Mark Murphy Discusses What's Really Going On In Travel

Today we are talking about what in the world is happening in travel these days, and what you should actually be concerned with.

Imagine that.

Probably different than what you think.

But before we dive in, get asked a question.

Have you ever tried riding a horse before?

Okay, maybe not everybody grew up around horses.

Let me ask you, I'm sure you remember the first time you ever tried riding a bike before, right?

Chances are, you fell off.

Just like everybody.

Same with riding a horse.

At some point, horses have a stone mind made and you're gonna get fucked right off.

But they tell you, the only way to keep done is to get back into that off.

So that's what brings us into today's.

Because it's confused as you may be about why I'm talking about riding a force when I'm trying to also talk about travel.

That's because we've all just been fucked off in the year 2020.

That's right, with the coronavirus, we've all been kicked right off that force landed smack on our face.

And we're all still trying to figure out what in the world to do.

Well, what you need to do is get back to the style right.

Because believe it or not, right now, it's the time to get back out there and start seeing the world again.

And that's what brings us in to today's topic.

Because today we are joined again by Mark Murphy.

He was on the podcast previously, and I was super excited to have him back.

So without further ado, here's my interview with Mark Murphy.

Hey guys, I am here today with none other than Mark Murphy.

Yes, our first-time return guest.

So, Mark, welcome back to the podcast.

SPEAKER_02: What am I, a glutton for punishment?

No, I'm kidding.

So, uh, yes, I'm back, Kevin.

Back from some travel.

SPEAKER_01: I know, I know.

I'm I'm I'm wondering how hard was I going to have to twist his arm to bring him back.

It was easy.

Somehow I brought him back and he's here, and so he's uh ours for the taking.

So yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02: So yeah, it's all good.

Glad to be back with you, Kevin, and happy to tell you what's really going on in the world of travel and what people should be concerned about.

SPEAKER_01: Well, awesome, awesome.

And that's what that's exactly why I wanted to have Mark back on the podcast today.

I was looking at doing an uh episode about returning to travel.

I feel like it's it's a good analogy.

It's one of those analogies.

The if you ever went horseback riding, you know, if you get knocked off the horse, the horse bucks you off.

You got to get back up.

You got to get back in the saddle and you got to keep going.

And I kind of feel like that's the way it is right now with traveling.

I think all of us have had our fair share of being scared and worried.

But you know what?

I think right now it's about time for us to get back in the saddle and kind of get back to living again.

And so that's what made me want to have Mark on the podcast because Mark actually just spent some time in Cancun, Mexico.

So, Mark, I'm gonna let you go ahead and take it away.

Tell me, what in the world were you doing in Cancun?

SPEAKER_02: Well, I was happy to hear from the folks at ALG Vacations who sell more travelers to Mexico than any other company.

And they have brands like Fun Jet Vacations and Southwest Vacations and Apple Vacations and United Vacations and on and on.

And so they said, hey, would you be willing to come down and kind of chronicle or showcase the protocols that are in place?

And by the way, the nice thing about ALG vacations is they see how important travel agents are to the success of travel, both from their standpoint, the destination, the resort, and in particular the consumer, because you folks, Kevin, provide information and feedback based on actual experiences in destinations like Mexico that the average traveler who might go once every couple of years to Mexico or once a year or twice a year is never gonna have.

And that's really critical.

You have to know before you go, and one of the things we wanted to do is make sure you knew what was really going on.

So, in a nutshell, there are certain protocols that are in place in Mexico right now that would blow you away.

And I can get into that uh as we get further in.

But the reality on the ground is if you summarized it and said, are you willing to go to the grocery store in your local town, in, you know, small town USA, city USA, whatever?

And if you are, then you should have no issue getting on a plane, going to Mexico, and staying in a resort.

And I can expand on that because of what's taking place and how they are responding to this COVID crisis to make you as a traveler comfortable with that experience.

