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NEW YORK TIMES TRAVEL SHOW TALKS FRUGAL TRAVEL

I had the pleasure to attend the New York Times Travel Show 2018 (held at the Jacob K. Davits Centre on the 26-28th January in New York City) as a member of the press. The show is the largest travel trade exhibition in North America and its 2018 show represented its 15th year running. The show comprised of many seminars to aid education around many areas of Travel from “food” to “affordability of travel”. The show was bolstered with an incredible travel exhibition representing well over 150 countries.

I attended a number of seminars from those that focused on Africa to “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel”. One of my favourite panels was “The Frugal Traveler With Lucas Peterson” and below I will be sharing my key takeaways from the session alongside images of the travel exhibition.

Lucas Peterson of the New York Times on stage during his seminar session 

WHAT IS FRUGAL TRAVEL & WHAT RESOURCES SUPPORT IT

  • Frugal travel DOES NOT mean cheap. It means finding the best value for one’s dollar.
  • Frugal travel can offer a more “genuine” travel experience allowing one-on-one interaction with locals.
  • Leverage home-sharing sites like Airbnb, GuesttoGuest, Couchsurfing
  • Travel is becoming more experiential – In effect, people want to feel as if they were a local (“step into the shoes of a local”)
  • Recommended “experiential” sites: Visit.org, Airbnb, ifonly, Vayable etc. These sites enable you to book local experiences (run by locals with most proceeds going back into the local communities).

TRAVEL MYTHS

  • There is no specific day/time to get the best deals on flights (but granted weekend travel tend to be more expensive).
  • Travel is too expensive. Travelling is becoming cheaper in this era. Key is to compare, compare, compare.

 

KEY HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SHOW

Official opening of the show

Travel blogger session with Lina and David Stock of Divergent Travels & Hannah and Adam Lukaszewicz of GettingStamped.com

One of the many incredible exhibition stands by the Mexican Tourism Board


 The exhibition was organised by continent (great to see a lot of African countries represented)

A snapshot of the stand representing the Tourism Board of the Seychelles Islands

  Overall, the travel show was a great opportunity to network with travel professionals, exchange insights from local travel markets and build relationships with like-minded travel enthusiast. Let me know if you found the information useful and which travel shows you attend in your local market.

Click here for more info about the NY Times Travel Show

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HOW TO FIND CHEAP FLIGHTS ✈ in 2018

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un5i8a3LY0c[/embedyt]

 

Learn the easy tips and tricks to help you find cheap flights in 2018. These tips will save you money and change the way you buy flight tickets. I really hope they are useful to you.

For more travel tips and advise, click here

 

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Announcing the Winner of my ‘Miniso’ Travel Giveaway

I want to send a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who participated in my giveaway and helped make it a success!

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And a special congratulations to YouTuber “Bianca Fatima John”, the winner of the Miniso Wireless Speakers, Grey Backpack & Passport Holder.

Bianca Fatima John’s comment entry was randomly selected from TOP 5 comments (a selection made by my Mother and I) and has been crowned the winner!

[a )I honestly just discovered your channel and you need to see the way I hit the subscribe button Sharp Sharp ??. You’re so interesting and full of life. I’m already in love with your vlogs… I have a plan to visit not less than five African and Asian countries this year. That’s more like a travel goal than a plan but you get me. I love traveling almost as much as I love dancing and Visiting Kualar Lumpur, Malaysia is top of the list on my travel plan/goal for this year. I’ve seen so many YouTubers gush over it plus it’s got so many beautiful sites to see like the floating mosque , batu caves, the lake garden, deer park and lots more.

b) I’ll love to win the wireless speaker because I’m a dancer and I love to make dance video especially when I travel in front of famous sites. The only issue is that I don’t have a device that plays loud music and most times I use my phone to dance I can barely hear the songs when I dance and winning this speaker will definitely change that. I also need the passport holder because as much as I hate to admit it, I’m actually really careless. I almost lost my passport once. Yes, you read that right. My mom almost killed me ??. The bag is super pretty and I can already picture the speaker and passport holder in it while I take hikes in Malaysia and generally for everything. Thank you so much for having this giveaway Funke ??. God bless
Instagram: Fatttttyyyyy_xx]

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how I chose the winner:

 

I plan to run a lot more giveaways in the near future for you all on my social media channels in the future so make sure you are subscribed to my social media handles so YOU DON’T MISS THEM. THANK YOU all once again for participating.

▼ ▽ CONNECT WITH ME

○ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/sassy_funke/
○ SNAPCHAT:  https://www.snapchat.com/add/sassy_funke
○ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Sassy_Funke
○ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/sassyfunke
○ WEBSITE: www.sassyfunke.com

Click here to see all of the giveaway entries.

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MY 2017 YEAR IN 5 MINUTES | 2018 TRAVEL INSPIRATION

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OaWNeg0PWE[/embedyt]

2017 has been an incredible year of travel for me. Hope you enjoy this video montage of my travels this year and that it inspires you for the year ahead.

