Introduce yourself to the community — 👋 A discussion thread to introduce yourself

We've had a lot of new members join in recent months, so we're starting this thread to introduce ourselves!

🌍 Where in the world are you located?
💻 What do you do for a living?
🌴 What kind of travel do you want to learn more about?

Hi, Im Gwen! Im a South African from JHB living in the UK
I am Marketing Manager at Virtually Visiting and run a Marketing and Advertising company with many clients in the Travel sector.
I am keen to learn more about travel that empowers locals! Virtual Travel is of course an interest too

Hey everyone!

🌍 I'm based in Tasmania for the past 2 years.

💻 I helped create Travel Massive alongside hundreds of fellow travel addicts in cities around the world. I'm a software developer and help maintain the Travel Massive platform (that you're using right now) and work with @maria-stoyanova on growing and keeping this amazing community running.

🌴 I'm always interested in African destinations and hope to visit this year!

Hello,

It's a pleasure to e-connect with you all!

🌍 I'm based in Germany.

💻 I work as a Media & Communications Manager at DENEB (www.denebstories.com), a travel and event design agency at the intersection of adventure, culture, and wellness tourism.

🌴 Being a passionate cyclist and loving to spend time in deep nature, I'd love to learn more about interesting biking and hiking tours in Europe.

Здравейте!
Hello everyone.

🌍 I'm based in Bansko, Bulgaria - a huge digital nomad hub with 100+ remote workers from all over the world.

I've travelled a lot in the years before the pandemic but I'm happy to stay put in one place now and call Bansko my home. Does somebody else feel the same?

💻 I'm help with content and community management on Travel Massive, and I love it!

I'm also a travel blogger at www.travellingbuzz.com

I help with the PR & Media for Bansko Nomad Fest 2022 - a digital nomad conference where 500+ nomads will meet up for a week in Bansko this June/July (www.banskonomadfest.com)

I have a PhD in Tourism Economics and I love learning everything about our industry and meeting people working in travel which is why Travel Massive is the best place for me.

🌴 I'm really into snowboarding in the past 2 years so I'd love to learn more about action sports and adventure travel - I love what www.radseason.com are doing! Anyone else into snowboarding or other action sports?

Hi everyone, I'm Anne (she/her) 👋

🌍 I'm currently located in Victoria, BC though heading back to Mexico soon, where I spent most of the pandemic. Then France for the summer where my partner and I have a house sit lined up. Pre-pandemic we travelled full time, so any base is temporary, really.

💻 My partner and I run a marketing consultancy working in SEO, SEM and paid social.

🌴 For me, so much of travel is planned around food and culture. I'm always keen to hear about unique local dishes, festivals, galleries, and so on.

I'm also very happy to be outdoors and love hearing about great hikes. As an avid paddleboarder, I'm also in the early stages of planning an summer river SUP trip. 🤞

Greetings to everyone from Athens, Greece. I'm Maria and I am a travel writer and content creator. I run thegreekvibe.com - my own blog dedicated to Greece travel, culture and heritage. I also write about travel and tourism daily for GTPHeadlines, a local news site, and about interesting travel tales for the likes of Fodor's and other publications.
I really appreciate Travel Massive because it keeps you in touch with the people of travel, the trends and the news.
The pandemic really took a toll on travel writers - all of a sudden we were stuck at home. But as always, changing times call for changing ideas... so I explored not only Athens but I also did some 'traveling' inside. Welcome to all and let's hope for better easier days.

Hi! I'm Ayshwarya (Call me Ash, if you find too many syllables in my name!)

🌍 Currently, I live in Mumbai, India — my hometown. Before the pandemic, I lived in Florianopolis, Brazil and kept traveling through southern South America — mostly Argentina and Uruguay.

💻 I simplify tech jargon to help tech companies build a strong digital presence. I also translate digital content (Portuguese - English & Spanish - English).

🌴 I want to understand how travel has changed since the pandemic, and how to get back on the road (back to my nomadic lifestyle) in a super uncertain world of health emergencies and wars. I'm a slow traveler and I love exploring new cultures, meeting new people, but in a world where things could change any moment, I don't feel confident or well-equipped to travel the way I used to.

Destinations I'm looking at: Northern and eastern Europe & the Pacific islands

Super happy to be here and see so many interesting posts + projects (Airheart being my most recent discovery — love it!)

