01. Turkey, Celsus library, ancient Ephesus
Travel Further / Think Deeper.
Powerful inspiration & food for thought.
68. Netherlands, windmills at Kinderdijk
68. Netherlands, windmills at Kinderdijk

Travel Coaching workshops

Travel as learning and personal growth experience

The travel experience is a powerful tool for personal development, as long as we take care to explore with minds wide open. In Indie Horizons, we design unique destination itineraries with embedded inspiring coaching breadcrumbs, based on our meticulous firsthand research and years-long coaching experience, highlighting particular points of interest which provide insightful food for thought, challenge our perspectives, develop cultural empathy, and stimulate personal growth.

The Travel Coaching workshops are ideal for business organisations, executive training, educational institutions, cultural societies, coaching groups, and any individual seeking to enrich and learn from their travel experience.

Workshops take place in the neighbourhoods of Athens, the countryside of Greece, and selected destinations in every corner of the world, highlighting the cultural uniqueness and natural diversity of different places and people. Workshops are available as both facilitated and self-guided itineraries, as well as in-class or online seminars. Although Indie Horizons already offers a wide selection of destinations and itineraries, we can always research new ones according to the needs and specifications of the participants.

Travel Coaching workshops can also be developed as a series of itineraries or seminars, focusing on different destinations each time, providing an even wider variety of themes and questions.

59. Iceland, Hallgrimskirkja cathedral, Reykjavik
59. Iceland, Hallgrimskirkja cathedral, Reykjavik

Facilitated workshops

ideal destinations: Athenian Wanderings (neighbourhoods of Athens)
ideal group size: 6-12 persons (small groups)
ideal for: business organisations, educational institutions, individual travellers

The immersive in-person facilitated workshops is the ideal method of travel coaching, under the helpful guidance of an experienced coach, leading participants along the process and dynamically responding to their questions and interests. A facilitated workshop is ideal for small groups, combining active exploration and open discussion, each route usually tied to a particular theme, focusing on the uniqueness of each destination. Although a facilitated workshop can take place in trips of any duration and any destination, they are especially suited for half day routes at the neighbourhoods of Athens.

Indicative fee: 50€/hour +VAT (minimum charge 4hr)

59. Iceland, free roaming horses
59. Iceland, free roaming horses

Self-guided itineraries

ideal destinations: World Expeditions (Around the World in 80 Trips)
ideal group size: 1-4 persons (solo)
ideal for: individual travellers

All workshop destinations are also offered as self-guided itineraries, with participants receiving a guide with coaching breadcrumbs to provide food for thought along their journey, and detailed information to explore and enjoy the destination on their own. It is ideal for people looking for a more private and introspective experience, under the freedom and flexibility of independent travelling. However, we highly recommend travellers to complement their self-guided itinerary with a personal coaching session once they return from their trip, to discuss in depth their revelations and insights.

Indicative fee: 20€/(itinerary day) + VAT (minimum charge 10 days)

59. Greenland, midnight sailing along the Icefjord
59. Greenland, midnight sailing along the Icefjord

Inspirational seminars

ideal destinations: World Expeditions (Around the World in 80 Trips)
ideal group size: 16+ persons (large groups)
ideal for: business organisations, educational institutions

In a TED-like experience, the selected destination comes to life through the use of evocative audiovisual material and firsthand accounts, highlighting the main points of interest and coaching breadcrumbs of each itinerary. Although in-person travelling is always the best way to experience a destination, an in-class lecture or online seminar can also provide powerful inspiration and stimulate thinking outside the box. This experience is ideal for larger groups, educators looking to unlock the imagination of their students to a wider world, and organisations aiming to enhance critical thinking, harbour innovative creativity, and cultivate the ESG mindset of their members and stakeholders.

Indicative fee: 200€/2hr +VAT (minimum charge 2hr)

62. Kaliningrad, Konigsberg Cathedral
62. Kaliningrad, Konigsberg Cathedral

Travel Coaching in pursuit of Change Management

Change is inherent to human progress. However, change is assumed to happen (and easier to digest if happening) in small, “affordable” doses. Ideally in careful steps which include understanding, planning, implementing, and communicating change.

Imagine your favourite radio station, playing your familiar favourite tunes. Every now and then adding a new track, leaving behind some others, and over time, slowly, creating a new playlist. Change is gradual, familiar, achievable.

