Podcasts about tourist attractions

learn about well-known tourist attractions in South Korea

We dive into each province and territory's top tourist attractions, according to TripAdvisor! Discover what makes each Canadian Province and Territory unique, and why you should visit.Episode Resources:Nova Scotia EpisodesCanadian EpisodesSupport the Travel Mug Podcast by buying us a coffee! You'll make our day & you'll get access to fun stuff like bloopers and extra content.We have Merch! Shop the Travel Mug Podcast Store Check out our fav items here: Our Favourite Travel ProductsGRAB OUR MASTER PACKING LIST HERE*****************************************We are travel enthusiasts who do not claim to be professionals! Instead, we are two Halifax, NS natives with travel blogs who somehow found one another on the internet and now, we have a podcast!!Join us every week as we talk about our favourite destinations, travel tips, travel fails and all things travel!We have a big passion for travelling and talking about travel so we hope you will listen and join the conversation.You can find us here:Our WebsiteFacebookInstagramJenn's Travel Blog Jenn's YouTube channelMeggan and husband Peter's YouTubeDisclaimer - all episodes are our opinions/experiences, always do your research and make travel plans based on your budget and comfort levels.Support the show

From the Singapore Fa Conference; a woman shares the changes in her life after practicing Falun Dafa. She went from a sickly and lethargic existence to being happy and full of energy. She spends her days, 365 days a year, clarifying the truth to Chinese tourists. She has learned to look within to eliminate combativeness, […]

New York City is home to dozens of world-famous attractions most visitors are eager to experience. Unfortunately, some of the most popular tourist attractions are not cheap.While some of these are worth the admission fee, we'll lay out cheap (and even free) alternatives to help ease the financial burden of exploring NYC.In this episode, we'll look at five familiar tourist attractions and offer alternatives for traveling on a budget. Here's what we'll cover:Observation Deck AlternativesStatue of Liberty AlternativesPedicab or Horse-Drawn Carriage in Central Park AlternativesBroadway Show AlternativesMuseum AlternativesAnd listen to the end because we're throwing in a bonus alternative you won't find on other recommendation lists.1- Observation Deck Alternatives The public library rooftop at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (free) on the corner of 5th Avenue and 40th Street (close to flagship NYPL location)Instead, take the money you'd spend on an observation deck and go to a bar with a view - 2 for 1. Some options include Manhatta, Nubeluz, Overstory, Darling, 230 5thWhitney Museum has beautiful rooftop views of Chelsea and lower ManhattanPier 57 rooftop or Little Island (free)Roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met)Brooklyn Bridge Park (free)Central Park (free)2- Statue of Liberty AlternativesView it from the Battery Park area (free)Staten Island Ferry (free)This Episode's You'll Have to Check It Out Segment - Super BurritoMultiple locations in Brooklyn and a spot on Bleecker StreetPhenomenal margaritas with fresh-squeezed lime juiceCozy vibe and friendly staffThere's a live DJ, at least on the weekendWe didn't get a burrito, but they looked (and smelled) amazingCheck out Super Burrito on Bleecker Street here.3- Pedicab or Horse-Drawn Carriage in Central Park AlternativesCentral Park audio guide (free)Take the subway close to specific spots ($2.90 per swipe)Use Citi BikeRent bikes or electric scooters4- Broadway Show AlternativesRush ticketsLottery ticketsOff-broadwaySmaller theater performance groupsCollege performances like Juillard, Columbia, NYU, Fordham (in rare instances, free)5- Museum AlternativesMake friends with a local who will get you in via Pay As You Wish, which gets NY, NJ & CT into many museums at low costArt galleries, especially in Chelsea (free, usually). Use the free See Saw app (only on iOS)Bonus Idea: Live Pro Sports Events AlternativesGo to a bar near the stadium - So many good options near MSG and Yankee Stadium specificallyGo to a sports supporter's bar for your favorite team

CapeTalk’s Sara-Jayne Makwala King is joined on Weekend Breakfast by Nontsikelelo Mpulo, Director of Marketing Communications and Commercialisation at the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Check out the latest episode of the Black Lincoln Collective Podcast for a laugh-packed adventure! This week, we're talking about Fred's chaotic trip to Dallas, where nothing went as planned. From battling hotel sickness to exploring the iconic Fort Worth Stockyards, Fred shares his funny travel mishaps and the struggle of getting around the city without a car. The crew breaks down the craziness of overpriced convenience store items and the unique charm of Texas hospitality.And that's not all! Get ready for the epic Roast of Fred, featuring the funniest and most brutal listener submissions. With sharp jokes and clever comebacks, the guys take on the best roasts, leaving Fred both cracking up and squirming. And, of course, it's Whack History month, and we're looking at the whackest foods of all time. Don't miss this episode full of hilarious travel stories, witty commentary, and unforgettable moments. Tune in now and join the fun! #blcpodcast #podcastingforthepeople #funny #podcast #greenvillesc #scpodcast #yeahthatgreenville Listen at: https://blc.world/ Tweet the Show: https://twitter.com/blcworld Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blcpodcast/ Check us out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blcpodcast/ Buy Fred and Allan Beer: https://www.patreon.com/blcworld

learn about the Old Town of Aarhus

learn about the top 10 tourist attractions in Turkey

In this episode of the Divinely Uninspired Podcast, the hosts blend humorous banter with thoughtful reflection on Christian identity. The show kicks off with a new parody theme song and humorous discussions on topics like cringeworthy Christian parody songs, single vs. double spacing after periods, penmanship quirks, and amusing wildlife safety warnings. The hosts also critique unusual stadium foods and mention the serious issue of stranded astronauts. The core discussion delves into the fundamental beliefs of Christianity, the essential teachings of Jesus as depicted in the Gospels, and how to embody those teachings in daily life. They address misconceptions and emphasize that Christianity should be defined by love and following Jesus's example rather than opposition. The episode rounds off with a lighthearted discussion of contact information and childhood memories. 00:00 Introduction and ASMR Discussion 00:26 Debut of New Theme Song 01:19 Christian Parody Songs 01:36 Carpool Line Music Choices 02:31 Typing Habits Debate 05:27 Penmanship and Writing Styles 09:08 Soda Packaging and Environmental Concerns 11:10 Mammoth Cave and Tourist Attractions 16:23 Dangerous Amusement Parks 17:50 Poke Salad and Childhood Memories 19:33 Selfies with Depressed Bears 23:34 Cotton Candy Burrito at Arizona Cardinals Games 25:21 Food Critiques and Fair Delicacies 26:28 Stadium Food Trends 27:44 Astronauts Stranded in Space 31:07 Chick-fil-A's Streaming Service 36:52 Defining Christianity 51:43 Jonah and the Whale: A Deeper Look 58:55 Closing Thoughts and Reflections

Chuck lets everyone know where he's been all summer (1:24), then discusses some news stories about Amtrak's Auto Train (3:55), Frontier Airlines (6:50), and changes to the tourism page of one state's official website (10:25).  Then we discuss the top tourist attractions, as voted by recent travelers (17:40).  How many have you visited?

Tuesday's program focused on tourist attractions near and far and are they worth a visit. The conversation was sparked by a recent article posted on https://news.hometalk.com/en/people-tourist-recommend-away

