GlobeRovers Magazine, Dec 2019

During traveling I learned that we all smile, cry, love our family
and like to eat, have fun and enjoy life. Travel can truly reinforce
and challenge our convictions greater than any experience. We are
pushed to the limit in understanding humans.
GR: What is the main focus of your travels?
JL: I like to focus on people, history, and nature. I somehow have
a preference for dusty and warm countries, so it is fantastic to be
able to visit an ancient desert city with friendly people. I like to visit
UNESCO World Heritage Sites that I now count 329 in total. I love
petroglyphs and castles.
GR: You have a popular travel blog and you have a strong social
media following. Some posts are much liked and reposted while
others are not. What do you think makes a travel post popular?
JL: What makes a post popular, is how often and how high it appears
on Google searches. The higher you rank in a search engine,
the more visitors you will get and consequently the more shares you
will get on social media. It doesn’t matter what kind of destination
you have, because there are enough Internet users to share everything
you wrote about. You just need to make yourself noticed.
GR: Travel bloggers who visit intrepid, off-the-beaten-track destinations,
or secret city spots, often have a hard time deciding on
whether they should keep the secret, or broadcast it to the world
to gain lots of attention and new followers (and likely change
that secret location and its people’s lives forever). What are your
thoughts on this? Should we keep the secrets?
JL: I do understand your point. From the start that I blog to share
information so that people can freely explore places that usually
thought to be accessible. But quickly I understood, that people
started to make my trips, instead of making their own trips. Nowadays,
most people dream to make the trips that other bloggers
make, instead of searching for their own adventures. So sometimes
that hidden special place will stop being so secret and special.
GR: Where are you off to next?
JL: I had nothing scheduled for 2019, and also nothing in mind for
2020. I’m just enjoying being home at the moment. I returned from
a two-year trip so I’m kind of OK not being on the road soon.
GR: And finally, let us do a few rapid-fire questions...
• Favorite airline? TAP, QATAR, EMIRATES.
• Favorite cities? Ouarzazate, Marrakech, Lisbon, Khiva, Yazd,
Istanbul, etc etc
• Favorite village? So many really...
• Favorite beach? All nice and non-polluted sandy beaches.
• Beach or mountain? Both.
• Couch or camping? Camping.
• Bus or train? Both.
• The best words to describe yourself? A curious-silly-polyglot-visual
artist from Portugal living in Morocco, that enjoys
a bit of adventure travel.
GR: Thanks João for sharing your travel wisdom with us. Safe
travel sand keep up with your blog and social media posts to
inspire people to travel and experience the world.
If you ever visit Ouarzazate, stay at João’s
beautiful guest house, Dar Rita. He also
operates RJ Travel Agency to help you plan
your Moroccan adventures.
Follow João Leitão
BLOG
www.joaoleitao.com
FACEBOOK
facebook.com/joaoleitaoviagens
TWITTER
twitter.com/joaoleitao
INSTAGRAM
instagram.com/joaoleitaoviagens
PINTEREST
www.pinterest.com/joaoleitao
INDIA
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