Travel Is Your Business – travel industry podcast

050 – Justa Lujwangana of Curious on Tanzania – Accessing Africa

July 20, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:20 — 49.7MB)

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All inclusive, authentic and immersive experiences in Tanzania…

Justa Lujwangana, founder of Curious on Tanzania (unforgettable, immersive, transformative experiences in Tanzania curated and led by locals), joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

Justa Lujwangana on being curious means search, dig deeper, not just a typical visit
Putting together guest logistics
Also an operator
Impetus of company, out of her own curiosities about her homeland
Africa offering lot of experiential marketing, like archeology, and big venue space bring South African experience alive
Having a team across the world while working from NYC
Giving back to local economy, building something sustainable
Experiences such as ooking classes, dancing, meeting one of more than 120 tribes
Zanzabar beach
Marketing strategies
Giraffe as a must-see animal

Curious on Tanzania is run by proud Tanzanians working together who are committed to leading and creating comprehensive, thematic travel experiences that make a positive, sustained difference to destinations and local people throughout Tanzania. They call this experiential travel – travel that goes deeper into the lives of those whom we all visit, and creates lasting relationships and true cultural exchange.

049 – Andrea Martinez of Boom Hospitality – Next Level Hotels

July 6, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:26 — 45.3MB)

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Creative tactics and best business practices for hotels…

Andrea Martinez, President of Boom Hospitality (a hospitality consultancy firm helping boutique hotels, independent hotels, and F&B operations, open, grow, or convert their businesses with the use of creative tactics and best business practices) joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

The crucial need to properly understand your market
Boom Hospitality working mostly with boutique and out-of-the-box hotels
Tech in modern hospitality is so important, but not every guest is the same, simplicity is important
Mirrors with digital concierge, interactive maps, fun, equipped with things guests want and will use
The need to only adapt tech in a way you can adapt
The boutique traveler is looking for something very specific
Martinez is living a dream job, started in non profits
How we make development/construction more sustainable, less destructive on the environment and actually help the environment
Building a hotel within a mountain in a way that doesn’t hurt things around it
How it is important that social media and marketing about a project must be part of the conversation from the beginning and a priority, design, construction management guest experience, PR
Special cookies Martinez is obsessed with for a snack
An approach to driving to a hotel or a destination?
Methods of discovery – seeing online, Instagram, website, how common each method is
People wanting to go somewhere they saw and then researched
The need to be careful about defining local experiences
Bringing true authentic local experiences by partnering with and creating alliances with local destinations
Martinez’s experience in Latin America, Florida, bigger cities in US, Toronto
Politics plays a big role in how one develops because permits are different

048 – Kerri Zeil of Amadeus North America – That White Glove Startup Approach

June 26, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:15 — 66.0MB)

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Partnering with the No. 1 travel technology partner, Amadeus, dedicated to helping travel companies launch, grow and succeed…

Kerri Zeil, Head of Amadeus for Startups, Online Travel Group, Amadeus North America, Inc. (the leading provider of IT solutions to the global tourism and travel industry — Amadeus for Startups provides technology, expertise and guidance to support travel startups throughout their journey) joins John Matson in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

Zeil reveals the substantial work Amadeus does in travel and understanding what startups need and what brands like Amadeus can do to help
Globalizing the startup program, how Zeil is in charge of the Americas
How Amadeus has a lot to offer, expertise, tech, info from customers already supported, how Amadeus can grow its own business through startups
No specific business model is larger than the next
Travel tech startups offer opportunities to scale and provide value
Amadeus originally looked at the program narrow lens, and it has has gown enormously
The program has grown year after year, created a partner community to add value, each program looked at uniquely, providing value across the board
Expertise in various areas of travel and working to harness that, and how internal partners want to help
Help startups launch at scale
High quality startups coming into the program and being able to be choosier to come in and can rise to the top, while helping virtually anyone coming in the door
How Amadeus doesn’t invest or take equity
When Amadeus cannot help some companies with APIs or tech solutions, but that company might fall into the area of venture partnerships and then introduce to that internal partner
Looking for companies even outside of core values, but can find ways to plug in that can enhance the business, that can bring value within tech stacks, exploring blockchain a bit, in-destination activity,
Axa as a great startup story, another is Freebird (a very unique idea) which developed into a partner with Amadeus
Is there a secret sauce possible at Amadeus for working with startups (think white glove approach)
Amadeus is located in Spain, how it interacts with the Americas
Pitching in front of The Dragons Den
Getting calls from around the world from people who want to help
How Amadeus created a blueprint for people for this program to work globally, leaders of company started to recognize this is happening everywhere,
Bankok and Singapore are big spots
A cultural shift
Commonality across startups, enthusiasm, the travel industry as a whole isn’t an industry to get into, infrastructure moves at snails pace, complicated and regulated, can be frustrating and difficult to understand, in a discovery phase for info and data to be even do diligence on Amadeus’ part, give startups some hope
The industry has attention on, and is engaging, startups to help dig out from technological past, recognizing the need for advancement
Why the travel industry is likely in for the long haul in commitment and funding, albeit cautious and focused approach, at a crossroads of the old travel industries and innovators
The need to not disrupt cash cow at companies while getting out of same things that keep happening – that’s the right path
Continuing to shape the future of travel