A record 37.4 million domestic tourists visited Denver last year, according to new data from the city's tourism office. But with all the crowds at Red Rocks and Rocky Mountain National Park, it feels like those people just hit all the same spots! So whether you're entertaining visitors or looking for somewhere off the beaten path to explore for yourself, we're here to help. Stand-up comedian JD Lopez joins host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi to swap stories and share recs for family-friendly, outdoorsy, and adult-oriented destinations we love around the state.  Don't miss JD perform at Comedy Works' New Faces contest next Wednesday, August 14. You can also follow JD on instagram and his podcast Left Hand Right Brain. What are your off-the-beaten-path spots in Colorado? We want your help to beat the crowds! Text or leave us a voicemail with your name and neighborhood, and you might hear it on the show: 720-500-5418‬ For even more news from around the city, subscribe to our morning newsletter Hey Denver at denver.citycast.fm. Follow us on Instagram: @citycastdenver Chat with other listeners on reddit: r/CityCastDenver Support City Cast Denver by becoming a member: https://membership.citycast.fm/denver Learn more about the sponsors of this episode: See “Waitress: The Musical” at the Arvada Center Regional Air Quality Council - Sign up for summer ozone text alerts Incogni - Use code CityCast for 55% off the annual plan. Looking to advertise on City Cast Denver? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your hosts are Paul Marden and Oz Austwick.Fill in the Rubber Cheese 2024 Visitor Attraction Website Survey - the annual benchmark statistics for the attractions sector.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcast.Competition ends on 21st August 2024. The winner will be contacted via Twitter. Show references: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenpriestnall/https://linktr.ee/oomphincStephen Priestnall founded oomph, now an accredited B Corp, in 2005, acquired Decision Juice in 2009 and is globally recognised as a specialist in CX driven transformation projects and digital innovation. He has advised at a senior level across public and private sector organisations in the UK, Americas, Asia and the Middle East and is an instigator of international research studies into behaviour change. He is a Board Trustee with Aneurin Leisure Trust, advising on CX and communications strategy and a founding Director at Wellbeing Economy Cymru, part of the global Wellbeing Economy Alliance, advocating for a new approach to economic sustainability for people and planet. Transcription:  Paul Marden: Welcome to Skip the Queue, a podcast for people working in and working with Mister attractions. I'm your host, Paul Marden. On today's episode, I speak to Stephen Priestnall, the CEO of oomph, a CX focused agency based in the UK and UAE who help clients to understand people and design better experiences. We're going to go back to first principles and understand what customer experience is all about and understand what attractions can do better to serve the needs of their customers. Paul Marden: Hello, Oz. Oz Austwick: Hi, Paul. So this is the last episode of Season 5, right? Paul Marden: Yes, that is right. Can you believe after we took the reigns from. From young Ms. Molson not too long ago, that we would actually make it to the end of the season? Oz Austwick: Do you know, it's crazy, isn't it? I mean, five seasons of a podcast. Most podcasts don't get through to the end of one season. And I can remember listening to this podcast years ago and actually sending people links as an example of what a good podcast is. And now here we are, you and I, at the end of Season 5. It's crazy.. Paul Marden: Yay. Guardians of this little baby. Oz Austwick: Yeah. Yeah, no pressure. So today's quite an interesting one, right? Paul Marden: Yeah. I've got a guest who has been a friend of mine for some time, Stephen Priestnall of Oomph agency. And we're going to talk a little bit about customer experience. So nice little chat between Stephen and I, and then you and I will come together in a little while and talk a little bit about. Let's reminisce about season five and talk a little bit about what might happen in Season 6. Oz Austwick: Awesome. Great. I'm looking forward to it. Paul Marden: Let's get on with it then. Welcome to podcast, Stephen. Stephen Priestnall: Nice to be here, Paul. Thanks for inviting me. Paul Marden: Good to have you on. Longtime listeners will know that we always start the podcast with some icebreaker questions, which hopefully not too challenging, but we get to know you a little bit better before we start talking about work. So both of my icebreakers are all about visiting attractions this time. So how organised are you in advance? If you go to an attraction, do you take a picnic with you, or are you always partaking of a cup of tea and a slice of cake in the coffee shop? Stephen Priestnall: I think it would have to be a particularly kind of informal attraction for me to have thought about taking a picnic beforehand. So normally it's just the anticipation of going to the place, and then I'll utilise the services in the place. Paul Marden: I love a good slice of cake in the coffee shop afterwards. Scone, cream, tea and scone that would be me. Stephen Priestnall: No way. Maybe a bit of our breath or fruitcake. It's probably more me. Paul Marden: Oh, lovely. I was at the Roman Baths yesterday with my little girl and we had a lovely wander around and they had a brilliant self guided tour. So if you've got a choice, do you go for a self guided tour? Do you wander around and follow your nose? Or would you rather have a guide take you around and tell you the stories? Stephen Priestnall: I almost never have a guide to take me around. And then sometimes I even find the self guided tours a little bit invasive. If I'm in a different country where there is kind of a language barrier, a filter, then I might use it then. But you know what? I kind of like that the ability just to bump from one bit to another. Paul Marden: Yeah. Stephen Priestnall: And experience the experience through my own kind of filter. So that's what I would normally do. I haven't been able to wander around with the headphones on, almost never with a guy. Paul Marden: Yeah, they had a lovely one at the Roman Baths yesterday. So it had both adult interpretation and kids interpretation, and I found myself switching to the kids one so that I was experiencing what Millie was experiencing, because I was saying to her, “Oh, did they tell you what that was?” “Oh, no, that wasn't in the kids version.” So I swapped the kids one and it brought it to life. It was really. It became much more shared experience for us. Stephen Priestnall: Yeah, well, that's like that's like the horrible history stuff. Yeah. But actually, it's brilliant. Rattles that was what they were on about in the tudor period, then. I didn't get it until now. Paul Marden: Yeah, look, listeners, Stephen and I have known each other for quite some time. We've been working together a lot on different projects, and his agency, Oomph, does a lot of work in customer experience. And so today's episode is going to be a little bit more about a primer on what do we mean by customer experience? And really, what I'd like to get to the bottom of today is what can attractioners do better to serve the needs of their customers. Yeah. So, really, Stephen, what I want to do is pick your brains. Let's introduce this whole subject of CX and customer experience and help people to better understand a little bit about what does that mean and how can they bring that into their day to day work in running attractions and meeting customers. Paul Marden: So, before we start that, why don't you tell us a little bit more about you and a little bit more about Oomph. So that listeners can better understand the context. Stephen Priestnall: Yeah, thanks, Paul. We've positioned ourselves around the concept of customer experience for about ten years now, and customer experience ten years ago was a bit of an oddball place to be. It kind of grew out of the user experience, the UX world, with a little bit of event management thrown into it and a little bit of actually, you need to think about people in the middle of all of this. And we come from a background of combining digital and data quite successfully to kind of help devise communications campaigns, kind of brand engagements, that kind of thing. And what we could see was if you brought all these things together as data was getting more sophisticated, with digital interactions on the rise, that you could get yourself much more informed about the way in which people's customers were actually behaving. Stephen Priestnall: And not so much what they were actually how they were behaving, but also what their needs were that drove the behaviours. And so we have, we've grounded our work and customer experience around a very clear desire to understand the needs of our clients' customers, and then to hold that mirror up for our clients and say, “Look, I know you have these products and services to sell and to engage with, but what we're going to do is a job of letting you know at the point of engagement they're hitting your customers needs in this way. And if you then flip the lens around from the customer need first rather than the product or service first, you might determine a different way of building that service or designing that interaction, or maybe even changing the way in which you invite customers into a journey with you.”Stephen Priestnall: So a lot of data and digital inside are our space port that inform CX. And then in the last couple of years, AI has been another transformative technology that we've started to utilise. And we know we treat it as good AI. We know there's bad AI out there, but the good AI is really helpful. Paul Marden: That's really interesting. We know from the Rubber Cheese Survey this year that most attractions have dabbled. They've played with ChatGPT, or something like that. But there's still a large portion of attractions that have done nothing with AI. And then there's a couple that I would consider at the leading edge. So they're doing things beyond GPT. They're looking at AI enabled CRM or AI enabled workforce management solutions.Paul Marden:  So there's some interest in here, but it's definitely, there's a conversation that we've had on the podcast just recently with Oz and I talking about the idea that we can't quite figure out if we're in a bubble because a lot of people that we talk to talk a lot of good game about AI, but when we're talking to the businesses, the clients, they're only just getting into this in the most shallow way. Agencies like yours and ours are kind of. We're leading the conversation on this, I think. Stephen Priestnall: Well, I think it's really interesting you frame it like that, because one of the things that has informed our approach to CX is the idea of understanding behaviour change, which is a science in itself. So if any listeners are familiar with behaviour change, you'll know how long the tail of kind of investigation evaluation that is. We launched a study in 2020 which ended up over three years and three waves, 10,000 respondents looking at the impact of Covid-19 on people's behaviour and their interaction with organisations. That is part of our research centre which we call tide of events, which is now about to launch another study which is going to be looking at the impact of AI. Paul Marden: Oh really? Stephen Priestnall: As employees, as citizens, as customers, as service users, as members, as supporters. I'm expecting some very interesting things to come out of that study as well. Paul Marden: Yeah, very interesting. So there's this idea of kind of CX thinking and embedding that, embedding it the heart of your agency, but you then helping your clients to embed it into the business. So how can CX thinking help an attraction to improve its offering? And I think if we can look at that in two directions, because obviously most visitor attractions are an in person experience, there's lots of thinking around their interaction and the experience that they feel when they're in the attraction itself. But there's a lot of us looking at either side of that interaction. How do we use marketing to get more people to want to do stuff? And then how do we make sure that they got the best experience after they did and reengage with us. How can CX thinking offline and online help an attraction? Stephen Priestnall: The principles of customer experience thinking, certainly from our perspective, is to deal with the reality of that there are people involved. And I think you and I both know, Paul, in the digital world it's kind of quite easy to forget as a person we spend a lot of time in front of technology, trying to get technology to do stuff that we think is helpful. And then it's easy to lose sight of the goal, which is to help a person achieve a task or do something which they have, they enjoy doing. I think in the world of attractions, destinations, then when you're in a kind of physical world, that you're sat in that environment designing something, and you're a physical person yourself. Stephen Priestnall: And as a designer, looking in that environment, feeling that, okay, well, if I walk from here to here, it's going to feel like that. If I put this in the wrong place, if my member of staff is trained in the wrong way and uses the wrong language, that's going to have a direct impact. So you kind of get brought back to the people side of it quite a lot when you're in it in person. So I would say that the world of CX thinking is about bringing the importance of the human into the overall experience. So you don't treat the digital experience with kind of it in a different frame set than you treat the in real life, in person experience. Stephen Priestnall: And that's quite hard to do, because sometimes you're trying to drive the digital experiences as a kind of conversion funnel to get people to do something and buy something or consume some content. And you can kind of get hung up on the word optimisation and funnel management, and you then get drawn into, how can we push people through to the next phase? And push people through to the next phase? And imagine if you're in an attraction, and yeah, you might make certain parts, physical areas, a place where you would want people to go to, but you wouldn't have somebody walking up and nudging them in the back, pushing them down the aisle and stopping them from turning around and staying in one place. Paul Marden: Yeah. Stephen Priestnall: And yet, that's often what happens in the digital world. It becomes an optimisation process to kind of channel a particular behavior that we think is optimal for the organisation. So the world of CX stands back from that, identifies the needs that were satisfying, and looks at Paul and Stephen as two individuals who are unique as individuals, and can be defined by a set of age, gender, sociological, economic characteristics. But actually, Paul and I might have five or six relevant needs for the attraction of which two are consistent. And, you know, two or three are completely different. So we can't treat Paul as Paul and Stephen as Stephen. We have to understand the relationship between the needs that we have as individuals and the thing that we're doing, or the point of the point on the journey we're on. Stephen Priestnall: And I think that's tricky to kind of link the digital and the in real life worlds together. But that's the trick I like to think the kind of CX approach would bring. Paul Marden: Yeah. Just as you're saying that it can be hard to think about the person. But also many of the attractions that we work with have very different offerings. And so consequently they have very different audiences that have very different needs. And, you know, are you trying to serve online an audience that's never going to attend? How do you serve those people's needs? If you've got an educational remit, how do you serve those people's needs whilst at the same time serving the needs of the people that you want to bring in and spend money on site with you? If you're a historic house that also has a golf course and it has a hotel and it has some sort of kids attraction associated with it, there's so many different audiences. Paul Marden: So that kind of CX thinking can help you to step back. Stephen Priestnall: Absolutely. And actually just maybe think of a great triangulation process between three different clients that we've been working with recently that show that kind of breadth of differences. So we work with the saudi arabian government on a new, one of their giga projects on a new destination out in the desert near Rhea called Duria. And that is an amazing set of destination components. Golf courses, equestrian centres, hotels, business centres. And that's creating a destination for a country which has never had any tourism in it before. So with a whole bunch of high net worth individuals that you've got to think about, then also a challenge to get people who live in Saudi to not spend the $90 billion a year that they do going to visit the rest of the world and to actually visit somewhere in Saudi. Stephen Priestnall: So we've had a set of kind of challenges around how do you drive a customer journey, a visitor journey for that. And we've been working with an organisation called Marketing Manchester, helping them devise a new segmentation so they can, I'm going to use the term, attract the right kind of visitors to go to Manchester to hook in with their sustainability strategy. They don't just want people in the shopping malls and going to the football, sports events or shows, albeit they would like that. They also want to understand the community engagement, the cultural engagement and the environmental footprint that they leave behind. And then we're just in conversations with North York Moore's National Park. And then there's a whole different set of conversations about engagement with the local community, communities, a little bit arms folded about tourists. How do you make that come together? Stephen Priestnall: And all of this is about people and it's about understanding people's relationship with people and things. Paul Marden: Brilliant. So let's have a little think about given that those are the ideas behind CX thinking. If you were starting out down this road, what are the simple things that people can do to start to bed the customer at the heart of their thinking as they're planning their services? And I'm thinking in terms of, we've got very different types of attractions in this country, very small, up to, you know, big international attractions. Let's pick the small guys. Yeah. Imagine you're running a small town museum and, you know, you've got a handful of people working in the team. How can you start to embed the customer into your thinking to improve the service? Stephen Priestnall: So I think, I don't think the principles change with scale. I think that the executional methods will change with scale, but the principles. And you can have, you know, if you've got a small team of three or four people, you can have these three or four people working together in a room. You can support a research or not, if you can afford the research that great. If you can't, then you use. So we use a term called foundational intelligence. So before we start any research with a client which might go and look at their customers or prospective customers or visitors.Stephen Priestnall: We say, “Right, let's go all of the information in your organisation on the surface, first, because there's however many people around the room's years of experience, which is not necessarily formed in a cx way, but if we get that on the table, we've probably got a 60, 70, 80% starting point for what we're going to need to know in the end. I think that's the first thing I would say, is take confidence in the fact you've got some foundational intelligence about customer experience. But there might be a clever way of bringing that out through a little workshop. So you ask the right questions of each other. And one of the ways which I think is useful to do and quite practical is to think about three different ways of looking at people as individuals. Stephen Priestnall: So think about themselves as a, you know, a standard attribute based, if you like, cohort or segments, you know, age, demography, all those things that we talked about, but then move those to one side and then ask a relatively straightforward question, what needs are being satisfied by your services? So it's kind of, what's the point of what you do? Yeah, well, harsh question. Paul Marden: Yeah. Stephen Priestnall: But it's devoid from, if you like, knowing your customers at that point, devoid from any transaction based evaluation or business case to say, what's the point of what we do? Why do people turn up and then be quite hard about answering those questions. And when you get the first answer in your head, which is based on what you've always thought you've always done, just go right. Is that really why people turn up? Paul Marden: Is that right? Stephen Priestnall: Really why people walk through the door? Is that really why people tell their friends about us? Paul Marden: There's a little bit of lean thinking there, isn't there? You've got five whys, haven't you? You could go, but why? But why? But why? Just to keep pushing yourself to think that hard thought. Stephen Priestnall: Exactly. Whatever, you know, whatever little mental games you want to play with it, that's the kind of point. What's the point? And then the next lens to look at it is the journey your visitors are on in order to not just get to your destination, but get out of your destination and be reflecting on it to their I, peers, friends, colleagues, family. And that journey doesn't mean I book a ticket, I turn up, I walk around the attraction and then I go home. It means what are the component parts of that journey when they're in planning more just you asked me earlier on about whether I plan a picnic. What are they planning? How likely are they to plan? Do they not want to plan? Do they just want to turn up? Stephen Priestnall: You know, when they're getting to, when they're coming, when they're traveling to the destination, how are they traveling? What's their preferred method of travel? And then what are the different ways in which people engage with the attraction itself? And then what happens afterwards when they walk out? Do they walk out and go for a beer? Forget about it. Did they do that thing you do in a golf club where you spend the next 3 hours talking about what you did for the last 3 hours? And what's the version of that could be done in social media afterwards? And again, do that. Do that without necessarily worrying too much about who does what. So you end up these kind of journey components. Stephen Priestnall: Now all these things can be really heavily researched if you've got resources and the time to do that, but you can do it in a room with three or four people in 2 or 3 hours. And what you'll end up with is a set of right. The people who visit us look a bit like this. Typically, here's five or six types of people, here's a pool type, here's a Steven type, here's a whoever else type of. We've got ten or eleven needs. Well, who knew we had ten or eleven needs? That were satisfying. Paul Marden: Yeah. Stephen Priestnall: So you write those down. Oh, look, we got a journey which looks like planning, engagement, reflection. And I use those three terms because we use them all the time because they're nice and easy to get your head around. Planning, engagement, reflection, and within engagement here are all the different bits that are happening in engagement here. At the different bits that, all right, we might have a dozen, maybe even two dozen components underneath those kind of three big things. And you've then got a bit of a jigsaw. And it's also objective at that point as well. You've then got this objective jigsaw to say, which of those five or six groups of people have which of those needs do we think you might end up with that funny place where. Stephen Priestnall: Oh, actually that cohort doesn't have any of those needs, so we think they really like coming to us, but we're not doing anything to satisfy their needs or this other group that we don't get many of. Look how many needs we're satisfying in that group. Maybe we should be targeting that group. Paul Marden: Yeah. Stephen Priestnall: So whether you're. Whether you go outwards and change your segmentation, your targeting, or whether you come in with and change your service design, you've already got some things to think about. And then when you map the journey on top of that, and again, you know, nice. It could be a done on paper, it could be done. There's loads of tools online you can do this without getting too scientific. You've then got the points at which, all right, so if that need is being satisfied for those people at that point, we now have a design intervention to work out. So we now have, essentially, we have a brief, we have a specification now that might be a piece of digital interaction, it might be a piece of communications design, it might be a piece of signage in the attraction, it might be a follow up social media nudge. Stephen Priestnall: You're then not inventing what you think it is that you need to do for your attraction. We use a phrase which I think clients are pretty comfortable with in the end because it. It's a real reflection. It's completely normal for organisations to kind of end up with an inside and view of the world. Everything is all about the product and the service because that's where the investment goes, that's where the thinking goes. And what we try and do is just to persuade people to take an outside in view. So actually look at this from the point of view of the customer. And I think what the exercise I've just described does is help you take that outside in view. Paul Marden: I'm smiling for those listening. I'm smiling because I just, it reminds me of so many times where I can, you know, I can see observing in the projects that we do or just, you know, interacting with the outside world, where you can tell that people often take a very parochial internal view and they'll communicate with the outside world in their own internal language. They will try and, you know, influence people to do things rather than thinking, how does this appear outside? Stephen Priestnall: Yeah, and it's, it, but it's also, it's not a critique. It's normalised behaviour. If you just think about how organisations grow, you end up with an idea, you know, where often it is about the customers. You've got this entrepreneurial, innovative spark that kicks the idea off, satisfying the needs. And then you build up a bunch of teams who, by definition, have broken out into departments with different roles and responsibilities. And then, and then the sense of self of the people in those teams is derived from the departmental responsibility. Paul Marden: Yes. Stephen Priestnall: But as a consequence, you then are trained, naturally trained to be inside out. Paul Marden: Yeah. Stephen Priestnall: And so, it's normal. And then when that, then when the salesperson comes back and says, “Why did you build it like that?” You know, the designer, the product person says, “Well, because that's the best way of doing this thing.” And the salesperson says, “I can't sell that.” And that actually, and I don't know how much. In your podcast, Paul, you talked about agile, but this is when the concept of squads really can work. I think that you have to take real care with squads because they can end up creating rooms of people who don't understand each other. I think unless there's one other thing I would say about the human part of CX, you have to take this into the culture of the organisation as well. So you asked me earlier, how do you present a CX focus for an organisation? Stephen Priestnall: Well, you can't just drop the results of that little workshop on top of everybody, because it's the going through the process of looking at those three lenses that puts you in a different mindset. If you then just end up telling the product people or telling the sales people or telling the ops people, can you do it like this now? They'll just add that onto their list of things to do. It won't be a change. Paul Marden: But when you bring those people into the conversation, I think it brings a different perspective, doesn't it? And I think that's the one thing I've learned from you in the few years that we've known one another is that when you boil it down, everything is a CX project. And I don't think I ever really thought about that. That there can be something which to me seems so navel gazing, internally focused as a technical project to deliver in the business. But actually, when you think, when you apply the rigor of thinking about the client, the customer, then you find that it is a CX driven project, even if it is completely internally facing. It can be about the communication between two teams, but in the end, because they don't have good communication, it's resulting in this poor customer experience over here. Paul Marden: So when you think about it hard, then these projects have a CX focus, even when they are very kind of internally facing.Stephen Priestnall: And it's sometimes difficult. I mean, I think that's a really good articulation of it. It sometimes can be a challenge to make that process seem worthwhile, because what you end up doing is spending more time challenging what you think is right at the beginning of the process. And there's always a desire from somewhere to move things on. I think that there's a little value based model that I always apply in my head, which if we treat this kind of CX phase as the planning phase, and then you go through a design phase, then you go through a build phase. For every extra hour you spend in planning, without spending that, you would spend ten more hours in design and a hundred more hours in production. So if you leave that hour aside, you're going to have a tenfold in design phase. Stephen Priestnall: And if you don't deal with it in design phase, you'll have it 100 fold, then build phase. But choosing to do that extra hour, which is tension filled, it might be a bit of conflict, there might be a bit of defensiveness. It needs to be carefully managed and kind of cajoled, but the value of it is meant. Paul Marden: Yeah. So you've described this kind of approach to take, identifying who the customers are, trying to use a little bit of intuition to be all science if you've got the budget to go and do the research, but to understand those customers in more detail and what their needs are, and then driving down and finding out where, you know, the journey maps onto that and where the gaps are and starting to look to fill those gaps. Is there room in the world for a dirty bottom up approach where you can see a problem already and you want to address that problem? Can you attack this from both angles or do you need to start from a top down approach? Stephen Priestnall: I'm an arch pragmatist and if we know there's a problem to solve and it's screaming for a solution, then that's going to solve the problem. I would only cancel that try and stand back and look at the unintended consequences through a very objective lens. You don't need to spend long doing that. But I think the magnetism of solving a problem that's been a longstanding problem can also act as a set of blinkers. So that's the only thing I would say. Paul Marden: Yeah, you can be distracted by the screaming problem that turns out not to be the real root cause. If you take the bigger picture of you. Stephen Priestnall: If we got this horrendous problem just before checkout, whether that's a digital or at the attraction itself and queuing up going on, you know, there's a need to solve that through a piece of technology or extra stuff on the tills. But actually, it turns out that there's a funneling process going on in the start of the process that's causing everybody to end up at the checker at the same time. And that can be solved by a different distribution of products in the attraction itself, or bringing in some different content to inform people in the digital journey. That means they don't have to do task X and Y because they now know about it. You know, we've all had that before, which it looks like people can't get through this bit of the funnel. Let's try and make this bit of the funnel easier. Stephen Priestnall: Let's try and do more things. More buttons, more. Let's just try and make it easier. But actually, it turns out, if only we'd given that visitor to the digital journey more time to consume content and not push them through the first stage of the transaction process so quickly, they would have entered the second stage much better informed and relaxed about completing the overall thing. Paul Marden: It's just such a challenge, isn't it? Because I can just feel me even now with our fictitious scenario, all I want to do is squeeze them down the funnel. But you have to focus at the end about getting the right outcome, don't you? Stephen Priestnall:  There's another great metaphor I like to use, and we do this all the time because we talk about something called sustainable customer experience. And sustainable customer experience strategy isn't about a green CX strategy. It's about saying, if you get your CX strategy right, you will have to spend less money on acquiring new customers, so it's more economically sustainable and there's a really interesting kind of just different way of looking at it. So normally if you look at the typical retail conversion process, if you get 100 people on the top of a digital funnel, you might get five out the end as a conversion there's usually really simple numbers, five. So everybody works on how do we make five six? That's the big thing because that's like 20% improvement. If you get five to six, we've just put 20% on the bottom line. Stephen Priestnall: Meanwhile there's 95 people. Do you care? Are you interested? I came here for a reason and you don't like me anymore, so. Well, goodbye then. So what we do is we say, right, we want to put as much effort into understanding the 94. It's not wasted effort. I'm a pragmatist, as we do making the five six, because if out of that 94 we can get another 20 over the next twelve months to do the same thing. We've not spent any money on customer acquisition. We've built and engaged in a relationship. We've had opportunities to talk and engage them, which probably means they're going and talking to other people and checking about the experience. So they're probably doing some recruitment for us anyway, which we can also nudge behaviour. Stephen Priestnall: And then what that does, it changes the mentality inside the organisation to not just think about, we've got six out the other end. Yes. Celebrate. And actually think about. Because imagine if you did that physically. Imagine if physically you could see the hundred people in a queue and everybody went off celebrating the 6th that went through. And then you look back and you looked at these 94 people just milling around having a chat with each other and what just happened. Paul Marden: Yeah, that would feel pretty uncomfortable, wouldn't it? Stephen Priestnall: It will. Especially for an attraction. Paul Marden: Yeah, for sure. Look, this has been brilliant. It's nice. I think sometimes to take a step back and look at that kind of the 101 class, the intro to the subject. And I think this is a subject that we will come back to again and again. We've talked about taking it back to its first principles a little bit today, but this is embedded within the attraction sector. They know and understand the people that come through the door. This is something that they take really seriously, obviously. But I think there are ways in which we can take what we've learned today and use that as a springboard into some more deeper conversations. Paul Marden: Maybe in Season 6, which is coming up where we can talk a little bit more about, you know, your conversations about AI, the direction that you take these things in. How does AI help you in a world where you want to be cx centric? What does AI do for you? So thank you ever so much. This has been brilliant. Thank you. Stephen Priestnall: Really enjoyed it. Paul Marden: One last ask of you, though. We always ask our interviewees to come up with a book recommendation. And it can be fiction, it can be factual, it can be about the subject. But we will give this book away to the first person that retweets the show advert and says, I want Stephen's book. So what is the book that you'd like to share with the world? Stephen Priestnall: Well, so I'd love to say it was. It was a book I wrote in 1986 on expert systems in context. I was doing AI back in the 80's. That one is out of print. You definitely will get hold of it. Instead, it's a book that I think challenges, whatever your persuasions about understanding of the environment and climate, challenges your way of thinking about. It's a book by an activist called George Monbiot, and it's called Feral. And it's to do with the rewilding of Britain, the potential for rewilding Britain. And again, whether you're minded to think that's a good thing or not, it's a great book to just think, okay, that's my perceptions challenge. I hadn't thought of things like that. Paul Marden: Excellent. So, listeners, if you'd like to get a copy of Stephen's book, then head over to X, find the show tweet that we put out and say, I want Stephen's book. And the first person to do that will get a copy. Stephen, this has been wonderful. Thank you all so much. And hopefully we will talk more about this in Season 6. Stephen Priestnall: Thank you very much, Paul. Oz Austwick: He's a really interesting guy, isn't he? Paul Marden: He is indeed. I said to Stephen afterwards, it was such a nice conversation because we've been working together for years, and today I got to ask the questions I've been too embarrassed to ask for the last few years because I really should, at this point, know the answers to them. But today I was able to take the place of the listener and ask those questions without fear of embarrassment. Oz Austwick: Yeah, there does come a point where you kind of feel that you probably shouldn't be asking this question anymore. You should already know this. Yeah, I love that. I thought, it's really interesting. I love this concept of nudging that he talked about, and it's something I've been aware of online for years, but the kind of putting it in the context of happening in the real world, I thought was really interesting. It gives you a bit of insight into how weird it is that we try and force people into certain pathways online. When you'd never dream of doing that in the real world, just having somebody outside a room just pushing you into it. Yeah, you wouldn't do that. Paul Marden: You're in a queue for the log flume and you get poked in the back to say, “Do you want to buy your photo? Do you want to buy your photo? You really do want to buy the photo, don't you?”Oz Austwick: Well, I mean, that does kind of happen, doesn't it? It's usually my children that are doing it, if I'm being honest. But, yeah, really interesting stuff. Paul Marden: A nice way to round out some amazing interviews and fireside chats that we've had over Season 5 and look forward to Season 6. Oz Austwick: Yeah, I'm really excited about Season 6. Paul Marden: Yeah, we want to do something a little bit different, don't we? Oz Austwick: Yeah, well, I mean, firstly, I'll get to start the season of the podcast. Because I wasn't here at the start of Season 5. I've kind of just weaseled my way in halfway through the season and gone, “Yes, mine now.” Paul Marden: Tell listeners, what is it that we want to do differently? Oz Austwick: Well, it feels a bit weird to me that we're creating a podcast all about the visitor attraction sector, which is designed to get people out of their houses to a place and actually experience it in the real world. And yet you're sitting in exactly the same room, and I'm sitting in exactly the same room. And as we pointed out not long ago, I'm wearing the same t shirt as I seem. This appears to be my podcast t shirt. And yet, you know, we're not getting out. So we're gonna get out. We're gonna get in a car and go to a place and record a podcast in an attraction with a person. And I think that's amazing. Paul Marden: Yeah, I just can't wait. We've got a couple lined up. One's crazy, one's going to be a big event. It could be really fun, but we love listeners with attractions who would like two blokes and some cameras to turn up to invite us along. We would love to come and visit your venue. We would love to talk about whatever subject it is that you think our listeners would like to discuss, and we'll come along and we'll record it in real life at your place and see how amazing your venue is and talk more about the stuff that everybody's interested in. Oz Austwick: Absolutely. But it's not just that we're going to do a little bit differently, is it? We're kind of focusing a little bit more on different groups. Paul Marden: Yeah. There was some lovely feedback for those, for listeners that listened to Kelly's final episode, her swan song. When Ross from Drayton Manor came on and talked about his experience of being on the podcast and how influential it was for him to have his 15 minutes of fame for Skip the Queue, and how important that was to him in his stage, in his career, that prompted us to think about, can we use this platform now that so many people before us built to help to shine a light on new and emerging talent in the sector? So if you are in early stages of your career and you are doing something interesting in the attraction space, could be digital, it could be something customer focused in real life. Paul Marden: There's so many different ways where we could have an interesting conversation about what it is that you do and why other people would find it interesting. You know, invite us in. We would love to have that conversation with people. If you know someone, if there's someone in your team who, you know, you can see is doing amazing things and could grow in their career with the spotlight shone on them, and there's lots of people like that, then point them in our direction. Point us in their direction. We can definitely do something to help them to share their story and hopefully to benefit from that springboard, that stepping outside and talking to the outside world about what you do can really have on a career. Oz Austwick: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's lovely that hopefully now, after five seasons, the podcasts kind of mature enough that we don't need to lean on those famous, influential people in the industry quite as much. And hopefully that maybe we've got enough loyal listeners and enough of us standing as a podcast that we can tell stories just because they're interesting. Yeah, you already know the name of the person we're talking to, so, yeah, that's going to be really exciting. Paul Marden: But, you know, there are stories to be told that we don't know about yet that I'm sure will be going on inside listeners minds and, you know, hit us up, send us an email, send us a tweet, an X. I don't know what. I don't know. That's another story, isn't it? But send us a message by carrier Pigeon, if you can, that tells us what you think we should be talking about, the people we should be meeting and the stories that should be told. We would love to hear from you. Oz Austwick: Yeah, and in the meantime, enjoy your two or three weeks without Skip the Queue. Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. Hopefully you're all busy working in your attractions, being absolutely swamped. If the attractions I've been to are anything to go by, it is a rip roaring success of a summer. We've had some pretty good weather and yeah, we'll be looking back at this September October time thinking what an amazing summer it was after a disappointing start to the year. Oz Austwick: So yeah, well, fingers crossed. Absolutely. Paul Marden: Thank you, Oz. It's been delightful. I've enjoyed every minute of it. Oz Austwick: Yeah, me too. Here's to Season 6. Paul Marden: Yeah, see you on the other side. Paul Marden: Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip The Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, SkiptheQueue.fm. The 2024 Visitor Attraction Website Survey is now LIVE! Help the entire sector:Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsFill in your data now (opens in new tab)

