Hot Summer Arts, Bahamian Florida Day, and More Coming Your Way!

With leisure travel becoming more a standard part of everyone’s lifestyle, arts related tourism has been a significant beneficiary. Whether it is travel to France to visit the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Tadolini Museum in Rome or a day at a local art show or festival, art and cultural tourism keeps people on the move.

Nancy Turrell, CFRE, the executive director of The Arts Council, serving Stuart and Martin County, will be in the studio this week to talk art. When Radio Man heard about an Arts Council special event coming up soon called Hot Summer Arts - "Bahamian Florida Day" Island Market, he knew he had to ask Nancy to be on the show. In addition to what’s happening on the local Treasure Cost arts scene, Ms. Turrell will give us a look at what the arts organizations themselves are specifically doing to promote tourism in our Treasure coast region. Nancy is never at a loss for words, so fasten your seat belts. This should be fun.

The rest of the show will cover a variety of tourism related tidbits including:

• 15 Ways Consumers Can Reduce Airfare Costs and Avoid Those Pesky Added Fees
• 50 Americanisms or-How to NOT Sound Like an American When Overseas
• Bahama Updates
• History Lady’s Historical Cocktail Party Conversation Starters
• And a whole lot more…. 

Tune in Friday (July 29) morning at 10 a.m. (WPSL 1590 AM or www.wpsl.com) and take another virtual vacation, compliments of Talkin’ Tourism.

RV Lifestyle--a multi-million dollar industry in the U.S.

John McCluskey and Vince Ginnizzaro from
Florida Outdoor RV Center helped educate
Talkin' Tourism host Gary Guertin and listeners
on the RV Lifestyle.

The old saying “See the USA in your Chevrolet” has taken on a whole new meaning. Apparently many people today are seeing the USA in their Fleetwood, Coachmans, Crossroad or Winnebago.

Talkin’ Tourism finally delved into the RV Lifestyle with Florida Outdoor RV Center president and owner John McCluskey and service manager Vince Ginnizzaro

The conversation was very enlightening as John described the size of this multi-billion dollar industry in the US. That economic impact does not even count the “trickle down” of revenues associated with the actual use of RV’s in this country. History Lady and Radio Man were surprised to learn that it is not just “grey nomads” that make up the lion’s share of the market. So, just how is the market divided up? We definitely talked about that. Another interesting point in the conversation focused on fuel efficiency and cost. The Talkin’ Tourism team was pleased to learn that compared to other forms of travel, RVing is very cost efficient, especially since you are carrying your accommodations with you! How do RV’ers reduce their carbon footprint? One way is towing a fuel efficient car, and often bicycles and scooters as other forms of transportation, to use when reaching the planned destination--making this type of travel a very “green” concept.

The RV Lifestyle conversation was very lively, which is a nicer way to explain hosts Gary Guertin and Robin Hicks-Connors did not get the chance to explore the RV Lifestyle in other countries so they will have to extend that conversation to a future show.

Thanks John and Vince for a great show and lots of great information.

Download the audio file here and If you are wondering if the the RV Lifestyle is for you, download the audio file HERE—this show may just convince you to find out more!

The RV lifestyle in the U.S. and overseas

The RV lifestyle, camping Robin Hicks-Connors style.
Photo credit: RVBasics.com.

Many years ago, Radio Man’s mom and dad had the urge to travel and hit the open road as alternatives to their Cape Cod weekends. They purchased a 23 foot Kountry Aire trailer and the rest was history. In addition to weekend trips, they made their first trips to Florida with their trailer and Radio Man remembers staying at the Bryn Mawr Trailer Park and Campground on North Hutchinson Island, as well as Yacht Haven Trailer Park in Ft. Lauderdale. This is back in the ‘60’s.

Fast forward to 2011. From those early days, a whole culture has evolved known as the 'RV Lifestyle.' Talkin' Tourism host Gary Guertin remarked, "Now I think that this is camping Robin Hicks-Connors style!"

Joining radio’s biggest tourism fans Gary and Robin will be John McCluskey, president of Florida Outdoors RV Center. The RV lifestyle as it has come to be known is a very significant travel and tourism sector. Talkin’ Tourism will delve into the history of the RV lifestyle in the U.S and overseas, the current size of the industry and more.

Here are some things we hope we will learn:

• Who owns RV’s
• What different types are there
• What do the cost
• What is the RV lifestyle all about
• Where do people go
• What has been the impact of increased fuel prices
• What makes Florida Outdoors “different”
• So what are RV fulltimers, workampers, and how about grey nomads? 

All this and much more on this Friday’s edition of Talkin’ Tourism on WPSL 1590 AM or streaming live at www.wpsltv.com. Let’s go RV’ing!

A trip to Gregory Town, Eleuthera in the Bahamas, summer travel tips, and travel rituals

Indeed the pineapples were sweet last week as special guest co-host Ed Griffith and Jensen Beach, Florida Chamber of Commerce executive director Ron Rose provided a marvelous recap of their experience at the recent Pineapple Festival in Gregory Town, Eleuthera. Amazingly, the Sister City relationship between Gregory Town, Eleuthera and Jensen Beach, Florida has been in existence for 21 years! This down home event, celebrates Eleuthera’s roots as a major pineapple producer and an island rich in Bahamian culture and history.

Ed and Ron focused on many details that made the trip so great, but the conversation always came back around to the extreme hospitality displayed by Eleutherans everywhere the two went.

The rest of the show was devoted to a random group of interesting and fun topics including a list of retailers and merchants who are helping travelers with the price of gas, what vacation destinations in the U.S. are the “coolest” (in more ways than temperature), what are some peculiar PDR’s (personal travel rituals) that some travelers perform, and last but not the least important, nine thrifty travel tips to help stretch your travel budget.

As always, it was great to have Ed in the studio and always a pleasure to share some time with the one and only Ron Rose.

The show's audio file will be posted as soon as it is available. See you all next week and thanks for listening!