Explore the Positive Impacts of Travel on The Wanderlust Series

Joanna Riquett helps creative travelers discover more about the arts and culture in this world through storytelling pieces on Hayo Magazine. 

Joanna is a member of our Travel Massive Vancouver chapter and was excited to be able to share her story with Travel Massive members globally. So, we asked Joanna a few questions about her project with Hayo Magazine and how exactly Travel Massive members can help get involved.

Happy reading! 

What is your initiative about? Who does it help?

Through the work with the magazine, the multiple destinations I’ve been to, and the current state of the media (war and immigration), I realized that there’s a general fear from people to let media into their lives. Because of this, I was compelled to create a space to talk about the positive impact of travel and the benefits we get from understanding other cultures for our personal developments and also our professional lives. As an immigrant myself, this is something I’m personally very interested in. This is why I created the Wanderlust Series, a space to safely talk about all these issues, while also inspiring attendees to open their minds to other cultures and new adventures. Each month we focus on different topics and we partner with strong local brands to co-host the events in different cities.

What inspired you to create this initiative?

I think in the travel industry there’s a lot of showing and talking about other places in a superficial way. Some are doing a good job at digging deeper, but mostly we are talking about tourism. What motivated me to create this space, was the craving for more meaningful conversations. It’s not only about the adventures you’ve had, but also about how with your background, your experience, your knowledge of the world, your political and social views, have you confronted finding yourself completely outside of your comfort zone. When people are afraid, hearing other people’s experience in this confrontation could help them take the leap.

Is there a unique story of how it came to be?

I had this idea for a while, but it wasn’t until I came back from a trip to Israel where I began to understand all the complexities that surround a country and the misleading ideas spread on news outlets. That’s when I decided to make it happen. I proposed the story to my co-hosts in Vancouver, The Juice Truck, and we worked on some details and made it happen pretty quickly!

What has been your biggest success or accomplishment?

So far, we have had around 150 attendees divided in 3 talks in Vancouver and Los Angeles. This is just within 2 months of having launched and with limited capacity locations, which we are very happy about because it shows us that people are also craving this kind of spaces.

Do you have any tips for aspiring do-gooders who want to give back or start their own social project?

I’d say it’s always good to have a partner. I wouldn’t have been able to make it if The Juice Truck, my co-hosts in Vancouver wouldn’t have jumped in too, because not only creating something from scratch is a lot of work, but also for thinking of ideas and ways to make it better is very important to have other people’s opinions, and of course, divide and conquer. So it doesn’t matter how good your idea is, if you don’t have people to help you make it happen and a community to support it, it’ll be really hard to turn it into something meaningful.

Why do you attend Travel Massive events?

I have attended Travel Massive events in LA, San Francisco, and Vancouver. I currently live in Vancouver which doesn’t have a lot of activity, but I loved attending the gatherings in LA and SF because you get to connect with other people in your industry that are also doing cool stuff and with who you can potentially collaborate with. It’s like Hillary’s campaign motto: stronger together 😛

Purposeful Traveler is a series that profiles inspiring people or projects making a purposeful change to the way we travel. You can connect with Joanna Riquett and Hayo Magazine on Travel Massive, Facebook, and Twitter.