Biggest Travel Oops

Everyone has a travel “oops” moment, and in this conversation, Marriner President Rob Levine and Gray Research Solutions CEO Shannon Gray share theirs. Whether it's missing key details or taking an unexpected detour, their stories highlight the importance of preparation and flexibility when traveling.

TRANSCRIPT:

ROB: All right, so let's close with like a fun personal question. So my question for you, travel adjacent, give me your biggest personal travel oops and how it advised you as a travel professional.

SHANNON: Uh, okay. This is kind of a funny story.

ROB: Got to be G rated.

SHANNON: Oh yeah, this is G rated. This is actually way back in 2005 or 2006. So I was young. I was in my twenties and, um, a friend of mine had always wanted to go to Iceland. She saw this documentary. This is so embarrassing to admit. She saw this documentary on puffins and she all of a sudden got, have I told you this story?

ROB: No.

SHANNON: All of a sudden got obsessed with puffins and she's the type of friend that everybody loves her. And so if she wants to do something and she will organize it and people will show up for her, she's just that much fun. And we got out of the airport airplane and we went straight to the information desk because this was before, you know, no phones, no phones. So we got off the plane. We went to the information desk and none of us, of course, have done any planning. She's like, welcome to Iceland. How can we help you? Like, we're here to see the puffins. Where can we go see the puffins? That's like why we came. And she kind of gave us a weird look. And we were like, what is there something on my face? Like, what? Why are you looking at me like that? And she's like, you came to see the puffins. And we were like, well, yeah, there was a documentary. We think they’re so cute. Like we were really into it. She's like, it's January. The puffins fly south for the winter.

ROB: Aw. Aw, your poor friend.

SHANNON: I will never let her live that down. Five of us flew to Iceland to see puffins and not one of us thought about migration patterns and the fact that puffins migrate south for the winter. Now, of course, now I'd be able to easily Google that and I probably wouldn't have made that same mistake before, but it's like, do your research. Put things up before you go.

ROB: Did you have a great trip to Iceland?

SHANNON: We did. Party, I mean, they won't even start partying until 11 a.m. and then they're partying until six o'clock in the morning. Yeah, why not? It's insane.

ROB: That's awesome, I love that story. Thank you so much.

SHANNON: What about you, what's your biggest oops?

ROB: It was the year 2000. I was in Winston Salem, and I was driving to the airport, and I just totally missed the exit for the Greensboro Airport. And all of a sudden, I started seeing signs that I was in Raleigh and I had no clue what to do. So, you know, for me, it was a couple of different little lessons were learned from that. The first of which was like, I remember panicking and I don't know why I panicked because I really felt like I needed to get back to the office, which was crazy. It was just a different time. So I think it does make you kind of take a step back and realize, okay, like these things do happen. And the flip side to it is being a better planner and being just a little bit more present when I'm driving in an area that I don't know.

Thanks for watching. Visit Marriner’s blog for the next video in our destination tourism series.