But what happens if the radio station suddenly closes? Or is taken over and changes its playlist completely? That’s non-anticipatory radical change, turmoil, it is unknown and unfamiliar. How do we deal with that kind of change? How prepared are we for it? And how can we develop our mental skills to be more flexible, react quicker, and learn to adapt?

Travelling can help us enhance our change management skills, especially in non-anticipatory situations. By exposing ourselves to challenging new perspectives, immersing in diverse cultural environments, learning to overcome barriers and break free of our comfort zone, we become aware of the existence of a far wider variety of possibilities and outcomes, that is usually provided by our familiar culture and daily rhythm of life.

46. Mauritania, sign in the middle of the desert, Banc d'Arguin National Park
46. Mauritania, sign in the middle of the desert, Banc d'Arguin National Park

Travel Coaching in pursuit of Visionary Leadership

Who is going to lead us into the future is as critical a question as what future are we heading to. Travel Coaching helps nurture the necessary skills and qualities to transform managers to leaders, and leaders to visionaries.

There is difference between travelling for relaxation, for exploration, and for learning. When we immerse into an unfamiliar destination beyond our horizons, and dare to travel beyond our comfort zone, we discover valuable lessons about ourselves. Travel Coaching opens up our minds, challenges our perspectives, and facilitates personal growth.

Unfamiliar travel destinations and situations require problem-solving, and thinking outside the box. New sights and experiences cultivate our creativity and innovative approach. We become more flexible, more adaptable, but also more organised and more focused. We develop our social skills, our non-verbal communication, and our cross-cultural understanding. We learn to accept other people and respect their point of view, which may be radically different to ours.

But the most important these days, is that by travelling we find work-life balance, and ways of motivation well beyond our base materialistic instincts. We learn to dream. We learn to smile at the sun, touch the earth, and appreciate the beauty of this vast and wondrous world around us.

14. Sri Lanka, early morning hike to Little Adam's Peak, Ella
14. Sri Lanka, early morning hike to Little Adam's Peak, Ella

Travel Coaching in pursuit of Sustainable Development

The future belongs to all of us. In an increasingly interconnected world, the actions of each of us affects every one of us. Travel Coaching can help organisations achieve targets of sustainability, diversity, inclusivity, and good practice, as the adoption and implementation of ESG policies and qualitative criteria becomes equally important to hitting quantitative financial targets.

For the Environmental aspect, travel reveals to us how different countries and cultures understand and develop diverse conservation methods, how precious are basic natural resources we often take for granted in the Western world, and how much damage pollution and climate change can induce to the local communities.

For the Social aspect, travel brings us into contact with foreign places and people, exposing us to the vast diversity of the world, and helping us develop cultural empathy. Travel shows us how human rights issues such as gender, ethnicity, and labour are handled by different cultures, how much freedom we have achieved, and how much further we can progress our own policies.

For the Governance aspect, travel reveals the vast variety of practices and ethics around the world, so we can learn and adapt from the best, recognise and avoid the pitfalls of the worst, while realising the far reaching impact of our decisions.

01. Turkey, ancient Termessos theatre
01. Turkey, ancient Termessos theatre

Travelling towards a Better Future

Travel Coaching in combination with Futures Literacy

 

WHAT IS UNESCO’S FUTURES LITERACY PROGRAMME

Futures Literacy is a skill, which helps us unlock the potential of our imagination, and build a better, more diverse, and more successful tomorrow. And like all skills, it can be learned and nurtured.

Futures Literacy helps us discover why we think the way we think, and (most importantly) how we can think differently. Simply put, is learning to think outside the box (or without a box whatsoever!). But beyond just that, to discover how we came inside the box in the first place, and who/what drew the box’s lines which confined us.

Through a carefully designed and structured series of workshops, the Futures Literacy process guides us towards awareness of our own assumptions and inhibitions, holding us bound to specific norms and frames of mind. In addition, Visual Literacy unlocks the how and why we create perceptions that lead to our assumptions. Ultimately we will learn how to deconstruct these inner walls, allowing us to break free of our mental chains, and emerge to a future of endless possibilities. And more importantly, discover ways to use our newly found knowledge for the betterment of our society, personal life, business and natural environment.
https://en.unesco.org/futuresliteracy/about

