Travel And Adventure Show Comes To San Diego

This is KPBS Midday Edition and I am Maureen Cavanaugh. It's never too early to start thinking about your vacation. Especially when it feels like summer already. The usual vacation plan may make a great getaway but what about an adventure? An event this weekend aims at expanding your horizons -- the second annual San Diego Travel and Adventure and it features some of the big names in travel as well as tips from the experts. Joining me for more on the show are my guests John [last name indiscernible], the CEO of Unicom creator of the show. Welcome to the program. Figure for having us. Wayne Dunlap is a travel expert and speaker at the tradeshow and the book is called plan your escape -- the secrets of traveling the world for less than the cost of living at home. Welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. To the one more from their travel experience than ever before? It's funny you say that. It will ask me what I do and I say I run these travel shows around the country and they say they what would you do that? I say do you remember your last vacation? You'd be surprised how many cannot give you the answer -- years ago we did something. We believe every single trip should be all about making experiential memories for you and your family. That is what this show was about. We have in San Diego over 1100 experts from around the planet that if a clone and they are coming in today to set up and tomorrow and they are going to be a few dozen people from San Diego maybe five or 10,000 people and talk about one-on-one -- word you want to go and how to get there and what is the best time to go -- the local knowledge. This is exciting. Is there a particular kind of traveler that the travel show is geared toward? Is geared toward all travelers. We have all age groups. The demographic is a funny thing -- 60% of the women make decisions for the family for travel. We skew a little bit more towards women in the audience but the men are there, too. It is what we call travel enthusiast. If you are into culture, if you are into the seeing the world and the nature of adventure and even just traditional travel -- it's all there for you. At all price points and that's the wonderful thing. People wonder if they can afford these trips. There are all kinds of places of the world you can go from here in the US to internationally. We were just talking about this. You can do this affordably. That's the key -- pick the budget and pick what your dreams are and follow them and make it happen. Wayne, you have a great story about becoming a world traveler. What decisions did you make about traveling? It was pretty amazing. We sold our business. I told my wife -- before we start our new career let's take off three months ago see these wonderful places. We only have week vacations like most Americans. We had a list. She came back a couple of days later and said why don't we just went our home and travel the world for a year? She jumpstarted me on this. Maybe former economics professor so I went to the office and filtered out a new way to travel so we can stay out for a year not break the bank. What did you do? We had a handful of ideas. We're speaking about this and Johnson show. One thing that we tell people is -- rent out your home. Your home is a great source of revenue. Instead of having all of the cost and mortgages and maintenance and property tax, have it paid for and have a little positive cash flow. We also tell people that we get used to going on summer vacations. That is when it is the most expensive and most crowded in the hottest weather. If you go slightly off in spring and fall you will find much less crowds and better pricing. John, when people travel to different areas often they don't just wanted to go sightseeing. What kind of travel activities are on display at the travel show? The great thing about the show is that we have things going on. We are all about getting you into used about going on your next trip. We have activities as you mentioned a rock wall to climb. A scuba. If you've never tried this before anyone 10 years old and up can come in. There are 5 to several out that you. Bring a towel. People have towels and hairdryers. Go in the pool and they will take you under water and learn how to breathe and see how relaxed you can be for your first time. Segues -- we heard about them and seen them in. People movers, yes. Segues are great way to get acclimated to the city. Often times they are led by a tour. You could come to San Diego if you are a visitor here and company said wait for a couple of hours and they will take you around and show your site sensually Elana Lannon they you will figure out where to go back on your own and it is great fun for the family. A lot of this is to get you involved and maybe you want to take a seminar session. For example we have a great taste of travel with chefs from domestic and international it come and show you chefs table -- how to cook, taste, what the history is of the meal. Doesn't like to mix food and travel? Despite troubles in recent years with cruises and people getting sick and so forth, are cruises popular? They are. They are back up to the traditional high levels. It is a very affordable way to see the world. Or just relax if you want on a getaway vacation. What is red hot right now Europe if you haven't gone to your for you've been waiting to go, honey 15 is the time to go. The value of the euro is down so it's almost 121 I think 1.114. More importantly the river cruising is red hot right now. Warships are being introduced and new rivers being explored. It is a smaller ship experience with larger rooms. You have a few every second of the day. Wayne, you've gone on more than two dozen cruises. Yes, we are up to 32. What tips would you give to people that want to enjoy your cruise? First, we talked a lot about affordability. If you can afford something to the travel more. There are discounted websites -- the one we use is called vacations to go. We get the troops and cruises for half the price. The cruise industry knows that certain weeks of the year never sell out so they put them out there is a discount. If you know that you can pick the date and have a wonderful it's. Santa Cruz. That's one thing that we recommend. Wayne, there are people that say they don't like to travel. It may be that they are just doing it wrong. How would you advise someone who is just beginning to travel -- where should they go and how should they go there? That is one of the top questions we were asked what we were traveling. Within two 100 countries so it's out of control. The first thing you need to do is sit down with a travel