learn about The Palace of Culture

learn about well known tourist attractions in Denmark

Trivia Game about world-famous Tourist Attractions. 

06/27 Hour 1: Wizards Draft Three Players After Trading Deni Avdija - 1:00 Did The Wizards Win The 2024 NBA Draft - 17:00 Top Ten Tourist Attractions In The World - 33:00

Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Brady Report - Thursday June 27, 2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Hawk Tuah girl, a trailer for Here, the best tourist attractions in the world, being late is a thing for Gen Zers, and Vinnie reads your texts!

Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Brady Report - Thursday June 27, 2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we discuss our stop at the famous Wall Drug store in South Dakota.

In this episode of "Sleepless in Singapore," I take you to the bustling streets of Ho Chi Minh City. My journey begins with a near-miss on a scooter taxi, a thrilling initiation into the city's chaotic traffic. At my hostel, I join a communal dinner, savoring spring rolls and beer with fellow travelers, creating memories that would draw me back years later. My exploration includes a visit to the Cu Chi tunnels, a labyrinthine network that once sheltered and supplied soldiers during the war. Crawling through these narrow, dark tunnels, I feel a mix of claustrophobia and fascination, a stark contrast to the amusement park-like atmosphere of the site. Next, I venture into Cambodia, landing in Siem Reap with the majestic Angkor Wat on my itinerary. After a serendipitous encounter with Fortunata via Couchsurfing, we meet a local taxi driver who takes us to an unexpected yet delightful restaurant experience. Despite initial skepticism, the evening turns out to be a culinary adventure, complete with impeccable service and unbelievably low prices. The following day, Angkor Wat's grandeur leaves me in awe, and a chance meeting with Hama, who would later invite me to Singapore, marks the beginning of a life-changing encounter.

Vincent McAviney and Alex von Tunzelmann discuss the day's biggest stories. We examine Nato's predicament over the conflict in Ukraine, unrest in New Caledonia – and what this means for European territories overseas – and putting up barriers to hide Mount Fuji from tourists. Plus: Dorian Lynskey on his new book ‘Everything Must Go'.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to our International Museum Day Special! Today, we honor the guardians of history and culture as we delve into the deep and vibrant world of museums. Discover the vital roles these institutions play in preserving our collective heritage and inspiring future generations. On the show: Niu Honglin, Xingyu & Josh Cotterill

Let's grab a slice of Alien Beef Jerky, check the temperature on the world's largest thermometer, and answer our 10 trivia questions on unique tourist (travel) attractions!   If you'd like to choose a specific topic or dedicate an episode to a friend send a donation of your choice on Venmo to @NoChitChatTrivia and write the topic you'd like in the comments: https://account.venmo.com/NoChitChatTrivia   Our official store is live!  Support the show by grabbing a NCCT shirt, hat, puzzle, or more: https://www.thetop10things.com/store   Visit our sister site thetop10things.com for travel and entertainment information!   Thank you to everyone who listens!  Say hello or let's collaborate: nochitchattrivia@gmail.com

LIVE TONIGHT! WEDNESDAY MAY 1st @ 9PM EDT/6 PM PDT – IT'S the RETURN of the RECAP-A -RAMA time on @THESEXYWITCHES CALL IN AND GIVE US A CHAT: (646) 716-9172 LAST WEEK BLOGTALK KILLED our EPISODE and would COULDN'T BROADCAST. BUT this EPISODE  has RISEN from the GRAVE! Let's TRY AGAIN! THE SEXY WITCHES ARE BACK from THEIR ADVENTURES ABROAD! FIRST – AFTER a WHAT WE ARE WATCHING SEGEMENT The WARLOCK OF ORANGE COUNTY AARON COGAN will ReCap his Adventures at WONDERCON 2024 and Meeting MICK GARRIS and  other AWESOME ADVENTURES at DARK DELICACIES THEN - The DIRTY SOUTHER SORCERER Dirty NATHAN HAMILTON and THE HEAD HAUNTRESS will ReCap their Adventures at WRESLEMANIA WEEKEND in PHILLY. This includes going to THE GCW COLLECTIVE and MEETING Japanese Wrestlers Like MINORU SUZUKI. We will also REVIEW of the TOURIST ATTRACTIONS in NIAGARA FALLINS, including the HAUNTED WALKTHROUGHS! ALL EPISODES are RECORDED LIVE, IN LOW FI and can be STREAMED after Airing. THE SEXY WITCHES are looking forward to your...Call: (646) 716-9172

This week, The Musafir Stories speaks to author and writer and illustrator, Seema Misra as she takes us to the land of the rising sun, Arunachal Pradesh! Today's destination: Arunachal Pradesh! Nearest Airport: Dibrugarh Airport (DIB) Nearest Railway Station: Naharlagun railway station, NHLN Requirements: Inner-line permit Packing: Pack depending on the weather, winters are cold and monsoons are wet! Time of the year: Dec-Feb, or during shoulder seasons after the monsoon! Length of the itinerary: 11 days Itinerary Highlights:  Start from Dibrugarh Namdapha jungle camp in Miao Roing with stops at Tibetan settlements at Choephelling Golden Pagoda at Namsai Archaeological remains at BhismakNagar Lake Sally Aalo or Aalong (home of the Kalo tribe) Mechuka Pasighat Links: Link to Seema's blog: https://seemamisraart.blogspot.com/ Link to Seema's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seemamisra/ https://www.instagram.com/lonelycanopy/ Link to Seema's portfolio: https://sites.google.com/view/seemamisraart Link to episode on Mechuka: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5xnYrM4dIVeOHXKh2sqngv?si=87Jk5QZ9SPiOpZLTHjduJw Link to episode on Tawang: ​​https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VmROjDO0oJZCkpMtGjLy2?si=-hriIlseTLa6FbQ55VcnZA Link to episode on 7 Lakes trek: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7gEeyeSuykvK25ihBw6tFj?si=QuVE285TS2qbg5Jw7x7k2Q Link to episode on Glaw Lake: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3VlES9609CvpupgwcFSR3n?si=Zq2x35mZQ66tQchLuo9Acg Link to episode on Indore and Ujjain: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0BwEHojSBcJi5RoMjFhWjb?si=xtfnJph4Q5m0PVlph6XPiA Photo by Seema Misra Follow the Musafir stories on: Twitter : https://twitter.com/musafirstories?lang=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themusafirstories/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musafirstoriespodcast/?hl=en website: www.themusafirstories.com email: themusafirstories@gmail.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Here I am, "Out & About in Mui Ne," determined to share with you my findings as experienced through my eyes.  It's a down-to-earth exploration of Mui Ne's hidden treasures and unique vibe. This is as authentic as it gets!Drawing inspiration from a previous episode  S3- E17 I did with Nikki Cornish, I set out to explore this famous beachside location, known for its luxurious resorts like the Sailing Club Resort and its unique sand dune landscape.An Instagram favourite known to be very popular with travelling Russians, it is just a short three-hour drive away from the bustling streets of Ho Chi Minh City. Thanks to improved highways, reaching Mui Ne was a breeze. I cover other other transportation options like trains and buses on the show however I opted for a private driver due to the bulk of luggage I had in tow.Lets just say, we let the winds be our guide to an interesting stay.The must see tourist attractions covered are:The Sand DunesThe Fairy StreamThe LighthouseI hope the detail I provide helps you with your trip planning.My stay gets very personal to me,  as we visit a close friend's family farm near Phan Thiet, providing a firsthand glimpse into Vietnam's agricultural heart. Having a local friend show us around made all the difference during our stay. This intimate connection not only enhanced our exploration of local seafood cuisine but also deepened our understanding of Vietnamese culture and the city's main population. Without my friend Linh's guidance, I can candidly say we would have missed a lot. Her insights added layers of meaning to our experiences, turning an ordinary trip into a rich journey of discovery. She really made the trip for me and she took the role as guide for the 3 days we were there.Travel Tip:- Mui Ne is not as Westerner-friendly as other cities, with a strong Russian presence and limited English-speaking locals. I advise doing research or consulting with a Travel agent or Guide to make the most of your visit. Or get in touch with yours truly to plan your Vietnam holiday complete.01:00 - Inspiration for Visiting Mui Ne02:18 - First Impressions /Getting There03:57 - The wind factor/ Accommodation Tips05:44 - Tourist Attractions 12:34 - How long to stay 20:31 - Mui Ne's ideal touristThank you for listening. Give us a review on your podcast channel - Apple is easiest.Follow our social pages on FB, IG,LinkedIn and TikTokLet me design your customised private tour of Vietnam - See our new Travel ServicesWe have a new partnership which is helping support this podcast. If you have a Dental Procedure why not find out what's possible through What About Vietnam's beauty travel partner Worldwide Beauty Hospital. Check out our website here, contact us direct; speak to Kelley at WAV, as she has been a dental patient for 10 years, or mention #whataboutvietnam to receive 5% discount at Worldwide Beauty Hospital What have you got to lose? Get your FREE consult today.

Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Brady Report - Monday April 1, 2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trip or skip?

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Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Brady Report - Monday April 1, 2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Monday, April 1st.

Things like Mount Rushmore and Times Square have made the list of the most Overrated Tourist Attractions, but none in Iowa!

