This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Let's talk today about travel. You know, normally at the beginning of a year, I always go on a big trip. I've been doing this for, I don't know, more than a decade, maybe 15 years or so, January hits. And I'm like, I want to go around the world and kind of get my elite status qualification off to a good start with various airlines and hotels. And just kind of also get myself off to a good start with the year.
Well, guess what? This year I'm not taking that big trip, at least not right in January, but I'm looking forward to the future when I can do that. And so is today's caller. Today's caller is looking ahead to a bright COVID free future. Aren't we all right?
He is wondering about using money from a side hustle to pay for a vacation, a big vacation, as soon as travel is more accessible. And welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, so glad you're here. It has certainly been a weird time for international travel in particular, domestic travel too, but especially international travel. Very confusing, changing rules, changing guidelines, changing cases in terms of the virus, et cetera.
You've got countries like New Zealand and Australia that are largely closed to outsiders, like almost entirely closed. You have countries like Turkey and Mexico that are pretty much welcoming anyone, like come one, come all, we don't care. There's been a model called Travel Bubbles, which has, well, let's say bubbled up in a few different places, like Hong Kong and Singapore, for example. They have this model where people from one place can travel to the other without quarantining, as long as they follow certain protocols and such. Meanwhile, you've got Hawaii, which can't decide what it wants, and has made it very difficult for potential travelers by changing the rules every month and having different rules on different islands.
Some people have even flown to Hawaii, having a negative test like they're supposed to have, but then actually been turned around because they didn't accept the test, all kinds of crazy stuff, like many other variations as well all over the world. Now, looking forward, this variance is going to continue throughout much of 2021, but there will be a time when it gets easier and more open, thanks to that vaccine that you've heard about, or those vaccines, let's say. So what are the opportunities there in terms of side hustle ideas? That's what our caller is wondering about. So let's talk about it.
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Hey, Chris. My name is Nick, and like a lot of people, I had to skip both my summer vacation and my winter getaway for 2020. I mean, as soon as we're able, I want to correct that. I'm planning a big summer trip for this year, and if all goes well, I think it'll be the perfect time.
Among other things, there are lots of deals out there where you can prepay now and cancel later without losing your money, if it looks like the trip won't work. I'm wondering, might there be some way to cover the cost of the trip somehow by doing something along the way? And I don't mean like becoming a travel influencer, but more like teaching English somewhere or maybe starting a blog about travel post-COVID. Any thoughts? [Music]
Nick, thank you for the call.
I know you're not alone in looking forward to a big summer trip or a big trip at some point, at some point to somewhere. So it sounds like a good plan here. I think the question is, what is the connection between the project and the trip? Because in a lot of ways, you could just have any source of income that you say for the trip, like whatever your side hustle is, whether it has some link to the trip or not. But from the message, it sounds like Nick is looking for a specific connection.
Next, he mentions that he doesn't want to become a travel influencer, which I think is pretty good thinking. But he likes the idea of teaching English or starting a blog perhaps about travel recovery. Now, these are interesting options and also quite different. Teaching English overseas can be a meaningful experience. I actually did it for several months, long ago in China and Thailand.
But it's really more like a part-time job. It's not like the kind of money-making projects we tend to feature here on the program. So of the options we have so far, starting a blog or other resource on post-COVID travel recovery is probably the most viable. And what would that look like? One thing I know is that post-COVID, we are going to have a tremendous travel renaissance.
My good friend Gary left calls it the golden age of travel returning. There's going to be tons of deals. There's going to be a lot of award availability for all those frequent flyer miles you have and just haven't used. It's going to be a great time at some point, right? So the question is, what can you contribute to that space?
Travel bloggers who've been around for a long time have a bit of an advantage, a head start. But I like the idea of focusing specifically on that post-COVID world and perhaps preparing for any transition times where some parts of the world are more open than others. Because it's not going to be like flipping a switch. Where all of a sudden we're all vaccinated. It's going to take a lot of time to roll this out.
So there will continue to be a lot of variance in policies and what's acceptable, what's okay, what's safe, what's not, et cetera. So there probably is something to be done there. And I really like the idea of focusing specifically on post-COVID travel. All right, Nick, thank you again. Listeners, thank you.
If you have a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. Excited to feature another batch of questions throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. It's going to be a great year. One way or another, we're going to get through this stuff. Thank you so much for listening.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