And ALG, at the same time they invited me, has been inviting more and more travel agents down to visit multiple resorts.

So it's not just a stage thing at one place.

They show up at different resorts at different times, and they can chronicle for themselves and their clients what's taken place and why you should be comfortable traveling.

SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.

That's awesome.

Now, how was the experience flying to Mexico?

How did that go?

SPEAKER_02: Well, other than the idiots that agreed to the mask mandate to fly in United Airlines, and then when we pushed back from the gate in Denver on my connecting flight to Cancun, decided to take off their masks and ignore the flight attendants, causing us to go back to the gate and uh have a one-hour delay on our vacation trip.

But obviously, I was going there for work, but everybody else in the plane was on vacation.

That was disappointing.

But other than that, it was super smooth.

What most people don't realize, and you can look this up, folks, and you could call your airline and ask them about it, or your travel agent, they can do the research for you.

But they have surgical grade filter, HEPA filter systems, filtration systems for the air on planes.

What that means is every two to three seconds, that air is recirculated through those filters on the planes as you're flying.

So you're in one of the most secure environments you could be in because not only is the air getting filtered every few seconds, there's a mandate that everyone has to wear a mask.

So you'd say to yourself, Well, what do I have to worry about?

What about surfaces?

Okay, they disinfect the planes, but if you want to be that, take that extra step, they'll hand you sanitizing wipes as you get on.

So you didn't have to bring them.

And you can wipe down, at least on United, you can wipe down your armrests, you can wipe down your seat, you can wipe down your trays.

I tend to do that anyway when I travel, because when I've traveled in the past, it's every week I'm on a plane and I'm running like a madman business-wise, or at least I used to because that was before I sold my company.

Then I wanted to make sure I didn't catch up a cold or a bug, et cetera.

So that made me feel super comfortable.

We connected, I flew from San Luis Obispo, so I was on two flights through Denver, connected nonstop now to Cancun.

And when I landed, the airport itself was spotless in Cancun.

They had sanitizer stations, so you could immediately make sure, you know, hey, let's sanitize again.

You could then go and get your uh go through immigration, which was super fast, even though you had lines, everybody was spaced out.

And people have to wear masks as the passengers in the airport, just like you have to do in Denver Airport and San Luis Obispo Airport, like we did in the U.S.

And then you get out to your bags, you grab your bags, you then go through, you just walk through, you're not declaring anything, you cruise through uh customs, step outside, you can either have a group transfer or a private transfer for people who are nervous about group transfers, they'll set up a private transfer for you.

That SUV that you're getting in will be disinfected before you step into it, meaning they're gonna spray down the seats, wipe everything down.

My car from Amstar was spotless.

I mean, spotless.

You could have eaten off the seat.

So I couldn't have felt any better.

And then I got to Dreams Vista Cancun, which is a brand new spectacular resort, just the architecture.

If you go to my Instagram or my Facebook, which is at MurphyTravels on Instagram or Facebook.com forward slash Murphy Travels, I'll post a lot of photos and comments.

When I got to the resort, the guy squeezed hand sanitizer into my hands as soon as I stepped out of the van.

They grabbed my luggage out the back.

They, it was all contactless with the check-in.

They had me step on a mat, a disinfecting mat for my feet.

I mean, we're talking protocols mess with every employee at the resorts.

And this wasn't just a Dreams Vista.

This was at the other properties we went around to.

We went to three total properties.

So the and by the way, many of the properties are checking your temperature when you walk in.

So not only is your are you being sanitized, your luggage is being sanitized, your feet, they're checking your temperature.

Oh, and I should have mentioned when you get off the plane and you're walking to immigration, there's a temperature scan that you don't even realize it, but your temperature is being taken.

And if you if you have a fever or show any kind of fever, they're gonna pull you to the side.

They're not gonna let you enter the country.

So if you are healthy, you should feel really good that everybody that's coming through is being pre-screened.

