New York is the Center of the Travel Universe Next Week

My annual pilgrimage down to the Big Apple starts next Wednesday when I hit the Moxy Hotel on Times Square. I’ll get there late and probably order Chinese again from a wonderfully exotic joint where no one speaks English. That’s the best.

Then on Thursday morning I’ll join about 300 other travel writers for IMM, a meet and greet session that lasts all day and will introduce me to dozens of CVBs and tourism officials from all over the place.  I am there to find new travel stories and also to connect with people who invite many of us on trips to visit their special places.

On Friday I’m in meetings most of the day with our favorite advertiser, Allianz, and then on Saturday, it’s time for the show. The New York Times Travel Show, which I have been a part of as a media sponsor and speaker for a dozen years, is the kick off to the travel year.

On Saturday I’m moving over to the second largest hotel in New York City, the classic Marriott Marquis on Times Square. This is right in the center of everything, and it will be fun to write a bit about the hotel for GoNOMAD’s Hotel section.

I have many memories of the early days of GoNOMAD when Kent St. John and Lisa St. John would join us every year to work in the travel show booth and attend the parties. We’d all stay for two or three nights at this same hotel.

Kent had a family connection that somehow got us rooms for the show at a pittance. We used to set up what we’d call our ‘office’ with our laptops and our wine bottles and it was always so much fun.  The Marquis will bring me back some fond memories.

I can’t wait to see dozens of my travel writer friends and meet new contacts from all over. Bring it on, it’s always so much fun to spend some quality time in the Big Apple.