Queens, New York The Travel Show

Hello and welcome to the Travel Show, and we are coming

this week from New York City.

A little later I will be heading to Queens to test

out my storytelling skills.

Also coming up on this week's programme:

Rajan meets the travellers who would rather visit a mall

than a museum to shop until they drop.

Michelle takes to the skies in this month's Global Guide.

Dubai, Singapore, Paris, New York and London.

Some of the most popular travel destinations in the world and also

places where you can shop until you drop and gorge

yourself on luxury labels, maybe bagging a bargain

along the way.

Shopping always seems massive.

Shopping is more than just a transaction, it is an experience,

it is emotional, sociable.

Some call it sport or an art, but it is more than just buying

stuff and there is quite a lot of synergy between shopping and travel.

Now, look, of course it is an age-old tradition to come

back from a trip abroad with a few trinkets for the kids,

a souvenir for your dad, and a momento for your mum.

But these days the plundering of chic labels and exclusive brands,

well, it is off the scale.

And shopping has been officially acknowledged as a tourism

phenomenon in its own right.

The UN no less now recognise shopping tourism as a contemporary

form of tourism fostered by individuals for whom purchasing

goods outside of the usual environment is a determining factor

in the decision to travel.

In other words, hitting the shops is now high on the list of why

many people travel.

Harrods, Oxford Street.

You can get the same thing but the shopping is an enjoyment.

It is a different experience.

Everybody prefers to go shopping in London,

there are a lot of streets, it is a very important trading

street around the world.

The UN WTO study revealed one in three tourists visit Barcelona

primarily to shop and then spend a third of their total travel

budget on retail.

Singaporean tourists spend on average three quarters

of a holiday budget during trips to the USA on retail goods.

Some destinations like Dubai have made their shopping malls a primary

attraction for visitors, with three-day shopping festivals

and extra incentives to keep the kids happy, like the world's

second largest crocodile.

Whoa!

The growing affluence of the booming middle classes in Asia

and the Middle East over the last two decades has had a marked

impact on global retail.

According to the China Tourism Research Institute,

China had 120 million outbound visitors in 2015 and they spent more

than 100 billion US dollars.

That makes them the world's aggregate spenders on their travels

by some distance.

I was in Italy last summer.

You could see hundreds and thousands of Chinese and other guests queueing

up in front of the luxury shops.

They are doing this because it is the difference

between 30% and 20%, which is a lot.

If it is discounts you are after, post-Brexit, go to London

in the summer sales, where the bargains are easy.

And that means ker-ching!

for the big brand stores - mind you, none of the major

retailers we approached wanted to be interviewed on camera for fear

of crowing too much about the ringing tills they have

been enjoying while the rest of the country's economy

readjusts to the prospect of life outside the EU.

Hang on a minute.

Some of us avid shopperphobics may still be confused,

is the prospect of a bargain so appealing as to make the primary

reason why people holiday in a certain destination?

It is all about brain chemistry apparently.

What you tend to get is a rush of dopamine,

and the really interesting thing is now you do not just get dopamine

when you shop, but we now know you get it in the run-up

to going shopping.

Because people go on holiday for pleasure, the minute

they get on the plane, even before, they are saying they're

going to have a nice time, and because people have decided

they are going to have a pleasurable experience, it means

that there is arguably less impulse control and they do not really worry

about their bank account when they are on holiday,

they will worry about that when they get home and that means

retailers can make even more money.

Kelly Craigshead is a senior executive and also a self-confessed

shopaholic, indulging in over 100 countries, she says.

It is the thrill of the hunt.

I certainly look for things I could not find elsewhere,

and I think that is an important part of travel.

Finding the little nook or the corner store but knowing that

you also have the big brands to really meet your needs

when you're travelling.

It is the thrill of the hunt.

There is the memento of buying a Louis Vuitton bag or a Versace

whatever because it is a status symbol and one of the things now.

We live in a world where shopping is interconnected.

With a population of 7 billion people.

Working in retail, one of the aspects of this is,

if I can get something someone else cannot,

I am further ahead.

It is a survivalist streak and it is a competition

against you and the person who might buy that product

is standing behind you.

Of course there is one country that created consumerism

as a lifestyle choice.

Even if you cannot afford it.

And this is where it all began.

In Texas, America's oldest outdoor shopping centre.

In a country which invented mass consumerism, surely this stands

as an icon of classic Americana.

Today, Highland Park Village in Fort Worth, Texas is very much

a high-end retail estate, with some brands out of most

people's range, and many purely functioning as a brand showcase.

But they do serve a purpose.

The luxury sector is a good example of where shopping

tourism is booming.

They are understanding the global consumer,

and they will be in a shop and want to spend money

but they might be online doing the research.

You and I might get inspired by Instagram or look online

for research, but we might still head to the shop

because we want the customer service, specially if we are

spending a lot of money.

