Guest Bio
Al Ste-Marie is the founder of Unsold Antarctica, a travel company that specializes in connecting adventurous travelers with last-minute, discounted voyages to the White Continent. With a background in hospitality, Al brings a deep understanding of customer service and traveler psychology to the world of expedition travel. His work helps make Antarctica more accessible to curious explorers, families, and first-time adventurers who might not have realized this dream trip was within reach.
Show Summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Al about his journey into the polar travel industry and the story behind Unsold Antarctica. He explains how offering discounted, last-minute trips has opened up Antarctic travel to a broader audience, breaking down the perception that the experience is out of reach for most people.
Al also shares how his background in hospitality has shaped the way he approaches customer care and the importance of working with knowledgeable travel agents. From the surprising warmth of Antarctica’s summer season to the thrill of the polar plunge, the conversation explores what makes an Antarctic expedition so memorable. Along the way, Al touches on the power of multi-generational travel and the unique bonds formed between people who share this once-in-a-lifetime journey.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Unsold Antarctica provides discounted, last-minute travel opportunities to the Antarctic region
- ✓ Visiting Antarctica can be more budget-friendly than many travelers expect
- ✓ A background in hospitality enhances how companies serve and understand their clients
- ✓ Understanding customer psychology is essential in crafting exceptional travel experiences
- ✓ Travel agents offer valuable expertise and personalized guidance for complex trips
- ✓ Antarctica is surprisingly mild during its summer months
- ✓ Multi-generational travel is a growing trend on Antarctic expeditions
- ✓ Shared experiences in remote locations build strong connections among travelers
- ✓ The polar plunge remains a fan-favorite activity among adventurous guests
- ✓ Partnering with a travel agent can elevate the entire journey
What You’ll Find on Unsold Antarctica
- Exclusive access to last-minute Antarctic expedition deals
- Transparent pricing for budget-conscious adventure seekers
- Supportive service from a team with hospitality roots
- Options for families, solo travelers, and multi-generational groups
- Curated guidance for planning an unforgettable polar experience
Learn more about Unsold Antarctica and connect with Al at:
https://unsoldantarctica.com
Send Al a Message
Send a short message through this guest feature page. Your email address will be included so they can reply directly.
No need to mention this page. They’ll see your note came through their Big World Made Small guest feature.
Message Sent
Your message has been sent.
Big World Made Small guest features are invitation-only and selected based on story, experience, and fit with the show. Guest support helps make the episode possible, but it does not determine who is featured. This helps keep the show free of third-party ads and interruptions while keeping the focus on real, story-driven conversations.
Guest access: enter your password to unlock your resources.
Incorrect password.
Guest & Partner Resources (Private)
Thank you Al, for being a Base Camp Partner with us.
We’d love to have you join us at the next level and get even more out of your appearance on the Big World Made Small Podcast.
Below you will find access to tools to help you promote your episode and get the most from your partnership benefits. This section is only visible when you use the link we sent, or by entering the password BWMS8873. Do not share the email we sent, or the password, unless you want the person to access the following resources.
Follow, Rate, or Provide a Testimonial
Please use this tracking link to share with your audience:
https://bigworldmadesmall.com/guest/al-ste-marie/?ref=guest8873
Cover Art
This is available to all podcast guests.
Download the file to use on your website or social media posts.
Buzzsprout Audio Player
This is available to all podcast guests.
This is the best option for website embeds, especially prior to the release date. Guests can listen to your episode on your website. This player keeps listeners on your site, which is why I use it.
Use this code to embed your Buzzsprout Player directly on your website:
<div id="buzzsprout-player-18417294"></div><script src="https://www.buzzsprout.com/2216718/episodes/18417294-adventure-travel-with-al-ste-marie-unsold-antarctica.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-18417294&player=small" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>Full-Length YouTube Video Player
This is available to Base Camp, Expedition, and Summit Partners.
You can share it before the release date, but your video won’t be searchable on YouTube until the release date. The player allows site visitors to watch your episode directly on your site.
Use this code to embed your YouTube Video directly on your website:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/URAboBQrfAg?si=gL2NKkhiz4ldZ1gk&rel=0" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>45 Minute One-on-One Website Review
This is available to Base Camp, Expedition, and Summit Partners.
Your package includes a 45 minute video call where I will be your second set of eyeballs as we go through your website looking for a handful of changes or updates you can make to improve your conversions. I will share my feedback and you can share it with your marketing team, or we can explore ways that I may be able to help you make the changes. This is not a sales call, it’s an idea session that will give you some actionable insights and you can decide how to implement them.
Big World Made Small Podcast Pitch Portal©
This is available to Expedition & Summit Partners.
Upgrade to unlock these benefits.
All Video & Audio Files with Rights to Repurpose
This is available to Expedition and Summit Partners.
Upgrade to unlock these benefits.
45 Minute Content Strategy Session
This is available to Expedition and Summit Partners.
Upgrade to unlock these benefits.
Custom Branded Video Clips (12 clips)
This is available to Summit Partners.
Upgrade to unlock these benefits.
2 x 45 Minute Digital Marketing Strategy Sessions
This is available to Summit Partners.
Upgrade to unlock these benefits.
Review & Suggest Topic Tags
Review Episode Topics
These topic suggestions help keep this episode profile accurate and easier to find. Your suggestions will be reviewed before any changes are made.
Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:01.161)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the Adventure Traveler. Super excited today. We’ve got a fascinating guest that’s doing something a little different than what we’ve discussed on the show before. So I’m super excited about that. We’ve got Al Ste-Marie here. He’s the founder of Unsold Antarctica. Al, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here.
Al Ste-Marie (00:21.25)
Thanks for having me, Jason.
Jason Elkins (00:22.773)
We’re going to have an interesting conversation about, really about you, your life, how you got to where you are from wherever you were. But before we do that, let’s give our listeners just kind of the elevator pitch for Unsold Antarctica so they can kind of get their head around what you do. And then we’re going to get into why you do it.
Al Ste-Marie (00:40.704)
Absolutely. So, Ensold Antarctica, we focus on same season, discounted Antarctica travel. So, we really believe that you don’t need to wait till the end of your days, till your bucket list, time arrives to go to Antarctica. You can go this year for less.
Jason Elkins (00:56.469)
Very cool. And I think that’s an important distinction because I noticed even on your website and when we spoke last time, you talk about same season. That plants seed in my head that there’s a little bit of a waiting list on some of these cruises. Maybe they sell them way in advance and then spots open up last minute. Is that kind of what the deal is or help me get this straight in my head?
Al Ste-Marie (01:18.222)
I think there’s two approaches to this, right? So there’s some people that will really want to go to Antarctica. To them, it’s part of their bucket list. And they’ll make the arrangements as soon as the itinerary comes out, which is about two and two and a half years before the expedition departs. So from those people, I mean, that’s fantastic. They can get an early bird discount and we can help them with that. However, there’s also unsold cabins that we get close to sale time, about six months to six weeks before departure.
And both the operators and the operators, really want to sell those, right? They want to fill up their ship. So they have a full complement of people that matches the amount of guides that they have on board and all of that. So we help all the operators sell their own sold cabins to people that have a bit more flexibility, to people that can decide, I want to go this year. Let’s go. And I work with them and finding them the right cabin for them.
Jason Elkins (02:13.813)
I’m not sure if there’s a correlation here, but I’ve noticed with airlines anyway, sometimes you book way in advance, you get a pretty good rate. And then there’s a window in the middle where it’s like, oh geez, the rates are high. then sometimes like I mentioned you before I record, I made a last minute decision to fly from Vietnam back to Arizona for the holidays. And I had thought, wow, these tickets are gonna be really expensive, but it was like the next day. And the best fare I found was for the next day. So is it kind of similar to that?
Al Ste-Marie (02:42.774)
In a way, yes. No, mean, it’s yield management at the end of the day. The cruise operators, they use similar techniques as the airlines. However, I think the main difference with Antarctica versus air travel is that generally people that commit to go to Antarctica, they end up going unless something absolutely terrible happens, that they have to postpone or something like that. So I think the commitment level is a lot higher on the cruises than it is for normal plane tickets.
Jason Elkins (02:43.603)
I don’t want to oversimplify it. I’m just curious.
Al Ste-Marie (03:11.0)
That being said, I think when you’re thinking about going to Antarctica on the last minute deal, you’re just going to have to contend with less variety, less inventory. So you might have a high discount percentage, but perhaps it’s going to be on a fancier cabinet. So it might be the opportunity to go for relatively the same out of pocket price, but something better.
Jason Elkins (03:29.892)
Yeah, okay. That’s something I hadn’t thought of. I’m curious, what’s the, I don’t know if the turnaround time would be the right question, but what’s booking interval you’ve had on one of those last minutes?
Al Ste-Marie (03:43.608)
Well, I have to be upfront with everybody that like, there is this myth out there that you can just show up in Ushuaia or in Punta Arenas in Chile and just hop on a ship. That was never the case. That hasn’t been the case since at least the… No, but there’s this urban legend that you can just show up, like as if you go to Fort Lauderdale and get the same day kind of like cruise. That’s not the case with Antarctica. A lot of the operators for safety reasons and also just operational planning.
Jason Elkins (03:55.998)
I never would have thought that, but I’m happy. I’m sure some people do.
Al Ste-Marie (04:12.706)
they close their sales to the public about two weeks. So 14 days to 10 days. There’s only one operator that I sell that will sell all the way to like two days before. But at that point, everything’s sold out. So the reality is like the last minute, we’re really talking about six months before departure to call it three weeks, but.
even four weeks before departure, it’s pretty slim pickings. So I always advise my clients, let’s start working together early and let’s work together on finding the right deal for you at the right price.