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Winner of Giveaway of Pranav's book - Kunal Sachdev This week, The Musafir Stories speaks to author and content creator, Aakash Mehrotra as he takes us to his hometown of Allahabad of the yesteryears, now known as Prayagraj! Today's destination: Allahabad, UP! Nearest Airport: Prayagraj Airport (IXD) Nearest Railway Station: Prayagraj Railway station, PRYJ Packing: Pack depending on the weather, winters are cold and summers are hot and humid! Time of the year: Feb-Mar, or during the Kumbh if you have a chance! Length of the itinerary: 4-5 days Itinerary Highlights: Aakash covers a short history and mythological significance of Allahabad, formerly known as Prayag and currently known as Prayagraj, the home to the confluence of the 3 rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. We also cover other influences on the city including the Mughal period and the origin of the Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb as well as the British period and the strategic location of the city. Important places to visit include the sangam, Allahabad fort, Civil lines and the british architecture, Khusro Bagh, Anand Bhavan, Swaraj Bhavan, Azad park, State Museum, Minto park, Allahabad University, All Saints Cathedral, Alopi devi temple, Kalbhairav temple, Lete Hanuman temple, Nag Vasuki temple, Jhusi fort of Chaupat Raja, Shankar Viman temple, Muni Bharadwaj's ashram. We also touch upon the literary connection of Allahabad including the Allahabad university and some of the popular hindi writers and poets including Sumitranandan Pant, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Harivanshrai Bachchan, Suryakant Tripathi Nirala, Kailash Gautam, Yash Malviya, Mahadevi Varma, Akbar Allahabadi to name a few. We also visit some of the important cuisines and foods one should try while in Allahabad including chaat like khasta and dum aloo, poor ke samosa, aaloo samosa, gajak, kali gajar ka halwa, malai makkhan, til ka laddoo, mughlai dishes, dahi jalebi, amrood, kandmool. Links: Link to Aakash's book: The Other Guy - https://www.amazon.in/Other-Guy-Aakash-Mehrotra/dp/9352017609 Link to Aakahs's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aakashmehrotra/ Link to Aakash's blog: https://handofcolors.in/ Link to episode on Nagaland: https://open.spotify.com/episode/26TT57iSuUu5iGXGjOCtPL?si=1qLlPkemRJ2eOA17I7Bx2Q Link to episode on Landour: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4jyTU9Q4fQK8AIkB0mBqbM?si=VhOwfvL-T8-XiLjg7IuneQ Link to episode on Pragpur and Garli: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3PRTJBAwq50iebqS7L5XYM?si=b-d-sjX8Ttasum8lBQhHCA Photo by Shubhanshu Prajapati on Unsplash Follow the Musafir stories on: Twitter : https://twitter.com/musafirstories?lang=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themusafirstories/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musafirstoriespodcast/?hl=en website: http://www.themusafirstories.com email: themusafirstories@gmail.com Do follow IVM Podcasts on social media. We are @‌IVMPodcasts on Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram. Follow the show across platforms: Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Gaana, Amazon Music Do share the word with your folks!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey betchhh! We're back on the wiiiiireless January 22! In the meantime, get a load of this: A zoo in China have been forced to deny that one of its bears is a human in a costume. Because of the way it stands and the folds in its fur, it looks like a person in a costume. Martha Stewart is on a zodiac cruise of the east coast of Greenland and has admitted to capturing a small iceberg to use as cocktail ice for the night. The cocktail was posted in a carousel of photos, with Martha smiling and displaying the drink with the piece of iceberg sitting on a cart beside her. Some people questioned if taking the iceberg is good for the environment. Martha is currently on an upmarket zodiac cruise where she's been inside an Icelandic volcano, travelled to Sky Lagoon and sailed to Denmark. Follow us @rickileetimjoel!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, Founder of Rubber Cheese.Download the Rubber Cheese 2022 Visitor Attraction Website Report - the first digital benchmark statistics for the attractions sector.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. Show references: https://carbonsix.digital/https://www.linkedin.com/in/pmarden/Paul Marden is the Founder and Managing Director of Carbon Six Digital and the CEO of Rubber Cheese. He is an Umbraco Certified Master who likes to think outside the box, often coming up with creative technical solutions that clients didn't know were possible. Paul oversees business development and technical delivery, specialising in Microsoft technologies including Umbraco CMS, ASP.NET, C#, WebApi, and SQL Server. He's worked in the industry since 1999 and has vast experience of managing and delivering the technical architecture for both agencies and client side projects of all shapes and sizes. Paul is an advocate for solid project delivery and has a BCS Foundation Certificate in Agile. https://www.rubbercheese.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellymolson/Kelly Molson is the Founder of Rubber Cheese, a user focused web design and development agency for the attraction sector. Digital partners to Eureka! The National Children's Museum, Pensthorpe, National Parks UK, Holkham, Visit Cambridge and The National Marine Aquarium.Kelly regularly delivers workshops and presentations on sector focused topics at national conferences and attraction sector organisations including ASVA, ALVA, The Ticketing Professionals Conference and the Museum + Heritage Show.As host of the popular Skip the Queue Podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions, she speaks with inspiring industry experts who share their knowledge of what really makes an attraction successful.Recent trustee of The Museum of the Broads. Transcription:  Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip The Queue, a podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host, Kelly Molson.In this new monthly slot, Rubber Cheese CEO Paul Marden joins me to discuss different digital related topics.In this episode, we're talking about the impact of design, navigation and content on selling tickets and how to go about testing if your design is working or not.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on all the usual channels by searching Skip The Queue.Kelly Molson:  We're doing something a little bit different on the podcast this season. So alongside the usual guest interviews, which we'll have each month, me and the Rubber Cheese CEO, Paul Marden are also going to be recording an episode on a different digital related topic. So we're going to do this once a month. Kelly Molson: Each of the episodes, we're going to share insight around design, user experience, content, accessibility, SEO and loads, loads more. We're going to talk a little bit about what's possible, give you some ideas about how easy or how hard that topic is to implement.Kelly Molson: Maybe what kind of budget that you might need to look at and what some of the next steps are to take if you want to implement some of these things. We're even going to call out some of the best in breed websites, people that are doing things really well within the sector.Kelly Molson:  So I've been hosting the Skip the Queue podcast since July 2019. Goodness, that's been a long time. Five seasons in now. This is season five. You all know me already. So I am the founder of Rubber Cheese and my background is in design. Kelly Molson: I co founded Rubber Cheese back in 2003 after learning about ecommerce when I worked at a very early kind of Shopify type startup agency. The person that you don't know quite as well as me is my fellow host on this podcast. That's funny to say, that my fellow host is Paul Marden. So. Paul. Hello. Welcome. Paul Marden: Hello. Kelly Molson: This is strange. I'm going to have to share the spotlight for a while, that's very uncomfortable for me. No, it will be fine."It will be fine", she says. Paul, I would love it if you could give us a little intro to yourself. Kelly Molson: I know your background and I know you very well. We've known each other for about, I think it's about 14 years now. It's been a long time, hasn't it?Paul Marden: Yeah. Not long after I started doing this as a proper job. Kelly Molson: Well, there you go. Tell us about what your proper job is. Paul Marden: Yeah, so I'm the CEO of Rubber Cheese now, alongside another agency that I run called Carbon Six, which we merged Carbon Six and Rubber Cheese just over a year ago. My background is as a geek. I'm a developer by training. I started out ten years at British Airways, all over the airline, doing all different sorts of IT related jobs. So I saw lots of operational side of things, commercial sides of the airline, say, selling tickets, that kind of thing. I don't know if I've told you, but my first visitor attraction job was a long time ago, because when I was at Uni, I did a placement at the National Botanic Garden of Wales when it first opened. So I was there when it was a hole in the ground and I helped them write their IT strategy. Paul Marden: So my visitor attraction experience predates my involvement in Rubber Cheese. Kelly Molson: I did not know that. So you've done geek stuff for attractions. Paul Marden: For a long time. Yeah, it was amazing. I can still remember I was in an office in a farmhouse as they were building the giant glass house. It was just the most amazing place and I've not been back for a long time. It would be amazing to go and see the place, how it's transformed in the, what is it, 24 years since I was there? God, I really sound old now, don't I? Kelly Molson: You do sound old. I'm just wondering if they still use the IT plan that you put in place for them. Paul Marden: Probably not. I was only a student at the time. It can't have been amazing. Kelly Molson: So what we normally do on the podcast, listeners, as you well know, is I ask my guests a series of uncomfortable questions, icebreaker questions, which they very graciously answer beautifully for me. We're not going to do that on this episode. Ha. So we thought, yeah, Paul has wiped his brow in a state of relief there. But what we thought we would do is Paul and I both visit a lot of visitor attractions, both professionally and in our personal life as well. We've both got daughters at very different ages, so Millie is  coming up for I think, 9.Paul Marden: 10 in two weeks' time. Kelly Molson: Okay. And my little one is 2. So we're going to very different visitor attractions right now. But we thought we would talk about the attraction that we visited most recently and what we loved about it, and we thought we'd ask each other that question. So I am going to ask you that question first, Paul. What attraction have you visited most recently and what did you love about it? Paul Marden: So we just finished the summer holidays, so went away for just over a week to the Netherlands. We did visit a few different attractions whilst were there, but went to an amazing place. We went back to it, actually, it was one that we've been to before called Burger's Zoo. So I loved the whole experience of going there the first time around and we wanted to go back there. It's an amazing place. But the reason why I was going to call it out today was a conversation that we've been having and something that we've done with Kitten Museums in terms of the food offering. Because when you go to Burger's Zoo, the restaurant is amazing. We've talked recently about the sorts of food that you get at visitor attractions and your frustration around this. Lots of fried food. Paul Marden: There's never any healthy food. So went to Burger Zoo, we had lunch and of course, there'd be obligatory portion of chips there if you want to have it. Lots of kids food there, but I was able to have a massive great salad. It was in enormous and it was lovely and healthy and really enjoyable and it didn't cost the earth when you were there. And it's so unusual to talk about going to an attraction and getting that kind of quality of food without spending the earth in doing it. So, yeah, that was pretty cool. Kelly Molson: That is cool. This is probably a whole another podcast episode to talk about that. I think actually, in your intro, you forgot to mention that you are a Trustee for the Kids in Museums, which is quite a new role for you, isn't it? But it's one that kind of immersed you into the world of attraction. I think that's been a good one for you. They have set up a brilliant scheme, which is kind of an accreditation scheme for attractions to go through, just to check into how healthy and how great their food offering actually is, which I think is brilliant. It's really weird. Kelly Molson: The day that they launched it, I was having a like, literally the day before, I was having a conversation on LinkedIn about how atrocious the food offering had been at an attraction that I went to, which is one of the top ten most visited attractions in the UK. It's a great place. It really is a brilliant place, especially if you've got toddler. However, the food was pretty horrendous and I've got an unusual toddler in that. Well, she will eat chips now, she will eat chippies, but she won't eat fried stuff or battered things or anything like that. She's just not interested.Paul Marden: Nothing beige.Kelly Molson: Not really, even pasta has to be, she should have been an Italian, she should have seen the amount of pasta that she wolf down when were over there. But it's got to be good. Kelly Molson: It's got to be good. Yeah, she is particularly fussy toddler. But just for myself, I mean, just the range of food that was available that day was just dreadful. I mean, the healthiest thing that was on the menu that Lee and I both had was jacket potatoes and I think I took a picture of it somewhere and it was too awful to put on social media. So, yes, that is well needed and I'm glad that attraction stood out on the food front for you. Paul Marden: What about you? Where have you been recently? Kelly Molson: I've been to lots of different places recently, but this one I can't stop thinking about and so I want to talk about it today and it's not one that I visited with Edie. It's one that I visited with a fellow attractions professional a little while ago, but it's the Beamish Living Museum. I honestly can't stop thinking about it. It's the first living museum that I've been to, so it's the first experience of that for me. And I had such an emotional reaction to it. I'm a bit embarrassed, actually. So I went to meet a couple of people. I met one person that I'd met briefly at a conference before, and then I met one of their colleagues who I'd never met before in my life. And I actually had a bit of a cry to this colleague because it was so emotive. Kelly Molson: If anyone who hasn't been to Beamish Living Museum, there's lots of different areas that you can visit, and one of them is a 1950s area and they essentially recreate what it was like in the 1950s, where the museum is located. And it brought back so many memories of my grandparents, both sets of grandparents, for different reasons. The house was very similar to my grandparents on my father's side and just down to some of the things that they had in that space. And I just got overwhelmed by it. It was so wonderful to go back and see that. And in my head all the time I was thinking, well, both my sets of grandparents are no longer with us. They passed away when I was in my early twenties. And so Edie will never get to meet her great grandparents on that side. And I thought, God, how amazing would it be for me to bring here and say, show her some of the things that great granny used to have in her house and yeah, just lost it. Paul Marden:  It's interesting, isn't it, that you can become so immersed that even now the emotional attachment that you've built when you were there takes you straight back there. Because there's a risk, isn't there, with those sorts of places of it feeling a little bit plastic and fake, isn't it? But this clearly had an emotional impact on you. Kelly Molson: Yeah, I think for me, I was worried that it would be people in costumes. It would feel like that. And it did not feel like that at all. It just felt so authentic. Anyway, you've got to go. I don't want to cry for the rest of this podcast, but yeah, it's definitely a must visit for me, it was something really special. Paul Marden: Excellent. Kelly Molson: Should we move on to what we're going to talk about? And I'll compose myself, shall we?Paul Marden: Okay, moving swiftly on.Kelly Molson: Let's. So in this episode, we're going to talk about the impact of design, navigation and content on selling tickets and how we go about testing if it's working or not. So this episode actually launches on the 4th of October, which is one day after we release the 2023 Visitor Attraction website report. There's data that has come out of this year's report that is so insightful and I cannot wait for everybody to get this year's report. It dives deeper into a lot of the topics that we talked about in the first report last year, but there's just so much more to it and I'm very excited about it.Kelly Molson: Anyway, looking at the data from the report, a 100% of the attractions that took part think that having consistent design and clear navigation is important, which is brilliant. Big tick there. However, many of them don't think that their site meets the need and some of them think it does, but they don't test that it does. There's some really interesting stats about testing that we're going to talk about in a minute that have actually blew my mind a little bit. But one good stat around the design is that 76% of respondents believe that their websites were consistently designed despite using multiple platforms in their customer journey. Kelly Molson: And this is something that we talked about quite frequently in that sometimes there's a big disconnect if you are using if you've got your website that's built and designed in WordPress for example, and then you've got your ticketing platform and the two don't look like each other, they're not consistent, they're incongruent. That can be a bit of a challenge for people in terms of trust and how they feel about your brand. Paul Marden: It can be a jarring experience, can't it? Kelly Molson: Yeah, absolutely. Responses this year once again saw that websites that look good and are easy to use are doing far better than those that don't prioritise consistency. So I'm just going to read out this snippet from the report. We saw that websites that were high scoring for their design and navigation made more sales over the past twelve months. So those successful websites had around 200,000 to 500,000 completed transactions. Whereas on the other hand, websites with lower design and navigation scores didn't do as well, stating that they had below 50,000 completed transactions in the last month. That's quite fascinating, isn't it? Paul Marden: It is. This is not just a handful of people that are answering, is it? Because there's a large number of people that are answering that this is important to them and that they think they're doing quite well. And then you see how their perception of doing well correlates really strongly with the actual outcomes of the site itself. Kelly Molson: Yeah, I think that the way that we asked the questions this year is interesting as well. So when I talked then about we said that websites that were high scoring for design and navigation, we gave respondents the options to score their website. So we gave them how well designed do you think your site is? Between 1 and 10, 10 being the highest. So we allowed them to kind of self score. But it's interesting because some of those self scores don't correlate to the data that we then took. So those scores, they're based mostly on assumption, which is always a difficult, challenging place to be. But I think, Paul, you had some insight here around the conversion rate and design and how they tally up. Paul Marden: So the stats you just talked about were about the volume of transactions. You could say that having good design leads you to have more transactions flowing through your website, but you could also say that the organisations that have more transactions flowing through their website can afford to spend more money on design. But what I found interesting was that when you ignore the absolute number of sales that they make on the website, if you actually look at what their conversion rate is on the website, the attractions who think they have good design tend to have a higher conversion rate by about 1% or 2%. Now, that could be on a low base. Paul Marden: There could be a fairly small attraction that has fewer people coming to it, but they still perform relatively better than those attractions that didn't think they had good design but could be massive organisations with large numbers of transactions flowing through. And what I found interesting is we started to work out what is the value of 1 or 2% extra conversion rate, because it doesn't sound like much. Really. There's somebody in the business that doesn't necessarily understand the technology side of it that doesn't sound like a lot. So we started playing with converting that into money. What could that actually be worth? So we played around with we tried to model what is our average attraction and what is the absolute top performing attraction. Paul Marden: And even for our average, an increase of 1% in conversion rate could mean tens of thousands of pounds of extra sales that they make. But for the top performing attraction, it could make the difference of hundreds of thousands of pounds of extra sales just by squeezing 1 or 2% of extra conversion rate out. I think that's absolute gold dust in terms of insight that we've drawn out of this data. The organisations that think they have good design tend to have a conversion rate of 1 or 2% more, which could equate to tens of hundreds of thousands of pounds of extra sales that they make. It makes you begin to think that investment in the design of the site could actually be really worthwhile. Kelly Molson: Absolutely. And information like that helps the marketing managers build the case for good design and investing in good design. Paul Marden: Yeah. And before you say, "Oh, the large organisations with the big budgets, they can afford to do this, what about the small ones?" The smaller organisations with small budgets who had good navigation tended to be the ones that would have the better conversion rate amongst their peers. So you don't need to be a nationally recognised attraction brand to be able to invest an appropriate amount of money in design and get a return on that investment that you make. Kelly Molson: I always think that the best use of budget is on the pre planning side, which is unusual coming from a designer, I think. Yeah.  