Virtual World Tours: The Wow Moment is the Now Moment

Wowzitude Founder and CEO Susan Black joins Suzanne to talk about continuing to be culturally curious in our senior years, by taking virtual tours to 140 locations across the world. It's part of intellectual wellness — expanding our minds, learning — one of the 8 foundational principles of wellness, featured this month as part of The Vitality Revolution podcast series sponsored by Humana.

Susan says, "These are live-stream guided walking tours. The way we work it is, our guides have a stabilizer called a Gimble and a camera, and everything that they see you see live, while it's happening. It's not a television program, it's not video. It is a live-stream walking tour. And to make it even more immersive, everyone can ask questions in real time. We only do group tours. We have the same people on our tours all the time, because it's a subscription service. We go to 140 different locations, places from cities that everybody loves. Rome, Paris, New York City, all the way to off-the-beaten-track. As a matter of fact, we're doing a tour to Machu Picchu. So if you didn't think you could climb Machu Picchu, we'll be in Peru doing that. So all the places that people have perhaps visited, and want to revisit, or places that they've always wanted to go, and ask questions about... And it's doing it with a group, so you're always hearing other people's questions. You're part of this great travel club and we meet twice every week. We do eight or 10 tours every month, whether it's four weeks or five week-months. We have trip kits that go with each one. So there's book, movie recommendations, recipes, maps, fun facts, all things to become even more immersive, but to really, really inspire you and get your mind clicking.

Susan explains how the trips stimulate our minds. "We always say, we really cater to the culturally curious, which never ends at any age, because we talk about food, and we talk about what it's like to grow up there, and we ask questions, and we're learning from the locals, and we're hearing them. And they're the questions that our audience wants to ask. No two tours are alike, they're all unscripted. So we are expanding the mind in terms of learning something new every single day. So every trip, you're always gonna learn something new: politically, what's happening with the economy... You might read about it in the papers, but isn't it fantastic to talk to a local about what's happening now?"

Podcast listeners are eligible for a special promotion. Susan says, "If you sign up before October 1st, we will give a free Christmas market special tour, to all of your listeners, and only your listeners, as a special promotion on this podcast. Sign up at https://wowzitude.com/."

Learn more:
* Wowzitude: https://wowzitude.com/
* Susan Black: https://wowzitude.com/susan-black%2C-founder
* The Vitality Revolution podcast series: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/
* Intellectual Wellness: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/intellectual-wellness/
* Humana: https://www.humana.com/
* Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/welcome-to-answers-for-elders/

Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

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