Jason Elkins (04:46.751)
All right, so let’s figure out, Al, how the heck did you get into this? What were you doing before? What helped you get to where you are? I don’t know how far back we need to go. Sometimes I ask, how far back should we go? And somebody will say, well, I was born on such and such and such and such and such and such. We don’t have to go that far, but I’d like to go a little bit farther than a couple of years ago or whatever. So how far back should we go?
Al Ste-Marie (05:00.949)
Yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (05:09.314)
Yeah, I mean, I like to think of myself as pretty young still. there’s not that far ago, you know, but I would say that for now every year that goes by and it’s like, I’m getting closer to the age I said I was never going to reach anyway.
Jason Elkins (05:16.565)
Good for you, Al. That’s nice.
Jason Elkins (05:26.773)
All right, well, let’s go back to when’s the first moment you started thinking about travel, the first memory you have that kind of you think maybe somehow influenced your path.
Al Ste-Marie (05:37.664)
Yeah, I mean, put it this way, like my first job in college was to work as a night auditor in a hotel. I never thought I was ever going to have a job in hospitality. That wasn’t really something that was on my radar, right? But as a college kid, I needed to pay the bills, pay for tuition, right? So this opportunity came up to work in a hotel and I didn’t know what a night auditor was, but it’s the guy that does everything, including tallying up all the receipts for the day. And then like just that.
sometimes helping out with the cleaning staff, sometimes helping out with the guest services. And I already thought, okay, cool. It’s going to be just a chill accounting job. But long the whole, it was basically being the night manager. I was the only person on staff between midnight and 8 a.m. So of course I had duties, but anything that happens in a hotel overnight was my responsibility. So from that point, I really took it seriously to kind of like realize and perfect really.
guest services, right? At the end of the day, think I take it upon myself to make a good guest experience. Somebody needs a different pillow in the middle of the night because they can’t sleep. They’re frustrated. They want to go to sleep. Well, I want to make sure they can go to sleep. And I was very lucky that the management there really empowered me to make the right decision and take the autonomy to make the guests happy. It was a very nice property. So that’s really where started. I planted the seed. I didn’t really work in hospitality after that.
For quite a while I went to school, did my thing, worked in the.
Jason Elkins (07:06.965)
What were you, Al, if you don’t mind, I’m curious, what were you doing before as you were growing up or when you decided to go to university? What were you thinking? mean, what did you envision your life would be?
Al Ste-Marie (07:23.246)
I think I always thought that my life would have some kind of international component to it. So my first trip was to Paris when I was a teenager. So it was a school organized trip. And I really looked upon one of my teachers that was organizing the trip. It was super interesting. He was a languages teacher, but he also moonlit as a travel agent. it really, again, planting the seed, right? So I was like, that was interesting. was like, that’s a good trip.
Jason Elkins (07:45.393)
Okay, see it’s a little bit further, it’s a little further back than the night auditor job. I knew there was something else there.
Al Ste-Marie (07:51.63)
For sure. Yeah, For sure. But it’s something that I never really internalized or realized that it was an influence until I decided to become a travel agent myself. I’d call it 20 years later. But it was interesting to see that, it is a profession. Even as the internet was growing, as those online travel agencies were starting to pop up, those mass market sites like the Expedia’s of the world, there were still travel agents then, and there are still travel agents today.
Jason Elkins (08:20.713)
Yeah, yeah. Do you remember when you went to France? Sometimes people just end up on those trips because everybody else is going, all my friends are going or whatever and other times people see the opportunity. Yeah, yeah. Well, that was what I was wondering. Was it, I’m just going to France because everybody else is going or but I’ve also spoke with some people that, you know, had to go out and shovel a lot of sidewalks because they really wanted to go regardless of what their friends were doing. So it’s just kind of curious.
Al Ste-Marie (08:48.078)
Selling cookies was our thing, but yes, we sold a lot of that. And truthfully, truth be told, a lot of these things, it’s like, they want you to sell a little bit, but in reality, your parents paid for the majority of it. So I was very fortunate that my parents did pick up the tab, but I did try my best to sell as much as I could.
Jason Elkins (08:49.641)
Yeah, right?
Jason Elkins (09:04.457)
They ate a lot of cookies at your house, didn’t you? Were your parents interested in travel? Was that something that was part of growing up or?
Al Ste-Marie (09:07.5)
Yes, too many. think they were getting all of that. cases and cases.
Al Ste-Marie (09:19.822)
To some extent, yes, but there were mostly local trips, right? So I have two brothers. So that really meant that like any airplane trip, as you know, were really expensive back then, right? So like it was well before low cost airlines and well before big competition, right? So the trips that we would take, we’d take it to the coast. We’d go to like kind of the northeast seaboard, those types of places. Never too, too far. And I mean, I think we’ve done eventually throughout my childhood, the entire coast from all the way from
back in Canada all the way to Florida. So that was quite a bit.
Jason Elkins (09:55.594)
That’s very cool. And what about your siblings? Did your siblings end up taking a similar path?
Al Ste-Marie (10:02.542)
Well, actually, yes, my brother, he does work in tourism. So he is a storyteller and a tour guide. in our hometown.
Jason Elkins (10:11.381)
All right. Very, very cool. All right. So let’s jump back to actually I want to ask you one question about the night auditor thing before we go on because I’ve never had an opportunity to have this conversation. I remember at one point probably when I was in school, I was looking for jobs. see night auditor. I’m thinking, oh, that’s an accounting job. You kind of hinted to that. Why do you think they use the term night auditor? Does that just sound better than night do everything on the night shift guy?
Al Ste-Marie (10:37.878)
Well, I got to say this was before like your automated ERPs and your accounting system that just auto tally. So I had to do some auditing per se, right? So I had all these receipts and then I would like tally up the amount of like tip that needed to be done to each waiters in addition to like closing out the books for the hotel, counting the till, making a cash drop. So there was a bit of accounting aspect to it, but simple, like very simple.
Jason Elkins (10:44.148)
Huh?
Jason Elkins (11:02.311)
and interrupted every once in by someone that didn’t like their pillow or a toilet that wouldn’t flush or all that exciting stuff that, yeah, yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (11:06.602)
or late check-ins or alarms that would happen. So you’re there for like people’s comfort, but also safety.
Jason Elkins (11:17.651)
And I love that it didn’t deter you. Because I’m sure they’re… Yeah, yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (11:20.334)
I needed to care the most truly, but I learned a lot. I really love to have these opportunities and I made the most out of them. I remember just like asking a zillion questions from the people that did go to hospitality school. And I think I’ve learned a lot. it’s like without going to hospitality college or anything like that, I’ve learned a lot by doing and by being surrounded by people that cared a lot.
Jason Elkins (11:43.359)
Did you have a lot of kind of international guests that you had the opportunity to interact with as well? And I’m curious if that, if you think that influenced anything.
Al Ste-Marie (11:52.239)
Mostly at that point in time. Yeah, we had lots of American guests, but in addition to some Asian as well. So this was just outside of Quebec City.
Jason Elkins (12:02.869)
Very cool. Do you, what did you study in school?
Al Ste-Marie (12:08.269)
Business, just business and management.
Jason Elkins (12:10.109)
Okay, all right, that makes sense. So, all right, so you did the night auditor thing and then walk us forward from there.
Al Ste-Marie (12:19.233)
Well, from that point, I worked in industry for a little bit. I’m just consulting and things like that. But then afterwards, if we fast forward, I guess my first foray in the hospitality is that I managed
like a yoga retreat center in Nicaragua. So that was kind of interesting. was going back to my days of night auditing, but daytime and then more focused in yoga versus general luxury and hospitality. So that was quite interesting. So cross-cultural management.
Jason Elkins (12:47.327)
How did you, I’m curious, how did you come across that opportunity?
Al Ste-Marie (12:51.882)
It was an opportunity that was offered like friends of friends were looking for people to just post up for six months in Nicaragua and do that. yeah, my partner at the time and I decided to take on that role. And it was, was an eyeopening like situation, honestly, because I had never thought that I was going to work internationally and especially like managing local staff and things like that. So it was, was quite interesting.
Jason Elkins (13:17.457)
It’s yeah, it is a big thing. I’d like to dig a little deeper into that as far as some of your takeaways. Had you been to Latin America? Had you thought about Latin America? Did you speak Spanish? What kind of?
Al Ste-Marie (13:26.83)
I had a basic level of Spanish. I’ve taken it in school and on and off using some of those apps, but I had never really lived there. I’ve been vacationing there quite occasionally, like quite frequently, right? So even during university, I would take weekend trips to go diving in Belize or go to Mexico. been to several like destination weddings in the Yucatan. So I was very familiar with kind of like Central America in a way, but I had never lived in kind of Nicaragua.
Costa Rica area, in very southern part of Central America.
Jason Elkins (13:59.786)
Yeah, there’s a bit of difference between Nicaragua and Belize or the Yucatan. You know, I’ve been fortunate.
Al Ste-Marie (14:02.849)
Absolutely. Just their history, how they came to be as independent countries is quite fascinating. You’re different, right?
Jason Elkins (14:10.933)
Yeah. So the challenges of working with a local staff, staff, cross-cultural staff, there’s…
Al Ste-Marie (14:20.399)
A bit of both. We had the international staff working there and we had local staff as well. Yeah, so it was interesting because it’s it’s cross-cultural but also like different languages as well.
