It happens less often than before, but it happened this week.

Writer’s block.

What do my avid readers want me to write about this week?

I couldn’t decide.  So I asked my hubby, who suggested, “Why don’t you write about the story of The WOW! Travel Club?”

“OK, that’s easy!” I replied.  It’s one of my favorite subjects.  So here’s how it all began . . . .

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Once upon a time . . .

It came to me in the middle of the night – sometime in late 2004.  I sat bolt upright in bed and said it out loud: “Wow!”

My next thought: “That would be a good name for a company!  W.O.W. – World(s) of Wonder.”

I was living with my cat, Rocky, in a little guesthouse in non-celebrity Malibu (yes – there is such a place).  I’m a great sleeper – rarely waking up in the middle of the night, so this moment was significant and memorable.

I’d been ruminating about how to create desire and demand for travel to India among my existing customers.  My little company created group travel programs for big companies who offer special, customized trips to motivate and reward people for outstanding performance.  Some people call them “sales contests,” though they are much more complex and strategic than that term would indicate.

In the years since I had become an unlikely and reticent owner of my little company (which is another story), I had encountered very few clients willing to choose destinations off the beaten path.  The dream destination for most Americans was (and still is) western Europe.  Once they travel to Europe, most want to go back to Europe.  It’s foreign, but familiar.  They (mostly) look like us.  It’s not too hard to find someone who can speak English (even if it they speak it funny).  It’s not too hard to find a MacDonald’s or other familiar landmark.  Europeans are generally pretty civilized.  With the possible exception of some snooty Parisiens, Americans are welcome throughout Europe – and they understand our expectations.  A person could plan a lifetime of European vacations and never repeat a single place.

Although it’s changing now, back then it wasn’t common to find a person with a strong desire to venture beyond western Europe to the exotic and unknown places in the world.

My travel history . . .

Growing up in Michigan, I, too, dreamed that one day I would go abroad – buy a 30-day Rail Pass and travel around Europe.  Nothing more exotic or adventurous than that.  As a girl, I had taken summer camping vacations with my family all over the U.S. and Canada.  I blew off Spanish class in high school (why would I ever need to know a foreign language?)  I tasted my first taco in community college (thought I was gonna die – it was SO spicy!).  I never met a Jewish person until I got to University (What? They’re not Christians?!)  I was one of those college kids crammed in a car for the 24-hour marathon drive down I-75 for spring break where one of my most memorable moments involved my first cockroach sighting in the dive motel in Ft. Lauderdale.  I had been on exactly one airplane in my life, at the age of 13, for which I got a haircut and a new outfit.

The life-changing opportunity . . .

But after college graduation I had an invitation to travel.  My best friend – a Peace Corps volunteer – invited me to join her on her journey back home from the Philippines through Southeast Asia and India.  I can’t claim to have jumped at this opportunity, but accepted it kinda by default.  I had a crummy job as a hostess during the breakfast shift at the Holiday Inn on State Street.  I was living with my parents in my horrible little hometown that I hated.   Things were so bleak . . . I didn’t even have a boyfriend.  My life was a hopeless existence.  But I had a little money and I had a LOT of time.  So I got a passport, bought a one-way ticket to Manila and told my parents . . . in that order.

Little did I know that my journey – which was nothing of what I expected – would be the most transformational experience of my life.  Returning home after eight months of mostly solo travel … well, let’s just say I wasn’t the same person.  The fortuitous opportunity to travel to such weird and exotic places as a relative youngster would provide me with confidence and courage later in life to seek out and appreciate the road less traveled.

Meanwhile, back in bed in rural Malibu . . .

I thought about all the times that friends and family had told me, “I want to go on one of your trips.”  I had just operated the second of two amazing incentive programs to India  I had observed the participants – all of whom were initially terrified and overwhelmed (“Can I drink anything without getting sick?  Can I eat anything without getting sick?  Is it okay to breathe the air?”) – relax into the experience and begin to appreciate the strange, bizarre culture, customs, food, language, religious rituals, etc.  It was only a couple of days before my ladies were clamoring to go to the local market. “We don’t want to shop at the tourist emporium,” (with western-style toilets, etc.). “We want to go where the locals go to buy silk for their saris.”

That, quite possibly, was the most satisfying moment of the journey for me.

But how could I find more customers willing to trust me when I tell them they should go to a place like India?

The answer was in the “wow.”  I’d create a travel club – and invite all those people who always tell me how much they want to travel on one of my trips.  I’d call their bluff.  I’d invite them to join me on a trip – to India!

And so The WOW! Travel Club was born.

 

But there was an issue . . .

Remembering the time when the girl who was my best friend on the drive down south to Ft. Lauderdale was someone I disliked by the time we drove back home – how could I ensure that I had the “right” kind of traveler on my adventures?  How could I pre-screen to omit any “ugly Americans” which would necessitate strangulation (if I didn’t slit my throat first?)?  I’d have to come up with some rules . . . no, wait a minute . . . not rules – vows . . . the WOW Vows!

And so The WOW! Vows were born.  They came so easily and quickly – as if they were channeled from some other dimension:

1.  I vow to travel with my sense of wonder and my sense of humor.  (Two essentials for a good traveler, in my opinion.)

2.  I vow to be a gracious guest, leaving a place at least as good as I found it.  (We leave an impression – make it a good one.)

3.  I vow to be a respectful traveler – thoughtful of the people and places I visit, and considerate of the people with whom I travel.  (Too many people get really single-minded and selfish when they’re on vacation – forgetting about the damage they can cause in their wake to the people around them.)

4.  I vow to be on time or will catch up with the group at my own expense.  (Time is everybody’s most precious commodity.  If one person from a 10-person group is 10 minutes late, they’ve just spent 100 minutes of time – 90 of which didn’t belong to them!)

5.  I vow to rotate the front seat on the motor coach.  (One of the strangest observable phenomena of travel dynamics:  Whoever claims the front seat on Day 1 is unchallenged for the duration of the trip.  Not on my motor coach!)

6.  I vow to communicate complaints, grievances or missed expectations to the tour leader promptly, privately and appropriately:  e.g.; I will not whine in front of the group!  (Translation: No whiners allowed!)

7.  I understand that travel requires patience, a positive attitude and an ability to laugh. If I can’t relax and enjoy the unexpected, I vow to stay home!  (Bottom line, travel is not for everyone.  Some people should never leave home!)

And that’s how the story of WOW! began.  Since India, we’ve ventured to Peru, Botswana & Zambia, Ecuador & Galapagos, Cuba, Kenya, Puglia, Vietnam & Cambodia,  And there are many, many more stories to tell!

 

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Comments?

Do you have a favorite “Ugly American” story?

If you could venture off the beaten path, where would you go?