UNDER THE INFLUENCE: INTERVIEW WITH ADVENTURE FAKTORY
If you’re an avid social media user and like to be in-the-know when it comes to the world of travel, there’s a good chance that you’ve come across Adventure Faktory on Instagram. The Dubai based travel influencers share their adventures through colourful photographs as they traverse the globe and have amassed 43,000 avid followers in the process. Their account covers everything from city breaks to luxurious hotels and far-flung beaches, visiting 91 countries over seven continents so far! We catch up with Mitch and Thuymi to talk about all things travel and to learn how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their plans.
How did you get started in the world of travel?
After meeting in 2014 in Vietnam, we thought the best way to get to know each other better was to travel. With so many countries around us, what better way to go and explore than with your partner? So we booked a trip to Myanmar after knowing each other for less than two months and since then have not stopped discovering new countries!
Do you prefer the beach, city or culture holidays?
We have always been warm weather people so definitely the beach, but we also enjoy submerging ourselves within a country’s culture. Without the culture, our trip wouldn’t be a complete discovery of the country we are visiting.
Where is your favourite place to travel on a budget?
It is really hard to beat Thailand when you are speaking about budget travel. You have the massive, bustling city of Bangkok, with all the street food vendors scattered all over the place and fun bargain shopping. You also have world-class resorts and beaches, not forgetting to mention different regions that offer varied landscapes. Internal flights are cheap, except Koh Samui, but there are always budget ways to get there via alternative routes with boats and buses.
How did you know you had ‘made it’ as travel influencers?
To have travelled to over 90 countries and all continents! Just the fact that we have seen different perspectives of travel, like solo travel, couples travel, budget travel, luxury travel, road trips, and cruises. We’ve seen pretty much everything, and that has made us feel considered by colleagues, friends and family as travel connoisseurs. That community influence has always been strong and it is what made us create AdventureFaktory.com where we could journal experiences and advice to share with them.
We also knew we were on the right path when we were invited on press trips all around the globe and were being contacted by significant hospitality groups and travel agencies to help them build engagement and marketing strategies.
When you are on location, do you have a strict routine?
Before we head to any location, we spend a considerable amount of time scouting online and asking questions about places to see, things to do and the amount of time it takes to get it done. We usually love to stay with friends as locals are the best at showing you around but we also work on additional accommodation to discover cute Airbnb’s or Hotels. If we do have time and partners in town, we also look at any possible collaborations we can talk to our audience about as well; this could include culinary experiences, adrenaline experiences and hotel stays.
Once we arrive, we attempt to document absolutely everything on our social media platforms, so the first few days are spent in total work mode. Once we have created our content and retrieved information, we slow down to explore and immerse ourselves in the local experience.
What are your top travel tips?
- Always carry a change of clothes in your carry on.
- If you love taking photos, get a cloud space to store your photos as you go. It’s a bit tougher for us because our files are massive, but for everyone else that travels for their vacations, there is nothing worse than losing your photos to a memory card failure, stolen/lost camera, or anything that would lead you to lose your memories.
- Try and book only one major flight and then use alternative modes of transports to get around the country and neighbouring countries.
- Make sure your phone has a strong cover or a handle. You will be surprised how often it is going in and out of pockets on your trip!
Have you had to cancel travel plans due to Covid-19?
We have rescheduled our plans until later. It’s important to find ways to encourage the travel industry by not cancelling but to reschedule instead. We planned to spend time around Asia exploring some of the lesser-known counties and we’re also keen for Thuymi to reach her goal of visiting 100 countries before her 30th birthday in June. Unfortunately, plans did change and I’m not really sure we would even be able to see nine countries by the end of 2020!
How do you think COVID-19 has affected the future of travel?
Well, the tourism and hospitality industries have been hit hard and many livelihoods have greatly affected. I think it will take a good 18 months before we see a resemblance to the travel industry we once saw.
Have you visited anywhere that you would want to return to over and over again?
That is such a loaded question! We have been so fortunate to see so many wonderful places, many of which we did return to many times. Thailand is one that we have been to over a dozen times and will keep returning to see more of. On the list of countries, we have returned to over three times are Vietnam, the USA, Oman, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, China, Cambodia, Montenegro and many more. Which leads us to say that it is certainly hard to choose one, but if we had to choose right now, in the heat of the moment, it would be Mexico!
As soon as it is safe to travel, where is next on your list?
We will be making some local trips as there are a few Indonesian islands that are only a short ferry ride away from us right now while in Singapore. Then depending on how much travel will normalise again, we’d like to discover countries we haven’t visited yet like Bhutan, Brunei and Iceland.
If you were given an open ticket to travel anywhere in the world, where would you choose and why?
We would be jumping on that plane right away and headed straight towards Russia to do the Trans-Siberian railroad, a bucket list item very high on our list. We have to put that Russian Thuymi learned into actual practice!
GO: Visit https://www.adventurefaktory.com and check out all the latest travel information, city guides and destination reviews. Follow Mitch and Thuymi on Instagram @adventurefaktory for more travel inspiration.