Jason Elkins (14:33.717)
If somebody was sitting here listening to this conversation right now, maybe a younger person, they’re thinking, I would love to go manage or work at a lodge, a yoga center, something like that in Central America. What would be the top two or three maybe tips, suggestions, or insights that you would share with them?
Al Ste-Marie (14:55.585)
I would say go there first. Don’t go in blind. You’ve got to experience the product before you can actually contribute meaningfully to it. And by that, mean generally. It can be the exact property you want to be at or property like it. Because you’ve got to know what’s good if you want to improve a place that might not be as good. So I think that would be my first point of advice. The second one is really like go there with an open mind. And the fact that, and I mean that in the broadest way possible because
It’s a lot different to live and work in a country that I’m familiar with. There’s a lot of things we just know innately from growing up in a place that you will have to actively learn when you arrive into this new place. And I’m sure you’re very familiar with that as a nomad the world as you are.
Jason Elkins (15:38.622)
It sounds familiar. Well, and the part that resonates the most is I remember I had an opportunity.
with my wife at the time to go manage a lodge in Belize, actually a scuba diving and scuba diving and fly fishing resort. And it was 30 miles offshore and it was all local staff. And it was a small place we’d get maybe 15 to 20 guests per week, but it was Saturday to Saturday things. So every Saturday, you know, taking the guests that are headed home and you pick up the next group and you come back out. And I remember thinking.
Al Ste-Marie (15:51.362)
yeah? no way, that’s cool.
Al Ste-Marie (16:05.646)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (16:14.971)
my gosh, this is amazing. This is so romantic. And for the first month or two we were there, you we’re 30 miles offshore. There was you either ate dinner with the guests or you ate dinner with the staff and there were no cars, no roads. Yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (16:18.607)
You
Al Ste-Marie (16:28.355)
There’s no Amazon Prime either. It’s like, if you want anything, it better be on the next boat, because otherwise it ain’t coming.
Jason Elkins (16:34.517)
Exactly. And then I found myself driving the boat most of the time. So it was like I had to go to, know, yeah, they took this young guy in his early 20s from Montana that grew up Wyoming and Montana had never been on anything bigger than a canoe. And within a within a month or two, I was driving the 48 foot custom jet boat and taking the divers out and doing supply runs. And I won’t mention any names, but boy, they sure gave me a lot of responsibility pretty quickly.
Al Ste-Marie (16:38.551)
really, wow.
Al Ste-Marie (16:49.415)
the
Al Ste-Marie (17:02.698)
the
Jason Elkins (17:03.369)
But that’s one of the things I learned about going to a place like that is you’re going to probably do things that you are a little outside your comfort zone, but then also the cross-cultural working with the staff. I think what I learned was probably to just kind of keep my mouth shut a little bit in the beginning and kind of figure out how things work.
Al Ste-Marie (17:13.817)
For sure.
Jason Elkins (17:29.693)
as opposed to bringing, know, because I had been in the military before. I’d run some businesses back in the States. So when you go to Belize and you’ve got a local staff, you cannot go in there like a drill sergeant and say, okay, I know what needs to be done. It just didn’t work very well. So did you, I mean, you presumably had some similar experiences as well getting to learn the local staff and stuff like that.
Al Ste-Marie (17:54.263)
Of course, and I mean, like you have to learn how things go, but also you need to have the internal fortitude to just be able to deal with those extra situation. At the end of the day, resiliency is the name of the game because it’s, these are challenging environments for them as locals. And I had some staff that they had to take a local bus for, I kid you not, an hour and a half each way. And it truly like no offense, but it’s called the chicken bus by them, by us.
Jason Elkins (18:05.705)
Yes.
Al Ste-Marie (18:22.123)
It’s an old converted school bus that goes into a dirt road for an hour and a half. That’s what they have to do to go do their job. So, and then they work about 10 to 12 hour days, right? So it’s like the amount of hours that they spend trying to provide for their family is incredible. It’s something that like, we can’t even imagine. Like, I don’t know about you, but 14 hour days, it’s uncommon in North America, right?
Jason Elkins (18:45.737)
There’s a, it’s interesting because there’s definitely a totally different work ethic and some cultural things that if you’re not used to it, if you haven’t adopted to it yet, you might, you you don’t, you don’t understand what’s going on around. You might look at and say, well, we’re having issues here, but you’re not seeing the big picture and you got to be able to see the big picture. You got to see how hard they’re working in the, the, and I mean, where we were, our staff would come out for.
know 10 to 14 days in a row you know they’re out on the island living in staff quarters which frankly were not very nice and um so you know they get dressed out sometimes they miss their family they’re really putting in a lot of effort to be there so you got to just kind of approach things and understand how committed they really are even when you know the guy who used to be in the army might look over and say oh geez why are you sitting around doing nothing well
Al Ste-Marie (19:18.095)
exactly.
Al Ste-Marie (19:22.639)
Thank you.
Al Ste-Marie (19:34.521)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (19:43.367)
He’s been working last 18 hours and he’s been away from his family for a week and a
Al Ste-Marie (19:47.937)
Exactly. think it’s about showing gratitude for the people that are there working alongside you. And really for yourself, it’s like being patient, understanding that it’s a different circumstance. Everybody has their story. Everybody has their baggage. The fact that they’re there, especially on a fly-in or both-in, both-out type of work arrangement, shows a lot about commitment.
Jason Elkins (20:10.751)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. What would you say your biggest, I don’t know, takeaway or directional change or what came out of that experience for you that you think had the most.
Al Ste-Marie (20:22.019)
I think it’s about the customer psychology, right? Or the guest psychology, because it’s about treating people.
as you wish to be treated, but also understanding that there’s some standards, right? So like, is not, it’s not you inviting some friends over because that type of standard is relative. We all treat our friends a certain way, right? But you have to, at the very minimum, treat them the way you’d want to be treated. And then on top of that, you have to layer kind of the guest experience, what is the vibe that the place wants to convey and what is the level of service that they want to provide, right? So you have to be very conscious about…
adapting yourself or upskilling yourself to be able to provide that level of support. And it’s not innate to anybody. It’s something that is trained. So I find myself very fortunate. I’ve been in thousands of hotels. I’ve traveled the world. So I’ve developed a sense of what is appropriate, what is not. So I came to that setting with that as my background, in addition to having worked in a hotel before.
So to me, it’s about treating the guests the way they expect to be treated and controlling the controllable because the uncontrollable will happen and you have to react with patience, with kindness and with creativity.
Jason Elkins (21:43.382)
Yeah, and you very much or my experience very much was kind of the facilitator between the team and the guests, you know, and not all guests are the same. I don’t, I remember we had a guest that showed up that she got off the boat the first day, you know, she got out there and she was traveling with her family. She stepped off the boat. She looked at me, put out her hand and said, you know, I’m, I don’t know.
Al Ste-Marie (21:52.801)
Of course. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (22:12.443)
name. I’m Barbara and this was not my idea. I don’t want to be here. I’m like it’s gonna be a long week for Barbara or for me.
Al Ste-Marie (22:18.482)
Okay, that’s all I wanted to say.
Al Ste-Marie (22:23.395)
Well, what I find is like the best way to welcome somebody is you take their luggage and you give them a lemonade and then let them take three deep breaths. Do not like talk over them or try to explain stuff. Let them just decompress, look around and then they’ll realize they’re in paradise. Even if they choose to get there, there’s always something to see, something to appreciate. Right? So just the mere fact of being away from real responsibility, work, traffic.
Jason Elkins (22:40.401)
It’s not so bad.
Al Ste-Marie (22:51.607)
I mean, like all of that, that’s, that’s where it’s waiting.
Jason Elkins (22:54.601)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And that’s exactly what we do. We get them up to the main lodge, have the staff take their bags to the room, sit down with a cocktail, and just kind of decompress for a few minutes. But I also remember Barbara.
Al Ste-Marie (23:05.742)
Exactly.
Jason Elkins (23:08.373)
you know, at the end of the week when it was time to go home, she was the one given the most hugs and she was the one that’s like, my gosh, we want to come back and all this stuff. So sometimes you just got to give people the space to process what they got to process without. But yeah, but those were fun challenges for us. That was, know, and I’m sure you had the same experience and probably continue to still have the same experience because you’re still dealing with people that have expectations and, and are having these experiences and maybe.
Al Ste-Marie (23:25.775)
For sure.
Al Ste-Marie (23:37.239)
Yeah, and let’s be real, like travel is stressful because it is putting us out of our comfort zone for good and bad ways, right? The good is like, I’ve done an activity I’ve never done before. The bad is like, well, my flight was delayed. I’m stressed out because I don’t know if I’m going to make my connection or my transfer or just the lack of being able to update the people that you need to update about your situation, right? So like,
Jason Elkins (23:40.501)
Yes.
Al Ste-Marie (24:02.049)
it affects us in different ways. So I think like as a provider, we just have to make sure to provide as much information and be that conduit, be that therapist sometimes to just lower people’s anxieties about the travel aspect of it.
Jason Elkins (24:18.153)
That’s super important because I’ve been around the travel business long enough. You have as well. If you take somebody that hasn’t experienced those stresses of travel and then make them into a planner, for example, or and you say, OK, put together this planner for these clients and communicate with them. But if they haven’t been through the stresses of the travel, they just can’t anticipate. For example, they might write a planner up that says,
Al Ste-Marie (24:32.719)
Mm-hmm.
