Here, a photo from our hotel, The Sofital Legend Old Cataract, in Aswan, Upper Egypt.
One thousand four hundred and seventy-nine days.
One…thousand..four…hundred…and…seventy…nine…days. That’s how long it’s been since my very last blog post. Indeed, I had posted it on April 17, 2020. And, for all you history buffs out there, you’ll be quick to connect the dots – I wrote my very last post in the throes of the pandemic.
In fact, that post likely demonstrated the blind optimism I had that the pandemic would just be a fleeting life experience, versus the prolonged ordeal that it was. I was still living in NYC (now in Nashville), likely banging pots and pans out the window at 7pm to thank our healthcare workers, going for my daily run along the Hudson River trying to breathe through a face mask, and sharing a desk with my wife in a tiny apartment now that we were both working from home (I had been working from home since 2014!).
I hate to admit that it wasn’t all rough, for one of the best thing that’s ever happened to me occurred: I realized, possibly for the very first time, that there was something out there I could support my family with (my wife, and eventually daughter) that I was also so passionate about: travel and tourism, and how the whole industry comes together to create joy and memories, how it brings families and young love together, as well as how it fosters an opening of the mindset reminding us that we are all so similar and not so different after all.
Around that time, my new business partners, Greg, Oli, and I decided we needed to turn on the after burners and double-down on our business. Rather embarrassingly, we had a banner year (and every year thereafter for that matter!). I became much wiser at destination management strategy conducting them from afar, without the ability to feel, see, and experience the destinations we were advising.
Finally, I also strengthened important relationships during that time – not only with Greg and Oli, but also with leaders from destinations around the world, and with partners that we worked with (like Skift, where I now work, but more on that later). We devised new models and methodologies, we learned to look at the world differently, we challenged each other to be better, constantly.
It is during this time that I honed my destination development skills in places close by like the US and Canada, but also places further away like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. And I did not expect to love every little moment of it!
It is not quite during that time, but shortly thereafter, where we started to build our work family, teaming with people like Aleix, Jen, and Öykü, folks I work with until today, though “work” is an understatement – these are people who matter to me more than most (and the family has grown since!).
It is also shortly after COVID felt like it ended that the founders of Twenty31 noticed my leadership skills and asked me to be Managing Partner of their company – what an honor! But would I do them justice? And then, we seriously began to be courted by Skift – the remarkable company that is the single source of truth for the travel and tourism industry – culminating in the eventual acquisition of Twenty31.
And while I was sad to let that baby go, Skift was so right to be able to continue the work that so passionately runs through our veins. For now we had access to a strong, respected brand name, colleagues that were the top thinkers in so many more travel-related fields, an insights machine, and a network of amazing people that would enable us to elevate what we do, support destination and travel leaders, and create something that is quite unmatched in the industry. Dare I say, no other consultancy is able to do what we do, backed by the data that we have access to, with a team that is so intelligent and committed to the improvement of destinations through strategy.
And thus, the purpose of my blogs has shifted. Whereas my previous musings around travel and tourism were primarily geared towards general travel, culture, and adventure, I now feel the need to showcase the work, our healthy debates, and most importantly the destinations I’m so lucky to travel to and explore focusing on the inner workings of this industry that has raised me (I have the best job in the world!).
I propose updating this blog to share the lessons I’ve learned and continue to learn, taking it to the next level. I hope to engage readers such that they share their thoughts, to create open dialogue so people can open about the challenges and obstacles they face, to find solutions, to improve travel and tourism, together.
So much has changed in travel and tourism since 2019. I didn’t really realize it at the time, but we were riding high – second largest industry in the world at the time, and life was great. You could make money at almost any concept you threw out there. But that is no longer the case, travel and tourism professionals were seen to support and abet an extractive industry that left a lot to be desired when it came to supporting our society and the environment, without mentioning economic benefits that were non-optimized.
We now have a better understanding of the active role tourism ought to play in our communities and for our environment while getting the economic outcomes we need. It means we now need think about social issues like people without homes, poverty, disrepair, native and Indigenous communities, inclusivity, supporting infrastructure not made for the primary purpose of tourism but for local communities, prioritization of the environment, to resolve the long standing and systemic tourism topics that need resolution.
Some destinations have gone one step further and transitioned or created destination management organizations focused on good. Think 4VI – Tourism Association of Vancouver Island or even one we had the pleasure of supporting the development with Tourism Kingston. This is taken directly from the foreword: “It recommends Kingston’s tourism industry undertake a stronger role to be recognized as a driver of city priorities – economic, social, and environmental to garner the support it needs for bigger private-public initiatives.”
I’m excited to be writing again. I’m even more exciting to have found a niche for these musings. I already have a few topics that I’d like to get started on, but if there are any topics that come to mind that you think would be good for me to broach, please reach out. It would be my pleasure to either share what I’ve already learned about the topic or do research to get smarter at it with you.
Finally, while my previous blog posts had a modest following, I realize that my audience will now be different (I mean continue to follow me, mom and dad 😊, if you’re interested in this stuff!), but I’ll practically be starting to re-build my audience from scratch, so if you think this might be of interest to people you know, please share with them and ask them to sign up for these.
My tagline used to be “Keep Exploring”. Now, it’s:
Keep exploring, purposefully.