Travel Matters
The official podcast from TBEX – The Future of Travel Media. In this podcast we will be sharing all the latest news, trends and tips for you, and interviewing the movers and shakers in the travel creative ecosystem.
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062 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Elena Sergeeva and Ivan Bengeri
07/17/2023
062 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Elena Sergeeva and Ivan Bengeri
In this final episode from TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, you can meet two guests. First, Rick talks to Elena Sergeeva. With a decade-long career in Sales & Marketing, she co-founded in 2015 with the purpose to unite like-minded individuals and to educate the Greek market on how to work with bloggers. She is the founder of several travel blogs. She also works with , one of the sponsors of TBEX. She did a session at this TBEX called “” where she talked about how working with blogging communities provides new marketing opportunities and continued growth for Andros Island. The session covered the needs of a DMO from the local travel industry – Projects to empower the island’s footprint in the global tourism market. And our last interview from TBEX Europe 2023 is with Ivan Bengeri from Croatia. In 2013 he quit his 9-to-5 job to travel around the world. In November 2014, travel blog happened, and since then, Ivan has been blogging and traveling full-time. So far, he’s been to 60+ countries, walked a Camino de Santiago (800 km) in September 2018, represented Southeastern Europe (SEE) as a travel influencer on Kerala Blog Express 2019, and in 2020 he launched agency to share his love for traveling.
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061 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Eric Stoen from Travel Babbo
07/15/2023
061 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Eric Stoen from Travel Babbo
In this episode, you can meet travel blogger Eric Stoen from the family travel blog . He used to work in healthcare but was addicted to travel. So, in 2014 he quit his job and started the travel blog to inspire more people. So far, he’s been to 101 countries and seven continents. Hear how he got started and how he grew his blog. You can also hear him talk about the time he took his kids to Antarctica. Rick has tried to get Eric to be a speaker, but he keeps saying no. Will this interview make him change his mind?
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060 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Cazzy Magennis and Bradley Williams
07/13/2023
060 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Cazzy Magennis and Bradley Williams
In this episode, we have two guests. Cazzy Magennis and Bradley Williams are the travel blogging duo behind . Using captivating content and an intelligent approach to sharing their stories on mainstream media, their website reaches as many as 350,000 page views a month. In their session, they shared the step-by-step details of how they have landed a large number of high-profile mainstream media features in the last 18 months – which has, in turn, helped them to 3-4x their blog’s monthly traffic. This is their first TBEX, their first time as a speaker, and their first time as guests on a podcast. Have a listen and hear how they did.
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059 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Brennen Bliss and Anna Kalogeropoulou
07/11/2023
059 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Brennen Bliss and Anna Kalogeropoulou
In this episode, we have two interviews. First, we meet Brennen Bliss, a US Search Award-winning SEO consultant and principal at the US-based travel and tourism-focused SEO agency, Propellic. The agency forms successful and creative SEO campaigns for its clients. Brennen is passionate about travel; sending more people to incredible places is part of his lifelong mission. Brennan did a double session called “Advanced SEO: Hidden Strategies to Compete in Search.” Then we have a conversation with Anna Kalogeropoulou, Deputy Governor of Tourism for the Region of Peloponnese, a destination for all seasons. Kalamata is one of the fastest-developing cities in Greece. This modern city has been re-introduced to the world as a tourism destination.
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058 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Caroline Makepeace from yTravelBlog
07/09/2023
058 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Caroline Makepeace from yTravelBlog
In this episode, we meet Caroline Makepeace (Caz) from and about Raleigh, North Carolina. Together with her husband, Craig, she’s been traveling the world since 1997 and since 2007 with their two daughters. The White House invited them to attend a travel summit as one of the top digital travel influencers in the world in 2014, and in 2020 they were granted a green card for their ”extraordinary ability in the art of travel blogging.” Caz and Craig are from the Central Coast of Australia and now live in North Carolina – but they like to call the world our home. She was the Opening Keynote Speaker for TBEX North America in Billings, Montana, 2019. We planned to have her on Travel Matters back then, but it wasn’t possible to make it happen. So, better late than never… Enjoy this conversation with an extraordinary travel blogger.