Al Ste-Marie (24:44.249)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (24:47.145)
you’ll be met at the airport by your driver and he’s going to transfer you to your hotel. And to them they might think that’s enough information. But if they’ve never shown up at an airport and the driver wasn’t there and they didn’t know where they were supposed to go or who they were supposed to call or whatever, if they’ve never had that experience, they just don’t understand how…
Al Ste-Marie (24:55.279)
You
Al Ste-Marie (25:09.581)
I think it’s important to be overly specific. So when I tell my people, you will arrive at the Zaza in Buenos Aires, you will cross three doors and then you will take a right and there will be a horde of people and your driver will be there with a white sign with your name, with your last name spelled out in caps. It’s like, if you’re very specific for those types of people that are like, they can’t visualize it, then they can make that story in their mind.
Jason Elkins (25:20.382)
Uh-huh.
Jason Elkins (25:28.085)
Uh-huh.
Jason Elkins (25:37.344)
Well, it’s a great example because as the planner, maybe even as the operator, you’re like, maybe it’s a really small airport and you’re gonna be the only tourist looking people on the airplane and the driver connects with the guest 99.9 % of the time immediately when they walk out the door and you’re thinking there’s no risk that the driver’s not gonna find them. That’s great, you’re thinking that.
Al Ste-Marie (25:49.871)
Thank
Jason Elkins (26:05.353)
But somebody that’s never been to that airport is imagining something much more complicated because they’ve had a moment. They’ve had an experience where they showed up and someone wasn’t there. And they don’t have cell service because they just arrived. So they go to get a SIM card so they can call somebody to figure out what’s going on. And well, you need to pay with cash. So they got to go find the ATN. It just becomes a, I know you and I have both experienced that exact same stuff.
Al Ste-Marie (26:10.863)
Sure.
Al Ste-Marie (26:17.337)
Thank
Al Ste-Marie (26:30.263)
I think this really proves the importance of like when, so if you’re doing do it yourself travel, I do it myself because I’m a travel agent. but there’s nothing wrong with that. You can do it yourself, but it requires a lot of research because you’ve never been there. You haven’t had this lived in experience. Only so much information is available online. An example is that for most airports around the world,
Jason Elkins (26:37.141)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Al Ste-Marie (26:52.023)
you wouldn’t know whether or not you’ll be able to buy a SIM card at the airport or not. There’s no amount of Googling that will allow you to do that because sometimes those kiosks, they just exist, but they’re not listed online. Tiny example, right? But I think this really shows the importance of if you decide to give it to somebody to plan your trip for you, make sure that this person knows what they’re talking about. Have they lived it themselves, right? So like.
all the guests that I sent to Antarctica, I have been in every transit city and every departure port that I send my people through, right? So Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, Punta Arenas, Ushuaia. I’ve been in those airports. I’ve walked out those door. I can tell them the very overly specific explanation of what to do. Some of them, they’re like, I got it. Transfer, cool. That’s all they need to know.
Sometimes they want to know the play by play and I’m more than happy to provide that. Sometimes I even have photos like, Hey, if you want to see this photo, I’ve taken so much footage of like, what does the airport look like? What does the port look like? Where to get a sandwich as you’re waiting for the just shuttle to the, uh, to the boat, you know, it’s like having been there allows you to speak with confidence and my services, they’re free at the end of the day, right? The cruise lines compensate me for my advice to the guests.
Jason Elkins (27:56.169)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think it’s…
Al Ste-Marie (28:07.567)
because they don’t have to handle these guests themselves. So it’s a win-win situation in this industry.
Jason Elkins (28:11.923)
Yeah, and even if you’re over providing information, you might think this is more than they need. It’s going to be so much easier than they think it’s going to be. But that’s the point. Then they think it’s going to be. They don’t know they, you know, they’re getting on the airport on the airplane in Toronto and, you know, flying to Santiago where they’re going to do it overnight or something like that. And they’re worried about what’s going to happen in Santiago.
on the whole flight instead of just enjoying their time with their partner, having conversations, talking about, isn’t this going to be great? We’re going to see penguins. We’re going to see this. We’re going to see that there is all they can think about is what’s going to happen in Santiago. And if their their agent or their planner just said, don’t worry about it. If you want somebody to worry about something is all you got to say is don’t worry.
Al Ste-Marie (28:39.277)
Thank you.
Al Ste-Marie (29:01.849)
Yeah, it’s sign balancing act because it’s like between the operators bombarding the guests full of information, which is all like important to some extent, and between their own travel plans that they’ve done themselves, right? Like how do you get to the airport? What have I packed? All that stuff. And between me, it’s like, I think my role there is to distill the knowledge that I know about what’s important at what point, right? But again, there’s still a challenge I’m working to solve, which is when to drip the right information.
Jason Elkins (29:10.59)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (29:25.513)
Yes.
Al Ste-Marie (29:31.567)
because I don’t want to bombard. Exactly. And I don’t want to bombard it with too much upfront because it’s going to get lost. And I don’t know, especially nowadays, I think people’s attention span varies a lot. There’s the people that like, they’d much rather get a voice note from me than an email, right? And then some of them, they’d rather just like maybe get a big paragraph and get AI to summarize it for them.
Jason Elkins (29:32.233)
Because everybody’s different.
Jason Elkins (29:41.373)
Yes. Yes.
Al Ste-Marie (29:52.843)
It’s trying to figure out, okay, well, what is the best way to communicate with that person and what is the right timing as well? Just so they integrate all of that, right?
Jason Elkins (29:59.392)
What are you? I’m sure somebody’s doing this and somebody’s gonna reach out to me and say, Jason, that’s exactly what we do. some sort of a, like do a psychological assessment. Who is my client here before we get started? And then have a systemized plan. I mean, I know we can do that by having a conversation and we do do that, but just having like a plan, like, cause you’ve got some people that.
Al Ste-Marie (30:11.321)
the
Jason Elkins (30:26.141)
want to read every single step. It’s the person that gets the, maybe they go to IKEA and get a desk to put together and they will sit there and read all of the instructions three, four times before they even, you know, start unwrapping the parts. And then you’ve got the other person saying, I only want to know one step at a time. And you know, what’s the very first step? I’m not going even go on to step two or three. And the same thing happens while in life.
Al Ste-Marie (30:51.919)
Yeah. I mean, at this point, it’s like, we’ve been using a lot of like WhatsApp as a way to communicate directly with our customers. We’re always reachable. However, it’s not super scalable. So we’re working right now on an AI assisted solution, which is going to assist the guest to, if they have any question, they don’t have to wait for me to get back to them. We’re pretty fast, but Flipper is going to be a lot faster. that’s our AI, penguin agent. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (30:57.235)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (31:13.973)
Oh, that sounds great. Look forward to seeing that. And it could probably be tailored in a way as like, are you the type of person that wants to see everything and then we’ll send you reminders for each step? Or are you the person? Because I’m the person, honestly,
I just kind of want to know the next step. I don’t really want to know too many details. It’s kind like, what do I got to worry about right now? I do it like if I’m consulting with my virtual assistant who is known as ChatGPT. I will say, how do I do this maybe on a website design or something? This is what I’m trying to accomplish. And it gives me 15 steps. And I’m like, OK, one by one, please.
Al Ste-Marie (31:35.439)
and
Al Ste-Marie (31:42.637)
Yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (31:54.617)
Thank you. Please, joke it to me one by one. I feel like it.
Jason Elkins (31:56.842)
Just do not continue until I’ve said, okay, I’ve completed the first step and then give me step two, but we’re all different. that’s one of the challenges. Do you, and then of course also, and I love working with people. That’s part of why I’ve worked in this business and that’s why I have these conversations with someone like you. And it’s also, where was I going with this? I don’t know, my brain just.
Al Ste-Marie (32:05.444)
Thank you.
Jason Elkins (32:27.317)
Oh, it’s that person that, know, because you can send them everything they need in a trip planner. We’ve all experienced that. And then of course you give them your WhatsApp number or a contact and you’ve got those some guests that are just going to reach out to you and just ask you the questions as they pop into their head. And it’s, that being tactful, not to say you kind of want to say it’s in your materials, but you don’t want to say it in a way that sounds like, yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (32:38.371)
Yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (32:45.604)
Mm-hmm.
Al Ste-Marie (32:53.135)
Oh, I would never. mean, what we sell is luxury. And we sell full-fledged concierge-level luxury at the end of the day. If they wanted to do it themselves, they could book with the operator. Nobody’s prevented from doing that. However, for the same price as directly with the operator, they get me and my team helping them along the way. In addition to like figure out was it a good deal or was it not. So they can deal direct with the operator or compare.
Jason Elkins (32:59.539)
Yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (33:18.719)
to 23 different operators themselves. They can absolutely do that, but we can also do that for them. And we’re there every step of the way. get WhatsApps daily and I just get back to them. And of course I would never say it wasn’t your materials. I’ll tell them the answer. And if they want to know where to find the rest of the stuff they’re wondering about, I’m more than happy to remind them as well.
Jason Elkins (33:38.678)
How do you handle with that? Because I’ll be honest, sometimes when I would spend a lot of time and effort trying to put everything together in as clean and clear way as possible, and then I get that text message or that phone call that, hey, what are we doing next? What time do we need to meet the driver in the lobby in the morning? And there’s that, my own emotional responses.
my gosh, do you think that I would have not told you that? Do you think I left that out? Do you think I’m totally irresponsible? Of course I told you what time you’re supposed to meet the driver. So I’ve got to resist that desire to get defensive and just provide them the service that they want at the time. And I don’t know if that’s a challenge for you, but that’s always been a challenge for me.
