Travel reality show The Amazing Race recently wrapped its 16th edition. The critically acclaimed show (a personal favorite) involves two person teams unpredictably traversing the world following clues and performing various localized challenges to win a million dollar prize. Unfortunately, there is one fundamental problem with the show…
Watching inexperienced travelers grapple with unfamiliar foreign customs may appeal to a broad demographic of aspiring world travelers, but for those of us involved in the travel industry, the fish-out-of-water scenarios only go so far.
One understands inexperienced travelers making mistakes, but how much fun would it be to see “experts” make the same ones?
For a truly amazing race, I say pit teams of insanely experienced world travel experts against each other to see who comes out on top. Eliminate the naivet茅 and suddenly the sophistication of the clues, complexity of the challenges and destinations visited can be elevated to an entirely new level.
After a round of nominations, the teams have been assembled. There is an incredibly wide variety of travel experience and industry expertise possessed by the team members. The teams range from famed CEO’s to nomadic travel bloggers and highly regarded industry analysts to award winning journalists. Some teams reflect current working relationships, for others, only a shared commonality within an industry niche. All are accomplished travelers in their own right – one could do worse than traveling with any one of them.
Please note that the direct input of the individuals comprising the teams was not taken into consideration when defining the teams. There is a chance that particular individuals may not be able to stand the other member in their pairing. Hypothetically, for some, the $1 million prize might take precedence over petty differences. As for those that might encounter difficulty finding common ground, there is always the benefit of entertaining television.
So, the question is: Who would be the ultimate two-person team to race around the world for a $1 million dollar prize?
[polldaddy poll=”3241882″]
Try this link if you do not see the poll embedded above.
Voting closes at 11:59pm US Central Time Monday, May 31. Only one vote is allowed per person, so only one team may be selected.
If you feel there might be a better pairing, feel free to comment or send me a tweet at @RobertKCole. If you make a compelling point, I might make a rare exception and consider adding them to the poll.
For those who have never seen The Amazing Race and may be struggling with the concept, this year’s competition covered 40,000 miles across nine countries on five continents over twenty-two days for the million dollar prize. Here is a link to the Season 16 Finale.
With such a varied group of individuals comprising the teams, one interesting aspect is these individuals were to compete would be the question of the prize money. One would assume that the bloggers and nomads would be quite appreciative of the $1 million dollar first prize, while ideally, the CEO’s on the list would donate their winnings to a worthy charity – perhaps the bloggers and nomads 馃檪
While this poll is not associated with the production of the CBS television series, there is an official Twitter account @AmazingRace_CBS. If you like this idea – let them know your perspective. Maybe the producers will run with the idea and beef up a future season’s competition by including some of the individuals or teams suggested in this poll…
Using a group of travel experts would not detract in any way from the entertainment value of the show. One thing is certain, due to their deep engagement with the travel industry, each would appreciate every step of their journey and recognize the value of travel experiences to enrich lives.
The only risk would be making certain the participants can resist the temptation to post or tweet for the full duration of the competition and respect the embargo until the final episode of the show airs. Many of these people have made careers in the travel industry by exploring new territories and breaking rules – that is exactly what would make them such great competitors.
Many challenges face the global travel industry. New business models, competitive marketing strategies, emerging mobile technologies, interactive customer engagement and the constant need to drive profitability create complexities that were never previously imagined by hotels, destinations, airlines or online travel companies.
Each month, RockCheetah and the Views from a Corner Suite blog will present a new poll to gauge the sentiment of the travel industry, and of course, allow respondents to comment on the issues at hand.
About Robert Cole