I'm still uneasy about this retail frenzy.

Do not get me wrong, I am all for immersive experiences

over traipsing through some boring old historical building when you go

abroad, but would you rather go to a shopping mall

which is virtually identical to the one around the corner

from where you live over going to see an amazing piece of art

at the Louvre, the Guggenheim or the National Portrait Gallery?

I would not really diminish the value of going to a shop

versus the value of going to a museum or a gallery

or something like that.

Both are important in people's lives, spending money is important,

creating jobs is important and living something

different is important.

I would not draw any very strong line between the two.

Do you know what?

There is a place on this planet where an icon in the world of luxury

shopping is not a retail outlet but a recognised work of art.

It is in the middle of a desert in Texas.

Retail as high culture - what has the world come to?

And if you like a bit of retail therapy when you travel,

here are some of our top tips to help you get the best out

of your next trip.

Berlin came a surprise second in the latest shopping survey

by travel website Expedia.

It ranked the German capital ahead of London and runner-up to New York

when it came to its variety of shops, visitor numbers

and blogger recommendations.

Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Istanbul in Turkey also

scored high on the list for lovers of retail therapy.

Remember it is well worth reading up on the laws concerning buying

counterfeit products in any country you're planning on visiting

before you travel.

Although you might be tempted to buy that fake handbag in the hope that

will fool your friends back home, it pays to know that some countries

especially in Europe impose heavy fines or even prison

sentences on anyone caught buying counterfeit goods.

And although Asia is usually quoted as the best place to buy

cut-price electronics, you will often find better deals

in America, where low import tariffs and sales taxes can mean that things

like smartphones and laptops are cheaper than back home.

Still to come on the Travel Show:

Michelle picks some of the best places in the world to be this month

with her global guide.

And we go way off Broadway in New York to watch real people

tell their own stories.

Do not go away.

Hello, I'm Michelle, your global guide with top tips

on the world's best events in the coming months.

Starting in the UK, let us hope the weather is kind

for the Inside Out Dorset Festival, September 16-25, a biannual event

of outdoor art and performance.

There will be a celebration of the autumn equinox,

a display of giant kinetic sculptures, cloud gazing,

comic circus and dazzling pyrotechnics after dark.

All the events are free.

To Sweden where on August 13th it is the Dalsand Kanot Marathon

in the west of the country.

It is a 55 kilometres canoe and kayak race across the wilderness

of lakes and waterways and you have a chance of seeing elk,

deer or moose.

This is Sweden's largest canoe event and one

of the world's most rigorous.

And if that's not enough adrenaline, a few weeks later

it is the Iceburg Xperience just south of here.

This is a trail running and hiking race with a landscape

in the West of Sweden.

It is 75 kilometres over three days, the weekend September 2-4

and includes oceanside trails, red granite rock, forests and pretty

traditional villages.

There will be plenty of hanging around in the Belgian capital

for the Comicstrip Festival taking place over the same weekend

September 2-4.

Over 100,000 visitors come to the capital for exhibitions,

drawing workshops and author signings.

There will be a rally with vehicles that look straight out of the pages

of the Tintin comic books as well as the Balloons Day Parade

on the downtown streets of Brussels of inflatable cartoon characters.

One of the world's most captivating balloon events,

the Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennett events takes flight

on September 15 - 24.

This year the event is in Gladbeck in Germany to commemorate victory

in 2014 of the German pairing.

The goal to fly the furthest distance from the launch site,

the record stands at over 3000 kilometres with two pilots

in a wicker basket for several days, this is all about adventure,

courage, strategy and of course luck.

If you prefer the wind in your sails, head

to the Camden Windjammer Festival held off the coast

of Maine in the US.

Dozens of schooners and yachts will be in the harbour.

Staying in the US the long-standing Bumbershoot Festival is in its 46th

year in Seattle in Washington state.

Thousands come for live music drama film and visual arts over

the weekend of September 2-4.

They do not know much about silence on the island of Aruba

between September 23rd-24th when the Caribbean Sea Jazz

Festival takes place.

Artists will be playing Latin jazz, dance music and Kool and the Gang

will also be playing.

Finally to Denmark where one of Scandinavia's biggest draws,

the Aarhus Festival takes over the city for ten

days from August 26.

Architecture, performance and music take over hundreds of venues from

streets to stages and galleries.

That is my global guide this month, let me know what is happening

in the place where you live or where you love.

We are on e-mail and across social media.

To finish this week, let us head to New York where truth

is sometimes stranger than fiction and people are now getting

the chance to tell their own stories on stage at a regular

event called The Moth.

Broadway, it's home to some of the biggest productions in acting

history and where tourists from around the world come to watch

A-listers tread the boards.

Here in the Big Apple there is another type of show

that is pulling in the crowds.

