Popular Travel Expert and Travel Personality Lorraine Simpson Nominated for an RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award
Rise. Fall. Repeat.
Meet the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur.
Simpson has been nominated in the Category of Innovation Award.
“I am truly humbled and elated to be nominated for an RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award,” says Simpson. “This year has sure been a challenge, but it has been totally rewarding – an uphill battle, but yet an opportunity to take a look at what I was doing and once again think differently, which I am good at.”
Simpson adds, “I am honoured and excited to join the ranks of the many women entrepreneurs from across Canada who have shined during these unprecedented times and who have learned how to pivot their roles in business, while having a positive and meaningful influence on others along the way.”
When the pandemic hit, Simpson persevered with contagious enthusiasm and with the relentless desire for reinvention.
No stranger to troubled times, Simpson woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and said: “Bring it on.”
Knowing the $1.5 trillion-dollar global travel and tourism industry was going to take a severe hit, the Cityline TV Travel Expert and Travel Personality quickly got to work as an advocate for the industry, even joining forces with the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA) for their virtual conference and special projects.
Simpson has reinvented her brand from travel agent to travel personality. Since the pandemic took its grip, she has also been consulting and helping other businesses reinvent themselves for the post-pandemic world on the branding, marketing, and public relations fronts, including joining forces with Loop Insights – a Vancouver-based company who developed innovative Wallet Pass Technology for venue bubbles and contact tracing to help combat COVID-19 and to help boost the travel industry.
She even launched her own TV show, What’s On Your Post-Pandemic Bucket List?, which is now seen on all Air Canada flights, and more recently her bubbly and sophisticated travel personality also secured her own show on Yachting International Radio (YIR).
While she has been busy doing her regular appearances on Cityline TV, media outlets have been relying on her travel expertise during a global pandemic. The New York City Herald, The Toronto Tribune, The Toronto Post-Gazette are her regular media outlets that draw in thousands of daily readers and she has also been widely featured on major news networks and their affiliates, including ABC, FOX, CBS, and NBC.
A case in point is the launch of her new Travel Café in Fonthill, ON. She was missing her European coffee shops so much that she decided to create her own within her travel agency.
Simpson’s innovative idea merely enhances her brand, which she says is primarily storytelling in all its forms. The Travel Café will draw people in to enjoy a delicious cup of coffee from 17 different countries from around the world, served up by locals while chatting casually about her travel stories. They may stay a while longer to eat a treat made by local artisan bakers from locally produced ingredients and even attend a travel event sponsored by one of the many tourism boards supporting the Cafe.
“The main thing I want to do is travel,” explains Simpson, “but if we cannot do that, then at least we still have a chance to keep the travel dreams alive. We don’t sell travel, we sell experiences, and coming into my Travel Café will be an experience and still a story to be told.”
Cityline will be featuring her “pivoting” story and Simpson will even share her tips with others who are looking at finding new ways to reinvent in challenging times.