Hi everyone! It's so lovely to meet y'all

🌎 I'm from Seattle in the US but I'm a full-time digital nomad, traveling for the last 5ish years. Currently in South America this year, in Chile this month

💻I've worked in the travel industry for the last 5+ years. Currently a lifecycle marketing manager at Lonely Planet. My expertise is in email marketing and newsletters. As employee #7 at Scott's Cheap Flights, I grew their email list from 200K to 2M+ subscribers.
For fun, I have my own newsletter where I help novice travelers learn how to travel better. I also love craft beer, hiking, dancing and great food!

🌴 I'm currently diving into learning more about beginner travelers, the average person on holiday, and travel trends

Let's connect! Cheers!

Hi, I'm Audrey!

🌍 I'm based in London since 2019, was in Leeds before (since 2017), and before that in Los Angeles, and originally I was born in Paris and grew up in Normandy.

💻 I'm a Content Manager at Otolo - we're building the LinkedIn of Hospitality with mentoring and courses, to help reboot the industry! We offer free courses - rebrand.ly/Join-L2-Course - and we won a £3.8m two-year programme to help companies with staff recruitment and retention challenges.

I've been working in digital for a few years, with expertise in copywriting, SEO, PR, social media and translation.

I've graduated with a Master's in Travel Marketing and my first job was in a Virtuoso agency in L.A. I then moved to the U.K. to learn all things digital - which has been my job for the past five years.

I've worked in travel companies, edtech, growth, media, tech, sustainability and now I'm super happy to be back in the hospitality world!

During the pandemic, I survived thanks to freelance, so I kept on achieving content missions while drawing illustrations for people, magazines, etc. I'm also a runner and a cartoonist in my free time, blogging about French and English idioms: dedexpressions.com

🌴 Anything related to travel and tech will catch my eye. Tech is powerful and helps build great travel experiences, with little effort. I'd like to learn more about AI and data in travel, specifically.

🌍 I'm partly based in Denmark, but on the move most of the year, both for work and fun. I have lived nomadic for more than 30 years and is only in Denmark right now, due to my fathers declining health.

💻 I'm a freelance tour leader, Taking tour groups around the world. I'm a keen hiker and tour cyclist, so quite a few of the trips I do for work is with hiking or cycling groups.
I have worked in 40 countries over the years, on 5 continents.
Portugal is the country where I have worked the most, having been there more than 100 times over the years.
On top of my tour leading I also have a little side income from public speaking and from my blog.

🌴 I'm a keen hiker and tour cyclist. Always looking for new destinations. But also returning to places that I have fallen in love with. I much prefer to travel with my bicycle, as I avoid the hustlers at train and bus stations that way. And moving around 100 kilometers a day, while getting fit suits my temper.

I'm quite extroverted and love to connect with people from all over the world and potentially meet up, as we move around the globe.

Hello everyone!

🌍 I'm from Sao Paulo, Brazil. I can say that I am based in Santo André city but I'm often traveling, right now I am writing from Itacaré, Bahia.

💻 I am a travel blogger and writer focused on Responsible Travel. I started Live More, Travel More back in 2014 but it has been 4 years since this became my full time job. My purpose of life is to encourage people to value more their life experiences, after all, living is very different from surviving, don't you think?
I am also a freelance writer for Skyscanner Brazil =)

🌴 I would love to see more responsible tourism initiatives from people, businesses and destinations around the globe.

Hi!

The names Emmanuel or Eman for short, Born and raised in Ohio but am currently living and working in Provincetown Massachusetts, I was wondering if anyone could help me get into the business of Travel writing as a complete beginner? What skills are required in order to make this dream happen, is it doable or fantasy to be able to make a full-time income writing and traveling to exotic places, let me know! Am open to learning a new life-changing skill but don't know how to start.

🌍 Hi all, Shelly here—an American living in Helsinki, Finland.
💻 I am head of editorial for Vacayou Wellness Travel—a booking platform and community for wellness travel.
🌴 I created a life where I can work from anywhere and everywhere. On my travel bucket list is Asia—Vietnam and Cambodia.

Hi everyone,

My name is Bertie.

🌍 I am based in Yangon, Myanmar. I have been here fore the last 7 years. Hoping to spend more time up in the hills on Shan State in the future, perhaps Kalaw.