Al Ste-Marie (34:11.222)
Thank you.
Al Ste-Marie (34:24.107)
Mm-hmm. That’s, mean, of course it’s a challenge, but you know, it’s just like a swan on a lake. You don’t know what’s happening under the water. They might be paddling really, really fast, but you have to look very poised and composed at the surface. So we are like that.
Jason Elkins (34:39.445)
So maybe their partners standing next to them. When are we supposed to be there? When are we supposed to be there? And like, and he’s like, hold on a second. I’m looking through the documents. I’m looking, I’m looking.
Al Ste-Marie (34:51.255)
I’d rather them reach out and us provide them an answer straight away than them feeling any level of stress in their vacation. the end of the day, we answer. If they put this in our court, we can automate, we can use AI, we can parse through all the documents. We know where all this stuff is. It’s not a problem. They don’t need to break their head trying to figure it out. We’re there for that. That’s why we give them a WhatsApp number. And it’s like,
Jason Elkins (34:56.285)
Yeah!
Yeah, exactly.
Al Ste-Marie (35:14.671)
However, the caveat to that at this point in time, we don’t do automated responses. So we actually like control the stuff that gets sent to the client, which means that like when my team’s sleeping, we’re not getting back to them. So, but we do provide probably like, I don’t know, 19 hours around the clock coverage. So 19 out of 24. So.
Jason Elkins (35:32.937)
You’re excited to get that app finished, you? The flipper app?
Al Ste-Marie (35:36.307)
Well, yes, because I think the self-service aspect is going to be tremendous, right? Because there’s a lot of small questions that are either very simple and it’s like getting them, the answer straight away is really important. There’s also a lot of silly questions that people kind of feel a bit awkward about asking over text. It could be about, maybe it’s about things that I’ve said before and they don’t want me to repeat. They feel like awkward about that. Or just really silly question and be like, well, I saw this penguin yesterday. I can’t remember what breed that was.
Jason Elkins (35:59.638)
Yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (36:06.285)
But what do you think it could be? It’s like, ask AI. Like describe it to AI. He’ll be able to like probably come up with a better answer than I could. Right.
Jason Elkins (36:14.825)
Well, and it’s very true because some people have no hesitation whatsoever to just ask any question any time and I value that. That’s great. Actually, I admire that. I admire that ability to just do what you need to do. But then there are other people that just feel bad asking questions. mean, the text message might start out with, I hate to bother you, but I know it.
Al Ste-Marie (36:23.405)
Okay.
Al Ste-Marie (36:40.321)
It happens a lot. It happens a lot. you always have to remind them, no, no, no, I’m here for that. Please ask away. That’s really what we’re here for.
Jason Elkins (36:46.527)
Yes. Yes. And that’s part of their makeup is they just feel bad asking. one of the great things I think from, my opinion, about AI is it kind of removes that. It kind of, you know, assuming that you’re going to get a good response, a helpful response, because that’s the end.
Al Ste-Marie (37:04.619)
Exactly. I think we’ve seen a lot of like bad chatbot experiences. I mean, like we can all think about these multinationals and they roll out this chatbot. It’s just a loop where you can’t find the answers you really need. With us, that’s not the point. The point is to answer the silly really fast or they’re very obvious really fast, but there’s always a human in the loop. We review everything because to us it’s specialist knowledge. So we’re training it with the best knowledge that we have with all the itineraries that we provide and things like that.
Jason Elkins (37:18.431)
Those are horrible.
Jason Elkins (37:25.033)
Yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (37:34.031)
But at the end of the day, the best knowledge is the experience of having been there. And we haven’t codified all of that, everything that’s in here, into our database quite yet.
Jason Elkins (37:43.242)
That’s the trick. And as you do that, does prevent, it presents a great opportunity for your guests because then it’s that, I know that Al told me we were supposed to be in the lobby at eight o’clock, but I’m not really sure. I can’t remember. And my partner’s upset because, you know, it’s been a stressful day or whatever. And if I can just pull out the phone and just set.
Al Ste-Marie (38:01.572)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (38:07.751)
Some people just aren’t going to reach out and say, Al, tell me again. But they might pull out the phone and go to the Flipper app and say, hey, what time are we meeting the driver? if you guys have done a great job, then they’re going to get an answer that’s helpful. And they’re like, I didn’t have to bother anybody. I’m curious about you. I know with AI when I first started using ChatGPT a lot and some of the other apps.
Al Ste-Marie (38:17.794)
Exactly.
Jason Elkins (38:31.349)
I felt really bad about ask. just by nature, I didn’t like to ask dumb questions, a little bit of ego, whatever. And in the beginning, I was so worried that I was going to offend or I was asking too much. I’m like, I don’t want to bother you. So I would ask a question, I’d get an answer and I’d feel weird about asking for clarification. And then until I finally got it through my head that this is not a person.
Al Ste-Marie (38:36.619)
in
Al Ste-Marie (38:44.213)
Thank
Al Ste-Marie (38:51.599)
Yeah
Jason Elkins (38:56.349)
I don’t have to be super nice. I’m just a nice guy in nature, but I don’t have to worry about asking. No, I don’t like that version. Can you do it again? Can you do it again? Can you do it again? It’s great because you can just keep doing, saying, do it again, do it again, and do it again. And you’re not talking to someone that’s like trying to get out the door at five o’clock on Friday and they’re talking their boss like, hey, I don’t want to do it again. I got to go. So I don’t know. Did you have, have you had any, does that resonate with you? Yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (39:14.319)
Sure.
Al Ste-Marie (39:21.847)
Well, I mean, think iteration is how you produce anything good, right? So like, you’ve been iterating through this product for quite a while now. That being said, though, we want to make sure that accuracy is always maintained, right? So training it on our content, training it to our style. I fed it with like every email I’ve ever sent, right? So it uses my voice, for instance. We’re not going to use my digital reproduction, my real voice, but in terms of tone and language and things like that.
it’s inspired by how I would get back to a customer. So I’m hopeful that the service I was providing in the past will live up to the expectations of future guests, but if they don’t like it, well, it’s the same as me.
Jason Elkins (40:02.645)
Yeah, it is a tough thing because you’re putting something out there that you care deeply about your guest experience and it is…
Al Ste-Marie (40:12.047)
for sure. But again, it’s like, at the end of the day, it’s never about replacing me. It’s about giving best of both worlds. It’s about giving them immediacy of information, but also backed by real humans, right? At the end of the day, the whole world of travel agents is about real human to human advice. It’s about lived experience. If you just want to like, know broadly how things are going to go, yeah, chat to PC if you want, but.
Jason Elkins (40:17.714)
augmenting.
Al Ste-Marie (40:37.559)
I’d caution you against that because it’s never been there. Like only last year did they get internet on the vessel. So chat has only been in Antarctica last year.
Jason Elkins (40:38.707)
Hahaha.
Jason Elkins (40:46.919)
Right, right. And it’s, I think if you’ve used it a lot, then maybe you’re a little bit not skeptical, but you just kind of realize that it’s really the value of the responses you get are based on the value of the questions. And that takes a while to get to figure out. But anyway, I mean, it’s like that in life in general, but also definitely with the AI.
What does, you know, actually someone love to get your thoughts on because you mentioned it a few times how, know, you can book this with us. We’ll help you find not just the best price, but the right fit, the best value, the best fit. Yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (41:26.255)
It has value. Like truly for us, we sell on value. At the end of the day, it’s about the needs that you have. You can go to Antarctica, you can set your foot on a continent and go back. Cool. Check mark. You’ve done there. They don’t even give you a stamp, by the way, because there is no border to go to Antarctica. You don’t need visas or any authorizations. You just have to abide by the standards of the Antarctic Treaty, which is like, don’t pollute. Basically, don’t put anything on the ground except your feet that are in decontaminated boots.
But outside of that, there are like, there are no rules. Like don’t get too close to the animals and things like that. But there’s no strict borders. it’s, that’s one way. It’s like, if you really want to go just to tick the box, you can do that. But there’s a lot more to be done there. There’s the different wildlife you can see, there’s different seasons. They all kind of vary, right? Between your November to March.
Jason Elkins (42:08.821)
Yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (42:17.902)
Each month in Antarctica is almost a different trip because you have different wildlife, have different kind of like icebergs, different glacier, different temperature, also different length of day. So at its peak in, let’s say, late December near the solstice, it’s permanent daylight. So the sun never sets. And that’s a completely different experience to be sipping on champagne or a nice glass of anything you like on the top deck.
and it’s midnight and it’s bright. Very, very bright. And you just see the penguins swimming by like as if it’s normal.
Jason Elkins (42:49.694)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (42:55.209)
That is a very unique experience for people that have not been either extreme north or extreme south. I remember, you know, I remember moving when I moved to Alaska at one point and it was in the summer and it was just so bizarre being downtown Anchorage. You know, things are quiet because there’s no traffic on the streets. The businesses are closed up, but you feel like you’re in the middle of the afternoon. It’s very, very strange. And I suspect, yeah, so that’s it.
Al Ste-Marie (43:01.507)
Mm-hmm.
Al Ste-Marie (43:15.256)
and good.
Al Ste-Marie (43:20.175)
It really messes with your internal clock for sure. But it’s also for me, gave me lot of energy because I was like, oh, man, I love it. It’s like to me, I really start to wind down when the sun sets. So right now, as we’re recording this, these are almost the shortest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. So it’s funny to think that like if you transpose yourself to the Southern Hemisphere, these are the longest days of the year.
Jason Elkins (43:26.186)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (43:36.041)
huh.
