My Tribe of Travel Professionals Provides Needed Sustenance

After a long day that just ended at 8:45 pm, my head is full to bursting with so many interesting conversations after meetings with 35 tourism board representatives and dozens of fellow travel writers here at Canada Media Market in San Francisco.

Of all the places I learned about today, the one that stuck out and the one I most want to visit is Revelstoke, British Columbia. This small town of 7,500 in the mountains of this beautiful province sounds a bit like Bend Oregon. As Thom Tischik, the town’s marketing manager put it, it’s a town where people are confident, smart and ready to make a go on their own. They open businesses and on “pow days” (days with great snow), they close their businesses to go skiing. The people in Revelstoke, I was told, love living in their somewhat remote paradise, and have their priorities straight. I can’t wait to get out there and see what this town is all about.

I am thinking back on some of the people I just hung out with at the after party: An actress named Juliana Dever who has had a regular role on the ABC TV show, Castle who studied travel writing in Paris;  a travel writing teacher and book editor named Lavinia Spalding who is moving to New Orleans and spending her summers on Cape Cod, my travel and business buddy Tim Leffel, and the SF Chronicle Travel Editor Spud Hilton. I also met a PBS TV show host named Colleen Kelly and an interesting guy who used to work for Apple whose company wrote a messaging cellphone app called Cola. And old pal Johnny Jet with his wife (and new green card holder) Natalie.

Each of these people shared their stories with me and had much to teach me…another reason why getting out into the world and mixing with my tribe of travel professionals never gets old and each time, rejuvenates and brings me back to full steam. I needed this!