A while after I visited the Nordic Travel Fair, I was fortunate enough to be invited to the local travel fair here in California. The Travel & Adventure Show is a yearly even which is held in multiple cities in California, and I participated in the San Francisco Bay Area Show in Santa Clara. I was given a press pass to the fair, and I spent a whole day there on Saturday. There was also a special event for the press on Saturday morning but unfortunately I was unable to join.
First, after visiting the Nordic Travel Fair in Finland, the size of this show just blew my mind. There were several halls full of travel related things, and sometimes you didn’t even notice when you had entered a different room. The noise there was also something else compared to Europe. American small talk suits so well to this kind of situation and there is never a shy moment by the booths. I especially noticed that all kinds of photo spots and booths were extremely popular. Some of them just provided the props, so you could take your photo with your phone but some had a photographer taking pictures, and you were able to walk out with a souvenir photo.
One of the main attractions was an audition to the Amazing Race TV show, and the host Phil Keoghan. The line to the audition was very long and everyone seemed to have dressed up in sports clothes. I did participate in the Phil Keoghans talk; “No Opportunity Wasted” and was lucky to meet him after the talk. Based on the pictures he showed us, he has truly been quite the adventurer himself and I quite enjoyed listening to his stories. The Amazing Race will be airing it’s new season at the end of April.
I did participate in a couple other talks as well. One of them was by Angel Castellanos from Angel’s Travel Lounge blog. His talk was about travel safety and how to pack effectively. I was actually happy to get new tips I hadn’t thought of myself before, and even though some of the equipment were sold at the fair, his talk wasn’t too commercialized. He was also very good at public speaking so I quite enjoyed listening to him. The most enthusiastic travelers seemed to participate in the talks with note books which I didn’t realise to bring with me.
I have worked at different fairs for years and from that point of view, I saw things I had never seen before in Scandinavia. I found out that some visitors take these fairs extremely serious, and they went around collecting brochures and commercial products with a little trolley. I saw several people carrying heavy bags full of things. I am not sure if these people were there just to collect the free merchandise or were they serious travellers looking for new tips for their travels. All the pens, key chains, note books and candies disappeared very quickly from the booths. Sometimes people even reached out to get them from behind my back, and not just a few, they took the whole stack. I remember in Finland, we were not terribly happy about these collectors but this was totally at a new level, and the hosts didn’t seem to care. I guess it goes with the territory here in the US.
Overall, this show was a positive experience and I got a lot of great travel tips, a few new contacts and great ideas for my future travels. Next year I will definitely go again! Then I will be more aware about what to expect and it will be easier to plan my own day at the show.
And here is a hostess a la Silicon Valley. A talking cardboard stand which looks like a human. “Lexi” looked disturbingly real even though she was completely flat. I hope they don’t replace all of the people with these in the future! Ha ha…
See you at the Travel & Adventure Show next year!
Thanks for the kind words Paula. I’m glad you enjoyed my talk and the show
Thanks for stopping by at my blog Angel!
I think travel shows are great for collecting information and getting to know people in the industry. Thanks for sharing.
I think so too Anita. You can get great ideas on these shows.
I’ve always wanted to go to a travel trade show and lucky for me, I’m moving to the Bay Area in the fall so thank you for putting this on my radar! Also Phil from the Amazing Race is one of the world’s best hosts! So happy to see that he actually advocates for travel in his spare time 😉
Oh how great is that Izzy! Welcome to Bay Area, it is such an awesome place. You should put the next years show into your calendar.
Sounds like a great event to be part of. What is one thing you learned from
Yes, it was great! I think I learned some good lessons about traveling safely with credit cards.
The travel and adventure show seems to be pretty interesting . The fact that they hold your full of travel related things makes it a heaven for Travellers . The Amazing Race TV show also seems to be pretty interesting… The Shoe seems to be a Paradise for Travellers and everyone would at least love to visit at once I think…
Yes, I could recommend this show to all travellers.
Very nice! Here in the Philippines, we always attend travel exhibits and symposiums like these. We should put more travel shows. These events help people get off their butts and leave their sedentary lives behind.
That is great! I would love to participate a show in some other country as well just to see how they are different.
Looks like a cool event! I haven’t been to any travel fair like this! Attending talks by seasoned travelers would be awesome! Lexi definitely looks disturbingly real!
This was my first time in a travel fair in USA and it was definitely a fun experience!
Wow! I have never attended one of these. Would be so informative and entertaining as well.
I definitely recommend if you ever get a chance to participate.
This looks like a great event to attend. I’m sure the talks were inspiring. The booths looked fun!
Yes, many of the booths were very well done and I enjoyed visiting them a lot.
This is so cool. I have never been to a Travel show so can only imagine the rush of being surrounded by all things travel. I can totally understand how annoying it can get when people are only interested in merchandise, although I do love to collect pens and notebooks, but there has to be the right balance. Great to know that the show was a positive experience.
Thank you Raghav!
These kinds of shows are the best. It will definitely make me so inspired and wanting to go to all of the places. So cool with the Amazing Race audition 😀
I know, now I think I will have to watch the Amazing Race when it airs 🙂
Very informative and I love the amazing race. Such a fun show but I don’t know if I would want to be on it. Seems pretty stressful. Also glad the talk wasn’t too
Commercial and gave you helpful tips. I always like lesrning something new.
Thank you Kelly! I totally agree. If I would participate, I would keep thinking how I want to stay longer in each destination. But it is fun to watch.