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057 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Melvin from Travel Dudes
07/07/2023
057 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Melvin from Travel Dudes
In this episode, we have an interesting conversation with pioneer travel blogger Melvin Boecher from Germany. Melvin is the founder and CEO of , co-founder of the Social Travel Summit, former COO of iAmbassador, and with more than 15 years of successfully running his business, he is a pioneer of professional travel blogging. His Social Media are very popular. On , he has accumulated around 250.000 followers, and Melvin appears on over 8.500 recommended Twitter lists – this ranks him in the top 3 in travel. His page has over 115,000 fans, and his has around 50,000 followers. He’s also on , where he and his team post some great videos. Hear how he started as a travel blogger, how he built his travel blogging empire, and what he shared in his session at this TBEX.
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056 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Catharina Fischer
07/06/2023
056 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Catharina Fischer
In this episode, we have an interesting conversation with Catharina Fischer about sustainable travel. Catharina is one of the leading experts in influencer marketing and a digital leader with over ten years of experience in tourism. At TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece, she gave an interesting talk about the impact of tourism trends on travel content creators. Before she was Head of Social Media at the German National Tourist Board (GNTB), she was in various marketing positions in the tourism industry. At the GNTB, she implemented the international Social Media Strategy in over 12 markets & created in 2013 the first international influencer campaign for Germany. Since 2015 she has been working for the consulting network Tourismuszukunft. Here she supports destinations, hotels, and tour operators, mainly in DACH countries, with their digital marketing. In 2016 she initiated the industry think tank ‘Change4Destination’ which is dealing with the question of the ‘future of public destination marketing’. The think tank white paper became a must-read in the German-speaking markets. Furthermore, she created the VideoSummit – the leading conference for video in tourism with top videographers and video bloggers worldwide. Connect to Catharina Fischer on .
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055 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Jessica Schmidt from Hamburg Marketing
06/30/2023
055 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Jessica Schmidt from Hamburg Marketing
In this episode we say “mojn” to Jessica Schmidt from . By developing, communicating and coordinating the Hamburg brand, they highlight the locational attractiveness of Hamburg and the Hamburg Metropolitan Region in Germany and abroad. Hear how they work with content creators.
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054 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Travel YouTuber Martin Solhaugen
06/26/2023
054 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Travel YouTuber Martin Solhaugen
Martin Solhaugen is a filmmaker, youTuber and photographer from Oslo, Norway. Martin has worked on global projects for Tourism-boards, luxury hotels, and high-profile clients. Martin has been traveling the world for the past 6 years in pursuit for cultural and visual expressions. With a big heart for visual storytelling and a unique eye for detail, he has worked on global projects for Tourism-boards, luxury hotels and high-profile clients. He did two sessions at TBEX Europe 2023, and in this conversation, he shares some tips, and talks about how the same video made him more money on than on .
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053 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Travel YouTuber Christopher Lau
06/23/2023
053 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Travel YouTuber Christopher Lau
Chris Lau talks about his YouTube channel, and then we get into a long conversation about selling – an important skill to have as a travel content creator. With 10+ years of experience in a professional-level sales role, being recommended by other world-class creators, and having helped almost 80 creators from around the world, Chris also has a Mentor Program where he teaches how to travel for free, get paid for your work, and really make this into a lifestyle. See more about that on .
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052 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Yeison from MyTanFeet
06/19/2023
052 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Yeison from MyTanFeet
In this one, we meet another experienced travel blogger and entrepreneur, Yeison, from the Costa Rica travel blog, Mytanfeet. The keynote speaker at this TBEX, Yeison (pronounced like Jason), is Costa Rican, born and raised. He started Mytanfeet with his wife Samantha, who moved to Costa Rica in 2012 from the United States and ever since then. Mytanfeet is a blog with local tips, detailed guides, photos, videos, and maps to help you plan the perfect trip to Costa Rica.