To stay up-to-date with my incredible travel vlogs and hacks, subscribe to my YouTube channel here: http://bit.ly/sassy-funke

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Nigeria Travel Week: Organizers Unfold Nominees for The Balearica Award

I was honored and proud to have attended the press conference for the launch of the “Nigeria Tourism Awards” which will hold during the Nigeria Travel Week (NTW) between November 20–25, 2017. The organisers of the travel and tourism trade event announced the nominees for the Balearica Awards, which forms part of activities slated for the four days gathering that is geared at promoting Nigeria Tourism.

WHAT IS THE “NIGERIA TRAVEL WEEK”?

The Nigeria Travel Week is a curated gathering that is geared towards promoting Nigeria tourism both to the domestic and foreign markets. The week will see 52-hosted buyers from 23 countries across the world attending in attendance.  The aim is to expose these buyers to Nigeria as a destination and offer them the opportunity to experience Nigeria and in return, market the country through their various platforms. The essential aim of the week is to begin to change the narrative in Nigeria with regard to tourism.

THE NIGERIA TOURSIM AWARDS (THE BALEARICA AWARDS)

The Chief Executive Officer at Nigeria Travel Week (NTW), Efetobo Awhana, who is also CEO of Avantgarde Tours said that the award, which is to reward and recognize excellence and those who have made immense contributions to Nigeria tourism, would transform the face of tourism, insisting that is a unique one.

nigeria travel week

OTHER EVENTS DURING NTW

  • A Tourism Cup (Golf Tournament) will be held at Ikoyi Club Golf course with the aim to harness the power of golf in promoting tourism.
  • “The Travel Roundtable” holding at The Wheatbaker Hotel, which brings stakeholders together to discuss key issues affecting tourism development.
  • Village Square holding at Freedom Park celebrates Nigerian culture through dance drama and food.
  • The Travel Hangout, where Nigerians can network and talk about tourism in a relaxed and natural environment of the Lekki Conservation Centre.

The four days event would climax with The Balearica Awards, where the full names of the awardees would be revealed and celebrated for their different achievements.

Click here for the link to vote

To register for the Nigeria Travel Week, click here 

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PRIMARK LAGOS TO LONDON HAUL

#PR[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEOd5dqpnqE[/embedyt]

Primark Lagos to London Haul is a haul about the items that Nigerians buy from London to take back to Nigeria. Can you relate?? Share below what you normally buy from Primark.

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TRAVELING WITH FRIENDS: TRAVEL TIPS

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCAKpOj9THI[/embedyt]

 

This travel tips video is all about traveling with friends. I talk about ways to make traveling with friends most effective. I also give MY stories when traveling with friends went wrong. Let me know, do you actually like traveling with friends or doing it SOLO?

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HOW TO FLY “BUSINESS CLASS” FOR CHEAP

There are two sets of people that fly business class. The first didn’t really pay for that ticket, their sponsor did. That sponsor could have been their sugar daddy, their real daddy or their company. The second don’t have sponsors like the first so they set out strategically to get these seats. My post today will give you the secrets these second set of people utilise to fly business class for “close to nothing”. Read on for more, and if you are the visual type, I made a video VLOG on my youtube channel here.

(1) USE SUPER SEARCH ENGINES like Sky Scanner

Search engines like Sky scanner have the capability to scan for the cheapest tickets on any route. Different platforms negotiate different deals with airlines. To get the best ticket price, do not necessarily go for purchasing your ticket via the airline’s own website.

(2) FLY A DIFFERENT AIRLINE’S “BUSINESS CLASS”

Business class on different airlines vary in quality but they are consistent in one thing, they are better than economy. Some airlines charge double for the same route compared to their competitors so perhaps it is advisable to look at alternatives.

(3) BID FOR AN UPGRADE IN AIRLINE ONLINE AUCTIONS

Many airlines in a bid to ensure they have all seats sold offer to auction business class seats to economy/economy plus passengers. The bids involve you putting it a bid of what you are prepared to pay for the upgrade within a range provided. The highest bids win and if you don’t win, you do not have to pay anything. I have experienced this auction offer whilst flying with Etihad airways.

(4) JOIN FREQUENT FLYER LOYALTY PROGRAMS & ENROL FOR AIRLINE CREDIT CARDS

Joining frequent flyer programs and owning airline branded credit cards are great ways to easy accumulate airline miles/points. These can then be redeemable for free upgrades and tickets. These programs are free to join.

(5) BOOK EARLY AND BUY DURING AIRLINE SALES EVENTS

A great way to get a business class seat for a fraction of the cost is booking early and also buying tickets during the huge sale periods. Make sure to join airline social media pages as they tend to advertise short-sale deals on these platforms.

(6) ASK POLITELY, DRESS NICE & TRAVEL SOLO

Airlines overbook hoping customers don’t show which means some customers will get the upgrade. Give yourself the best chance of this by asking politely for one (It has worked for me before), dressing nicely and traveling solo.

 

So that’s it guys, great practicable ways to fly business class on a CHEAP. Tell me, were the points useful for you? and perhaps you have tried them before?

Featured image: Business Insider

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FIRST TIME FLYING TIPS

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4qKqe1wBaY[/embedyt]

 

First time flying tips is a video on tips and hacks for first time flyers that have never flown on planes before. These tips are also useful for frequent flyers. Hope you enjoy the video and leave a comment below⬇⬇⬇ on other useful flying tips.