Not all tourism is overtourism. I remember saying this to my friend David back in August during a board meeting, and it clearly resonated, as he repeated it during a general session speech that was right on point. The conversation was born from countless articles I read about protests due to overtourism and non-stop coverage that positioned all foreign visitors as villains due to bad actors who don’t respect the privilege and responsibility that is part of international exploration.
I began to wonder if early red flags could be possible; warning signs that the tourism balance was about to tilt out of equilibrium if adjustments were not made. These triggers exist in the private sector including many in our businesses. These are numbers that jump off the page to you when they don’t look right and tell you exactly which lever to pull to bring things back in order. This data all existed; it just wasn’t tracked consistently by every country. That is what I had always believed, and now I am convinced.
Shortly after, I had conversations with ProColombia, the Colombia Tourism Board, as they had one of the best market Intelligence departments. It was a chance to help them collate the data correctly and create triggers that every country could learn from. Countless meetings and discussions later, we had our information, and clear metrics, that can help a country truly judge how the tourism machine is performing, with key indicators at the ready other than the number of visitors entering the country.
This week’s video is my presentation to the World Travel Tourism Council, showcasing the notion that better data does exist, that overtourism can be prevented with warning signs evident long before it becomes a problem. I must admit, Colombia was misspelled in the first slide, so we weren’t off to the best start… however it gave us the opportunity to enforce something special about Colombia.
The only U in Colombia is YOU. Enjoy the video!
I recently read a trends report talking about trending destinations for 2025 calling them viable alternatives, and it seems that Guatemala is trending in 2025 as a destination garnering a lot of positive attention. Do you have any idea how long I have been waiting for this kind of recognition for Guatemala?
For all the Star Wars fans, go to the end of Empire Strikes Back movie, you’ll notice the closing scene is where Tikal was front and center. I’ll never forgot what that looked like, even posting a poorly edited photo of me with the officer helmet on directing the Empire ship in. Actually, come to think about it, I would say it wasn’t too poorly done, it was much worse. And yet there I stood proudly on that terrace and before you ask, you should know that I have definitely indoctrinated my children in the ways of “The Force”.
It’s not just the ruins or Tikal. Nor is it just about the hidden ruins of El Mirador. Nor is it the various Mayan ruins in Guatemala, it is so much more. Let’s start with the active volcanoes. So, have you ever roasted smores on the side of a crater on of an active opening volcano? Or have you ever eaten pizza cooked on a grill built over flowing lava? Or better yet, have you ever felt like Indiana Jones in the middle of the jungle exploring a newly discovered Mayan ruin that remains an active dig? Guess what, I have.
And you can too. Guatemala is the adventure destination with some of the best kept secrets. Where “The Force” is always with you!
A few years back, I presented the notion that not all family travel is family-focused. Some of it is family-tolerant. The topic took us in many different directions, from empowering kids to the influence their generation has, like no other, on the prior generation. One of the ideas that ended up in the parking lot that seemed to evoke the most emotion with the audience was the number of vacation days we have with our children.
Child Psychologists I spoke to when putting together ideas for our Precious Journeys® family travel collection shared results of countless studies they did on the truly influential years in a child’s years that affect decision-making and problem-solving solving, among other traits later in life. It was 5 to 16, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone with a teenager in the house. I then asked the same professionals about travel since we were at a travel conference and the role travel plays in those influential events. While the answers here varied, I could see a common theme, which was the correlation between travel and enhanced education. When it comes to adventure travel, while there is no set age at which to start a child’s travel life, our clients seem to start that journey when their children are around 6 years old. They seem to treat the age of 18 as the culmination of that travel path before their child’s next chapter starts. With a 12-year-old and a 17-year-old in my house, I follow a similar timeline, including taking my son paragliding for his 16th birthday.
Think about that for a second. 6 to 18, that’s 12 years. Twelve years is all you get to impart the wisdom needed to raise a global citizen, truly. Think about summer vacations, spring breaks, and the various holidays. Now take those periods, and think about the time you are able to take to travel with your family, and count those days. Then multiply it by 12 years. You will end up with a number close to 252 days. Don’t believe me? Please do the math yourself and be honest about two things: The amount of time you spend with your children during their break where they are fully engaged with you. The amount of time your children spend with you where they, in the age of social media and electronics, are fully engaged with you. Those holidays are a lot shorter than you think.
The first week of September signifies many things, such as the end of summer, the change of seasons (my birthday), and, yes, back-to-school month. For us in Florida, back to school happened in early August, so we already have our routines back. However, September still feels like when the curriculum really gets into gear. In honor of all the parents sending their kids back to school this week or entering a new school this week, this video should put a smile on your face. When thinking of “back-to-school,” we often get caught up framing school in the traditional sense, yet as all of you know, the world is our school, and yes, you can learn the ABCs through travel. In fact, I will restate what I shared in a recent speech.
“We in this travel industry are part mentors, part consultants, part teachers, and yes, part students. Put shortly; we are custodians of dreams, vessels to broaden horizons”.
This classroom is devoid of politics about what to teach and standardized testing. It feeds curiosity; in fact, it embraces it. There is no varnish on these lectures, only interpretation. Most importantly, you get to be a socially responsible global citizen, as that is at the center of this classroom and the center of this lesson plan.
The commonality here, is that this classroom still starts with the alphabet in any language you choose. So we thought we would celebrate back-to-school with the first letter in that alphabet and built a video around a destination that has schools of fish, it has ancient rock art that deserves to be shared in our classroom blackboards, it has nature that is untouched in a manner we could all learn from, and it has a culture that still schools us today on the meaning of life. Here, you don’t have to raise your hand to ask the teacher a question, and you are encouraged to ask millions of questions. Not only will you get millions of answers, but some of those answers just might be from a million years ago.
Of course, I am talking about the letter A for Australia, which is one of our favorite destinations and a unique classroom for learning. It’s where the World Travel Tourism Council Global Summit will proudly be held in 2024.
Enjoy the video and discover the countless learning opportunities this beautiful country offers. You’ll definitely learn something.
