To wake up to a steaming cup in the morning, to enjoy with cake and friends, or to be offered in times of crisis when nothing else can be done. It’s so much more than a hot drink. In Turkiye, tea çay (pronounced Chai) is a profound symbol of hospitality and connection. And it’s found in the strangest of places. …
Crystal clear waters, whispering sea breezes, and waves gently lapping the sides of a traditional Turkish boat, where visitors sleep on the softly swaying deck under the stars. But. “The captain didn’t speak enough English!” “The food was strange!” And one of my favourites: “It was too hot!” These were some of the comments from visitors in my ‘feedback book’ …
“Careful, this one’s very heavy,” I said, dragging yet another tourist’s suitcase to the bus driver. He looked at me blankly. I blinked back at him, then rallied. (Come ON, Anna! Just try!, I muttered to myself) I cleared my throat. Pointed at the case. “Çok ağır” I said, carefully sounding out the new words. He looked delighted. He laughed, …
I’m working on something new at the minute. Something that excites and scares me in equal measure. I’m not ready to talk about it just yet, but new beginnings always make me think back to where my fascination with all things travel began: in a hot, swaying minibus careening down a road in Turkiye. I had just graduated with …
On the 6th of April this year, tens of thousands of Athletic Bilbao football club fans packed the streets of the Basque Country. The club’s red, white and black scarves, flags and jerseys waved from windows, stadiums, streets and cars as what seemed like the entire population of the small nation came to a halt to celebrate their football club’s …
If you ever attended a birthday party as a child, I’m sure you remember the excitement of, in the end, being handed a colourful party loot bag filled with individually wrapped sweets, a mini packet of crisps or chips, and lots of little plastic toys. These were things that were ripped open, devoured, played with, and discarded as quickly as …
This blog is part two of my Event Evolution: Towards a Sustainable Future miniseries. If you missed the first one, you can read it here. In it, I share my framework for Destination Marketing Organisations to create sustainable, regenerative events. It’s a framework that shows how simply making small tweaks to your current planning process can have you well on …
If climate change is close to your heart and business, you’re buzzing with the knowledge we need to take action. But with information overload, seemingly ever-changing advice, and work continuing to pile up, you panic. There’s so much to do you don’t know where to start, so you don’t start at all. It’s overwhelming. I felt the same way. I’ve …
I’m mortified. Part of me doesn’t even want to share this story. Ok, a lot of me doesn’t want to share this story. But I know two things to be true: one, that to solve a problem, one first must admit to having a problem. Two, that I’m not the only one harbouring this dirty secret. Let’s rewind. Last week …