047 – Corey Angelo of Wanderfuel – Traveling Well

June 12, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:02 — 43.1MB)

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Health food and wellness content for travelers…

Corey Angelo, Founder/CEO of Wanderfuel (carefully curated, seasonally rotating boxes of organic products alongside lifestyle content that educates and supports well-being while traveling) joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

How wellness touches us at all times, taking care of yourself
Educating people with a great content experience, and how it makes travel better
Bringing together healthy snack and amenity kits in environmentally friendly packaging
Wanderfuel‘s core ethos includes nourish, relax, detox
Meditation, podcasts, intent to become like a Netflix-like safe list of things tailored for type and length of travel
The biggest wellness snafu on the road and being disconnected from regular wellness routines, committing to rituals and practices each day
Maintaining rituals on the road
Something about being on the road where you let go of being healthiest — how do you get people to carry it with you?
Coaching yourself, how you’ll feel after, and combining it with interesting and fun content experiences
The travel industry is investing in its consumer
Working closely to scale offering including with American Airlines, wellness zones in major airports, livening up atmospheres, and working with strong partners
Angelo’s “Zen place”, and pole vaulting
Inspiration and a moment of exhale when training for a marathon
The moment it all clicked
Staying curious, exploring more

046 – Felix Wunderlich and Greginald Spencer of mypostcard.com – Sharing and Changing the World One Postcard at a Time

June 5, 2018Marc Raco 1 Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:39 — 61.2MB)

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Personalized photo postcards, greeting cards and cards created online and sent on the go from anywhere…

Felix Wunderlich (Head of Business Development) and Greginald Spencer (Office Manager) of mypostcard.com (photos sent as postcards worldwide) join John Matson, Pavan Bahl, and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

When does one need to send a personalized postcard
What should reaction be/feeling – happiness
Physical interaction instead of digital, something tangible makes a real impact
The text looks like real handwriting
Process to use — download app, upload photo, the ability to have an envelope because of sensitive photos
Participation in a German accelerator
The app saves a lot of time
Friction on the marketing side, looking at customer lifetime value
Most customer acquisition via Google Adwords
Growth efforts via universities, building awareness
The ability to partner with major social platforms like Instagram
Whether content changed that customers are sharing, and is it relating to larger trends in the travel industry?
The shift from digital to physical, sentimental value
Creative marketing, and a song, changing the world with a postcard
The path to become a travel lifestyle brand
Spreading the feeling of that moment, and how to share that feeling and create buzz
How a postcard is something you share in person with visitors
Partnerships and collabrorations including prisons
Winning on the Apollo stage
A prior career in hospitality management
How Greginald got to NYC
Every season is Ramen season
And someday— Europe as a home?

045 – Liliana Petrova of JetBlue – Conducting the Customer Experience Orchestra

May 27, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:59 — 65.4MB)

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Designing customer experience in travel…

Liliana Petrova, Director of Customer experience at JetBlue Airways, Visionary, Strategist, Customer Experience Professional and Blogger, joins John Matson, Bess Chapman, and Pavan Bahl in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