WHAT IS VISUAL LITERACY

We are surrounded by a complex and multi-layered world. Images, words, sounds, ideas, often contradictory, often subliminal, all broadcasting messages for us to decipher. Visual Literacy is the ability to critically read between the visual lines of our world, sort through the noise, acknowledge the different messages, understand the ideas behind them, and develop our imagination and critical reasoning.
https://www.ouc.ac.cy/index.php/en/university/unesco-chair/the-chair

Futures Literacy and Visual Literacy workshops are conducted in affiliation with Dr. Vicky Karaiskou, UNESCO Chair holder on Visual Literacy at the Open University of Cyprus.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vicky-karaiskou-19b07a55/

What is this workshop

This workshop series aims at developing our Visual Literacy awareness and our Futures Literacy skills, to increase our ability to deal with the challenges of our ever-changing world, and help us imagine and design a different and better future for us all.

What is the aim

We will learn to read this multi-layered world that surrounds us, understand the different signals and messages it contains, discover the cultural and personal significance behind them, exercise our critical thinking and reasoning, and unlock our imagination towards new innovative possibilities to build a better and more successful future.

Is this for me?

This workshop is ideal for people involved in visual communication, cultural exchange, decision making, strategic thinking, and visionary roles. Leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, business executives, policy makers, NGO workers, educators, journalists, photographers, designers, cultural buffs, and anyone interested to better understand this world and imagine a different and better future.

What we will do

Each unique workshop involves exploring a specific destination, which, depending on the duration of the workshop, might be from a single neighbourhood to a whole region or country. Usually, an underlying specific concept is also tied to the workshop, serving as the discussion base.

At the visual exposure phase, we will walk through a carefully designed route, stopping at selected points of interest, covering subjects with a special focus to the theme of each particular workshop and unique destination.

Afterwards, at the discussion phase, we will analyse our thoughts, ideas and emotions, reveal our inner assumptions, and work towards breaking free from the box, emerging to a future of endless possibilities.

11. Western India, Jodhpur blue city, Rajasthan
11. Western India, Jodhpur blue city, Rajasthan

Travel Design Masterclass

Learn to design and organise travel experiences

Most of us have organised some of our own trips, to a lesser or greater extent. But to design and organise a trip efficiently or on a professional level requires skill, experience, in depth knowledge, critical thinking, and attention to detail.

In this masterclass you will learn how to create and conduct unique, tailored, and high quality travel experiences, whether on your own city, your own country, or any destination around the world, for both independent travellers, larger groups, or travel agencies. What is more, the programme is embedded with Travel Coaching principles, for participants to learn to create more meaningful trips for themselves and their clients.

Each module has a week-long duration, and the series of interactive lectures is combined with real world case studies and assignments, so participants can learn by doing, and implement the theory in practice. Alternatively, participants may sign up for individual modules instead of the full programme. A Certificate of Completion is awarded upon successful completion of all modules in the course.

All modules are also available as standalone seminars for travel professionals and businesses.

duration: 3hr/week, x8 modules (2 months total)
cost: 300€ +VAT (or 100€/module, prices per person)

Programme aims / Skills earned

  • learn to design and organise a modern, high quality travel experience
  • learn how to conduct travel research and critical read reviews
  • understand cultural differences and learn cultural empathy
  • learn how to discover and handle different traveller needs
  • learn the basic principles for the promotion of travel services

Who is this for?

  • Students and employees of tourism & hospitality sector
  • travel agents, travel guides, tour directors
  • anyone who wants to organise efficiently their own trips

Methodology

small groups, online interactive lectures, weekly case study assignments

Indicative module structure

  • Why & how we travel / Travel Coaching
    why we travel, travel style, traveller types, travel for learning & personal growth
  • Travel beyond the ordinary / Contemporary approaches / Future travel
    immersive experiences, carbon footprint, sustainability, alternative tourism, workations
  • Travelling in a multicultural world / Cultural management
    basic geography, basic history, cultural differences & similarities, cultural empathy
  • Conducting travel research
    basic information resources, travel guides, booking engines, critical reading of reviews
  • Organising the perfect trip
    building an itinerary and its components, choosing local operators, tips & tricks
  • Traveller psychology
    discovering traveller needs, common fears and inhibitions, communication techniques
  • Athens & Greece as a destination
    Athens city breaks, AirBnB experiences, Greece tourism models, global competition
  • Promotion of travel services
    basic marketing, creating competitive advantage, target audience, promotion platforms

Certificate of Completion

Certificate of Completion