But Paul, you're really data driven, aren't you? You're super data driven. Paul Marden: Such a geek. Kelly Molson: Yeah, you are a massive geek. Massive nerd. We're very complimentary, but I never used to be very data driven. I was always far more visual driven. But actually well, I'm not going to share it on this podcast, actually, because I'm going to share it at a talk that I'm given. But I've got a really good story around why user testing is very important. We'll come a bit more onto that later. And why you should be driven by the data and the stats and not just by what something looks like. Okay, let's talk about navigation quickly as part of this design section. So it's really interesting. So we've actually got some findings from the Journal of Market Research. Kelly Molson: So they state that, when websites are easy to understand and navigate, individuals have a lower cognitive load, so fewer things to work out, and therefore are more likely to have a positive experience to go on to purchase. So having a consistent and well designed website can really help people make complete purchases with your visitor attraction. What I've always said, it's about trying to stop making people think, give them something that is really easy. So I think when we worked with Eureka!, and this is back in 2016, when we first worked with them, we did some research around what people wanted to find out about attractions, what were the first things they needed to know about. And it was literally, when you open, how much do you cost? How can I get there? Kelly Molson: So, if they're the three things that people desperately need to know, they're the three things that really need to be highlighted front and centre when you arrive at the site, wherever you arrive at it, whether that's the homepage or what. And it's the same with navigation. People need to understand where they're being taken and why they're being taken to certain places. So we're working with an attraction at the moment, we've just about to start work with them. They have got some really key, really strong elements to their Nav, but then they've got an area that says more, and there's a load of stuff that's been added onto the more section, and things like this happen over time. Kelly Molson: When you've got a website, people will say, “I need this to be featured on the site, I need this page to put up there”, and it gets added to, and ultimately you end up with all these things that haven't been thought about from the start, about where they're supposed to go. So they get kind of bundled somewhere, and a more section kind of feels an obvious place to put them. But what is it? Users don't understand what's in there. And they're not going to go searching for hours to find something that they want. They need to find it quickly. And so that for me, is a huge no about bundling stuff into these kind of sections. That just so ambiguous, you don't know what they are. Paul Marden: I think that figuring out what people are trying to do, what are they trying to get out of the website? I think that bundling exercise, putting lots of things onto the site that happened over time or putting it in a bucket of more is often there's so many people in an organisation that want their content heard and seen, don't they? Everybody wants their content on the site. It all goes on there. And sometimes you have to step back and think, what's the point? Who is it that's coming to the site and what are we trying to get them to do? We want the customer at the end of it to think, now that you've read this, what are you going to do next? But we don't always think about that journey. Paul Marden: We think about the snippets of information that we put onto the site, but we don't think about what the journey is they're going through. Attractions are really lucky. I think a lot of the people that go to their sites are really motivated to buy, a lot more motivated to buy than the average ecommerce site. So how do you get out of the way of those people so they can just buy stuff? And then for the people that are less motivated, they don't necessarily want to know how, when and how much they still want to be sold on the idea of going to the attraction, then maybe you need to give them more information. Paul Marden: But identifying who those people are and giving them a journey to go through and coming up with a navigation that makes it really easy for those people to navigate along that journey, there's a lot of psychology that's hard. That's your prep work, isn't it, before you do the design? Kelly Molson: Yeah, and it's the hardest part of it. And I think that's where the most amount of time needs to be spent there and the wireframes really, the design. If you've got good brand guidelines in place, the design ultimately becomes a simplified process at that point. But the pre design work is really where the time and effort needs to be spent. And I think it is a challenge for attractions. So there are attractions that are, if you compare a Chessington World of Adventures, for example, a theme park orientated to a historic museum that you're coming to visit, that not only is an attraction, but obviously has a lot of historical information to share and learning and education plays a big part in them as well. You have different audiences for those. Kelly Molson: So I think one part of that process is you need to think about all the different audiences you have and what are their motivations for visiting the site and what do you want them to do, what actions do you want them to take? But I think when you are working, this has gone off a bit of a tangent, but when you're working with an agency, I think what's really core for the attraction is to make sure that you've got key stakeholders from each of those areas of your attraction that play a part in those early conversations. So you don't want the site redesign to be driven solely by the marketing team for the attraction side. You need someone from the education side to be part of those conversations as well. Kelly Molson: You need visitor experience to be part of those conversations because if you're planning content, each of those individuals will have a different need for what content they need to showcase on the site. So they all need to be talking to each other about how that's going to look. I'm talking from experience because this has not happened in the past. Paul's nodding his head at me because he knows that we've had this challenge previously.Paul Marden: Yeah. Kelly Molson: So yeah, and I think that kind of leads us nicely onto content, really, and about the need to frequently update your site and keep it refreshed. So once you've done all of that hard work of working out what content is going to be on it doesn't stay static. So in the report we have a stat that says 31% of respondents said that they updated their online content multiple times a week. That's good. Another 31% said that they did so at least once a month. Good. However, 22% of respondents said they had infrequent content updates or didn't update their content at all. Not updating your content at all. Paul Marden: That surprised me, that one. Yeah, I was surprised that there were 31% of respondents updated it multiple times a week. I was really impressed by that. Yeah. That takes some work, doesn't it? To be able to produce that level of content change, but to do it infrequently or not at all, that surprised me. Kelly Molson: I guess it depends on the attraction and what their offering is as well. Thinking about one of our clients, Holkham actually, so we know that Holkham update their website frequently. They have a lot of different events, they write a lot of really incredible content about what happens across Holkham Estate. So they're engaging with the audience from the perspective of someone coming to visit and what they can do on the day and what they can come and see. But they're also talking about their wider sustainability efforts across the state and what they do and how they focus on that, which again, might be for that same audience. Might be for a slightly different audience as well. Kelly Molson: So the volume of content that they produce is a lot higher than potentially Thorpe Park as a visitor, they will talk about what's on that day and maybe an events that they're running, but they might not talk about the same things that are going on across the Estate that Holkham would, for example. So I think, yeah, it's what your attraction offers. Paul Marden: Holkham's a really good example because they can take inspiration from the place. They're very diverse, they've got lots of different things that they do at that location. It's quite a large location, but there's lots of different things going on and those things are inside and outside. They can take inspiration from the season. So there's a lot of inspiration that you can take there and produce. Just off the top of my head, I could think of lots of different stories that you could tell and changes to the site that can be inspired by the season. But then I think about a theme park where there's lots that goes on. I think I've done lots of trips to Legoland. There's Legoland at Halloween. There's Legoland in Spring time. It changes through the seasons and there's a lot of story around that. Paul Marden: I wonder if you're an indoor attraction, if you're Heritage Museum based, there's going to be lots of stories that you can tell about the items that you've got in your collection. But it might be harder to tell those stories influenced by the seasons, which can be a real driver for telling varying stories throughout a year, can't they? Yeah, but I don't write a lot of stories for those sorts of organisations, so maybe I don't have the right view of the world, but I would imagine it would be a lot harder to write lots of content varying through the year for that sort of organisation. Kelly Molson: Yes, probably so I'm just thinking about it would just be a change in topic, wouldn't it? So I know Blackpool Pleasure Beach, who Andy Hygate, the Operations Director, came on the podcast a couple of seasons ago, actually, and he talked about the experiences they've developed around walking up the big one and the rise that they have there. And actually, I think for people that are interested in theme parks, there's probably a lot of content around how things are built and how they're developed and that kind of side of stuff that people would be really interested in. So it's not talking about seasonal stuff, it's about the things and how they're constructed and how they're designed and kind of stuff like that. Kelly Molson: So, yeah, again, it comes back to just knowing your audience and what are they interested in and how you can engage them and what are your potential new audiences as well, and how can you develop content that attracts them. There is a correlation between content and purchases, though, which is quite interesting. So our report shows that those who were deliberate in ensuring their content was kept fresh and engaging saw an average of 25 to 50,000 completed website purchases a year, whereas those who didn't, on average, had around 10,000 completed purchases. In the same time frame. That's interesting. In addition, of the respondents who recognised the need for regular content updates but weren't action in them, 23% stated that their average sales conversion rate sat between one and 4%, which is below the benchmark for the sector. Kelly Molson: So the sector benchmark is 5% now, so that 1% is significantly low. Paul Marden: Absolutely. Shall we move on and talk about some testing? Because I know you think this one really is. Kelly Molson: Oh, yeah, I really do. So there is a statistic in the report that I had to reread a few times, actually, to believe. So last year's survey and report, we had about 70 attractions take part. This year has been significantly more than that. We got 188 attractions from up and down the UK and Europe take part, which was incredible.Paul Marden: And one in North America as well. I was really excited when I saw that one. Kelly Molson: Yes, we went international. That was exciting. Okay, so think about this: 188 attractions took part in this. 70% of the respondents have never conducted user testing of any kind on their website. 70%! That's actually not the worst stat though. I'm going to save the worst stat for another episode, but that's not the one that shocked me the most. But this one is really surprising. We've talked a bit about making assumptions about how well your website is perceived by people.Kelly Molson: Hard data from actual users is the key to designing a website that has an improved user experience because it can clarify problem areas and identify where most effort is needed to create a really great online experience. So if you're not asking your users how they're interacting with the site and do they like it? Can they buy things well? Can they find what they want? How do you know if it's good or not? It's blown my mind. Paul Marden: It's really hard, isn't it? Really hard. Kelly Molson: And I think it's really you wrote this down, actually. It's really important to be aware of a familiarity bias. So just because you think your website is easy to navigate doesn't mean other people think is it's because you're familiar with it so you understand where things are. Which is really interesting. Actually, I've just been reminded of a conversation that I had with somebody when I was at an attraction. Now I can't name this attraction, we're working with them and we're under NDA, but they asked me about a website that we'd redesigned. They said, "Oh, you did this website, didn't you?" I said, "Yes", "I can't find this thing anymore that I couldn't find. It took me ages to find it before" and I was like, "All right, what is the thing?" And he talked about what it was. Kelly Molson: I said, "Oh, well, it would be in this area". And he said, "Yeah, which makes sense. But before it was over here and I knew where it was and it just feels a bit weird now." I said, "Do you think it was in the right place before?". "Oh, no, shouldn't have been." Okay. So it's just because you know where it is doesn't mean it's actually in the right place. It's just what you get used to over the years. Paul Marden: It is incredibly hard to put yourself into the position of the person that knows nothing about your organisation. Trying to imagine what the customer is going through takes a lot of effort and I think that you can get data to be able to do that. But a lot of there's kind of levels of kind of understanding of that, putting yourself into that customer's position, the empathy that is required. Lots of people that we meet and work with will talk about how they want their site to be structured and what makes sense to them. Some people then will go the next stage and think about what they think their customer wants. And then there's a stage beyond that which is not even trying to put themselves into the customer position, but actually test what the customer thinks. Paul Marden: It's really hard to have the empathy to understand. If you know nothing, what would you do? And there's loads of stuff that you can do. I'm sure we'll come on to that later on to try to understand and test. But just sitting somebody down and watching them go from zero to hero and buying your tickets is a valuable thing that you could do, couldn't it? Kelly Molson: Yeah, absolutely. Now the report on the survey is anonymous. All the data that we get from it, we don't talk about the people that have submitted it and we don't talk about them. There was a number of websites within the data set that were doing really well in terms of both design and navigation and the impact that they were having on their conversion rate. So we reached out to these organisations to ask if we could talk about them today. And all of them were very happy for us to talk about it. So we have had their permission. I think I'll hand over to you, Paul, because you've been doing the analysis over on these sites. It's really lovely to see that Roman Baths are on this list.Paul Marden: They're on the list.Kelly Molson: Because they have been on the podcast and they're our podcast alumni. So that was good.Paul Marden: Yeah, more than once, I think, as well. Kelly Molson: Yes, they have been. Paul Marden: What I went looking for were who were the organisations that thought that they had good design and navigation in their site? But I didn't think that was really enough because of course you could think that it was good and it isn't very good. So what could I dig into the data to try to pull apart the people that thought they had good design and following through from that good design actually had good outcomes. And Roman Baths was up there in that top set of organisations that had they thought they had a good, consistent high quality design, but they also had a conversion rate up there in the top ratings that we had inside the data set. Obviously, Roman Baths really well known organisation, lots of international visitors will be going there. Paul Marden: There was another that I pulled out in the data set, which was also a really high profile brand. London Zoo came out in that top set. Kelly Molson: Also past podcast guests. Thank you. Yes, lovely people. Paul Marden: So they also thought they had good, consistent design, but coincidentally also had good quality conversion rates up there in the top performance in the data set. But to avoid you saying to me, "Oh, but all these are all big, internationally recognised brands. What's design got to do with it?" Up there we've got Roman Baths, London Zoo. Big, well known brands. But there's also some organisations that I wasn't familiar with in that data set. So there were organisations that are probably more regional, less internationally well recognised brands. And one of those that considered that they had good quality design and they also had high levels of conversion rates. Alongside that were Smithwick's experience in Kilkenny in Ireland. It's an attraction that is a brewery tour. I thought that one was really interesting when I went and looked at it. Paul Marden: It was really easy to navigate around the site, ridiculously easy to go and buy tickets. You go onto the site, it's right there to be able to buy those tickets, to go to that experience. So I think that told me that you didn't need to be a big, well recognised brand to be able to devote the time and attention and budget that's needed to get a good design, which then has the impact on your conversion rates. Yeah, this is not just for the big brands. This is also for other brands, smaller, regional brands that can maybe not devote the same levels of investment to it that a large organisation can, but they can still have good outcomes and good design. Kelly Molson: Yeah. And I think it's fair to say we do ask questions in the report about budget, but we don't ask them specifically. So we haven't asked. We don't, for example, know the investment that Roman Barths, London Zoo or Smithwicks have made in their website to get it to where it is now. We literally have no idea. So their budgets could be phenomenally big, they could be phenomenally small. We have no idea whatsoever. But we know that they have invested in good design and they've done it to a really great standard, which means it's easy for people to make purchases. Therefore their sales are sitting at a really great level. Kelly Molson: The Roman Baths I just a little shout out to Simon Addison, actually, because Simon did come on to the podcast a couple of times now, and actually he came onto a recent episode where we talked about the value of this report and the survey that we carry out. And this is its second year now and we can see the value in terms of the data that we've been able to glean from it is so much more insightful this year. The key insights themselves are much more in depth than they were last year. But one thing that Simon mentioned is that we don't work with Roman Baths. I've made that clear on the last podcast. We didn't design their website. We've not worked with them. Kelly Molson: They did use the report to inform some of the decisions that they made about designing their website and making changes to it, which I think is so great. Right. The report is actually actively doing what we set out for it to do. Regardless of whether anyone comes to work with us or not. Someone can take this report and use the insights from it to inform their current agency to make changes to their site that are going to make a significant difference to their bottom line. Well done, us. Paul Marden: Well done, us. But well done, everyone that's responded as well. Kelly Molson: Whatever. Well done, us. Well done, everyone. Thank you. Paul Marden: So I just think it's really impressive, isn't it, that we've got what was it you said? 180 something respondents from across the sector.Kelly Molson: 188.Paul Marden: It's so hard in a tough industry. There's lots of industries where people would not work together. And this is a collaborative exercise in sharing your data that takes a certain confidence within the sector to be able to be willing to share that information so that then somebody like us can then do the graph that aggregating that and seeing the interesting stories that people can then use to make things better. There's so many places where you would not see that happen.Kelly Molson: It's a wonderful part of the sector, that collaboration and that willingness to share and be open about things. Right, let's talk about next steps then, because we've talked about some of the items within design, navigation, testing. We've talked about who's doing it well. Let's wrap this up with next steps that you can take.  Kelly Molson: If you think some of these things are relevant to you and you want to do something about them. Do some testing. Do some testing and you can do that in a variety of ways. Paul Marden: Do you want me to test some stuff? Kelly Molson: Let's do some testing. Let's test. Look, there's loads of ways that you can do user testing if you're going through the process of a redesign at the moment. Go back to your wireframes, make them interactive. Do some internal testing, do some external testing. You can do this in multiple ways so you can do focus groups, get bums on seats in front of computers and give them some things that you want them to do on your site. Don't tell them how to do it, but just give them some things that you want them to achieve. I want you to buy a ticket. I want you to tell me how easy it is to go and find the interactive map. I want you to find a blog post and can you get from the blog post to buying a ticket, some of those things. Kelly Molson: This doesn't need to cost you a huge amount of money, right? You all have an asset in that. "Hey, would you like a free ticket to our venue if you come and do some testing for us?" Put on a little bit of lunch, put on people are really happy to help and give you feedback in that way. So that doesn't need to be a huge cost at all. You can use online tools, so we use tools like UserTesting.com. You can select a certain demographic that you want to test out and you upload what you want them to test. And then they go off and they do it, and they record videos, and you can see how they interact and they talk through what they're doing and how easy it was for them to do those things as well. Kelly Molson: They are not a huge, costly I actually don't know off the top of my head. There will be a fee to use the system, which will be a monthly fee and then there'll be a fee probably for that will cover X amount of tests within that monthly fee. So it will probably be from what, 150, maybe a month, something like that, maybe a bit more. Paul Marden: The cost depends as well on factors, how many factors you place on the do you only want people to do user testing that are of a particular demographic and age? If your attraction has mainly parents with young kids coming, do you want your user testing to be done only by parents with young kids? When you add more constraints to it, the cost of doing it becomes higher. But arguably the quality of the data that you get back from the testing is more relevant to you. Kelly Molson: You can do this with I've talked about going back to the wireframe stage. You can do this at any point. So great, do a load of testing before you go ahead and release something to the world. But if you've got something that's up and running now, do some testing. So you can do user testing on what you already have. You can do exit surveys so you can ask people once they've bought a ticket, you can ask them how easy that was. What did you find difficult? What were your challenges at the end of your purchasing journey? So there's small little things you can do there. Paul Marden: The world has changed a lot, hasn't it? In the last few years we've moved to almost exclusively online sales beforehand. So we've got this massive pool of data, of contact information of the people that have bought your tickets. That's such a great resource that you could use, which in previous years pre pandemic it would have been a struggle because a large chunk of your people would have been walk ins who you didn't necessarily it wasn't easy to capture those sorts of contact details and follow up with them. Kelly Molson: Yeah, exactly. And then I think there are things that you can do in terms of looking at your user experience and the design side of things. We do things like UX reviews for people. We actually offered one as a prize for all of the people that entered the survey this year and the lovely people at Cheddar Gorge won that. We're going to be looking at that in a couple of months for them. Paul Marden: Back near my home proper, that's Cheddar Gorge is where I went as a kid, like, so that's exciting to be. Kelly Molson: In that we'll be carrying that out later on in the year for them. So, yeah, there's things that you can do in terms of working with an agency to look at what your user journeys look like. Are they correct for the audience that you have? Does your design flow? Where are the barriers that you're seeing? And again, if you're looking at some of the data of where you're seeing people drop off, is that a design issue, is that a function issue? How do we work those things out? Paul Marden: There's loads of tools, isn't there, as well, like Hotjar that you can stick on, which doesn't cost a lot of money. And it's not just Hotjar, there are lots of other tools just like it which would give you insight into the behaviour of the users on the site. It's just a snapshot that you get for free, but that snapshot could really help inform decision making about maybe I need to make it easier for them to find the button because they're finding it hard to book tickets or whatever. Kelly Molson: Because they can't see where they need to book their tickets. Paul Marden: Yeah. Kelly Molson: So, yeah, I think in summary, do some testing is what I'm going to end this podcast episode with. Do some testing, come back and tell us what you find.Paul Marden: Exciting. I'd love to have those conversations. Kelly Molson: As ever, if you want to get in touch with either of us, all of our contact details are in the Show Notes. If anything has sparked your interest that we've talked about today, we're really happy to answer any questions and things like that. So if you do want to ask any questions about any of the kind of stats that we've talked about, again, just our email addresses will be in the Show Notes. And also, if you haven't downloaded the report yet, why not? Because it's out. It launched yesterday. We did a webinar. Did you come to it? Why not? If not, but if you do want to go and download the report, we'll put the link to that in the Show Notes as well. But just head over to the rubbercheese.com website and you'll be able to find it. We'll see you next time. Paul Marden: Awesome. Thank you. Kelly Molson: Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip The Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast.

