How to become a travel TV Presenter - Being a show host for Travelxp & more!

hey guys welcome back to my channel and

actually welcome to my house this is the

first time that I have done a video from

my home here in South London obviously

I'm normally on the road but this is

actually a video that I have been asked

to make on so many occasions so I

thought I would finally sit down and let

you guys know how I actually became a

travel TV presenter on travel XP and now

Discovery Channel sky and Amazon Prime

so I get messages all the time on

Instagram and Twitter and Facebook and

YouTube and everywhere from people

wanting to know how I got into travel

presenting and I know this is a very

interesting topic because it's a field

work or a career that's a little bit

unusual and I am so thankful every

single day that I'm able to do this as a

job now my first TV show I don't know if

you guys have seen it but it was a show

called quest it was about food and

travel and it saw me go to India for

three months which was very much in at a

deep end traveling around 17 Indian

States including nagaland Magalia Assam

and meeting some incredibly interesting

kind Fascinating People many of whom I'm

still in touch with both the people we

filmed with and the crew and I actually

had a chat to travel XP and they pretty

much said to me when can you get your

Indian visa so two days later after

chatting and this was on Skype so that

shows just how long ago it was nearly a

decade and two days later I was at the

embassy in Birmingham I think getting my

visa to go to India and a week later I

was out in Delhi

and it was the most wonderful experience

and it has launched my career as a

travel TV presenter but before I worked

with travel XP I had actually presented

for quite a long time so at University I

studied marketing obviously nothing to

do with presenting but to earn a bit of

money

during my time at University I did

modeling work and presenting work but

mainly for corporate videos Live Events

and TV adverts things like that so not

necessarily to do with travel but then

travel has always been a passion of mine

I used to travel with my family when I

was a kid and

it's basically yeah like I said my

passion is pretty much all I spend the

money I do earn on and I do a lot of my

own travels as well as working in travel

so I've been to I think nearly 90

countries now although I haven't counted

for a while and a lot of these are off

my own back with friends family partner

and

I have documented these over the past

few years which is an Avenue into travel

presenting so I know some people that

have shared their Journey shared their

travels on YouTube and then have

actually been approached by production

companies or TV channels to work with

them so that is definitely one Avenue

into this job and you don't necessarily

need to have professional video setup to

film this I'm guessing everyone watching

this has a phone probably you can go out

into your local area into the city that

you live in with a phone and make a very

simple video and start uploading these

on YouTube in fact I think my most

watched video

is from El Salvador on YouTube it's got

1.5 million views now I think and this

was just filmed on a GoPro not even the

most recent GoPro and the sound isn't

great but I think just because the

content was interesting then people it

resonated with people and this has

actually led to more work okay so

before we get stuck in with the

nitty-gritty of the video I just wanted

to say a big thank you to the sponsors

of this video which is level eight

luggage and they have sent me a couple

of pieces

including this very lovely case which is

called the Voyager and this is the

Voyager check-in in Black 28 inches and

this has 99 liters of space for all of

your luggage now you might think that I

pack light and sometimes I do but at the

moment I'm actually packing for another

travel TV show I am traveling to Turkey

with Amazon Prime

and so level eight are very kindly

sent me this gorgeous piece because I

need a lot of stuff with me honestly the

concept of the TV show is that I don't

know what I'm going to be doing and this

means

that I need to pack for all

eventualities basically I need to pack

some Outdoor Adventure Gear I need to

pack swimwear I also don't know what the

weather's going to be like so I need a

lot of big jumpers and things so I need

a case that is this size

on this side I actually love this bit so

this is a waterproof compartment which

is super handy for me because quite

often I've been on a job and I've had to

go swimming or something like that and

suddenly I've got all this wet gear and

there is of course somewhere you can

keep that so it doesn't make the rest of

your clothes wet and another huge

storage compartment on this side

and this is particularly hard wearing

which I need because on my last show

with travel XP I had a different case

from a different company and it just

honestly fell to Pieces so I've been

looking for hard wearing luggage company

like level eight

so I'm super happy with this now one of

the top tips that I give people when

they message asking how they can get

into trouble presenting is you need a

Show reel basically how are you going to

show people that you can present that

you're able to talk to camera and that

you're passionate about the industry

without some kind of video showing you

on camera and once again you don't need

a professional setup as long as you can

hear what you're saying and it's pretty

clear you can use a phone edit some

clips together get a friend to film you

if you're walking out and about and get

this up on either YouTube or Vimeo now I

have a Show reel it has evolved over the

years and now obviously includes lots of

different examples of the TV shows that

I've been in but I'm pretty sure my

first show real was nowhere near as good

as that I have actually put a link down

below to my most recent show role so you

guys can see what kind of things you

need to include and yeah leave a comment

and let me know what you think now

another way that you can actually try

and get into the industry is by

obviously reaching out to people who are

already working in the industry you can

follow production companies or channels

or directors and get sending out the

Show reel when you've edited it together

another place that you can put your show

real is on casting websites and this is

something that I used to do a lot in the

past and I still do a little bit now

there are a number of websites for

example Talent talks there is star now

there is presently there's mandy.com

there are loads of different places that

you can put out your Show reel and show

people what you're all about so on some

of these websites I have some of my

modeling photos I have my show well up

there and I have a list of all of my

different experience and the shows that

I've worked on and now I have casting

directors reaching out to me through

these platforms to offer me jobs which

is great another thing to think about

when you're starting off your career is

about branding and I know this might

sound really cheesy but you need to have

an idea of how you'd like to be

perceived like what you stand for and

for those of you that have watched my

shows you know that I tend to visit

slightly more adventurous destinations

like my Show Off the Grid which has seen

me go to cashmere and ladakh and places

like that and this is something that I'm

really passionate about the kind of

adventure activities and I try to make

sure that that comes across in most of

my videos and most of the content that I

put out online and my shows so hopefully

when casting directors are watching my

shows they can associate me with

Adventure and hopefully line me up for

future work now what are some of the

personality traits that you need if you

want to work in travel presenting so

first of all I'm going to say that it is

not as glamorous as it looks and this is

not a complaint I'm thankful for every

day that I get to do this job but it is

not all sipping champagne in a hot tub

even if some people do like to show it

that way online there are a lot of very

very early days

late nights long hours of working often

you'll be very tired cold hungry you

might miss your family and friends

but

you've just got to have a passion I

suppose a passion for travel that is

really the most important thing you have

to have a curiosity to learn you've got

to be interested in trying new

experiences and eating new foods and

just meeting new people and be happy to

do that day in day out I think you also

have to be a patient person I have

become more patient doing this job I

perhaps wasn't always

as patient as I am now but when you're

working with the same crew for often

months on end

it's going to be very easy to get on

each other's nerves and having a little

patience with each other both ways is

very helpful now I hope there's been

some helpful tips here to get you guys

started on your journey to becoming a

travel presenter or working in travel if

you have enjoyed the video please do

make sure to like comment underneath And

subscribe if you haven't done already