How much time have you spent searching for the best travel reviews when planning a trip? Nothing ever seems to fit just right, no matter how far you look. That’s because chances are the reviews you’re reading are from someone with far different circumstances than you–a different travel style, different priorities, a different outlook on travel. Read on to learn how TravelSession.com solves this problem, giving you the best travel reviews matched to you.
Tony Jefferson is the owner and founder of TravelingSession.com, an online travel review platform that strives to help you pick better travel destinations. He is a 21-year Air Force veteran who loves to travel around the world. He used his IT background and love of travel to kick off his entrepreneurial journey.
Q1: What do you do for a living?
Owner and founder of TravelingSession.com
Q2: What is the name of your latest project? Tell us more about why you embarked on this project and how we can find the best travel reviews.
TravelingSession.com
We help people choose better travel destinations by using analytics to provide personalized travel ratings.
Q3: How does travel play a role in both your personal and professional choices?
I’ve lived in 3 countries outside of the US and visited 30. It was important to me to do something that incorporated travel and gave me the freedom to travel.
Q4: Do you believe travel provides a positive or negative effect on the world? How?
When you travel somewhere, it becomes a real place. It’s not an imaginary far-off land you only hear about in the news. That forces you to form a connection with that location, and empathy around the world is always positive.
Q5: What does responsible travel mean to you?
At a minimum, don’t do anything you wouldn’t do at home.
Q6: How would you differentiate between travel and tourism?
Travel is how you get there. Tourism is what you do once you get there.
Q7: What do you think is the biggest threat travel could pose on the world? How can that be mitigated?
Overtourism is a problem that we haven’t taken steps to address. Helping to solve the issue is one of the goals of the website. Search engines recommend destinations based on search volume. Social media recommends places based on engagement, good or bad. Both methods recommend a few places to a large number of people because the focus is on the destination. If you base travel ideas on the traveler and what they are looking for when they travel, then you can expand the list of recommended destinations.
Q8: How does education come into play in your life? Do you seek out learning opportunities while traveling?
I prefer experience over education. I think travel is more of an experience than education. Education would tell you that Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper. Experience would tell you that The Last Supper is a fresco mural painted on a castle wall in Milan.
Q9: What is your experience with alternative education (worldschooling, unschooling, etc.)?
Both of my daughters went to a Japanese preschool. My youngest was born in Japan, and my older daughter’s first language was Japanese. My wife and I don’t speak Japanese, so we didn’t realize she was talking until a teacher sent home a note saying how well she spoke the language. Come to find out that she could speak and understand both languages. However, she couldn’t comprehend that we couldn’t speak Japanese.
Q10: Eckhart Tolle said, “Awareness is the greatest agent for change.” In your opinion, how can education affect awareness? What is education lacking today?
Education seems to lack the ability to keep pace with technology. Technology is rapidly evolving, and we may need to change how we approach education. Awareness is realizing that some information that used to take years to learn is readily available via your phone.
Q11: How do you think travel and education can support each other?
Education should inspire travel.
Q12: Have you ever volunteered or supported a local cause or initiative while traveling?
I went to Thailand shortly after the tsunami in 2004 to support the recovery efforts. That was for work, but I took time for several volunteer opportunities there.
Q13: How do you support your local community?
Originally I had a job while I was working on the website. My position went away, so I decided to take time off to dedicate myself to the project. Shortly after that, the pandemic hit. Building a travel website when no one can travel is less than ideal. I had to decide whether to quit or step out on faith. I decided to gamble on myself.
Q14: What struggles have you run into along the way while accomplishing your goals? If you travel, how does that impact your goals?
I’ve learned that I don’t have to live up to anyone else’s vision of me. In life, sometimes, we have to act in a way to fit in. Whether to be the ideal employee, the perfect student, or whatever, it’s exhausting. I’ve learned to be unapologetically me, and life is better for it.
Q15: Aldous Huxley said, “I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.” How have you changed throughout your creative process? How do you improve yourself every day?
Learn to examine the facts and draw your own conclusions. A lot of people push their opinion as facts. In most cases, they are exerting their fears. And fear hates to be alone.
Q16: What one thing would you ask your audience to do to help inspire social change?
Be less tolerant of intolerance.
Q17: Maya Angelou said, ‘I did then what I knew how to do, but now that I know better, I do better.’ We are all flawed humans. Perhaps we haven’t made the most responsible choices in the past. Give us one suggestion on how we can travel responsibly and/or make a positive impact on the world around us.
Wherever you go in the world, take time to talk to the locals. When you travel, it’s easy to stay near your hotel, stick to your tour group, and do all the touristy things. But to get to know a place, you need to talk to the people there. You may not speak the language, and the conversation may not be smooth. You might have to break out your phone to help translate. But this is how you make a meaningful connection to the places you visit.
Q18: Challenge readers and listeners with action steps to increase engagement with identifying hashtag and @mention.
Outside of the Traveling Session, I love to see all things travel. Feel free to tag us on social media @travelingsession (Twitter @travel_session) or use our hashtag #travelingsession.
Q19: How can we connect with you?
https://www.facebook.com/travelingsession/
https://www.instagram.com/travelingsession/
https://twitter.com/Travel_Session
https://www.pinterest.com/travelingsession/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/travelingsession/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5a7TvmGUDjQ9KmBrzFm2_Q
Final Words
You can also check out Tony’s video interview to learn more about his best travel reviews by clicking here.
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