Travel Massive Podcast

Hosted by Jean Cheney, blogger at the Traveling Honeybird and Travel Massive Melbourne chapter leader.  In this episode we heard from: Kash Bhattacharya, founder and editor at the Budget Traveller Kash is the author of the book ‘The Grand Hostels-Luxury Hostels of the World’ & founder of the BudgetTraveller where for the last 11 years he’s been showing people how to travel in style on a budget. Although he lost 70% of his traffic and his passive income has grinded to a halt, Kash didn’t loose his passion to help the industry in times of crisis. That’s how the idea of #AdoptaHostel was born – a global gift card campaign which aims to save the hostel industry from financial devestation during the COVID-19 crisis Darley Newman, TV host, writer, entrepreneur and multimedia producer Darley joined us form New York City. Her passion for travel and storytelling channeled into successful TV series and brands, including Emmy Award-winning “Equitrekking” and “Travels with Darley” on PBS, Amazon Prime, Verizon Digita

Hosted by Kevin O’Shaughnessy, co-founder of City Hook and Dublin Travel Massive leader.  In this episode we heard from: Phaka Hlazo, founder of Zulu Nomad Phaka Hlazo joined us from Johannesburg. She is the founder of Zulu Nomad – a tour operator providing curated experiences in East and Southern Africa for locals. Phaka talked about the diversity of South Africa’s tourism and the ins and outs of the domestic travel scene. She touched on topics like digitalization of the tourism industry and what tour guides, hosts, and tour operators should be doing right now. Stephan Ekbergh, founder and CEO of Travelstart Stephan Ekbergh, founder of Africa’s largest online travel agency, Travelstart, joined us from Cape Town. He talked about what the current situation means for the tourism business, the importance of quality in the future and what leadership looks like in times of crisis. Sharon Gilbert-Rivett, Head Honcho at The Safari Collective Sharon Gilbert-Rivett joined the LIVE Show from Hoedspruit. With her experi

Hosted by Kevin O’Shaughnessy, co-founder of City Hook and Dublin Travel Massive leader.  In this episode we heard from: Rama Poola, co-founder of SkyHi  Rama Poola joined the LIVE Show from LA. He’s the co-founder of SkyHi – the first subscription service to reliably book last minute seats on commercial airlines. Given that flights bookings are down right now, Rama shared more about what SkyHi is doing in their downtime and how they see the path forward. Wendy van Leeuwen, co-founder of Secret City Trails Wendy van Leeuwen joined the LIVE Show from the Portuguese countryside. She’s the co-founder of Secret City Trails – a marketplace for city discovery games made by locals, present in more than 50 cities in Europe. Wendy talked about a surprise call from her angel investor and how her business model protected her from too much financial risk. Karl Llewellyn, founder and CEO of Sanctifly Karl Llewellyn joined from Ireland. He’s the founder and CEO of Sanctifly – a global members club that grants access to air

Ric Gazarian, Travel Massive Chapter Leader in Bangkok and travel blogger at GlobalGaz, speaks with James Wilcox, cofounder of Untamed Borders.  James discovered there was an underserved marketplace for travelers looking to travel to places like Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, and other challenging locations.  Untamed Borders was created to serve this underserved niche.  James also shares with us the effects of Covid-19 on his business and the industry.       https://untamedborders.com/

This discussion is moderated by Kevin O’Shaughnessy, co-founder of City Hook and Dublin Travel Massive leader.  In this episode we hear from: Philip Ibrahim, General Manager of The Student Hotel Philip is joining the LIVE Show from his office in Berlin, Germany. He has previously worked for Accor and Mercure Hotel Berlin City. Since October 2019, he has been responsible for the opening and launch of The Student Hotel, a concept dedicated to the community of students, city explorers and locals. With a total of 475 rooms, a big part of the hotel serves students as a long-term accommodation option, many of whom are still staying in Berlin. In this LIVE Show, Philip shared more about how they see this tourism crisis as a whole, how the hotel operation is going for them, what changes they had to make and what their are plans for the coming months. Laura McKenzie, owner of Cathedral House in Glasgow Laura is tuning in from Glasgow, Scotland. She is a former owner and manager of two other boutique properties in Gl

Ric Gazarian, Travel Massive Chapter Leader in Bangkok and travel blogger at GlobalGaz, speaks with Ian Ord, founder of Where Sidewalks End.  Ian shares with us his origin story of how he founded a company that provides unique tattoo experiences in Thailand.  Ian also shares with us the effects of Covid-19 on his business and the industry.       https://www.wheresidewalksend.com/

Hosted by Kevin O’Shaughnessy, co-founder of City Hook and Dublin Travel Massive leader.  In this episode we hear from: Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, long time travel industry geek. Aviation, Travel and Tourism. Founding team member at Expedia. Principal @ 777Partners, Board member, Advisor, Speaker, Mentor and eMercenary. Ann Cederhall, Freelance Consultant and Distribution expert, main affiliation TravelCAST. Provide consulting both for airlines and travel agencies. Madeleine Anderson, a travel industry consultant in loyalty, partnership marketing and co-brand, formerly worked with BA, Flybe, Emirates, Jet2. About the Travel Massive LIVE Show The Travel Massive LIVE Show is a weekly online discussion on the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on travel and tourism worldwide, featuring members from all over the globe. The LIVE Show is hosted by Dublin chapter co-leader Kevin O’Shaughnessy, and produced by Sofia chapter leader and Content Manager at Travel Massive Maria Stoyanova and Travel Massive founder Ian