Now, there's always that, oh, they might be asymptomatic, but then again, we've seen the WHO and studies show that, and they've said flat out, it's very rare for an asymptomatic person to spread this.

That's why I'm not sure why we keep talking about mask mandates for healthy people, but that's a whole different episode.

And I can go off on a rant for you anytime you want, Kevin, when it comes to that, because because when the WHO official says, yeah, we we find it very rare, we're not really seeing the spread.

And then 24 to 48 hours later, they're like, ah, that's not that doctor said that, but that's not really our official thing.

And when they say it's okay to riot and protest, don't worry about it as a doctor.

1,200 doctors sign off on that, but then they tell you worry about dying.

So the thing I would tell people is if if epidemiologists, including top epidemiologists at Johns Hopkins and other major, major health officials, are saying, Well, protesting is so important that don't worry about social distancing and don't worry about COVID, but you, you need to stay in your house and not leave it.

Does that make any sense to you?

Does that does that I mean, if you can go out and ride in the streets, why can't you go out and sit on a lounge chair at a half-empty pool looking at the beach?

I mean, does that make any sense?

So I'm hoping that the common sense comes through for some of these folks and they start realizing maybe what we're hearing isn't exactly accurate, and maybe there's some other agenda at work here because I truly believe that's the case.

Now, Kevin, if you call me Mel Gibson and tell me I should start in conspiracy uh theory number two, uh, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna walk on you right now.

SPEAKER_01: I I I I won't I won't do that.

I won't do that to you.

No.

No.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think I just did it to myself.

Now, so now the other people at the resorts or while you were in Cancun and stuff, was that kind of the same kind of feeling that you got from other people there, whether the other travel agents that were part of the group or even just people who you know were just vacationing, or are people kind of over it and just ready to get out and start traveling again?

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, people the people that I think choose not to be alarmed and frightened because at first when somebody tells me, you know, you had cancer, your wife has MS, you know, you guys are very, you know, at risk and you need to do all these things, you're like, holy crap, you know, like it's it's it's the fear of the unseen.

Like if if you see a plane crash, that's visceral, you see it, right?

And some people are afraid to fly.

I I have uh my wife's cousin is terrified to fly.

I get it, right?

But when you can't see it, it could be in the air.

Somebody coughs.

And uh a funny story was I was um, I think I was in Moab and I coughed in the van, and there were there was a couple, and then there was a family of four in the same van.

And I'm like, don't worry, it's it it it's it's cancer, it's not COVID.

Because I was coughing.

Because I had I had throat cancer, so my throat gets really dry.

And in Moab, you're in the freaking desert, it got really dry.

And I felt like I was like, disclaimer, disclaimer, no, no, it's not COVID, just cancer.

Well, okay, would you rather have cancer or COVID?

You know, really?

I think I think uh 99.96 survival rate of COVID.

Yeah, last time I checked, I don't think there's any such thing as a cancer survival rate of 99 and change.

So it's just really odd what we worry about.

But the people, to your question, I think the people that are traveling that have seen it, and it's ironic because I'm in California right now, like literally like a police state.

They're they're like, we are so done with this bullshit.

They're done with seeing their cities destroyed, they're done with seeing government really, you know, shut down private business to such a point they are putting people who have spent 20, 30, 50 years in a family business to putting them out of business.

They're destroying livelihoods with these measures.

And I think that people are so fed up, and they're also finding that there's all these unintended consequences like suicides are dramatically up.

Uh, opioid deaths.

We uh if anybody pays attention, the CDC head came out and said we have seen an alarming rate in opioid deaths and suicides as a result of this.

It's one of the con it's one of the unintended consequences.

And I've been saying from the beginning that the cure for the virus is worse than the virus.

And now that we have data, yeah, now that we have data, no one, no one's talking about the data.

There's still fear mongering.

And I think in the US, I can only speak for the U.S., I think it's because we have an election.

