The first round of speakers at the TBEX Asia 2026 on August 20-23, 2026, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, is a collection of nine highly skilled professionals who will provide travel media – including travel content creators, vloggers, Social Media specialists, influencers, and photographers – with constructive information, tools, and innovative strategies for success in the current travel and tourism space.
TBEX’s Asia 2026 event will also provide a wealth of information for travel and tourism industry providers – including tourism boards, tour operators, hotels, and marketing agencies – on how to develop a powerful online presence and work effectively with content creators.
Serial entrepreneur and world traveler, Will Hatton has worked in the travel space for fifteen years, launched thirty business ventures in that time and made 8 figures from his blog alone. The original Broke Backpacker, Will spent several years living in train stations and his tent, uploading blogs via internet cafes as he owned neither a phone nor laptop. Today, Will is based in Bali half the year where he runs the world’s first custom build digital nomad co-working hostel, the rest of the time Will leads expeditions in far flung lands. A passionate entrepreneur, Will has failed a lot and learnt valuable lessons along the way which he shares honestly and openly.
Will’s double session are at the intermediate level and will detail important lessons learned from 13 years of blogging and content creation.
Julie Falconer is one of the top travel bloggers in the UK. She created her blog, A Lady in London, in 2007, and she has successfully built a business from it. She is also active in all areas of social media, including Instagram (over 575,00 followers), Facebook (300,000 followers), and other platforms. Additionally, Julie has been a public speaker since 2012. She gives talks throughout the world about social media and digital marketing.
Julie will explain how to drive blog traffic and earn more money with your social media.
Born in the small city of Semey, Kazakhstan, Balnur Baltabayeva went from earning a master’s degree in chemical engineering to becoming a global travel storyteller. She explores places often misunderstood like Pakistan and Afghanistan – connecting through local cultures and languages. Speaking 6–8 languages, Balnur shares raw, positive stories to more than 2 million people worldwide through her Social Media channels, “Travel with Balnur”.
Balnur will demonstrate how to build your personal brand by visiting misunderstood destinations.
Award-winning travel writer Tim Leffel is author of “The World’s Cheapest Destinations”, “Travel Writing 2.0”, and the living abroad book “A Better Life for Half the Price”. All have been published in multiple editions. His Nomadico newsletter reaches more than 22,000 readers each week.
He is also editor of the narrative web publication Perceptive Travel, named “Best Online Travel Magazine” by the North American Travel Journalists Association and “best travel blog” by Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). He has contributed to more than 50 publications as a freelancer and runs 4 online travel magazines and blogs as an editor/publisher. He’s the former chair of the advisory board of the North American Travel Journalists Association, served as North American Conference Director for TBEX for six years, and is a media member of SATW and the Adventure Travel Trade Association.
Tim will share his knowledge on how to succeed on Substack.
La Carmina is an award-winning Asian-Canadian author, journalist and creator specializing in Goth and alternative travel in Japan and worldwide. She writes about travel, culture and food for leading publications including Travel + Leisure print magazine, The New York Times, National Geographic, BBC, CNN, Time Magazine, Eater, Fodor’s, Observer, Business Insider, Sunday Times, and AFAR. Her journalism received a Bronze award from the Society of American Travel Writers in 2020. She is a pioneer of blogging that combines alternative culture and travel blogging (www.lacarmina.com/blog) and social media @LaCarmina since 2007, and won “Best Blog of the Year” from Auxiliary Magazine.
La Carmina has spoken at events worldwide including Experience Romania, TEDx Vancouver, World Tourism Forum Istanbul, and PRSA Travel & Tourism Conference. She is the author of three books published by Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster and appears on travel TV shows worldwide (Bizarre Foods, World’s Weirdest Restaurants, No Reservations, Taboo, Oddities, The Doctors, Today Show, NHK Japan, and more). La Carmina is a graduate of Columbia University and Yale Law School. You can follow her adventures in over 70 countries at IG @lacarmina and LaCarmina.com.
La Carmina will discuss how travel creators can leverage their platforms to write for legacy publications.
Candace Salters is the founder of Candace Abroad, a London-based travel blog and digital media platform focused on thoughtful city guides and destination itineraries across the UK and Europe.
With an audience of more than 200,000 followers across platforms, Candace combines traditional travel blogging with social-first content formats to reach the modern traveller. Her work has been featured by the BBC, USA Today, and Recipe.TV, and has partnered with hundreds of tourism boards, hotels, and global travel brands through her travel media platform.
Candace will show how to turn blog posts into short form videos.
Todd Hata is a digital content creator and a full-time one bag minimalist traveler, specializing in videos that inspire people to explore new destinations. Food and travel are his two passions in life, along with photography and filmmaking. Todd is on the road most of the year and he tries to make the best of each trip by eating with the locals, seeing what each city has to offer once you get past the tourist spots, and making photographs and videos of his adventures.
Todd will detail how to create effective hotel promotional videos.
Toti and Ale are the award-winning travel couple behind Passport and Stamps Creative Media, inspiring over 1.5 million readers a year with authentic stories from the world’s boldest journeys. They are slowmads sharing honest, first-hand guides and engaging social content empower a new generation to travel deeper, from the UK (home country), Europe, the US, to Southeast Asia and beyond. Toti and Ale have set up a system that lets us work easily from anywhere we choose as a base, for short and long periods. They lead stories and champion a slow, meaningful approach to modern adventure—one destination at a time.
Toti and Ale will deliver a double session workshop on how to maximize your productivity using the Notion platform.
The lineup of speakers is set, the conversations are taking shape, and the opportunities to connect are real. Join us at TBEX Asia 2026 in Almaty, Kazakhstan and be in the room where the next wave of travel content and destination strategy is being shaped. Register now!
Add your first comment to this post