hear from the three major public cruise companies, and their CEOs, during their quarterly earnings reports. This provides us with a good picture on what’s happening with each company’s business, and what advisors might expect from the lines in the short and medium term.

This week host Rebecca Tobin invited on cruise editor Andrea Zelinski to talk us through the analyst calls from two out of the three companies, and we’ll add in a little of our own analysis and reporting, plus some of the discussion at the Seatrade Cruise Global Conference. We’re talking about the general outlook, the return of the first-time cruiser, whether cruisers are choosing Europe this summer, and the word that some people at Seatrade were trying not to say.

This conversation was recorded on May 12 and has been edited for length and clarity.

Episode sponsor:

This episode is sponsored by Windstar Cruises.

Related reports:

Suppliers rush to staff up and train as ire builds over call wait times

NCL reports positive momentum on Q1 call

Royal Caribbean expects a return to profitability before 2022 is over

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings investor relations

Royal Caribbean Group investor relations

They're back: Most cruise ships are now in service

Signs point to a strong return of first-time cruisers

New Zealand is reopening to cruise ships

At Seatrade, cruise execs stress environmental plans

Correction: An initial upload of this Folo episode incorrectly gave the date on which the conversation was recorded. It is May 12, not April 12.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we’re saying I DO to an episode about one of the big rebounds in travel, the destination wedding celebration. With host Rebecca Tobin is hotels editor Christina Jelski, who just finished a Focus Issue cover on the subject of wedding-travel trends, plus two travel advisors who are serious destination wedding experts: VIP Vacations president Jennifer Doncsecz and KT Travel & More owner Stephanie Kilson-Thomas.

Among our topics are the growth in the number of guests, spending more and adding extras, the impact of social media on destination weddings in 2022, where couples are traveling to get married, and the stress of planning a wedding in the face of Covid rules and restrictions.

This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

Episode sponsor:

This episode is sponsored by Windstar Cruises

Related reports:

Focus on Hotels: Destination wedding bliss

How to keep clients' travel wishes grounded in reality

Pandemic-era hotel designs have checked in

Our latest guide to Caribbean travel rules and restrictions

Travel advisors featured on this episode:

VIP Vacations

KT Travel & More

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we’re examining a type of travel activity that you won't yet find on a tour or a cruise shore excursion list yet. Nearly two years ago, reporter Robert Silk fulfilled a personal project: Called the desert sit, or competitive sitting, or extreme sitting, he went to the desert and sat in one spot. For an entire day.

The activity combines travel with some of the trends that became paramount during the pandemic: Being outdoors and distant, mindfulness, disconnecting from devices and the pursuit of longtime goals. And then he wrote about it for Travel Weekly. Lately, the interest in extreme sitting has been renewed via an article written by Laura Kiniry for Atlas Obscura, and so host Rebecca Tobin brought the two of them together again, to talk about the philosophy and practicalities of traveling in order to just sit.

Episode sponsor:

This episode is sponsored by Windstar Cruises.

Related reports:

How to explain a day desert sitting: Social distancing as an endurance sport

Atlas Obscura: Meet the man who wants to make sitting an extreme sport

Travel Weekly Dispatch, Antarctica: Surrounded by humpback whales

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we’re traveling to Alaska, which is a big part of many travel advisors’ portfolios, especially if they sell cruises and adventure travel. Host Rebecca Tobin and senior editor Andrea Zelinski look back and look ahead at tourism in the 49th state.

This episode features Sarah Leonard, the president of the Alaska Travel Industry Association; Lisa Syme, Princess Cruises' vice president, commercial; Kirsten Dixon, the owner of two fly-in lodges and a cooking school; and Travel Weekly's frequent Alaska contributor, Renee Brincks.

This year, cruising is back, the Canadian border has reopened and the summer season is about to begin.

Sponsor:

This week's episode is sponsored by Historic Highlights of Germany.

Related reading:

Alaska's official visitors site

Princess Cruises' Alaska cruises

From Travel Weekly:

Renee Brincks' coverage of Alaska

Two Native corporations have a vision for Alaska tourism

A 2021 visit to the Last Frontier: Alaska is open, and busy

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week marks the premiere of the latest episode of "The Royal Tour", a one-hour PBS special hosted by travel journalist Peter Greenberg that showcases a country’s tourism spots -- and history, culture, food, personal stories and current events -- but with a twist: the country's head of state is Greenberg’s tour guide.

Our editor in chief Arnie Weissmann has been along for the filming of several "Royal Tour" episodes, and most recently he was in Tanzania to see the country with its current president, Samia Suluhu Hassan.

To have a president, prime minister or member of the royal family show you around their country seems like an incredible opportunity, not to mention one filled with logistical hurdles. Both Greenberg and Weissmann joined the Folo to talk about the origins of the "Royal Tour", its protocols, some of Greenberg’s greatest memories and the most stirring moments of their time in Tanzania.

This episode was recorded Thursday, April 14, and has been edited for length and clarity.

Related:

The Royal Tour

Tanzania in the spotlight: Arnie Weissmann's cover story for Travel Weekly

Past Travel Weekly coverage of "Royal Tour" filming: Mexico, with then-president Filipe Calderon; Poland with president Mateusz Morawiecki; Rwanda, with president Paul Kagame.

Sponsor:

This episode is sponsored by Historic Highlights of Germany

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we’re returning to the topic of family travel. With spring break underway and summer just around the corner, it seemed like the ideal time to look at what families are prioritizing when it comes to travel.

Our hotels editor Christina Jelski has just wrapped a report on the rise of multigenerational travel and big-ticket, bucket-list destinations. And we’ve brought on Rainer Jenss, the founder of the Family Travel Association, to help dive into some of the nuances of this very big travel market.

Additional resources:

The Family Travel Association

Family-travel news from Travel Weekly

Previous related podcasts:

American Express Travel’s data on 2022 traveler

Family travel in fall 2021

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Earlier this year, tours editor Nicole Edenedo began looking at the growing interest for experiences that highlight Black history and culture. Notable Black Americans in Paris, the first free town in the Americas, in Cartegena and U.S. tours that go beyond the Civil Rights movement are just a few examples.

In this episode we hear from Edenedo and two businesswomen she connected with during her reporting, Jennifer Tosch of Black Heritage Tours, which operates in Amsterdam and New York state, and Meryanne Loum-Martin, the owner of the Jnane Tamsna boutique hotel in Marrakech, Morocco.

For this conversation we go beyond what’s in the cover story to talk in detail about how they created experiences that unearth, examine, celebrate and share Black history and experiences. We talk about their backgrounds, their businesses growth, the power of Black business and social networks, travel philosophy, inspiration and their passion for what they do.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Sponsor:

This episode of the Folo by Travel Weekly is sponsored by Historic Highlights of Germany

Related:

Nicole Edenedo's cover story: Black travelers on the road to discovery

Jennifer Tosch's Black Heritage Tours of Amsterdam 

Meryanne Loum-Martin's Jnane Tamsna hotel in Marrakech

Previous Folo podcast episode on diversitiy within travel

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.