That's why the fear mongering continues.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

And and here's the thing, too, is you know, is what concerns me is, you know, this isn't just what's happening today.

I feel like I keep looking at the long-term effects of this.

And I look at, I look at things like job loss because now we're switching up.

You tell me how many different things are going to now be forever changed when they realize, hey, you know what?

We can save money by doing these virtual positions.

And we don't need to have people back in the office, you know.

So you're gonna have cuts with that.

And so I look at that and I think another devastating effect of this, along with even something that, you know, I joke with people about, but it's also a serious subject is, you know, right now there's this big push for kids who have um parents who have their children who are in school who are wanting to do homeschooling and stuff.

And I'm like, okay, wow, you know what?

I feel like we're gonna see in what, 10, 20 years when we have a bunch of stupid people walking around controlling stuff, you know, it's gonna really come back to bite us because we well, hold on.

SPEAKER_02: Uh you just had a bunch of peop people walking around controlling us.

I I think we have that now in certain states and cities.

You know, Andrew Cuomo, hello.

Uh, let's take those COVID patients and send them to nursing homes.

What?

Like, I I thought we wanted to protect the most vulnerable.

And if you really look at it from a common sense standpoint, does it like how many people that have kids are both working?

And how the hell do you keep a seven and nine-year-old at home and do virtual learning when you both have to work?

You don't tell me that is massively regressive on these people?

It's like a regressive tax.

And again, if you look at Europe, Europe opened the schools in many of the countries, they've seen no outbreaks as a result of that.

Sure, people are going to have, and this is what's weird, Kevin.

Do you notice how they stopped talking about COVID deaths and COVID hospitalizations, and it's all about new cases?

Well, if you test more people, you're gonna get more cases.

So the U.S.

has tested, I think, 65 million, and I have to double check when this runs, you know, it'll be like 65, 70, 75 million.

That's a quarter of the population's been tested.

So, yeah, you're gonna have more cases.

And it's become a political football.

So I think the media has been very dishonest.

I think the media has an agenda when it comes to this election.

There's a huge backlash to get Trump out of office, and I think people have lost their minds and have created, in some cases, irreversible damage in states and cities across this country in order to achieve that objective, which is getting him out.

And I'm an independent.

I look at it, I try to be very dispassionate in how I look at it.

I tell people around me that are passionate on both sides look, you know what?

You love Obama, you hate Obama.

He was there eight years.

Is the country still standing?

Yeah.

You love Bush, you hate Bush.

Is the country still standing after eight years?

Yeah, Clinton.

You know, you can just go back and forth.

And, you know, it's not going to be the end of the world if Trump wins.

It's not going to be the end of the world, Trump loses.

But I feel like people are willing to create the end of the world in order to facilitate one or the other.

And that's where this goes way off the rails, and that's where we have a massive problem.

And if you're telling me that there's not a massive psychological impact to keep kids sheltered at home, to destroy somebody's income as a result, to destroy their private business as a result, to have rioters in the street destroying private businesses or homes or office buildings as a result.

Uh, I'm sorry, you're right, Kevin.

Things are going to change, and some things will never come back.

And some of these cities that are being destroyed right now as we speak, they're they're not going to come back.

People are going to leave those cities.

Andrew Como is begging wealthy people to come back to New York.

You know what I'm doing?

I don't have to work.

I'm retired, but I'm way too young to not work.

But I'm not an idiot.

So I just sold my apartment in New York City and I took a loss on it.

Why?

Because I'm better off investing that money that was in that apartment elsewhere to make up that loss and not be beholden to a city where they don't put their citizens first.

And, you know, how many people from Europe are going to travel to New York City, which is a huge destination when they open things back up again?

Are you going to want to go to New York if you hear the murder rate has more than quadrupled in a time frame this year alone?

You're no, you're not going to feel safe.

And so just think of all of the taxi drivers.

Think of the restaurants that have been shut down that are never opening.

Think of the stores.