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051 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Anne and Mike Howard
06/12/2023
051 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Anne and Mike Howard
Welcome to Travel Matters, recorded at TBEX Europe 2023 in Kalamata, Greece. In this one we have a conversation with the amazing couple, Mike and Anne Howard from . They’re two Americans that realized life is short; the world is big, and the value of travel too great to wait another day. So, when it came time for their honeymoon, they decided to sell their stuff and embark on a trip around the world. They left on January 22, 2012, and are on “” … 11 years and counting! Books:Check out their National Geographic book “” and their glamping book “”. Other links: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: YouTube: TikTok: Pinterest:
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050 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Edu Giansante
06/06/2023
050 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Edu Giansante
Welcome to Travel Matters recorded live on tape at TBEX Europe 2023 in Kalamata, Greece. In this one, we have a conversation with one of the speakers, Edu Giansante – a Brazilian who lives in Dublin. He’s the Founder and Content Creator at E-Dublin – a brand that has reached more than 50 million YouTube views and reaches 1 million accounts every month. For more than ten years, Edu has demonstrated his skills as a highly experienced strategic thinker for online communities for companies across the world. He was awarded the Community Professional of the Year 2020 at the CMX Awards – one of the most prestigious companies in the communities industry. Edu did a session where he explained how community-led content is the new way to do business. No matter the industry, we’re seeing a shift in how companies and content creators with a strong community are leading businesses. We are moving from broadcasting to connecting, telling to hearing, and transactional comms to symbiotic. You can download Edu's Community cheat sheet from his session on . His website for Brazilian expats in Dublin is called , and you can find also connect with Edu on , , , and follow his popular channel. We are also talking a lot about AI and the future. Edu mentions a cool app called (download it in the ) and we also talk about the app called , and the documentary . Enjoy an interesting conversation with Edu, and please share if you like it.
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049 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Social Media Strategist, Itai Marshall
05/29/2023
049 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Social Media Strategist, Itai Marshall
Welcome to Travel Matters recorded live on tape at TBEX Europe 2023 in Kalamata, Greece. In this one we have a conversation with one of the speakers, Itai Marshall. He’s a Social Media strategist from Israel who made the leap from YouTube to TikTok, where he has now amassed more than 200,000 followers and 12 million likes with his high-energy and snappy video style. Itai is also a video marketing coach, and his work includes showing tourism professionals how to effectively create short-form video. At TBEX in Greece he did two sessions: “” and “” You can follow Itai on , , and on any other SoMe channel as itaimarshall.
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048 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Shane Dallas
05/08/2023
048 – TBEX Europe 2023 Kalamata, Greece with Shane Dallas
Welcome to Travel Matters, and the first of many episodes from TBEX Europe 2023 in Kalamata, Greece. In this one – recorded today, two days before the conference, we talk to conference director Shane Dallas about what to expect from this conference.
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047 – Traveling Cheesehead Dannelle Gay
03/01/2023
047 – Traveling Cheesehead Dannelle Gay
Welcome to Travel Matters, and we’re joined by serial entrepreneur and travel-junkie Dannelle Gay, AKA the Traveling Cheesehead. She loves to talk about Travel, Partnerships with Destinations, and teach bloggers how to make money. Her latest book '' just came out and she is more than delighted that TBEX is coming to her home state! LINKS: Blog: Book: ‘’ – or use your own Amazon affiliate link. on .
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046 – TBEX Asia with Ajay Sood of Travelure
02/15/2023
046 – TBEX Asia with Ajay Sood of Travelure
Welcome to Travel Matters, and we’re joined by Pro Travel Photographer, Ajay Sood from . ‘Travelure‘ started on wordpress.com in 2007, and switched to this self-hosted site in May 2015. It began as an aggregation of Ajay Sood’s articles published in travel, photography, and in-flight publications like Condé Nast Traveller, Huffington Post, JetWings, Travel3Sixty°, Smart Photography, Taj Magazine, GoGetter, etc. Travelure simply means building a lure of travel among its readers. Follow Ajay on and on This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by CEO Rick Calvert and , Palle Bo.
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045 – TBEX Asia with Zeekman,Travel Dave, Sarah Hughes and Nathan Sado
02/08/2023
045 – TBEX Asia with Zeekman,Travel Dave, Sarah Hughes and Nathan Sado
Welcome to Travel Matters, and we’re joined by four awesome content creators: Nathan Sado, Sarah Hughes, Dave Brett, and Dan Zeek. Sarah and Nathan have several sites, but their main site is . Adventure traveler Dave Brett is better known as . You can follow Dan Zeek on YouTube as and , on Instagram as and , and on TikTok as . This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by CEO Rick Calvert and , Palle Bo.