Jason Elkins (43:41.78)
Yeah, within the course of a day or so, however long it takes to take you to get there. Yeah, that would be interesting. Interesting thing. And so you just expressed a lot of value into working with somebody like you that can help them find the best value, the best fit for what they’re trying to accomplish, whether that’s stepping foot and turn around and going home or doing something else.
Al Ste-Marie (43:55.074)
You
Al Ste-Marie (44:02.479)
Yeah, I think it’s, yeah, it’s about finding the right fit for you. So like it can be time to go, it can be what you want to see, but it can also be the activities you want to do, right? So there’s a lot of additional activities now in Antarctica. So you can go kayaking, snowshoeing, mountaineering, camping, things like that. And every year they seem to come up with new things. The new thing last year was snorkeling. So you’re in this like space looking suit that floats. It’s basically like a…
a dry suit that you would normally use for scuba diving, but this one is meant for snorkeling. So it goes all around your face and you look like the Michelin man and they give you a snorkel and you can just look under the water and see the penguins, the fish, the krill, if you’re lucky, maybe a whale. But it’s incredible experience. It’s like somehow you’re warm in this contraption that they give you. But that’s just an example of some of the activities you can do in Antarctica. And this is why going with somebody that
Jason Elkins (44:31.039)
Uh-huh.
Jason Elkins (44:45.585)
Yeah, that’s pretty cool.
Al Ste-Marie (44:59.119)
sees it all, that works with all the operators, that has experience, some haven’t been on all operators obviously, but that knows all the different products, allows you to just go beyond what’s price point, what’s the discount level, because there’s a lot more to that. The inclusions matter a lot, the activities matter a lot, the quality of the onboard instruction matters a lot. In addition to…
obviously the luxury, right? So you can go from all the way from comfortable to premium to uber luxury, right? So there’s some that will include helicopter rides, some marine rides. Sky’s the limit or the depth of the oceans is the limit, I suppose.
Jason Elkins (45:35.402)
Yeah, One of the things that came up when I was working a lot with, both working within Operator, like when I was in Belize and I was a Fly Fishing guy in Montana, I managed a few businesses. And I would have people ask me pretty directly, it’s like, well, shouldn’t we just book, if we come back, should we book with you directly? Or maybe before they book something. Well, we were talking to somebody that recommended you guys, but…
Should we just book directly? that better for us? And you know, the answer there in every situation I work in, I’m not saying everybody responds the same way, but that it was like, no, it’s the same price. You know, whether you pay whether you pay this, an agent or a planner that specializes in this type of stuff, or you book directly with us, it’s going to be the same price. And sometimes I think they couldn’t understand, well, why would that be? I mean, wouldn’t you rather
Al Ste-Marie (46:30.851)
I think it comes from this different mindset, right? I think that the travel world, the travel industry in general, it’s a partnership, a partnership to travel agents, the operators, the wholesalers, everybody along this chain understands the pricing and has to get paid just so that we can deliver a good customer experience. So what they pay me to provide advice or to sell these expeditions that wouldn’t otherwise go unsold. Well, it is for
they pay me to support the guests because they know they’re going to support the guests slightly less in the pre-departure type of horizon. And also they know that like, generally speaking, I guess that Bookstreet Travel agent, or at least a good one, is less likely to cancel. So again, that’s more revenue for the industry. And again, on top of that, selling cabins that would otherwise be unsold, that’s extra revenue for the industry as well. So we all play a role in this chain here. Trying to skip some hoops.
may yield some savings sometimes, but I would say that like in your high value, high ticket price expedition, there’s no really deal to be had by cutting people off the loop. You’re just adding more risk and at the end that you’re adding more stress to the guest.
Jason Elkins (47:43.286)
Right. You brought up a couple of points. One is if you book directly, they’re still going to have to do some work to service the clients. So that’s an expense. The difference is they either pay their own team to do it or they pay somebody like you to do it. So there’s not a huge difference in profitability. But also, I think that if you think about this, well, and also some operators don’t do a lot of direct to consumer. They like working with agents. They like working with outbound tour operators that
Al Ste-Marie (48:09.667)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (48:12.915)
that are good at servicing guests prior to arrival. Maybe their sweet spot is we’re going to give them an amazing experience when they’re here, but we don’t want to spend a lot of time on phone calls ahead of time. We don’t want to have a sales team. just want to run the ship. We just want to have a good operation. So that’s part of it. So if you’re only thinking, I’m going to try and go direct to save some money, well, some of those operators, you may not ever make any grounds.
Al Ste-Marie (48:28.911)
Exactly.
Al Ste-Marie (48:38.841)
think you’re just doing like if you go direct, you’re more than welcome to, but you better know what you want because they’re not going to sell the competitor’s product when you go direct. And in addition to that, it’s like if you’re calling one of the operators, the majority of their call centers are somewhere offshore and you cannot be sure that the person picking up the phone has been, right? So they’ll read from a script at the end of day, like it’s okay. If you know exactly what you’re going to get and you’re really set on it.
Jason Elkins (48:47.477)
They have one thing. They have one boat. have.
Al Ste-Marie (49:08.527)
Cool. Buy direct, put your credit card on the website. I think some of them allow you to do the whole flow yourself. I’ve heard from some of my partners that like very few, it’s very small percentage of people that like will add it to the cart, like an Amazon purchase and purchase this like $10,000 cruise. It’s possible, but it’s unlikely, right?
Jason Elkins (49:24.473)
yeah.
Jason Elkins (49:28.937)
Which is probably, that probably explains why people are more likely to cancel if they booked. You mentioned that.
Al Ste-Marie (49:36.943)
Yeah, because it’s like they they don’t know what they’re getting into in addition to that’s like well They have nobody to walk them through. What are the terms and condition? What are the requirements? How am I gonna get there? Right? So like often the operators will Sometimes include a domestic flight to get you to the port, right? Well, you gotta get yourself to Buenos Aires most people would know that like
all flights from Continental US to Buenos Aires, well, they depart in the evening, late evening, so 10, 11 p.m. is when they depart. You land early morning in Buenos Aires, which means whenever your cruise starts, you probably have to plan two days ahead. The operator, they wash their hands of that. If you book direct with them,
you got to get to the city to tell you about that time. But then doing the calculation of like, when should I fly? What’s the most optimal? Do I really want to go from an 11 hour flight to another domestic flight in the same day? Is it even possible with the customs in Argentina? I would say no, but, also like you probably want to explore it like Buenos Aires. You want to talk to somebody that’s been there, you know, there’s so many, there’s a lot of value that like the travel agents do myself, but also my peers as well.
Jason Elkins (50:32.245)
You
Jason Elkins (50:40.553)
Well, that’s.
Jason Elkins (50:45.081)
Yeah, yeah, because that’s, I mean, that’s a really valid point. If you’re going to fly all the way down there, most, I don’t know if this is a good assumption or not, but I’m guessing a lot of people that decide they want to go to Antarctica probably haven’t had the opportunity to hang out in Buenos Aires for a few days or Santiago or, you know, so if they’re going to go all the way down there, they’re going to land in Buenos Aires anyway. I mean, probably should spend a few days.
Al Ste-Marie (51:03.565)
I would assume no. No, exactly.
Jason Elkins (51:14.067)
And the cruise ship companies, know, the operators down there may not be that interested in helping you.
Al Ste-Marie (51:19.711)
No, generally they’ll provide like a pre or post, like a pre night in some occasions, but it’s for operational reasons. It’s to pad the schedule to make sure everything’s going to connect, even if there are delays along the way. But the reality is like, they don’t do that for the guests enjoyment. There’s no like cultural programming that’s offered. They just pad the schedule just so that like they can get, they know that the right people are at the right place at the right time. And if not, they can substitute, right?
Jason Elkins (51:40.255)
Yeah, it’s just.
Jason Elkins (51:46.932)
Yeah, yeah. also, and I think the other part of the conversation I wanted to have that maybe people don’t always realize is, let’s say I have a lodge somewhere. I’m going to use an example I’m more comfortable with, but let’s say I’ve got a lodge somewhere and I’ve got different agents or planners that are oftentimes sending me clients, and then I’ve got somebody that books directly with me. One thing is,
If a good chunk of my business is reliant on my partners that send me clients, I need to keep my partners happy. You know, maybe this is obvious to you and I know this to you and I know this is obvious, but I really want to keep my partners happy, number one. So I’m really, it would be really foolish of me to start wheeling and dealing to get somebody to book directly with me to save a hundred bucks or whatever.
Al Ste-Marie (52:27.822)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (52:44.467)
because I’m undermining my partner. This is just the reality of the business, I think. There’s that part of it. But also, I recognized early on that if a client, sounds weird, but if a client has a substandard experience, I’ll just call it that way instead of the word complaint. But if they have a substandard experience and they booked through a partner that’s important to me, if I’m a lodge owner, they booked it through a partner that’s important to me,
Or if they booked it directly with me and they had the substandard experience. I have a lot of incentive to make sure that that person that booked through a partner gets their situation resolved. Because it’s not just one booking. it’s a direct booking, OK, I lost that one booking or whatever. And maybe the two or three friends that they might talk to, I lost that. But if I
Al Ste-Marie (53:26.457)
For sure, absolutely.
Al Ste-Marie (53:32.323)
Exactly.