Unearth the mesmerizing allure of Morocco, as Sam, our Destination Morocco insider, guides us through the highlights of a typical Northern and Southern Tour.In this episode of Destination Morocco, we put particular emphasis on the entrance fees to these famous sights and attractions, including which ones are free. Sam is careful to convert from Moroccan Dirhams into US Dollars which, as it turns out, is a pretty straightforward process.Our route takes us from Marrakech to Essaouira, then Casablanca, Rabat, Fès, Meknes, Ouarzazate and the Atlas Studios, Merzouga Desert, the Canyons of the south, hiking villages of the High Atlas Mountains, particularly Midelt, then back to Tangier, Chefchaouen and neighboring Akchour.We deliver insider tips and insights into these must-see sights that are sure to make your Moroccan adventure truly unforgettable. And beyond just the regular tourist highlights, we tap into activities and options, their costs and how much time they take, for when you have more than just a day or two at a particular stop. One can absolutely spend 3 or 4 days in Merzouga or Chefchaouen, Tangier or Rabat, and find lots to discover and explore. These are the cultural immersions and off-the-beaten-path secrets that most tourists don't get to.We conclude this episode on a poignant note, as Sam shares his deeply moving experience delivering aid to villages affected by the recent earthquake. His heartfelt retelling of the gratitude expressed by the locals is a powerful reminder of the spirit of community and resilience in Morocco. We'll continue to have more earthquake updates over the coming weeks, as Morocco gets back on its feet. But in the meantime, the most important message is: come! Come visit Morocco, bring your energy, enthusiasm and curiosity. Nothing will help recovery more than having your presence with us.You can donate to Destionation Morocco's earthquake relief here:https://destinationsmorocco.com/relief Do you dream of exploring the enchanting land of Morocco?Destination Morocco is your ultimate travel experience for those seeking luxury and adventure. We specialize in crafting bespoke itineraries tailored to your unique tastes and desires.If you're a discerning traveler who values an immersive, curated adventure, visit www.destinationsmorocco.com, and let us bring your dream Moroccan vacation to life.Learn more about Azdean and Destination Morocco.Download the stunning Destination Morocco magazine!Follow the podcast and help us grow.

Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Brady Report - Wednesday August 30, 2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Brady Report - Wednesday August 30, 2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Notch Local EatsWhile not technically food, the Candy Kitchen in Madeira Beach is a mom-and-pop shop that sells candy from all decades. From the "Bean Boozled" Jelly beans to the original Whatchamacallit, you are bound to find something you remember from childhood.For outstanding drinks with flair and flavor, try Saigon Blonde! This 60s-inspired restaurant and bar exude an inviting atmosphere with its tropical décor, including flickering tiki totems and murals. The tiki bar gives way to a tropical lounge with lanterns, plush furniture, and eclectic paintings. At the very back of the room, you can find the military bar. With two separate and unique bars, tropical seating areas, and a beautiful second-floor lounge, Saigon Blonde is a prime spot for any occasion. The menu is full of delicious fresh cocktails that reflect the flavors and feel of the Pacific Rim. Many of the cocktails are made with fresh ingredients from their garden and Asian liquors. Saigon Blonde has a diverse food selection, including Vietnamese dishes to modern street food flavors. They also offer many vegan options. Saigon Blonde also has a legend to the name! During the Vietnam War, Saigon Lounge was a bar in the capital of Vietnam. The owner was a beautiful blonde Vietnamese and French woman. Locals and soldiers loved her bar! She had two rules: no weapons allowed, and have fun! In a time of war, anyone was welcome. The bar disappeared toward the end of the war, but its legacy lives on in Saint Pete! Escape the Florida heat and your busy day with some pals at Saigon Blonde!Explore the EntertainmentIf you are looking for a good time, stop at the Saint Pete Fair Grounds! Here you can find an immersive explorable art and technology exhibition that is a collaboration of 60 artists. Let your mind wander while you explore each exhibit and find the hidden details they share.Saint Pete has some of the freshest food. To find it, look no further than the Saint Pete Saturday Morning Market. The Saturday Morning Market is the best place to find freshly cooked food, locally farmed groceries, and live music. With 120 vendors, you are bound to fall in love with at least a couple of tents while you are there. If you are a local, you may even find a shop that has been under your nose the whole time!An iconic staple of Saint Pete is the St. Pete Pier, jetting out into Tampa Bay. A favorite destination of locals and tourists alike, the St. Pete Pier offers breathtaking views of the Gulf of Mexico and downtown Saint Petersburg. From it, you can see cruise ships, harbor seals, and various wildlife. The Pier is particularly special for those who like to shop. Its shops and restaurants offer something for everyone- art, clothing, jewelry, souvenirs, and food- local favorites like crab cakes and other seafood. Be sure to check out the Pier Aquarium, where you can see live fish, turtles, and rays up close and personal! And, of course, everyone should explore the Pier's landmark inverted pyramid. The Pier also provides plenty of opportunities for outdoor activities, such as walking, running, and biking. There's even a beach boardwalk for those who want to take a leisurely stroll. The Pier Park is great for a picnic or just relaxing in the sun. From beautiful views of the Gulf to all the attractions the Pier has to offer, the Saint Pete Pier is a must-see when you are in Saint Pete."Must-Sea" MuseumsSt. Pete is full of spectacular Museums. Its most renowned art museum in St. Pete is the Salvador Dali Museum. The Dali Museum is a great way to become inspired by the great works of Salvador Dali. Located nearby will inspire and captivate art lovers with its comprehensive, expansive collection of the immense and transcendent artwork of the luminary Spanish surrealist. From oils and sculptures to engravings, visitors are given an intimate and detailed overview of Dalí's masterpieces. Watching his works come to life as you explore the galleries is truly unparalleled. The Salvador Dalí Museum is a must-see in Saint Petersburg. Take the time to learn about each piece and the emotions that went into each of his creations. The museum also has an app for interactive observation. Just remember, the week of September 17 is Art Week in Saint Pete. Though it is a special week to visit art museums, it is abnormally busy! Another must-visit art museum is the Museum of Fine Art. The Museum of Fine Art is one of the most beloved cultural attractions in the city and a must-see for visitors. The museum is home to a diverse collection of art and artifacts from around the world and throughout the centuries, providing an engaging and educational experience for all ages. Whether you're a fan of Impressionist and modern art, African and Asian art, European paintings, or photography, there's something to be explored at the Museum of Fine Art. The permanent exhibits showcase works from significant artists such as Monet, Picasso, O'Keeffe, and Rembrandt, to name a few. Additionally, there are rotating exhibitions that are often themed to reflect current events. These exhibitions can feature both visiting and permanent works, giving new and exciting ways to experience the museum. The galleries are also frequently updated to stay current with the newest art trends and feature new works, adding a layer of continuity that is truly unique. The Museum of Fine Art also provides a range of programming and events that make your visit truly interactive. From lectures and classes to art workshops and concerts, there's always something exciting to be experienced. Whether you're a long-time art enthusiast or someone looking to explore something new, a visit to the Museum of Fine Art in St. Pete is an essential part of any itinerary.The most moving museum to see when in Saint Pete is the Holacost Museum. This museum is a memorable space dedicated to preserving the stories and lives of those lost during one of the most horrific periods in history. Built-in 1992, it serves as a memorial to Holocaust survivors and their families, highlighting their experiences and showcasing both personal artifacts and informative displays. As one of the largest Holocaust museums in the nation, the Florida Holocaust Museum is also a reminder that such tragic events should never be forgotten. The museum features several galleries, filling visitors with an understanding of how discrimination and prejudice can have devastating outcomes. There are exhibits that feature the stories of Holocaust survivors and their families, as well as sections dedicated to exploring the history of antisemitism and racism during World War II. There is also a Hall of Remembrance, which is designed as a place to remember and honor those lives taken in the Holocaust. For visitors from outside of Florida, there is also a special section about Florida's response to the Holocaust, including stories from survivors who settled in the Sunshine State after the war.Additionally, the museum regularly hosts programs and events, such as lectures and panel discussions, which further provide insight into this part of history. Whether you're planning a visit to the Florida Holocaust Museum for educational purposes or a memorial service, there is nothing else quite like it. From the inspiring displays, interactive media, and artifacts, to the unique stories, this is one of the most moving cultural destinations in the country.