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044 – TBEX Asia with Paul Pruangkarn and Matt Gibson
02/01/2023
044 – TBEX Asia with Paul Pruangkarn and Matt Gibson
Welcome to Travel Matters and the two interesting conversations with three unique content creators. This one was also recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand. In this episode, we’re joined by Paul Pruangkarn and Matt Gibson from (PATA). Founded in 1951, PATA is a not-for-profit membership-based association that acts as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region. By bringing together our private and public sector members, PATA facilitates meaningful partnerships to enhance the value, quality and sustainable growth of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region. This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by CEO Rick Calvert and , Palle Bo.
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BREAKING NEWS: We're going to Africa
01/31/2023
BREAKING NEWS: We're going to Africa
Breaking news.... See more on the new .
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042 – TBEX Asia with Jason Rupp, Ric Gazarian and Yosh Dimen
01/26/2023
042 – TBEX Asia with Jason Rupp, Ric Gazarian and Yosh Dimen
Welcome to Travel Matters, and the two interesting conversations with three unique content creators. This one was also recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand. First you can meet two American Thailand experts. Jason does a lot of content from Thailand on his YouTube channel, and Ric has his base in Bangkok. We’re also joined by Filipino, travel blogger, Yosh Dimen. Jason’s YouTube channel is called , and everywhere he goes, he visit the local barbershop for a haircut, hair wash, pedicure, facial, foot scrub, massage, or a straight razor hot towel shave. Now that’s a different angle to a travel YouTube channel. And he’s doing well with 579.000 subscribers and almost a quarter of a billion views. Ric is an extreme traveler on a quest to travel to all 193 UN countries and he shares his unique experiences, must-see places, and off-the-beaten path locations on his blog, . He’s the host of the popular podcast, , where he interviews travelers who also are aiming to visit every country in the world. Also, he founded a new conference called , held for the first time in Yerevan, Armenia in October 2022. Co-host of Travel Matters, Palle Bo, was there and did a lot of interviews with some extraordinary travelers on his own podcast, . Yosh Dimen, started in 2010 with his friend Vins Carlos. The blog is about being smart when traveling, planning, and budgeting. And (as they say on the blog), in most cases, the cheapest is not always the wisest. The truth is, although they were struggling financially when they started, it wasn’t the reason for the name. They called it poor to mean “unfortunate or unlucky”. As in poor soul, poor choices, you poor thing. Yosh and Vins are very successful with 855,000 followers on , 77,000 followers on , and almost 90,000 subscribers on their channel. Yosh was on the closing panel at TBEX Asia, and will be a keynote speaker at TBEX Europe 2023 in Greece. This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by CEO Rick Calvert and , Palle Bo.
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041 – TBEX Asia with Scott Gurian and Maria Haase
01/18/2023
041 – TBEX Asia with Scott Gurian and Maria Haase
Welcome to Travel Matters, and the two interesting conversations with two unique content creators. This one was also recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand. Meet Scott Gurian from Far From Home Podcast and Maria Haase from . Scott mentioned his podcast where he met a in Peru and went to an ceremony. This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by CEO Rick Calvert and , Palle Bo.
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040 – TBEX Asia with Sharon Gourlay and Megan Singleton
01/11/2023
040 – TBEX Asia with Sharon Gourlay and Megan Singleton
Welcome to Travel Matters, and another episode recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand. Meet Australian Sharon Gourlay from . Sharon is an SEO expert and runs 15-20 sites, does training, and hosts the weekly podcast “”. Here she teaches you how to turn your blog into a business with sustainable passive income. Our second guest is a Kiwi. Megan Singleton from , has been travel writing full time since 2000 and blogging since 2006. She’s also also the travel correspondent on Newstalk ZB radio on Sundays and also love to host tours for her readers around New Zealand, her home country. Megan did a session with the simple title “Extraordinary Creative Collaboration Ideas for Content Creators and DMOs”, where she shared how to create and host tours for our readers. The session covered how to plan a tour, how to determine pricing, how to market it and most of all, how to make sure it’s fail safe in this post-Covid environment. This episode of Travel Matters is hosted by CEO Rick Calvert and , Palle Bo.
