Gather and Go with Brian Jewell

In 1960, Nashville’s college students sat down at lunch counters — and stood up for a different future. Nashville is famous for its music, but its Black colleges helped shape something even bigger: the Civil Rights Movement. Students trained in nonviolent protest faced harassment, beatings and arrests as they challenged segregation in the city’s downtown stores. When a bombing targeted the attorney defending them, thousands marched through Nashville, setting the stage for a confrontation that h

Sometimes your best protection from a travel disaster is as thin as a sheet of paper. Jeff Ment believes that having well-crafted legal documents can make the difference between a peaceful problem resolution and a lengthy legal nightmare. And he would know — after working as a travel agent, a tour guide and an airline salesman, he found his place in the world as a travel attorney. On this episode, Jeff shares the most common legal mistakes most tour operators and travel professionals are makin

Is recruiting a “pied piper” the key to building successful group trips? Ali Raymer things so. After years of leading student trips as a high school English teacher, she launched Peace & Pearl Travel Co. and stumbled upon a recipe for partnering with community luminaries to create meaningful group trips that rack up big sales. On this episode, Ali shares her formula for identifying great pied pipers in places you might not expect. She breaks down her marketing approach and shares some warning

Group travel makes a massive impact on America’s economy — and we’ve got the data to prove it. On this episode of Gather and Go, Fred Ferguson and Lew Myers of the American Bus Association share the results of a brand new economic impact study that demonstrates just how important group travel really is to destinations and businesses across America. They break down how the market has grown in the last 12 months, the biggest challenges facing the group tourism industry, and how travel pros can us

Douglas Quinby knows what profitable tour businesses have in common. After decades studying group tourism, first as a journalist and then as a researcher, Douglas launched the tour education community Arival. And he and the team recently finished one of the most comprehensive studies of the multiday tour industry ever undertaken. On this episode, Douglas shares the major findings of that study, including the surprising traits that the most tour companies have in common. He shares insights into

For James Redcay and Stephanie Tiboris, music is serious business. James and Stephanie lead MidAmerica Productions, a performance travel company that Stephanie’s father founded decades ago. They have helped thousands of young musicians perform at Carnegie Hall and other high-profile venues around the world. And they have seen firsthand how staying true to their passion has helped their business grow. On this episode, James and Stephanie share how their commitment to serious music has been seri