Like, are you going to open another store, a Gucci store on Fifth Avenue, when you've been ransacked and looted, and that's the image that's being projected overseas?

It's like lawlessness.

So to me, people have got to get their shit together.

The politicians need to get voted out if they're not taking care of the actual citizens and the taxpayers that pay for them to do what they do.

And travel is such a bridge to other cultures.

It's such a way of connecting that to not allow travel or to limit travel is probably one of the worst things you could be doing right now.

Because when people travel to places like Mexico, they see that the Mexican culture is amazing.

They see that the people are some of the warmest people you've ever met in your life.

They freaking love to take care of you when you're there, and they really want you to come.

But then I see boneheads that probably don't have a passport saying the last thing they want you to do as an American is go there and bring COVID with you.

And I'm like thinking, no.

So their choice is they make sure they have the protocols in place, so that's not an issue, right?

But then they want you to come down because if you don't come down and you're their number one market, if you don't come down, they starve.

Okay?

So it is a choice between you coming or starving.

Hello, people.

What do you think the Mexican people are going to tell you?

So don't believe, yeah, don't believe the bullshit that you're hearing from so-called experts or pundits.

They're a bunch of jackasses.

SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.

And I mean, and that's what that's what I've said about with the entire like cruising industry shut down.

I said, I think of all these islands throughout just even the Caribbean and Mexico.

And I thought, those poor people, I mean, they're their islands are built on the tourism.

It's literally heartbreaking.

And I mean, I just, you know, I look at it and I I don't know.

I just keep hearing, you know, people when they think things are going to open back up and it just keeps getting extended and extended.

And I'm just like, when is it gonna stop?

You know, and it's just you, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02: After the election in November, if Biden wins, a lot of people think that's gonna be the case.

I mean, it's very odd that by well, I mean, like, so let's talk politics just for a second.

So Biden came out and said we need to have a a national mask mandate, okay?

I don't think there are too many people in the last six months during the COVID crisis who have traveled as much as me.

I have traveled across the country almost 6,000 miles, okay, in terms of driving.

I've been driving all over the country, right?

So the country, you can drive straight across back and forth, you know, it's like 27, 2800 miles, you know, if you just do a straight shot across, right?

I've done almost three times that.

I've been in small towns, large towns, cities, you know, coastal communities, all over the place.

Have I, what have I seen?

Like, what's going on out there, right?

Well, if you say there needs to be a national mask mandate, does a guy on a farm in Nebraska, if he's outside of his house, need to be wearing a mask?

Okay, that's there's nobody within two miles of him.

What am I missing, right?

Or, you know, if you are in a place where you're jammed into like a city, okay, and you're in you're in an office building.

You're in a high-rise apartment building, a 30-story apartment building with 10 apartments on every floor.

That's a lot of apartments.

300, you know, 300 apartments, if calculating, right?

So yeah, there are there are different things.

So that's why states and municipalities can create the protocols that they need.

That's why when I see people blaming the federal government for this COVID thing, it doesn't make any sense to me because the states, like Andrew Cuomo, is responsible for hospitals and ventilators in the state of New York.

Not the federal government.

He can ask for help, and the federal government gave him help.

So that's where there's just this massive disconnect.

That's where I think the media is very dishonest.

And to your point, businesses are getting disrupted.

But back to Biden.

So he wants a three-month mask mandate.

Well, ironically, that was with three months to go before the election.

Is three months just a random thing he picked?

Or is it like, yeah, we're gonna do that, let's do that until the election.

And if I win, hey, we're all good.

Everything's great.

You know?

I don't know.

I don't know.

It just seemed odd that the timing was what it was, but it also makes no sense because constitutionally they can't do it.

But at the same time, medically, no medical doctor worth his degree is gonna tell the person in Nebraska that he has to follow the protocols that are going on in New York.

That doesn't make any sense.

And unless you have zero common sense, you'd have to agree with that.

And if you don't, and I I have a couple of relatives that have no common sense.

