Travel Matters

Welcome to another episode of Travel Matters recorded at TBEX North America in Tri-Cities. We have a conversation with Juliana Broste aka Traveling Jules, a filmmaker and YouTuber who gave a session with tips on how to improve your travel videos. Jules is an 11-time Heartland Emmy award winning Travel Video Journalist, a producer, shooter, writer, editor and host. She also shares inspiration and education for creators and video production professionals in The Video Hustle.

Also, we speak to TaKenya Hampton, who is an author, blogger, podcaster, and life and business coach helping people tap into their full power to live a life that's led by their desires. We talk about her session, "The Travel Blogger's Guide to Maintaining the Back End of WordPress".

This episode is recorded at TBEX North America in Tri-Cities. We have a conversation with Ron Williams from the Tri-Cities area about what they have to offer and tourism in Washington State.

Also, we talk a bit about what it means to be part of a FAM Trip after a TBEX.

The first TBEX conference since the pandemic changed everything was taking place in Tri-Cities in April. At the conference, Palle Bo talked to a few first-timers, and after that, he and Rick Calvert spoke to one of the Conference Directors, Tomiko Harvey.

TBEX CEO Rick Calvert picks up The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo, in Tri-Cities, and on a drive, through the beautiful city, they talk about the pleasure of driving all the way from Southern California to here and back.

Later they sit down with a view of the Colombia River and talk about what to expect from the first TBEX conference in more than two years.

TBEX North America is just a few days away; the event kicks off Wednesday morning.

Get the scoop on where and when the next TBEX Europe will take place.

Listen now, and get the news before anyone else.

We have missed you!

Listen to this episode of Travel Matters, and read the newsletter from Rick below:

We hope you have been safe and healthy throughout the last year and are looking forward to traveling again soon. We are very optimistic about the future of travel and TBEX events. This is going to be a long one but there is good news so please stay with me.

The last several months the vaccine distribution here in the US has been going very well. At our peak, we were vaccinating as many as three million people per day! All signs and trends point to domestic US travel being the first sector to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic along with all related travel restrictions and safety protocols. Based on the status of Covid 19 pandemic right now, here are our current plans:

TBEX Tri-Cities Washington, October 12-14, 2021 is ON!

If you would like to join us in Tri-Cities, please register HERE

If you registered for TBEX Lafayette in 2020, you should have already received an email from us offering to transfer your ticket over to the Tri-Cities event or to Lafayette in 2022. If you have already replied we have noted your request and made those changes. If you missed that email please reply directly to me here [email protected]

About a month ago we emailed everyone who had registered for TBEX North America 2021 in Tri-Cities and everyone who had registered for TBEX North America 2020 in Lafayette and let them know we were considering new dates for TBEX Tri-Cities. We asked them if they could attend Tri-Cities in October and if they would feel safe and comfortable doing so. 70% replied yes they definitely plan to attend. 20% told us they needed to wait a bit longer to make sure conditions are safe. Another 10% said it would still be some time before they were making plans to travel or meet with large groups.

Thank you to everyone who responded. Your feedback was critical in helping us finalize our decision to confirm our new dates for TBEX Tri-Cities October 12 to 14 of this year.

I was in Tri-Cities for a site visit last week and the Tri-Cities team is working hard to put together an amazing program for all of us. It is going to be GREAT! Being able to share our love of travel and see each other again will bring out lots of emotions.

Stay tuned for lots of updates coming the next couple of weeks TBEX North America in Tri-Cities with speaker announcements, evening events, Pre-Bex and post TBEX FAM Trips.

TBEX Europe 2021 in Catania Italy has been postponed.

Our host partners in Catania really wanted to reschedule TBEX Europe for this November, but as you may have seen or as some of you are living through it; Europe is experiencing another wave right now. Vaccine distribution there is ramping up quickly and things should be improving soon. Because of the current conditions, we have notified our friends in Catania that we cannot produce TBEX Europe in 2021. We are working on new future dates with them now.

There will be TBEX Europe in 2022!

We will have an update for you with dates for TBEX Europe 2022 very very soon… Keep your eyes and ears on Travel Matters and get the news here first!

TBEX Asia Phuket, Thailand has been postponed to 2022.

We have agreed with our partners in Thailand that the best course is to postpone until 2022. We are coordinating new dates with them right now and are planning to announce those new dates any day now. If you registered for 2021 Thailand, your registration will be automatically transferred to 2022.

TBEX North America, Layfette, Louisiana October 14-16, 2022 is ON!

You can register for TBEX North America 2022 HERE.

We know this global crisis is over just yet. We will suffer more setbacks and losses before it completely ends, but for the first time in a long time, there is real hope. I am so looking forward to seeing you all again in the not-so-distant future and celebrating our life of travel again.

As we begin to roam the world again we will find the TBEX experience shaped and changed by this pandemic -- We cannot wait to learn, grow, and socialize safely together with all of you while we help our beloved travel industry rebuild.

See more on TBEXcon.com

Travel Matters is hosted by The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo and TBEX CEO, Rick Calbert, and produced by RadioGuru.

If you have questions about any of our events and current plans or need anything please email Rick Calvert directly [email protected]

This is a quick bonus episode, where TBEX CEO, Rick Calbert shares some breaking news about upcoming TBEX events.

See more on TBEXcon.com

Travel Matters is hosted by The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo and TBEX CEO, Rick Calbert, and produced by RadioGuru.

Today our guest is Martinique Lewis one of the founders of Black Travel Alliance. Martinique is a digital disrupter in love with all things travel.

She is a TBEX Speaker Alum and has been in the travel industry for three years now as a creator, a diversity in travel consultant, and as an influencer and creator manager.

Martinique tells us how Black Travel Alliance was formed and the mission of the group. The Black Travel Alliance was launched by 17 creators.

Our guest for this episode is TBEX North America Conference Director Tim Leffel. Tim started backpacking around the world and writing for travel magazines as a freelancer in the mid-1990s. He has published several books and now runs five different websites. Tim joins us today to talk about the results from a recent survey he conducted asking 160 travel writers and DMOs what they about The Future Of Press Trips in a post-COVID-19 world.

• at 6:38 we talk about the difference between solo trips vs. group trips
• at 10:20 we talk about how budget cuts will impact trips
• at 12:15 we talk about 4 recommendations based on the results of the survey
• at 28:32 we talk about the current trend in ad revenue on travel blogs
• at 29:42 we talk about our latest keynote speaker for TBEX North America
• at 30:35 we talk about how COVID-19 may impact our current plans for the timing of TBEX North America and current safety measures we are taking for all attendees.
• at 35:15 we announce plans for TBEX North America 2021 and TBEX Europe 2021, and TBEX Asia 2021