Jason Elkins (53:40.67)
and working with an agent that sent me a dozen people last year or more, I need to make that agent happy so we can get it resolved for the client. So I actually think that one of the best reasons to use a good partner like yourselves is if something goes sideways, you guys are going to fix it. It’s going to get, yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (54:00.175)
Exactly. mean, we are on the side of the customers at the end of the day. our only job is to send people to Antarctica for less. So it’s our job starts at the planning stage, but it doesn’t end until they’re back home safely. Right. So if anything goes wrong, if they need us to advocate on their behalf, if they need assistance in like filing the insurance claims, God forbid something happens, we’re there for that. We provide advice. Right. So like that’s, it is all part of the standard package. There’s no
Jason Elkins (54:07.978)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (54:14.719)
Right.
Jason Elkins (54:28.362)
Great.
Al Ste-Marie (54:29.652)
wow, your trip’s completed so bye. No, no, for us, we are there for ADZ.
Jason Elkins (54:32.213)
No, you’re there, so you’ve got a lot of incentive to help fix the problem. And I guess where I’m going with that is the operator on the ground has a lot of incentive to fix the problem as well, because they’re negotiating with Al, who sends us a bunch of clients, as opposed to negotiating with a one-off client that, you know, whatever. So I think that’s one benefit.
Al Ste-Marie (54:54.389)
Exactly. I think like all operators mean well. However, some guests, don’t know what to ask for, right? So when something does go wrong, what is the remedy that would be normal, that would be adequate to compensate for the wrong, right?
Jason Elkins (54:59.32)
yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (55:11.917)
We’re there for that. We’ve seen a lot of situations and we resolve them to the positive review of the guest and of the operator. At the end of the day, we prevent things from getting out of hand. So we are kind of a mediator sometimes, but we are primarily the advocate for our guests.
Jason Elkins (55:28.991)
Yeah, yeah, so I think that’s just an added value that I thought it might be interesting to discuss. I know we missed a lot from the point of you going to Nicaragua.
Al Ste-Marie (55:31.789)
Mm-hmm. Very sure.
Al Ste-Marie (55:40.207)
the
Jason Elkins (55:41.813)
I think that kind of spun off into this conversation. Were there any other key stages or anything that happened between Nicaragua and you opening up Unsold Anarchica that you want to touch on?
Al Ste-Marie (55:45.135)
It did.
Al Ste-Marie (55:51.821)
Well, I went there. I went there and I saw the midnight sun and the penguins floating and the icebergs at the distance. And I had this epiphany. I was like, wow, more people should go there right now for less. Because I found myself a deal to go there. I paid 60 % off. But it was very, very tumultuous to find it and get connected with the right people that could set me there.
So that complexity, I want to abstract that away. I want to make that available for other people. I want to be the person that sends people there the same season for a great deal.
Jason Elkins (56:30.867)
So if I was listening to this for the first time, and I pretty much am, you and I had a conversation before, but if I’m listening to this first time, I may be wondering, so Al, were you a travel agent offering another place and you decided to focus on Antarctica because of this trip? Or did you decide, I mean, were you doing something totally different? Just help me understand.
Al Ste-Marie (56:36.9)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (56:57.939)
Without going into great detail, what were you doing right before that? you working as a travel agent actively when you took that trip to Antarctica?
Al Ste-Marie (56:58.389)
I had to.
Al Ste-Marie (57:03.905)
No, I was, I was in a different career, but I had my travel agent’s license. I had been working on that for a few years to just chip away at it. I helped some of my friends organize their destination weddings, for instance. as a, as a friend does, I negotiated good deals for hotels and things like that. I’ve always done a lot of negotiation in my day job. So that came naturally to me. So I had this license in the back. I had this background as like a hotel night manager. also had this experience in Nicaragua and maybe all of that in addition to.
Jason Elkins (57:23.146)
Mm-hmm.
Al Ste-Marie (57:34.01)
the penguins, the icebergs, the midnight sun, and perhaps the nice whiskey on the rocks on the terrace. All of that came together in my mind and be like, my God, I need to found Unsolved Antarctica.
Jason Elkins (57:45.588)
I love that and that’s why I wanted to touch on that because it’s not as though you were doing Caribbean cruises for the last four years, five years, and then you went to Antarctica and decided, you know what? We should do Antarctica cruises instead. This sounds like a much more profound, my gosh, these things are coming together. This makes sense. So you launched a brand new business out of a passion.
and some skills that you picked up along the way, as opposed to just shifting from the Caribbean cruises to…
Al Ste-Marie (58:11.695)
Absolutely.
Yeah. And for me, I would never sell something that I haven’t experienced myself. So I’ve been to Antarctica and absolutely love it. I think more people should see it. And if they can see it for less, why not this year?
Jason Elkins (58:30.963)
Yeah, yeah. For the people that are listening, thinking about this, I think we’ve touched on a lot, but I’m curious, is there one thing that seems to surprise people the most? Is there that, I never would have guessed this about Antarctica. Kidding, speak. Is there one thing that jumps to mind or alternatively?
Al Ste-Marie (58:40.271)
and
Al Ste-Marie (58:50.777)
you
Jason Elkins (58:55.803)
Is there a tip or two that you would want to share with somebody that like you need to know this about androctocis before you even think about it?
Al Ste-Marie (59:04.641)
It’s warmer than you think. So of course in the depth of winter, it can be really, really cold, right? But when you go in the summer, meaning between November and March, the temperature will oscillate around freezing, right? so like that’s, a lot of people will go there and overpack.
Jason Elkins (59:19.711)
Okay.
Al Ste-Marie (59:24.769)
It’s more about layers. You’re going to be active. You’re going to be hiking. You’re to be moving around. You’re going to be in the Zodiac. So waterproof and layers is what you need. So I think a lot of people picture this as like, my God, this is going to be so cold. It’s like wear a beanie, have a scarf. But then the park is often provided, waterproof pants. But otherwise it’s just layers. Like if you’ve ever been to the Northern Hemisphere, the Nordics or Canada or upstate New York, it’s a lot colder up there than Antarctica in summer.
Jason Elkins (59:54.304)
You know, and I don’t know if this is the case, but there is something about Antarctica that just seems cold, looks cold. I haven’t been, so I don’t know. But I can imagine that. But I also suspect there’s people saying that, that probably do ski vacations to Aspen. Or go dog sledding in Minnesota in December.
Al Ste-Marie (01:00:14.809)
Thank you.
Jason Elkins (01:00:21.693)
or something like that, but they don’t, but they think, well, that seems reasonable going skiing and in Aspen seems like a reasonable thing to do in the winter. And then they’re like, ooh, Antarctica. I don’t know. That must be really cold out there. Yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (01:00:32.847)
I mean, it is the pinnacle of adventure at the end of the day, because you’re going to the end of the world, you’re going to where so few people have been before, right? To this day, there has been more people that have explored Everest, Base Camp, than Antarctica.
Jason Elkins (01:00:40.629)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:00:46.549)
wow, that’s interesting. yeah, that’s very, cool. What about the cold play? Like, I remember I had a guest on the show early on in the podcast. And one of the experiences he shared or stories he shared about going to Antarctica was where they jump off the boat into the water. Yeah, what?
Al Ste-Marie (01:01:04.247)
Yeah, the Polar Plunge. Yeah, it’s fun. Most operators offer it now. It’s gaining in popularity. Some of the luxury ones in the past weren’t offering it. It was mostly the more adventure level, but it’s been spreading because it’s like people see those photos and they’re like, I got to do that. Right. So it’s nice.
Jason Elkins (01:01:17.484)
huh.
Jason Elkins (01:01:23.221)
I would think so, but I’m just curious. have no way to even guess what numbers, but out of the people that have the opportunity to do it, what percentage of people do you think do it? I have no idea if that’s 5 % or if it’s a 90 % thing. Do you have a feel for it?
Al Ste-Marie (01:01:42.511)
It’s up there. It’s up there because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. Like I know on the ship that I went with was mostly younger people. I think only five people stayed behind and we were a crew of 150.
Jason Elkins (01:01:53.256)
Okay.
I would do it. I would.
Al Ste-Marie (01:01:58.137)
course, yeah. And it’s nice, like they welcome you back with some warm tea or like mulled wine and then you can go in the sauna or in the hot tubs. It’s fantastic. Obviously it depends on the boat that you’re on, but if your boat has a hot tub, then it’s great.
Jason Elkins (01:02:10.037)
Ah, well, that might be a good reason to reach out to someone like you to figure out, know I want to jump in the ice water, in the water, and I know that getting into a hot tub immediately after would be important to me, so then you can help them figure out which trick to take.
Al Ste-Marie (01:02:18.979)
Mm-hmm.
Al Ste-Marie (01:02:24.303)
I’ve got a few bugs in mine, yeah, that’s great.
Jason Elkins (01:02:28.105)
That’s it’s pretty cool. I really I like your story a lot and just the way that you look at guest services and taking care of people. This is not an ad and infomercial at all, but you got me excited. So well, yeah, yeah, but we don’t like those words, but we’re talking about something really, really cool because I heard you say I want people to experience this and I think that’s that’s pretty special. And I really I’m intrigued by the Antarctic apart in part because.
Al Ste-Marie (01:02:39.811)
But it is a little bit.
Yeah.
Of course.
Jason Elkins (01:02:56.969)
I’ve been to quite a few places and I’m around people that have been to quite a few places. But when Antarctica comes up, it’s like, my gosh, I want to go. I’ve been thinking about that. That’s on my bucket list. And it actually creates connections with people. Whenever Antarctica has come up in conversation, I’ve had people say, I want to go, we should go together. Let’s go, you know, hey, hey, Jason, you know, a bunch of people in the business, you should put together a group trip and take them to Antarctica and all this. It gets people excited. So I love that. And
But like you said, you don’t have to wait three, four years. You can actually probably go this winter.