Here’s the replay from Episode #4 of our LIVE Show from March 26 with Travel Massive members from Amsterdam, Montreal, and Israel discussing the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on travel and tourism. Hosted by Kevin O’Shaughnessy, co-founder of City Hook and Dublin Travel Massive leader.  In this episode we hear from: Johannes Koeppel, CEO and co-founder of WeTravel Johannes is joining us from Amsterdam. As a payment and booking platform for multi-day trips, WeTravel is facing number of challenges in the current global situation. Although they began the year with a strong start, slow drops in booking started coming in mid-February. By now, there’s hardly any bookings for their over 3000 trip organizers. Johannes and Kevin are discussing what changes Wetravel had to make over the last few weeks, what is the plan for the next 18 months and their overall approach to this situation – find out on the LIVE Show. Hamed Al-Khabaz, co-founder and CTO of Stay22 Hamed is joining the LIVE Show from Montreal. He’s

Marc Ruffet will be joining a three person panel of entrepreneurs at a Travel Massive event in Bangkok but before that, a cofounder of IzziGuide, sits down with me for this podcast.  Marc has over 10 years working experience at a DMO and realised there was a major gap in the industry: Tour providers needed a marketplace to match tour guides and tour providers, hence, IzziGuide was born.  Marc shares with us his successes and challenges in developing this technology and rolling it out to the marketplace.   https://izziguide.com/

Jakob Holder will be joining a three person panel of entrepreuneurs at a Travel Massive event in Bangkok but before that, the founder of Taste of Thailand, sits down with me for this podcast. Jakob shares with me the changes in the competitor landscape in the six years he has operated, whether that is finding a space online with the proliferation of OTAs or the growth of competitors when it comes to local operators. Jacob emphasises the importance of story telling for his food experiences when creating experiences for his customers.  Please listen in. 

Who took part In this episode we heard from members whose lives and tourism businesses were affected by the latest industry developments: Alex Bainbridge, CEO / CTO, Autoura – joining from Oxford. Tom Buckley, CCO & Co-Founder, Wildebeest – joining from New York. Sherry Ott, Blogger at Ottsworld.com, Co-Founder of MeetPlanGo – joining from Colorado. Kim Whitaker, Founder of Once Travel & Khwela Youth Stars – joining from Cape Town. Hosted by Kevin O’Shaughnessy, co-founder of CityHook and Dublin Travel Massive leader.  Helpful Links Check out previous episodes: An Industry In Quarantine, Stranded in Berlin. Tourmageddon.com – a strongly curated list of resources, companies needing help and companies offering help, created by Alex Bainbridge, Peter Syme and Chris Torres.

Travelport's Mark Lenahan (LinkedIn, Twitter) and CityHook's Kevin O'Shaughnessy (LinkedIn, Twitter), from the Travel Massive Dublin team, discuss Hack Access Dublin 2020, an accessibility hackathon that took place in Google Dublin on 21st to 23rd of February. Mark interviewed several participants about the event and the experience of airports and travel for wheelchair, blind and neurodiverse travellers. We also talk about the hackathon experience, the winning concepts, universal design and accessibility in travel.   Interviews: Katie Bourke - Founder of Adaptable Solutions (LinkedIn, Twitter) Cearbhall O'Meadhra - Musician, Architect, Consultant (LinkedIn) Hannah Bryson - Karson Consulting (LinkedIn, Twitter) Jonathan O'Grady - Digital Strategist (LinkedIn, Twitter) Denis Kennedy - Disability Consultant (LinkedIn) Kieran Mahon - Projects Facilitator at Smart DCU (LinkedIn) Jenny Aarts - Innovation Project Manager at Dublin Airport (LinkedIn) Nikola Nevin - Tech Lead and UI Engineer at OpenJaw Technologies

Who took part Mario Bernardi, Founder & CEO of The Grand Tour Europe – currently in England. Alison Sager, Founder and PR Consultant at VIVA Lifestyle PR – currently in Rome. Julieta Delgado, Guide Recruitment Specialist at ToursByLocals – currently in Buenos Aires. Hosted by Kevin O’Shaughnessy, co-founder of CityHook and Dublin Travel Massive leader. 

In this discussion, we heard from members who were either #StrandedInBerlin following the cancellation of ITB, Berlin Travel Festival and Travel Massive Forum, or tuning in from other parts of the world directly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak: Ian Cumming, founder of Travel Massive (joining from Berlin) Ric Gazarian, Bangkok Travel Massive leader and content creator (joining from Berlin) Jean Cheney, Melbourne Travel Massive leader and content creator (joining from Berlin) Natalya Smolenskaya, Hoi An/Da Nang Travel Massive leader and co-founder of SecretEATS global experiences (joining from Berlin) Chris Torres, Glasgow Travel Massive leader and founder of the Tourism Marketing Agency (joining from Glasgow) Brian Marrinan, startup investor in the aviation and travel technology sectors (joining from Dublin) Sandra Weinacht, founder of iNSIDE EUROPE (joining from Germany) Hosted by Kevin O’Shaughnessy, co-founder of CityHook and Dublin Travel Massive leader. 

At the WYSTC conference, Kevin O'Shaughnessy from CityHook speaks to Bill Gertz, chair of the American Institute of Foreign Study, AIFS, about his own career, how new products are made and what’s really changed in terms of marketing and technology in the span of his career.  

In this episode Kevin O'Shaughnessy from CityHook chats briefly with Tamsin Plaxton, a Canadian entrepreneur in youth language travel. We speak a little about the origins of the industry and where it’s going. 

We caught up with the head of growth of travel social network, Travello, Josh Wicks to talk about what the app is and its growth which is bucking the trend in travel social networks. 

In this episode Kevin O'Shaughnessy from CityHook chats with Michelle Hirschfeld about the role of the hostel for the American youth travel sector as well as some of the challenges marketing hostels today.