Liliana Petrova on designing for Experience is like a multi-phase cake
What is movement,
Technology design, how to achieve movement as fast and seamless as possible
How people will feel about the brand and interactions
Why the experience designer needs to be a vision thinker and can’t design in increments
Facial recognition, and why with some brands it is like having a same experience like prison or the subway, and determining that will never happen like that with JetBlue as an experience
Delight comes from the elements and when it works to one’s standards
Designing experience is like being like a conductor of an orchestra
Innovation is not building new things, but finding connections that didn’t exists before between existing things
Getting a sophisticated program up in just four months
Will airports be the player of the future they are today?
The quest to eliminate waiting time with bags and taking away levels of friction
How airports could transform from being simply a processing center, and therefore offer a chance to give you joy
Other brands doing it right, and those doing it wrong — Milan train system can do better
Every customer has their own version of an emotional reaction — but engineering things like efficiency can create emotional experiences, creating value
Being driven by making the world a different place, making life easier
Liking things that stretch when it is implausible
Why the Hyperloop is exciting
How Petrova moved from financial analyst to design
The baseline of customer experience is process and strategy, making connections and seeing all channels of marketing
And hard work
How enterprise brands can’t preserve everything with scale
Innovation is not the end goal, it’s a way to be relevant to the customer
The alignment in the interest of the future costumer
Credit cards and miles/points/rewards
Petrova on being Bulgarian and a view at her work and the American ecosystem, and having perspective
Why Abraham Lincoln was amazing
An intuitive move and coming to America, having two “homes”, being a citizen of the world
Doingcxright.com

044 – Gilad Goren of Raleigh&Drake – Enabling the Generation of Experiences

May 18, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:15 — 78.1MB)

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The world’s first influencer-driven discovery platform using social currency for travel…

Gilad Goren, social entrepreneur and Founder of Raleigh&Drake, joins John Matson, Bess Chapman, and guest host Marc Raco in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

Gilad Goren on the future of content in the travel context, mix of personalization, instead of celebrity culture of past more local authentic voices and people who align with the travel in the way they view travel, ubiquitous and quality content throughout the journey
Millennials rarely plan trips until on their way, dreaming and planning
Raleigh&Drake is not setting new paradigm, instead reading the lines on how people plan their trips, helping with the tool for brands in travel space to adapt to how travelers view luxury
Many people spend 45 hours on 45 websites when planning travel, but will ask friends on social media what they do and think
Less than 25% trust recommendation sites, and
Building a quilt of different sources of insight, aggregating trusted content so brands can deploy into their websites, as a discovery ecosystem
White label bookable content as a service solution, aggregate great content, make bookable, license to brand who want to increase engagement and increase customer experience
Power of Instagram was in the visuals from real individuals sharing experiences with others, timeless power of visuals as we are visual beings
Always looked for advice from people close to us, this is another way of doing it
Brand can really own an experience, host and facilitate experience, benefit on ancillary revenue, and benefit from enhancing guest experience, all built for personalization which grows as the traveler uses it more
Necessity of CRMs, how Raleigh&Drake can feed data to a brand’s CRM
An opportune times to leapfrog
A route into travel for brands to connect with consumers
Interacting with local travel resources can lower the carbon footprint, have less cultural negative impact, increase spend into local economies
Curating and trusting explorers
Through their lens, a multiplicity of curated authentic unique voices
Earliest memories of Saturday morning cartoons like GI Joe as a first glimpse into the American hero and American spirit, as an early brand experience forming who Goren is
How Raleigh&Drake started B to C, and leveraged partnerships and turned B to B
Goren spending 45 days in Bolivia in an animal refuge in taking care of middle aged pumas

043 – Greg Buzulencia of ViaHero – Experiencing Travel with the Local Hero

May 11, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:47 — 49.1MB)

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Connecting travelers with local trip planners for custom itineraries to Iceland, Cuba, and Japan…

Greg Buzulencia, Co-Founder/CEO of ViaHero (a marketplace for travelers to hire locals to plan their personalized trip), joins John Matson, Bess Chapman of JetBlue Technology Ventures, and Pavan Bahl (President, MouthMedia Network) in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

Bess Chapman [Episode 003] of JetBlue Technology Ventures (a venture capital spinoff of JetBlue Airways, keeping a pulse on tech innovation and driving deal flow through New York) joins the podcast as a host
ViaHero works with locals telling people what they should be doing on a trip
How, being a marketplace, ratings and reviews keeps people in check, whereas travel agents are beholden to commissions
Cuba, Japan, and Colombia as countries in which Via Hero has presence
Average user wants local knowledge, people who have tours or Travel Agent plan, they are there for service but want to be independent
Algorithm matches with people who have same Interest and are in that area
SEO and user acquisition in various geographies
Changing needs and expectations of travelers, but there is still a feeling of needing info to help figure it all out
Hanging out with hosts, immersing in local culture, but it is a digital relationship with a “hero”
Offline maps with local recommendations and locations
Consistent trends in data being collected, database of their recommendations to more easily crate the guide books
The economics of the relationships with the local “heroes”
A cross-country trip as a child that made an impression on travel, and the passion of never paying for water