No, you gotta wear it all the time, you know.

Even if you're up there on your tractor, you know, uh, you know, doing a thousand acres, clearing a thousand acres, yep, you gotta wear a mask.

Like, how do you how do you argue with that or reason with that?

Of course.

Of course, so that's what we're up against.

That's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_01: I mean, no, what what do you what do you feel, Mark?

What what do you feel like is going to to be the end?

Like in in terms of travel, what in your opinion, I know we we keep, you know, a lot of hinges on the election and stuff.

Is that kind of what you're basing of when things may return to some sort of normalcy with traveling?

SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, I would I would pray that between the CDC and the WHO, which some of my classmates from high school and other people I've I've been associated with who might have like a medical degree or you know, play play like doctors on television, in the beginning they're like, you need to file, you need to stop saying that.

You need to follow the CDC.

And I'm like, okay, well, I am, because I just repeated what Fauci said that you don't need, if you're healthy on March 28th, you do not need, or end of March, the exact day, you don't need to wear a mask.

Healthy people shouldn't wear a mask.

I was saying the same thing in March and April, but then two weeks later they shifted it.

Then four weeks later, WHO said, don't wear masks, and then seven days later they said, wear a mask, and then the lady who's one of their epidemiologists said, you can't spread it if you're asymptomatic, so why would you wear one if you're if you're healthy and have no symptoms?

And then two days later, a day later, they walked it back with an official press release saying, Well, that's not our official position.

So the answer is nobody freaking knows.

I believe that when it comes down to it, it's gonna be politics first, in the U.S.

at least.

And then depending on who wins, we're gonna move on to stage two.

I truly believe that if Biden wins, you're not gonna have much news on COVID.

It's gonna all be talking about the recovery and getting back to normal.

If Trump wins, I think the media and uh those who are against Trump are gonna double down again, because we've seen this now for four and a half years uh from the time he announced that you know they're gonna go after him and you know, all bets are off.

But I also think that people in various states that are the taxpayers, like New York, um, Andrew Cuomo is begging wealthy New Yorkers to come back.

Now, there's a reason I've never made New York City my residence in over 25, 30 years.

I'm not gonna pay onerous taxes to live in a place, in particular today, that's much more dangerous than it was in the last 25 years.

And there's lawlessness uh taking place in New York City.

So I think when push comes to shove, if you don't have the taxpayer base to support the city, the destination, whatever it happens to be, then you're in big trouble, and then there's gonna be dramatic change, and it's got to start with throwing these bums out.

And boy, the biggest bozo I've ever seen as a politician.

I think, you know, the jackass of the year, jackass of the century, probably's got to go to Bill de Blasio.

He's the biggest jackass out there, and he's taken a city that Michael Bloomberg and before him, Rudy Giuliani, turned around.

They made it unbelievably livable, fantastic place.

Bloomberg wasn't, you know, Bloomberg was on the in the primary for Democrats.

Um, so you know, he understood that certain policies made sense, and he continued them from Giuliani, and that was a that made New York City a great place to visit, to come in as a as a tourist, a great place to live.

And today, what de Blasio's been in power six years, and boy, he has reversed two and a half decades of success in gosh, in six years, and really in like the last six months.

So I think that the folks who can vote need to come out and they need to stop being ideologues, and when that happens, I think you'll see a reversion there.

When it comes to the cruise lines, um, I bought some of their stock when it really cratered.

I got rid of it when it was like, let's say CCL carnival was 15 or 16 bucks, and then I watched it go to 27.

But people said, like, oh, aren't you kicking yourself?

I'm like, no, because all the CDC has to come out and put a no sale in and extend that no sale.

And if they do, oh my God, guess what?

That stock's gonna crater right back down and it's back to where I sold it.

And I'm not gonna buy it.

I'm not gonna buy any cruise line stocks because there's too many unknowns that are outside the control of the cruise lines.