💻 I am the CEO of Sampan Travel. We - in more normal times - create tailor-made journeys through Myanmar. We have hosted some virtual tours since the start of COVID. We are looking to do more of these in the future.

🌴 I am interested to learn more about `positive impact` travel. Many of us may wish to conduct responsible travel, and many of us do. But how do we measure the impact of that travel on host communities?

Looking forward to spending more time on Travel Massive in the future.

Hi everyone,
This is Miller from Shanghai, China :)

Me and My wife Mariane (from France) spent most of our time the last 8 years built the outdoor traveling community & agency M2adventure to help expats in China to discover hidden places and explore this beautiful nation in a unique way.
We are also trying to apply sustainable traveling practice to our trips by benefiting the local community and reducing negative environment impact brought by the tourists.

We are specialising hiking trips around Shanghai, and Tibet, Xinjiang, inner Mongolia trips! Nowadays, we also do tailor made personalized bespoke trips.
The last 2 years pandemic has brought many challenges to us, and hopefully we will be able to travel internationally relatively soon if not the immediate near future ;P

So looking forward to make more connections and friends through Travel Massive, would love to learn more from ppl who have different experiences and expertise in traveling industry.

I'm glad to be here!

🌍 Southern New Jersey (just outside of Philadelphia).
💻 Digital Marketing Manager by day, food/travel blogger/writer by night. (phillygrub.blog and phillygrubtrips.wordpress.com)
🌴 Food travel (traveling to destinations specifically for food).

Hello!

🌎 I’m Catherine from London
💻 I blog about arts, culture and travel at Catherine’s Cultural Wednesdays. My children have just headed off to university somI’m pivoting from travel with teens to empty nest travel. www.culturalwednesday.co.uk
🏰 Always love to hear about great art and architecture, love a UNESCO site and really like bike rides and hikes that are for pleasure rather than endurance

Hey everyone! Or we'd say "Wah Gwaan?" in my country's local dialect.
🌍 I'm in Kingston, Jamaica
💻 By day I work in Development Projects, by night, I'm planning/dreaming about my next trip! I'm a self-certified staycationer and I've started documenting my trips at www.maddaboutjamaica.com
🌴 I'm definitely interested in sustainable/eco tourism and what impact that's really having on the global landscape.

Hey everyone!

🌍 I'm based in London, UK.

💻 I moved from the familiarity of the legal world to fulfil a dream - combining my passions of travel & tech. I’m co-founder of TripMapper, a new travel planning & budgeting platform. TripMapper is a bootstrapped start-up (co-founded with my husband) so it was a huge leap of faith, but I'm absolutely loving it!

🌴 Like many of you, which is super to read, I too am interested to learn more about travelling responsibly, both personally and as a business owner.

Next trip: Hitting the road tomorrow to spend a week exploring the breathtakingly beautiful Scottish Highlands 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. Hiking boots and camera at the ready!

It is great to be part of the Travel Massive community – thanks for having me!

Hi! I am Parampara, an Indian girl in Vienna, Austria. I've been blogging about my travels on my blog (awaradiaries.com) for the last 6 years. Have also been experimenting with video content (youtube.com/WorldCultureNetwork)
I am a Digital Marketer & Content Writer by profession, hoping to turn into a full time blogger this year.
I am currently pursuing my MSc in Sustainable Development, Management and Policy. And I hope to shift my travel focus to more sustainable and slow travel driven by learning experiences, local flavors and cultural nuances. I'd love to meet like minded people, collaborate and explore newer horizons through travel, blogging and experiences.

Hola! I'm Dan Nevill -- an avid adventurist currently roaming the U.S. west coast in a camper. I've been in the travel industry for over 30+ years and hope to rejoin soon in a role that connects my love of the outdoors with Sales and Marketing. I believe in doing all we can to prevent the earth from crossing the line in the sand re warming. Follow me on Instagram @lamblukas

Hi I'm Fuad Peters, community leader for Cape Town Travel Massive, located in Hout Bay, Cape Town, South Africa.

I own and run I AM CAPE TOWN (www.iamcapetown.co.za)

I am a freelance consultant doing tourism development and marketing and I also manage social media channels on behalf of businesses example Chapman's Peak Drive (www.chapmanspeakdrive.co.za) in my hometown as an iconic attraction and experience that just turned 100 years old and then also Karbonkelberg Tourism (www.karbonkelbergtourism.co.za) that is expanding their hiking business into an adventure business.

