The fourth round of speakers at TBEX Europe 2024 is a collection of 10 highly skilled professionals will provide inspiration and information on this important area for content creators. TBEX’s travel blogger conference in San Sebastian in the Basque Country of Spain will also provide a wealth of information for industry travel and tourism providers on how to develop an effective online presence and work effectively with content creators.
Melvin Bocher is the founder and CEO of Travel Dudes, co-founder of the Social Travel Summit and former COO of iambassador. He has been running his business for over 16 years very successfully now, which makes him a pioneer of professional travel blogging. On Twitter he has around 250.000 followers and he gets on over 8.500 X (formerly known as Twitter) lists recommended. That’s top 3 in travel! His Facebook page also has over 120,000 fans.
His online travel guidebooks Travel Dudes (en) & Weltreisetipps (de) are an industry leader within the field of destination & peer-to-peer marketing. In partnership with clients these publications create cost-effective, inspirational, and engaging travel content (video production, distribution with an included direct media and website promotion) for various platforms, reaching an audience of over three million travelers each month.
Melvin will deliver the Opening Keynote.
As the Head of Marketing with LivTours, Colleen Robertson runs B2C and B2B campaigns across a multitude of channels to drive awareness and action.
Over the last fifteen years, Colleen has worked as a marketer at a wide range of companies: from small and mid-sized B2C companies and nonprofits to massive and fast growing business consulting and tech companies – most notably the Expedia Group. She got her start in social media, brand management, paid search, and web content and has done everything from develop employer brand strategies to direct short videos.
Colleen has been with LivTours since July of 2023. Originally from Seattle, Washington, she now lives in Rome, Italy with her husband and their two young boys.
Colleen will detail best practices for affiliate marketing.
Adrian Phillips runs Bradt Guides – the world’s largest independent guidebook publisher, which this year is celebrating its 50th anniversary – as well as writing/broadcasting for outlets including National Geographic Traveller UK, The Telegraph, The Times, the BBC and ITV. He covers everything from city breaks to excursions into the rainforest (spending much of his time lost and uncomfortable), and is a five-time winner of Travel Writer of the Year. Twitter/X: @adrianphillips1
Abigail King is an award-winning writer and broadcaster who has worked with the BBC, UNESCO, the EU, NASA and more. She is the Head of Digital at Bradt Travel Guides, the world’s largest independent travel publisher. In addition to publishing guidebooks and narratives, Bradt has a substantial web and social media presence and is always looking for new, creative partnerships. She’s also the founder of Inside the Travel Lab, described by National Geographic Traveler as “Essential Reading” and Lonely Planet as “one of the best travel blogs in the world.”
Abigail King has broadcast live for Lonely Planet on more than 50 occasions in more than 15 countries. Locations include the chambers of Marie Antoinette in the Palace of Versailles, the highest mountain on the Arabian Peninsula, the darkness of the Arctic Circle and the twilight of the Book of Kells in Dublin. Abigail King spoke at the High Level EU-China Summit on Sustainable Tourism at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and joined a panel to talk about responsible tourism for NASA-Hybrid CoE in Helsinki.
Adrian and Abigail will discuss how you can work with traditional publishers.
Marti Buckley is an American writer and chef from Alabama who has lived in Basque Country since 2010. She is the author of the acclaimed cookbook, Basque Country (Artisan, 2018), and she co-authored the Wallpaper* City Guide Bilbao/San Sebastián. Her blog at travelcookeat.com is where she writes about the latest on the Spanish food scene. She lives in San Sebastián with her two daughters, where she writes extensively on Basque and Spanish culture and cuisine for American and international media outlets from Food & Wine to Afar. Her second cookbook, The Book of Pintxos, is coming out in Spring 2024.
Marti will explain the value of building long-term relationships and authority.
Jessica van Dop DeJesus is a widely published travel and food media digital publisher, freelance journalist, and digital media strategist. She’s the founder of The Dining Traveler, a multimedia digital platform covering food and travel, and the author of the coffee table book The Dining Traveler Guide to Puerto Rico. You can find her writing in publications such as AFAR, Business Insider, Travel and Leisure, among others.
After 24 years of military service, she retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Marine Corps, where she first discovered her passion for travel. As a digital strategist, she’s worked with organizations such as Bunker Labs and the European Union. She currently serves as the Latinx facilitator for the Breaking Barriers in Entrepreneurship program for Bunker Labs, providing mentorship to aspiring veteran entrepreneurs. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube @DiningTraveler.
Jessica will explain how travel content creators can diversify income streams.
Tasha Prados is a digital nomad creator, travel writer, and glutton for outdoor adventures. Tasha is an award-winning branding & marketing strategy consultant who helps Fortune 500 companies, DMOs, and governments understand how to reach and appeal to nomad travelers. She is a business coach for service-based entrepreneurs, mentoring them to improve their marketing and messaging to consistently attract premium clients.
Tasha is passionate about giving multicultural women the tools to live their best digital nomad life. As a travel writer, Tasha is published in National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, and Insider. She is the founder of Duraca Travels and Duraca Strategic. Tasha still hasn’t found the answer to the question, “where is your favorite place you’ve been?” and can’t be away from her emotional support water bottle.
Tasha will discuss how to brands can create winning strategies to captivate digital nomad content creators.
Wilson Santiago, better known as Wil from Mochileando, is a travel Blogger, founder, CEO of Mochileando LLC, and president of the Mochileando Foundation. Mochileando.com is the largest travel platform in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, and one of the largest in the Latin market in the United States.
Mochileando has approximately 1.6M followers on its platforms, and reaches up to 12 million people monthly on social networks. Mochileando.com is one of the most visited travel pages in all of Latin America. In 2019 Mochileando successfully launched its Mochileando Premium membership. Wil collaborate as a columnist at USA Today Travel and contributor to Telemundo USA. He aspires to turn Mochileando into the number 1 travel platform in all of Latin America.
Will will demonstrate how to become a successful travel business focused on your niche.
Yasmin Metz-Johnson is the creator behind the online platform, Yasmin TELLS. Having documented travel across the globe for the last decade, Yasmin also is the Founder of TELLS TRIPS, a group travel company that encourages people to visit the African continent together for public cultural and art events. TELLS is an acronym that stands for: Travel, Explore, Live, and Learn.
Yasmin will explain how to monetize your brand through stronger positioning and profile.
Kylie Mitchell-Smith has been working in and around the media for 30 years, both as a travel journalist, radio host and media manager for destinations. Kylie digs deeper and goes underground to find the authentic story, utilising her rich writing experience to create feature articles, travel blogs, hotel reviews and podcast interviews.
Frequenting far and wide to unique destinations across the globe, Kylie recounts her travels in her Travelling Senorita blog and weekly podcast-adventures that are laden with plenty of local art, food and wine bars. Kylie is a member of the Australian Society of Travel Writers
Kylie will detail how to master interviews – both as an interviewer and interviewee.
If you would like to hear these and more incredible content creator speakers to come, you can register for TBEX Europe 2024 in San Sebastian, Spain, to be held May 28th – 31st by visiting, TBEX Europe 2024!
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