The TravelPulse Podcast: Tune In!

I normally tie my column each month to the theme of the particular issue, but in this edition of Vacation Agent, I’ve decided to give you some insight into our latest venture: the TravelPulse Podcast.

Every week I’ll be covering a variety of topics that directly impact travel, as well as those that intersect with it, such as politics, finance and ridiculous travel-related media coverage.

Since travel touches so many aspects of our lives—our local economy, our families and the world at large—I decided that a broader approach to the topic was the way to go. Offering an insider perspective that we can share with travelers is also a key goal each week, as the general news outlets can hardly be counted on to provide any reasonable assessment of travel events. Coverage seems to be primarily focused on only one thing these days: how to sensationalize a story that would have been a single paragraph in daily newspapers of yesteryear.

If you listened to our first podcast, you would have also heard me call out the social media naysayers who sling mud from behind anonymous profiles. Any travel business on Yelp, TripAdvisor and other review sites has had this experience. Some people feel emboldened to say and do things that they would never consider if they had to post under their real names. Heck, you don’t have to own a business to see some of that vitriol every day on Facebook.

Instead of simply ignoring the mudslinging, push back with humor. Push back with facts. That’s how we responded to some negative posts regarding a TV segment I had appeared on in early July. My heinous crime, according to these posters (and several trolls), was to mention Airbnb as an option for travelers on three-day trips to Toronto. Hysteria ensued from two individuals, spurring my desire to feature them in my first podcast.

If you want to hear my take on that incident and a few other musings, tune in. You can subscribe to the podcast, “TravelPulse: The Intersection of Travel—Where Politics, Finance, and Travel Meet,” at Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn and Stitcher.