partner and get a commonality of what you want to do. One may want to sit on the beach and they want to relax. I love museums and exploring. If you can combine a trip that has both and satisfies the needs of both partners you are off and running. Also I think for people starting out -- Guided tours. Guided tours are wonderful. They do the planning for you. The show coming up this weekend has 150 exhibitors showing wonderful trips from all around the world -- I highly recommend that people check this out. Later on what to get a little more experienced with traveling at a little bit of independent travel. Get used to doing some dependent travel. If you are comfortable with that the next trip maybe a little more independent. You have a tip for the seasoned traveler called it's called follow the disaster. Can you tell us about that? It does take some explain. I coined the phrase. This is about a way to travel for about half the cost of everyone else. We went to China -- remember the mask -- we went belly up to the bawling -- the bombing. We went to Greece after the demonstrations in Athens. This is a perfect example. Following the disaster. The demonstrations in Athens were on the streets. The Greek islands had no issues. All around the world people canceled their trips during the time of years ago we were traveling through the Greek Isles walking up to the hotels that normally you would need an advance reservation and we were getting $50 a night rooms with breakfast for two. It is a win win. Following disasters is not taken advantage of anyone. They make their living by tourism and with something happens in their country and the tourism drops off the families are in trouble. They are providing revenue and things like that so you get a better deal and they get the business and it is a win-win. We're looking at a number of areas for 2015 to follow the disaster that may be appropriate. We're looking at Africa. We're going to watch it carefully. Because of the Ebola crisis? West Africa -- we are going to the south -- Tanzania and Zambia and over to South Africa and men -- [indiscernible]. They probably had as many Ebola cases of the US. Now it is over. We will see if this works. We will follow that carefully in the fall. Some will have other areas -- the concerns about Mexico. The San Diego and Mexican Riviera cruises are not selling. They moved ships up to Alaska. Last year to get on an Alaskan cruise five store for $300 per person for a week. We think that this year we are saying about $500 now but give it a few months and it might drop down to 400. If you carefully plan or you can go and follow the disaster can save you money. John, in addition to Wayne and what is apparently a host of information you've got a roster of travel experts that will be speaking at the show. Tell us about a few. We do. That is where the show gets exciting for people. They should go to the website at travel show is where the show gets exciting for people. They should go to the website@travelshow.com and check out the schedule. You need a plan. You need to plan your trip in your vacation separately. You may want to vacation to just unwind and relax and maybe that is on the sand for somebody or skiing. Simple as that. Or the wanderlust -- you want to get culture really excited. You should have multiyear plans. This is a wonderful way to see some of Europe little at a time and plan when you want to go back. At our hand we have stages. We have the travel channel theater celebrity speakers. We will have Rick Steve's coming to the San Diego convention Center. By watching him -- people know him. He gets thousands of people there. Come early for him. Phil Cogan from amazing race he is a dead manic -- dynamic talker. Pauline from the travel guides and a host of others. This is where you get inspired. Then we have the destination theater -- 35 or 40 minute workshop support tourism boards and were as per export destinations. Maybe you have an African Safari on your list and you don't know how to get started. There's a 40 minute session for someone that is an expert that will teach you this. Maybe you want to go to Tahiti. The host of KPBS crossing south is also a part of that. Absolutely, yes. Amongst many others. It is a great way -- you have all of these seminars which is free with admission then you take the information you were armed with an walk out on the show floor and there are 150 exhibitors with 1000 experts from around the world. They talk to you one on one. That is where it is different. I always ask people -- did you see a bad picture of a hotel or a tour our destination on the Internet? I haven't. I've taken one of those and looked at the beach and said it is a garbage dump. Who knew. These people know. You can do one-on-one in the authentic information you get will be different than anywhere else. It's like a giving -- living book right here in San Diego. Let me ask you now that the economy is rebounding do you see people looking for -- I won't ask Wayne because he can do it even when the economy is bad -- [laughter] Give very much. Al ask John -- now that it is rebounding to see people looking toward longer travel? A mix. It's what I'm trying to get at. Most people take multiple trips multiple vacations for different reasons every year. You may just want to go to Paul's brings -- palm springs or Arizona or taking small ship cruise in Alaska that is a different trip then Thailand. You can go to Thailand to -- it is a longer flight the state is reasonable. Meals and a great restaurant can be 10 or $15 for a three course meal. Hotel rooms are a lot cheaper. You can make it work on a budget. I don't pick it is so much -- our shows -- 20 to 30%. Even when the economy was a rebounding. People have a desire for a lifestyle. The travel is inclusive of this. They are willing to change with a spend money to make it happen. So, if you plan and take the time to research like we do here at the show you will find that you can include increased travel without having to break the bank and the answer is travel is an historic high. If you look back 10 years ago from the left position when it took a big dip it as well exceeded that now and it is growing 6% a year worldwide. So, you can see a lot of great places right now and as Wayne said look to the places struggling. Europe's economy is down and that is a boon for us because hotels are open and restaurants are open and you can see it for the first time without crowds. More tips available at the San Diego Travel and Adventure at the San Diego Convention Ctr., Saturday and Sunday. I've been speaking with John coalition with San Diego Travel and Adventure and travel expert Wayne Dunlap. Thank you.