And I don't think the cruise lines, because of the perception that they're can find places, are gonna get a break on this.

And I think the other thing that's crippling the cruise lines is the fact that they register their ships in foreign locales so they can staff it and crew it with non-U.S.

citizens because of the Passenger Act and the Jones Act, then you know, all those factors add up where they got no relief from the U.S.

government despite the U.S.

government shutting down their businesses.

There was a big pushback in Congress that why are we going to give them a break or money when they don't pay U.S.

taxes, which is not really fair because they do pay millions, you know, millions and millions of dollars in taxes, but they don't pay as a traditional company and they've offshore their vessels.

People don't realize that's not so much tax avoidance.

It's more that they can't staff a ship and operate profitably if it's a bunch of Americans on board that are operating it.

And we saw that with NCL when they first went to Hawaii.

Half the crew walked off because of 100% American crew, required to be that, almost 100%, required to be that because a ship registered in the States and the main hull of the ship was poured in the U.S.

So therefore it was it was under that ruling.

And because of that, they had to staff for the mostly American crew, and that American crew is like, I'm not freaking doing this after four or five days.

This sucks.

And walked off.

They've since gotten it back on track.

But the hardest working people are some of these folks, these Filipinos, these Indonesians, these people from around the world, Eastern Europeans, like in the dining rooms, they work their asses off, but they'll do a contract, they'll work their asses off, and then they won't work for three or four months because they'll earn enough and be able to go back to their country and live a great life.

So you you really can't apply American labor standards and American salaries to somebody who lives in a place where you know you can live very, very well on$1,000 a month US.

You know, where can you do that in our country?

Virtually nowhere.

But in many countries overseas, especially in Southeast Asia, you can live like a king on $1,000,$1,500 a month.

So, you know, that that's part of the issue.

So, you know, I think what you're gonna find is it's gonna be a slow slog, it's going to gradually ramp up.

You've got to get foreign governments willing to allow more capacity at the resorts, like in Cancun, it's stuck at 30%.

Eventually it'll go to 50% and it'll continue to climb.

And the realization that this COVID thing is just another virus in the coronaviruses, which are also part of the common cold, that we're gonna be living with going forward.

And it may be seasonal, it may come back just like the flu, just like winter colds.

Once it gets to that point and it's not politicized, then everyone's gonna realize it's a new normal.

And that's when I think people will get comfortable, and that's when governments will relax these draconian restrictions and you will see a return to normal.

The cruise industry, I think, is going to gravitate more towards passengers, high-end luxury cruisers will go on the smaller ships.

They will, river cruising, will uh bounce back and be great.

But again, if you think about the protocols, if you check my temperature before I get on board the ship, if you make sure that everything that comes on the ship is sanitized, and if you make sure you're constantly sanitizing the ships, which the cruise lines have been fantastic at, then I'd be comfortable going on a cruise.

My wife went on a cruise at the end of February in light of COVID with a bunch of friends, and they didn't cancel, and it was already being talked about, and we already had those issues with the princess ship in Japan, et cetera.

They went anyway.

So at the end of the day, you know, people will say, Well, you're just saying that to make money.

Let me just emphasize again, I don't have a job.

I don't need to have a job, I don't need to work, I don't make money doing this for you, Kevin, and talking about this.

I do it based on my knowledge base, what I know about this industry, and seeing things firsthand, and being through Zika, Ebola, SARS-1, you know, terrorism, you name it.

I've been through all of it because I've been in this space since the start of Desert Storm back in 1991.

I've seen it all.

And guess what?

It's it's just this one has just gotten amplified beyond belief.

SPEAKER_01: Yep.

I agree.

Agree 100%.

Agree 100%.

Now, I want to ask you, what is your opinion?

Because this is something I've not researched it to to find out the reason why, if there is a reason why.

But talking about cruises, I'm I'm wondering why is it that we can allow airplanes to to fly, but they have to, some of them are flying at you know not full capacity, or hotels are are able to have people but not at full capacity.