042 – Stuart Butler of Fuel Travel – Marketing Hotels with Empathy

May 1, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:52 — 61.8MB)

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Ecommerce and marketing solutions that reduce OTA reliance & increase bookings…

Gaining ground in market share isn’t the only goal for hotels and hotel chains. Keeping it — comes in at a close second. To do that in the current industry climate, many hotels must utilize specialized e-commerce solutions to make sure all online presence and marketing resources are maximizing market share opportunities. Fuel Travel, a premier hotel marketing agency, is offering just that — website design, custom hotel apps, and marketing solutions that reduce OTA reliance & increase bookings. Plus, its COO hosts a podcast which can add some “fuel” to a resort or hotel’s marketing strategy. And the one snack you have to try. Stuart Butler, COO of Fuel Travel and host of Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast, joins John Matson and Pavan Bahl in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

How hotels can differentiate in the market
Following brand standards and following the flag is more challenging, and in the end hospitality comes down to one thing: hospitality
Why the best marketing is hiring the right people and exceeding the expectations of guests
Exceptional experiences are priority, and the rest takes care of itself
How Butler wanted to work for NASA, originally from the UK, and how while studying physics he got into computer programming
Why fuel Interactive rebranded as Fuel Travel, adjusting focus to hospitality
The Guest Express mobile app, giving a property the ability to communicate with customers one-on-one
The mistakes independent hotels make when launching, how too many are people chasing the bright and shiny buzz vs. paying attention to the basics that have worked forever
Email marketing is still the #1 thing one can do as a property and destination property
Also, most hotel operators do not have a grasp of the data, or how customer acquisition is happening, or tracking the whole revenue journey
The focus on accessing info via mobile, with micro-periods of access, yet mobile is an afterthought for so many web designers for hotels
More traffic comes from mobile, but bookings are not following that yet (likely because mobile experience is not as good as desktop)
Good profiles are very important to connect with younger generations
It is unnecessary to give away massive discounts to get business if marketing is strong enough
Podcast helping marketing hotels with the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast
Aspirations for space travel, and Star Wars
Why marketing should be thought of as a conversation with the guest

041 – Isabel Berney and Truth Oladapo of Vacayo – Vacation Rentals Landlords Love

April 24, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:07 — 53.0MB)

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Leasing long-term rentals and converting them into outstanding vacation homes which provide landlords higher income and eliminate vacancy risk with Vacayo…

Isabel Berney (COO/Co-Founder) and Truth Oladapo (CEO/Co-Founder) of Vacayo join John Matson and guest host Jenny Silber (VoyagerHQ) in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

Examining the short term rental market, how much a revenue property can hold, developing a propriety pricing algorithm, scraping websites to see the highest earning potential of homes, and owners can earn at least 40% more at least with short term stays added into the mix instead of long-term leases
How this is an arbitrage model, and the risk is potentially in any miscalculation in revenue-generating potential of a home — but with historic data, and the fact that the vacation market is growing, the risk appears to be low
How the model is different and not just profit sharing, so some risk is involved
Additional risks of a downturn in travel, a major shift in economic conditions, etc.
Landlords receive a monthly payment regardless, so what Vacayo does to cover that risk
Insuring each home as well in case Vacayo can’t rent properties due to storms etc.
How Vacayo has started to install smart devices which revealed people are spending less time in the homes than believed, overcoming the landlords’ misconceptions that homes have greater wear and tear and risk with comings and goings in short term rentals
How in the future Vacayo will likely be more of a data company,
Why Vacayo is banking on a nomadic lifestyle
Providing flexible accommodations with more options and sleeping arrangements than hotels, people prefer vacation rentals as a result
Vacayo is partnered with Ikea and Wayfair to succeed in getting things ready quickly, with the right team working together can do fast turnarounds in 48 hours
How they started off on Craigslist, bootstrapping, and were discovered by a landlord
The six markets Vacayo is in
“Superhosts” who take care of on-the-ground operations as independent contractors, with easy onboarding, and working on a percentage
The matching process with renters to properties
The crowd-funding campaign as a way for people to own a part of the company in a sharing economy, but without the complexity of formal shares
Why there is little worry about competing with companies like Airbnb, and how there is plenty of room left in the industry, especially for an asset-light business model
How Vacayo specializes in large group travel
The story of Berney and Oladapo starting out as roommates