A lot of what I do stems back to responsible and sustainable travel and especially after the craziness the world has gone through it was a need to see our impact on the world and make it more manageable in terms of finding the kind of info and data we need to see how we can be more impactful in a responsible way. I also have the interest to develop myself and my business more from a digital perspective.

Hello everyone,

Good to e-meet you!

I'm Jonathan, of the food site findingfoodfluency.com and travel news and attractions site noworkandalltravel.wordpress.com. I've also gotten into making food videos on YouTube, albeit years too late: www.youtube.com/channel/UC-4mIJ9aFl1v-Vm_HeCSVdA.

Having been a serial expat (originally from the U.S.), I'm looking again to stay abroad long-term, preferably in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Eastern Europe, or East Asia.

If you ever have questions about expat life, or planning food-focused trips to the above regions or the U.S., or need some basic lessons in Spanish, Indonesian, Chinese, and Japanese, let's try to work something out!

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi, I am Charles Shima

I am located in Vancouver, Canada and Kigali, Rwanda (zaniheza.com)
I am the Founder/CEO/Chief Storyteller of @ZaNiheza - a digital mall for an immersive experience.
In 2018, I made a decision to visit Rwanda where I grew up. I left in 1994 during the Genocide Against The Tutsi. Before my trip, I searched online for local and immersive experiences similar to what you will find on platforms like GetYourGuide. Well, I had challenges find them. Yet, when I landed in Rwanda, I connected with a local who showed around. When I returned to Canada, I did my research and ZaNiheza was born.
You can read more : www.phocuswire.com/chasing-dream-digitalize-immersive-travel-in-Africa

Our aim is to digitize travel experiences in Africa and Latin America. The two continents share some similiarities due to the infusion of African cultures. For example in Brazil!

ZaNiheza was launched shortly in 2020! We are bootstrapped, and it looks like we have survived the pandemic.

I am interested in learning about loca and cultural experiences.

If you read this! please upvote for ZaNiheza. I am greateful.

Hi everyone 😊

My name is Nick Schooling. Co-founder of Local Knowledge - Authentic, personalised travel recommendations curated by local experts 🤙🏻

I'm urrently based in Cape Town, South Africa but have been a digital nomad for the past 5 years. As you can imagine from my job title, I am on a mission to empower the next gen to travel more authentically & sustainably 😁

Hoping to connect with other, like-minded innovators in this space 🙌🏻
Cheers for now

Good Morning,

🌍 I'm Michael Duffield - I'm from the middle - but reside in the neon desert that is Las Vegas, Nevada.
💻 I am Public Relations Manager for Meow Wolf's Omega Mart. I love sharing our worlds with curious explorers.
🌴 I'm a big fan of regional exploration and, as a new desert dweller, am also uncovering just the neatest things here that many never see. I love exploring vicariously via "Duluth in 24 hrs." or "What to do with a week in T.O." kind of travelogues.

Have an Ω day.

Hi,
🌍 I'm Mahesh based in Atlanta, US. It's great to see so many travel enthusiasts within this community.
💻 I provide revenue growth and strategy related services to startups in the travel and hospitality industry. I have helped airlines, car rental companies, OTAs, hotels and vacation rental companies with competitive pricing and revenue management applications.
🌴 I have traveled to several countries in Europe, Asia, ME and Americas. Still there are many more places where I would like to go. So, any information that helps with travel and experiences is helpful.

Hi everyone, thanks TM team for starting a 'connection' thread! :)

🌍I'm Sarah (@sarahblinco) and my partner Cooper & I publish the Travel Live Learn site + YouTube channel. We got locked into Australia when COVID hit - we had been based in London and travelling all the time. While we did make the most of our time in Australia, we are excited to be finally back 'out in the world'. Can't wait to be heading off to TBEX in May!

👩🏼‍💻We're remote working, based in England again. On top of our blog and vids in the travel world, I also manage comms in the healthcare space.

🌴Top of mind for us of late, has been navigating the freedom as well as some of the challenges that come with a remote work lifestyle. 'Connection' is one of those - we are sort of starting again building our relationships with like-minded friends in the northern hemisphere. Happy to have found the Travel Massive community again.

Have a great day / weekend!

Hello! I'm Lily. I'm still learning how to use the platform. I joined to get help for my travel app.