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039 – TBEX Asia with Kyle Jennermann aka “Kulas”
01/04/2023
039 – TBEX Asia with Kyle Jennermann aka “Kulas”
Welcome to Travel Matters and the first episode of 2023. This one was also recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand. Meet Kyle Jennermann, a Canadian national who found himself falling in love with the Philippines and its people. He calls himself “Kulas”, a nickname he was given several years ago by one of the people he met on one of his trips there. He decided to introduce the Philippines to the rest of the world in his YouTube channel, "”. And that is happening. Click and see an act from a senator, to grant him citizenship. Even though his channel has more than a million subscribers, and he’s able to live of it, he’s very modest and very sharing. Follow Kulas on , , , and soon also on . Finally, here is a link to the "" TV commercial we’re talking about. This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by CEO Rick Calvert and , Palle Bo. Happy New Year!
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038 – TBEX Asia with Trinity, The Naked Traveler
12/21/2022
038 – TBEX Asia with Trinity, The Naked Traveler
Welcome to the Christmas episode of Travel Matters, also recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand. In this one Tomiko is sitting in for Rick in the interview with Indonesian travel blogger and author Trinity Traveler aka “The Naked Traveler”. Trinity is Indonesia's leading travel writer, author of 15 best-selling books incl. The Naked Traveler series and a blogger since 2005. She’s had such an interesting life that her life story was turned into two . Not many of us can say that. You can also hear about Rick chasing his new Alaska dog in the rain and about him being afraid of being replaced on the podcast. Follow Trinity on and . This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by CEO Rick Calvert and , Palle Bo. Happy Christmas!
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037 – TBEX Asia with Conference Directors Shane Dallas and Anton Diaz
12/18/2022
037 – TBEX Asia with Conference Directors Shane Dallas and Anton Diaz
Time to kick off the episodes recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand. And we start with the men of the hour, Conference Directors Shane Dallas and Anton Diaz. Hear about the biggest TBEX of the year and what was so unique about it. You can also hear a bit about some of the upcoming guests. This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Asia in Phuket, Thailand, and hosted by CEO Rick Calvert and , Palle Bo.
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036 – TBEX Lafayette with The Cajun Traveler, Toby Doré and Nicole from Explore Houma
12/07/2022
036 – TBEX Lafayette with The Cajun Traveler, Toby Doré and Nicole from Explore Houma
In this episode, Rick speaks with travel blogger and Airbnb expert Toby Doré about connecting travel influencers to short-term rental hosts. His blog is , and he’s on Instagram as . We also meet Nicole from , Louisiana. Just 55 miles from New Orleans, Louisiana's Country contains over 2500 sq. miles of mysterious swamps and vast wetlands. This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Lafayette and hosted by CEO Rick Calvert.
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035 – TBEX Lafayette with Frederic Aouad, Stay22 and Allie Eggert, Visit Billings
12/01/2022
035 – TBEX Lafayette with Frederic Aouad, Stay22 and Allie Eggert, Visit Billings
In this episode, Rick speaks with Frederic Aouad from and Allie Eggert . If you’re interested in working with Visit Billings at . This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Lafayette and hosted by CEO Rick Calvert.
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034 – TBEX Lafayette with Shelia Scarborough from Tourism Currents and Dianne McNamara from Go RVing
11/23/2022
034 – TBEX Lafayette with Shelia Scarborough from Tourism Currents and Dianne McNamara from Go RVing
In this episode, Rick speaks with Shelia Scarborough from and Dianne McNamara from . If you’re a content creator and would like to work with Go RVing, you can reach out to This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Lafayette and hosted by CEO Rick Calvert and , Palle Bo.
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033 – TBEX Lafayette with Vivian TrovaTrip and Susan Melton from Janesville Wisconsin
11/15/2022
033 – TBEX Lafayette with Vivian TrovaTrip and Susan Melton from Janesville Wisconsin
In this episode, Rick speaks with Vivian and Susan Melton from . This episode of Travel Matters was recorded at TBEX Lafayette and hosted by CEO Rick Calvert and , Palle Bo.
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