Thanks for joining me! It seems quite a bit of people would be interested in reading a blog regarding my travels and job. For this first post I will keep it simple with a little bit about myself and answer the main questions I've been getting.
Who am I and what do I do? My name is Tori and I work as a tour consultant for a tour operator called A&S Signature Journeys. We are based out of the U.S doing outbound travel to exotic destinations such as Africa, Asia, South and Central America, and the Middle East. So pretty much we do everywhere "not mainstream" (Caribbean & Europe - sorry everyone who wanted me to book their spring break cruise or Mexico trips!). I work directly with suppliers in respective countries to book everything a person will need to have the trip of a lifetime, from hotels, to transfers, meals, excursions, flights, etc.
Where have I been? Over the past 2 years (I started traveling internationally in 2016) I have been to 11 different countries including: Mexico & Cozumel, Cyprus, India, Dubai (UAE), Argentina, Chile, London, Thailand, Taiwan, Nicaragua, and South Africa. They have been a mix of personal/leisure and work trips. I also spent 5 months living in Orlando working at Walt Disney World.
How do I afford to travel? Ah, the burning question! Some of my travels have been through work on what we call a FAM trip, this is a sponsored trip by a countries tourism board that allows agents to experience the country to gain more detailed knowledge of the region on a complimentary or discounted basis. While these trips seem (and look) like all fun and games from photos or videos, it can be exhausting and very busy. These trips include a lot of networking, hotel inspections, and meetings. On a typical trip or vacation, you'd likely do a tour and then have the rest of the day at leisure. For us, our spare time is spent inspecting loads of hotels or meeting with tourism board representatives to talk about a range of different things to get more people to travel to the region. For most people, it can take years of hard work at a company to be able to go on these trips. For me, I got lucky. I am blessed with my opportunities and work my butt off to be able to experience the world in such a unique way. Nothing good is easy and will be given to just anyone. You have to work hard, be good at what you do, and never give up to be able to get what you want out of life.
For travels that have been personal on my own, save save save! Easier said than done, of course. I worked 2 jobs for a very long time, the first being at the travel agency and I also bartended. I saved all of my cash tips and put them into a separate account, and had those bartending paychecks put into the travel bank account as well. The money from bartending is what I use for my leisure travels (or spending money while I'm away). I also try to budget but lets be honest, no one wants to hear about all the things I pass on to save money! (Unless you do, then that can be another post).
Why am I so passionate about travel? Because I just love sleeping on planes! Okay, maybe not - I believe travel is the best thing money can buy and the world is far too large to stay in one place your whole life. On average 54% of Americans don't use their vacation leave, and in 2017 only 21% of people used all of their allowed vacation days. To me, this is heartbreaking. After being so many places (although in retrospect, I've hardly been anywhere) I want to share my passion of travel with the world and push more people to go out there and see whats out there. You don't have to be a young backpacker, or old and retired to travel. Theres something out there for everyone, and its not as expensive as everyone thinks either. You can have nice things and still travel. Yes, that new iPhone you just got could have been a roundtrip international plane ticket, but that doesn't mean you can't have both.
I look forward to giving everyone a bit of insight on traveling and answering any questions anyone might have. I'd be happy to book any trips to the exotic destinations my company offers, and can always offer insight and tips and tricks to book other trips outside of my work as well. :)
Welcome to my journeys, I hope you enjoy reading about them!