This week, the boys discuss the viral article on the most popular tourist attractions in the United States from HawaiianIslands.com with Brittany Mendez. Listen to find out why they both may end up in an asylum.  Check out the article and maps here: https://hawaiianislands.com/blog/favorite-american-tourist-attraction/ Things We Talked About In Today's Episode: Ryan on Overcoming The Divide: https://overcomethedivide.buzzsprout.com/1217318/13192884-the-democratic-primaries-media-strategy-with-ryan-j-davis https://smokymountains.com/fall-foliage-map/ https://floridapanhandle.com/shark-attack-data/ https://floridapanhandle.com/blog/the-most-and-least-expensive-vacation-destinations-around-the-world-and-states/ The Last Stop: Ryan: Ends August 13 https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/under-cover-leyendecker-and-american-masculinity Kiernan: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/23/metro/behind-maine-flag-debate-an-identity-crisis/?s_campaign=breakingnews:newsletter  

If you're frustrated with the lack of unique and diverse experiences in Liechtenstein, despite your efforts to explore, you are not alone! Many tourists find themselves visiting the same popular attractions, missing out on the hidden gems that truly showcase the beauty and culture of this tiny country. Instead of experiencing the vibrant local traditions and breathtaking landscapes, you may find yourself stuck in crowded tourist hotspots, unable to immerse yourself in the authentic Liechtenstein experience fully. But fear not; countless activities and attractions are waiting to be discovered, and with the right guidance, you can unlock the true essence of Liechtenstein and create memories that will last a lifetime. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO: Explore the captivating geography and intriguing attributes of Liechtenstein. Dive into the lucrative dental industry and the art of crafting false teeth in Liechtenstein. Peek into the affluent yet ordinary lifestyle of Liechtenstein's own royal family. Unravel the unique dynamics between Liechtenstein's monarchs and their subjects. Discover some of the must-visit attractions and activities in Liechtenstein. My special guests are Louise Hansson from the tourist office in Vaduz, and The Radio Vagabond's Senior Royal Correspondent, Paul Rosner. Louise Hansson is a bona fide blend of Swedish origin and Liechtenstein upbringing, making her a trusted source for all things Liechtenstein. She's lived most of her life here in this enchanting European enclave, so her knowledge about the region is as vast as its stunning Alps. Louise's father was among the few dentists operating in Liechtenstein in the '70s, and he served the local community for over 30 years! Now, she passionately showcases the charm and unexpected surprises this tiny nation offers. THE KEY MOMENTS IN THIS EPISODE ARE: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Liechtenstein 00:03:08 - Facts about Liechtenstein  00:08:39 - Exploring Schaan 00:09:33 - Driving to the Capital 00:10:13 - Interview with Louise Hansson 00:17:19 - The Russian Offer to Liechtenstein 00:18:08 - The Wealth of Liechtenstein's Monarchy  00:19:11 - Tourist Attractions in Liechtenstein  00:21:18 - Liechtenstein's Princely Family 00:26:54 - Liechtenstein's Unique Monarchy 00:33:42 - Living in Liechtenstein 00:34:28 - The Beauty of Liechtenstein 00:34:38 - Things to Do in Liechtenstein 00:36:37 - Recommendations and Gratitude 00:37:54 - Poem written and read by an AI. Read the full article and see the pictures on TheRadioVagabond.com/273-Liechtenstein   This episode is sponsored by Hotels25.com.

Send us a Text Message."Treasures of Our Town" is a podcast that explores the hidden gems and treasures of small towns and communities around the USA. In this particular episode, the hosts, Craig "The Aussie Geocacher, Seemyshell" and Joshua "The Geocaching Vlogger," introduce themselves and share their passion for travel, geocaching and exploring the world around them. Craig & Josh introduce themselves, discuss the show, how it started. Who's idea it was. They also chat about upcoming episodes, and how you can interact with them.The episode starts with a brief overview of themselves. The hosts then go on to discuss how they became friends and developed the podcast.Seemyshell, who is based in USA, shares his experience of discovering friendships and relationships and how it has led him to explore the natural beauty of USA. The Geocaching Vlogger, is based in the United States and has been involved in geocaching, content creating and YouTube for over a decade.The hosts also discuss how they met and how they decided to start the podcast together. They share their vision for the podcast and how they hope to inspire others to explore the world around them and discover the treasures hidden in their own towns and communities.Overall, the episode provides an introduction to the hosts and their passion for Travel, Geocaching and sets the tone for the rest of the podcast, which promises to be an exciting journey of discovery and exploration.Feel free to Subscribe, Rate and Review each episode.The guys can be contacted via most social media outlets or directly to their email, treasuresofourtownpodcast@gmail.com.Links from the showCraig's Youtube -  www.youtube.com/@TheAussieGeocacherSeemyshellCraig's 2nd Channel - www.youtube.com/@AnAussieinAmericaJoshua's Youtube - www.youtube.com/@TheGeocachingVloggerKeadle video - Click HereJoshua's 1st video - Click HereSupport the Show.FacebookInstagramTwitterYoutube

Send us a Text Message.Introducing the newest travel podcast, "Treasures of our Town"! Join hosts Craig "The Aussie Geocacher, Seemyshell" and Joshua "The Geocaching Vlogger" as they embark on a journey across the United States, exploring the hidden gems and best-kept secrets in each state.As avid geocachers, Craig and Joshua are experts in finding unique locations and adventures off the beaten path. Each episode of "Treasures of our Town" will feature a different destination, where the hosts will share their favourite experiences, and take you on their very own 'Virtual' tour.Subscribe, Rate and Review on any of your favourite podcasting apps.The podcast can be followed on all social mediaFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/TreasuresofourTownPodcastInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/treasures_of_our_town/Twitter - https://twitter.com/treasuresoftownYouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@treasuresofourtownpodcastSupport the Show.FacebookInstagramTwitterYoutube