So, what is an expert, exactly. The dictionary definition describes an expert as ‘a person who is very knowledgeable about, or skilful in a particular area’. Just over 10 year ago, author Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called ‘Outliers’ which went on to be an international bestseller. Gladwell was already a well-established and successful author of several previous books such as Blink — published three years earlier in 2005 and his first book ‘The Tipping Point’ (published in 2000) has since gone on to become a phrase that has been included in the global lexicon of English, following in the footsteps of ‘Catch-22’. The central tenet of ‘Outliers’ was the so-called ’10,000 hour rule’ in which Gladwell posited that it took a minimum of 10,000 hours of practice to become ‘expert’ in any discipline you care to mention such as a concert violinist or Olympic gymnast and so on. By way of example, the book went on to provide copious examples of the 10,000 hour rule by comparing the back story of various successful people such as Bill Gates (of Microsoft fame); the Beatles and so on, explaining how, in each instance, the unique confluence of factors such as opportunity, time, repetition, place etc all positively conspired to produce the results that they did. Outliers ss a fascinating read (like all of Gladwell’s books) so check it out, the next time you’re in your local library or in a bookshop.
Travel experts are formed in more or less the same way. They accumulate knowledge through a combination of repeated exposure to certain experiences and destinations over an extended period of time (in my case, 44 years), such that they acquire a more holistic overview of things and are in a better position to make qualified and unbiased evaluations of different products, destinations, services and experiences so that casual travelers don’t have to take any unnecessary chances when choosing somewhere different or outside of their comfort zone for their next trip abroad.
My reason for raising the issue of what constitutes an expert in this week’s blog is because Holiday World starts later this week in the RDS and a regular feature of the event each year are the travel clinics held by Eoghan Corry in which he discusses various travel-related issues with a selection of experts from various sectors of the Irish travel industry such as airlines, cruise lines, tour operators and so on. Yours truly will be on duty on Sunday afternoon when the subjects up for discussion include emerging trends in travel and changing holiday habits. If you’re in the area on the day, why not drop by and check out all the stands and meet the experts!