Al Ste-Marie (01:03:32.079)
Absolutely. I mean, to your point, it is one of those like last frontiers that it really brings people together. Like the people that you’ll meet on the ship are people that you’ll always have this like very unique memory with. It’s not the same thing as going skiing in Aspen, for instance. It’s a more unique. And it’s like, there are some hardships sometimes, right? As you cross the Drake Passage, it can be really flat or it can be really shaky for two days straight. So like that brings camaraderie together, right?
Jason Elkins (01:03:58.046)
Mm-hmm.
Al Ste-Marie (01:04:02.325)
And again, you’re seeing things that nobody else will see the exact same thing. It’s it’s one of the places like, there’s so few photographs, there’s so few videos of, so many people have seen it of their own eyes, right? So it’s like, knowing that you were there at that very special moment with other people, it’s a bond in a way, right?
Jason Elkins (01:04:02.982)
you
Jason Elkins (01:04:21.161)
And I don’t know if it matters or not, as I was listening to you say that, I recognize that I suspect an awful lot of people that go to Antarctica are checking out, they’re not checking off. I don’t like it to say it that way, but I’m guessing quite a few of them, it’s the last continent for them. I suspect a lot of them have done, yeah, and.
Al Ste-Marie (01:04:38.413)
I would say so, yeah, very many,
Jason Elkins (01:04:42.393)
or it’s not probably not the first outside of, know, so they maybe, I guess what I’m saying is I suspect a lot of people that go to Antarctica probably have been to some other interesting places. And I suspect that just that if you’re in, if you’d like to hang around other people that travel and have conversations about experiences, I suspect there’s an awful lot of, I’m envisioning myself sitting on one of the boats, you know, at dinner and everybody’s talking about.
Al Ste-Marie (01:04:46.028)
Yes.
Al Ste-Marie (01:04:54.126)
Mm-hmm.
Al Ste-Marie (01:05:05.251)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:05:07.881)
the places they’ve been, the places they want to go. It’s probably a very travel focused conversation. Yeah. Yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (01:05:12.217)
For sure. It’s a very, yeah, very well traveled bunch. Honestly, very interesting people, like very like well accomplished and then like curious people because it’s like there are easier places to go in the world, both from a money standpoint and a time to get their standpoint. These are people that like are setting aside a significant amount of time and resources to discover somewhere that there are a people have been before. Right. So a lot of my guests, it’s like they are amazing people that’s like
They, yeah, as you said, they are the checking off their last continent or they want to be the first in their groups of friends to have been to Antarctica. And I’m very, very happy to make that happen for them.
Jason Elkins (01:05:48.404)
Yeah, it’s super cool. Do you think that the multi-generational trips are more popular to Antarctica as opposed to other places? I’ve heard a few conversations around, you know, dad and son or dad and daughter, mom and son or whatever, just multi-generational. I don’t know if that’s just a coincidence that that’s come up, but it seems like a popular way to…
Al Ste-Marie (01:06:07.651)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:06:13.705)
Like maybe dad and son are checking off their seventh continent together type of thing. It seems like there’s that.
Al Ste-Marie (01:06:17.999)
I think like in terms of you’re right, like it is very, it’s a good continent for that. And these are good expeditions for that purpose because none of like the activity or intensity level can be adjusted. Right. So these are trips that you’re going to have people from, say they’re thirties all the way to 85. Right. So like
depending on your age and your fitness level, you can do different things, right? You can take a long hike or you can take a short hike. You can stay on board if you want, right? So like that is very adequate for type of multi-generational travel.
Jason Elkins (01:06:45.809)
And it, yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:06:51.241)
And I’m thinking it’s still a pretty cool adventure, whether you’re in that 80 year old range or you’re in the 20 year old range, it’s still an adventure. Whereas maybe there’s other places in the world that, I mean, I think Africa is amazing. I love Africa, but I’m envisioning you might say, I’m going on a hardcore adventure maybe as I’m gonna climb Kilimanjaro or something.
Al Ste-Marie (01:07:00.079)
and
Jason Elkins (01:07:15.625)
But if you’re not in the shape to climb Kilimanjaro, you’re going to a safari camp, which is still an adventure. But a multi-generational family won’t be able to have kind of the same adventure, maybe? Where it feels like Antarctica, you can still have the same adventure. And it’s adventurous no matter how you look at it, it seems. Yeah. Well, I guess I need to ask you this because we talk multi-generational. What about kids?
Al Ste-Marie (01:07:26.755)
Exactly.
Al Ste-Marie (01:07:31.617)
Absolutely.
Al Ste-Marie (01:07:39.823)
Well, kids are allowed on some vessels, but the majority of operators set a cutoff at around 13 years old. And to be frank, I’m not sure if you would truly enjoy it before kind of 13, 12, 13 years old age. Some operators do offer kids or teen discount in a way. So between 12, 13, whatever the minimum cutoff is all the way to 18. So often it’s like half fare, it’s two thirds fare. In addition to that,
Jason Elkins (01:08:06.357)
maybe sharing a cabin with their parents or something like that, or yeah.
Al Ste-Marie (01:08:08.813)
Well, exactly. So some cabins can have like a third bunk essentially, or a sofa bed that’s converted into a bed, or a crib of sort. But yeah, there’s always a way to accommodate kids. However, what I would say is that think really hard about whether this is the right experience to provide for that person, and are going to enjoy it at their fullest, right?
I think late teens is probably very good for like just knowledge and awareness. Like the science program and a lot of these cruises is phenomenal. I think many adults probably don’t ask as many questions as they should because these are experts you have on board. So again, going back to your point of like maybe feeling shy about, oh, I got to want to ask a follow up question. I want to be that guy. These people, those guys, like that’s their day and night. They absolutely love it. None of these people do this for like
Jason Elkins (01:08:59.625)
They love it, don’t they?
Al Ste-Marie (01:09:03.193)
for the fame or money, like they do this because they are absolutely passionate about the continent.
Jason Elkins (01:09:08.725)
Speaking of that, because we did have a conversation about feeling weird about asking questions and all that, but I’ve also been a guide and I’ve worked in the business for a while. Actually, anybody that’s listening to this has not been a guide and doesn’t realize it, guides really like questions. They really, really do. Because they do it because they want to share things, not necessarily their knowledge. It’s not about their knowledge. They just want to share.
Al Ste-Marie (01:09:23.855)
You
Jason Elkins (01:09:35.828)
the place that they love, whether that’s Antarctica or it could be, you know, I had a hot air, hot air balloon ride business for quite a while and I would take people on balloon rides and I loved it when they asked questions to the point where if they weren’t asking questions, I kind of felt like they weren’t having a good time or like I was somehow not approachable and I would get all these stories in my head that, my gosh, they were so quiet. They must not have enjoyed it. And the people that asked the most questions were always at the end of the day, I’d go home with the
Al Ste-Marie (01:09:51.855)
Mm-hmm.
Al Ste-Marie (01:09:55.8)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:10:05.307)
know adrenaline and the dopamine and they clearly enjoyed it because they were asking a lot of questions so I’m just saying that to anybody that’s hesitant to ask too many questions when you go on a trip like this please do that’s very cool so Al we we covered a bunch of different things I’m curious is there anything I forgot to ask or that you wish that I’d asked or that you want to share with our guests our listeners before we before we wrap it up okay
Al Ste-Marie (01:10:07.628)
in
Al Ste-Marie (01:10:31.597)
Well, I got a question for you. Are you going to go to Antarctica? And when?
Jason Elkins (01:10:35.433)
I’m so I am so going the one question is when it gets real right you like I’m sure you I’m sure you talked a lot of you yeah, it’s on my list. It’s on my list. when are you going? well, you know I know You’re gonna have to you’re gonna have to help me get a really good discount like I’m a podcaster All right, that sounds that sounds like a good deal
Al Ste-Marie (01:10:46.019)
Why not this season? Right? That’s always my question. This is the infomercial part.
Al Ste-Marie (01:10:57.409)
Let’s flipper nose.
Jason Elkins (01:11:04.405)
Yes, it’s something my son and I actually have spoken with. He’s been to Asia with me in South America. So that multi-generational question actually was a little bit self-serving because my son and I have talked about, wouldn’t that be cool to do that? he’s, yeah. So yeah, but anybody that’s listening, right? Do you have a catchphrase?
Al Ste-Marie (01:11:12.312)
See you next time.
Of course.
Al Ste-Marie (01:11:29.647)
go this season for less.
Jason Elkins (01:11:31.157)
There you go, okay There you go. We’ll leave it on that. I’ll thank you so much fascinating conversation And yeah, you got my juices juices flowing to go down and check it out I think every I know that not everybody will I know that probably if we all went it changed the nature of the place I get that but it’s if it’s if exploration and
and growth is important and you see travel as part of that equation, then I would definitely suggest doing it. So I know I will. Al, thank you so much. Appreciate it. It a great conversation. Hope to chat with you again soon.
Al Ste-Marie (01:12:02.286)
Absolutely.
Al Ste-Marie (01:12:06.073)
Thank you Jason. Bye.
Follow 205+ Leaders and the Stories That Shape the Adventure Travel World on the Big World Made Small Podcast
Access the stories here, or on your favorite platform; wherever you prefer.
Get Expert Interviews Delivered Directly to Your Inbox
Join the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast community and we’ll send you new podcast episodes weekly, and make sure you hear about exclusive and relevant opportunities that you won’t find elsewhere.