Nice to meet you all.

Hello there, fellow travelers!

🌎 I'm Brooke, and I am based in the Grand Canyon State of Arizona🌵.
💻 I'm a Certified YouTube Creator and Verified Instagram influencer. I also run a blog, but visual storytelling is my jam. My husband is a Major Airline Captain, FAA Drone Pilot, and Retired Fighter Pilot, and as a family, we offer safe and reliable destination advice from a pilot's unique perspective.

Interesting fact: We started documenting our travels during the pandemic to promote travel destinations and keep the love of travel alive in everyone's hearts.

🌴 I would love to learn more about travel conventions, conferences, and engaging international travel destinations.

Hi amazing ppl! I am Chris - a nomad/traveler for 10+ years now basing between Barcelona and Tuscany. We also create adventures & trips for founders! 🏝️🛩️😎

Hi, I'm Bekah!

I relocated from New Zealand to the UK three months ago - based in London.

I've been recruited to the World Nomads Travel Insurance Team in the B2B/Partnerships space. My background has been in the health insurance space to date, so still currently getting to grips with the travel sector and establishing my network. :)

I am keen to get involved in networking events that involve Travel Businesses and Bloggers to further understand the industry and meet new people.

Look forward to seeing you at upcoming events!

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rebekah-blair-776aa6120

Hi everyone,

I'm somewhat nomadic spending time chasing the sun between Europe and Australia.

I'm a transformational sabbatical, career break and leadership coach. I'm an ocean loving, yoga practicing, story seeking, cocktail drinking, regenerative tourism advocate, who lives for tasty food and beautiful places all with the people she loves. I believes it’s all possible once we find balance!

Always interested in anything regenerative / responsible travel and especially around minimising Tourism Leakage. My blog educating on this is communitybackpocket.com

I also run free monthly connection circles for those who are currently on sabbatical, taking a career break, travelling, digital nomads looking for connection or anyone simply looking to share stories and enjoy travel from their front room.

Drop your email below if you’re interested in joining 💙

Hi everyone, I’m Marta

🌍 I’m from Angola a country at the Southern Africa.
💻 I’m an independent local guide, I have been guiding in this area for almost 11 years, so I know very well about Angola. A proud African girl - friendly, full of knowledge, a sense of humor, and I am ready to guide and satisfy your desire to visit Angola. I conduct day city tours, cultural tours, historical tours, business tours, group and individual tour. I have been also working for travel companies such as penguin travel. All tourism services please don’t hesitate to contact me.
The important thing to know is that guiding is my passion, my life, and my livelihood! I enjoy working and meeting people from all over the world offering them authentic travel experiences, showing them my country- all the major attractive places here, be it cultural or historical.
When I’m not guiding I work as a teacher.

🌴I’d like to learn more about sustainable travel. I’m also interested finding out what travelers want to experience when they travel to a certain place.

Wishing you a prosperous and successful 2024.

➡Abdul here, based in England.

➡I help companies scale up through events and podcasts. I am actually looking to restart an old project. Would be interested in sponsoring a podcast? Check out our work on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@marketingmentorfortravelpr9115
🎙️ With a dedicated audience seeking travel experiences, partnering with us means reaching a niche market of passionate travellers. 🌍🕌🤝 #HalalTravel

➡Interests: Chain of hotels, Airlines search businesses and every company which has regular offers on flights and hotels.

Hi everyone,

My name is Emily and I have been on this platform for a while but somehow have only just seen this discussion topic!

I'm based in Perth, Western Australia. For the last 17 years, I have worked full time as a freelance translator (which has included a lot of travel-related texts and published books) but, over the last year, have also started diversifying into travel & lifestyle writing, blogging and content creation.

I launched my blog (homeintheworld.net) about a year ago, and I endeavour to update it as often as possible with content from my travels, my local region and lifestyle-related articles such as book reviews. I also post to its associated Instagram account almost every day. I'm still learning a lot about blogging, content creation and travel writing, but those are 3 areas I am definitely very keen to explore more and hopefully eventually have some opportunities to work in.

I am interested in all destinations anywhere in the world - with a particular focus on cities, culture and hotels, but also enjoy nature-based travel and mindfulness/wellness. Keen to connect with fellow travel enthusiasts and anyone working in travel PR, blogging, writing or content creation, as I am always open to opportunities for learning and/or collaboration.