One where the stars are New Yorkers themselves.

I'm here to find out about the revival of the oldest form

of storytelling and I am heading to Queens to meet a man who can tell

me all about this new old tradition.

Tonight's event is hosted by Peter Aguero, a veteran

storyteller and there is a chance I might be taking

to the stage as well.

Storytelling is the oldest form of communication.

People have been doing it forever.

Cave paintings are stories, you know.

Definitely in the last, maybe, 15 to 17 years there has been

a revival of people wanting to hear the true first person narrative

stories and The Moth was definitely the vanguard of that

although there are groups all over the US that do this.

You are the expert tell me what makes a good story.

The simple answer to that is you start at the beginning

and tell the truth.

It is all easily more complicated than that.

There has to be a change.

That is the key.

No one wants to hear a story where you woke up in the morning

and you were awesome and at the end of the day you were awesome.

No one cares about that, we want to hear that you failed.

The moth was founded back in the late 1990s and the idea came

from a poet and novelist who wanted to recreate the feeling of Southern

sultry summer evenings in his native Georgia when moths were attracted

to the light on his porch where he and his friends

would gather to tell stories.

Now people from cleaners to schoolteachers and war veterans

are getting the chance to share their own personal stories

in front of audiences across New York City and beyond.

I guess that it feels authentic and also it is an artform

that anyone can do.

I cannot be a sumo wrestler or dance very well but I probably can tell

a story that is human communication.

It is very accessible to all kinds of people.

I can tell a story.

Tonight's moth event is being held at Flushing Town Hall,

an historic building located in Queens to an almost

sold-out crowd.

The show started in 2001, a little show in New York

City's Lower East Side, a few people...

I was begging my mother to come, someone please come to the audience

and tell some stories.

Then by word of mouth it grew and then New York City got two slams

per month and then we moved into three and four and then

we thought maybe we can try Los Angeles and now we are in 26

cities all over the world actually.

We are not only in cities all over America but also in London,

we are in Dublin we are in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.

Our first storyteller this evening will be Liv Lansdale.

Come on!

Anyone who wants to tell a story has to come prepared.

The idea is that stories have to be told and not read.

Meaning no scripts or notepaper to hand.

Somehow that dog ended up telling me everything that I now

know about love.

Each event features ten volunteer storytellers who are

picked at random.

And every other sound my sister who was older, a friend

and I would go to the movie.

They can talk up to five minutes each and are then given a score

by a team of judges.

The winner goes on to perform at the Moth Grand Slam

so no pressure then!

She has forgot she has to write down the scores.

This is quite nerve-wracking.

The prospect of me being up on that stage sometime soon

is freaking me out.

9.2, very nice, we applaud.

Strictly between you and me I am secretly keeping my fingers crossed

that I will not be chosen.

You can imagine my horror when this happened.

Give it up for Chrissy!

Here she comes.

Let us make her feel welcome.

There she is.

Come on!

And although I do perform in front of a camera for my day job,

I feel exposed and generally out of my comfort zone

as you can probably tell.

You're not close enough to the microphone.

Hi.

I am a travel journalist and a little while ago

I was in Japan and I was there to interview a very famous chef

and he was bringing out with great pomp and ceremony this dish

he had created for me.

And it is coming towards me and it has kind of a crab leg

sticking out of the top.

Of all the things that I just cannot eat and there are many

things I cannot eat, just seafood is right up

there at the top, there is almost nothing from the sea that

I will happily put in my mouth.

So I asked my translator, what is this?

And she looked at me and said, she asked the chef,

she said, "Oh, it's fugu - a Japanese pufferfish".

You know the one where if they prepare it in a very

slightly wrong way, you can die because it is full of neurotoxins.

I was like, ha-ha!

I went to put it in my mouth.

I bit down on it.

And it didn't yield in the way that I thought.

It popped in my mouth like a cyst.

Despite my nerves and to my total surprise, I came joint runner-up

in the contest tonight.

The hands down winner was Juliette Holmes,

a retired grandmother whose endearing story about her early

childhood really won over the crowds.

How we turned the movie show out on a Saturday afternoon

in Savannah Georgia, in 1950.

Thank you.

So, if you're coming to New York and fancy a change from Broadway,

then the Moth could make a good night out and who knows?

You could even end up on stage yourself.

Now he's apologising to me.

I think I might have found a new hobby there.

That is all we have got time for on this week's show

but coming up next week...

Wow!

Yeah.

This is it.

Henry is in Turkey to take part in a dig that is uncovering

a thousand years of history on a scale that is

truly breathtaking.

Despite all the research that we do, there is always

the element of the unknown.

So do join us then if you can and in the meantime do not forget

you can catch up with us having our adventures

in real-time by signing up to our social media field.

Details are on the screen.

For me for now and the rest of the team here in New York City,

it is goodbye.