Not all travel dreams died with lockdown
Influential travel writers, Felice and Peter Hardy launched Action Packed Travel, their travel podcast on Friday, March 13 and it has already become a runaway success. ‘It was hardly the most auspicious date on which to start a new business. In fact, it would be difficult to find a less favourable date in the pass millennium! But in fact we’d been planning it for six months and we now had plenty of leisure time in which to explore podcasts. As the worldwide travel industry ground to a crushing halt it made sense to try and build positively from the ashes,’ said Peter.
Felice: ‘We’ve used the period to build a worldwide audience. Our two biggest markets are Britain and North America, but our scope has stretched to 39 countries so far, and it seems to widen by the day. We’re really pleased to have gained 74 five-star reviews in the UK on Apple Podcasts, the largest platform, and about the same again in the US.’
Whilst unable to travel, Action Packed Travel concentrated on weekly chats with some extraordinary travellers who have roamed to wild, exotic, romantic, and sometimes downright dangerous destinations in search of adventure and exploration. These include Arnie Wilson who has skied in more resorts around the globe than anyone else, Peter Mason who organised the first hot-air balloon ascent over Mt Everest and cricket fan Oli Broom who cycled to Australia to watch the Ashes, playing cricket in 28 countries along the way. Fitness fanatic Rob Bell ran seven marathons in seven days on seven continents, and top movie stuntman Glenn Marks has set himself on fire 197 times and doubled for some of the biggest names in showbusiness. Antiques Roadshow expert Joanna Hardy, one of the world’s leading gemologists, gives us a tantalising glimpse of some of the most precious diamonds, rubies and sapphires and the closed world in which they’re traded.
As lockdown lifts, Peter and Felice will be taking Action Packed Travel around the world, giving their own unique take on hot and cold destinations. These will, of course, include skiing which is one of the couple’s core areas of travel expertise. Apart from the regular weekly episodes of Action Packed Travel and five-minute bonus episodes on topical matters, they’re planning to create focussed shows sponsored by individual hotels, resorts, regions, and countries.
Podcasts are relatively new to the UK but in the USA, 55% of people have listened to a podcast and 24% (68 million) listen to a podcast at least once a week. Second after the USA in terms of listeners worldwide is China, followed by India.
You can hear Action Packed Travel on all the usual podcast platforms including Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3YWKFqtoet2uoaJtBe0Hek?si=RxNFis9pQbGk0–QHysQng
and Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/actionpacked/id1502750866
And on the podcast website http://www.actionpackedtravel.com
On the website, the Show Notes section provides a full transcript of each episode, along with pictures, links and other useful information.
For more details please contact Peter and Felice at peterandfelice@gmail.com or call Peter on +44 (0)7733 364581