Why is the same not applied for cruise ships?

SPEAKER_02: I think it's the tax situation I outlined earlier.

It's because they do not like the airlines can get a bailout, the hotel chains can get, you know, uh bailouts from the government and on and on and on, right?

Because they had these loans that they gave.

They can forgive these loans.

But the cruise lines, since they don't pay taxes because of where the ships are registered at the same rate that the US-based businesses pay taxes, they are persona non-gorada, screw you guys.

And I think there's a um there's definitely an animosity based on that, and there's a backlash based on that.

And it's unfortunate because if you want like 70% of the cruise capacity is pretty much going out of the U.S.

and Caribbean.

It's, you know, it's getting maybe it's a little few points lower than that now because of international stuff over the years.

But that's the market.

And it's mostly Americans that are going out, tons of Americans.

And Americans love the cruise industry.

95 plus percent of people take a cruise would do it again.

So we know that the consumer loves it.

We know that it's a great vacation, we know that it's a value vacation.

So what's holding it up?

I think it's politics, I think it's the taxes, I think it's the backlash that came right away when I think Trump mentioned something about the cruise industry being a great industry, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I mean, it's like hydroxychloroquine, you know, it may save lives.

I just heard a stat that in Uganda where people are basically taking hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic for malaria prevention.

I've taken it probably four times now myself.

It had no side effects for me.

My neighbor down in Florida, Fort Lauderdale, has lupus, he takes it every freaking day.

And we were shaking our head going, why is this such a big deal?

It's a cheap drug that's been around for 60 years, and it's because Trump touted it.

That's the only reason, that that's the only logical reason.

Now you turn around and you go, why are they bashing the cruise lines?

Well, at one point Trump was saying, hey, these are great businesses, and you know, we're gonna do everything we can to, you know, help the cruise industry.

They provide a lot of jobs.

Well, there was an immediate backlash.

I mean, the cruise industry is probably thinking, I wish Trump never said a damn thing about the cruise industry.

Because what he talks about positively, the media pounces on and hammers it.

And I think you got a little bit of that going because you just made a really great common sense point.

If you can let people fly on planes, which are a hell of a lot more confined than a cruise ship, why the hell can't you let people go on a cruise ship?

If you can let people go in a you know, hotel or resort, how in the hell can you not let them go on a cruise ship?

Makes no sense.

But that's the world we in the world we live in.

We're back to the common sense argument.

There is none.

SPEAKER_01: That's what I started to say.

That is the problem.

Because if you want to be somebody empowered and control, you common sense, you don't have it, you know?

So correct.

Wow.

SPEAKER_02: And it's unfortunate, but that's what we're dealing with.

So all we can do is what I did.

Get out, see things, report back on it.

In a couple of weeks, we're gonna turn these videos around that we shot uh on location.

In the meantime, go to my Instagram at Murphy Travels, go to my Facebook forward slash Murphy Travels.

You'll see posts there talking about this stuff.

And then we're gonna put the videos out.

Uh the folks at travelpulse.com will be getting those videos.

Uh, travel agents will be able to put them on their websites or share them.

They'll go up on my YouTube channels.

I'll be pushing them out on my social uh platforms.

And, you know, at the end of the day, we want to make sure that people see exactly what's going on.

Because if you see, if I if I rode a golf cart at Iberostar Paraiza Maya, Maya, which I was at, is one of the properties I went out, including the Dreams Vista.

I also went to the Rio Dunamar, all great properties.

I actually did a group, 60 people at the Ibero Star Para Maya back probably seven, eight years ago.

Great property, looks fantastic.

We hung out there.

I got out of the golf cart before they let the next guest get on the golf cart to go out to the beach because it's a good hike from the lobby.

They sprayed the whole thing down.

They sprayed the handles down, the armrest down, the seats down, everything.

And by the way, you can't sit together unless you're family in the golf cart.

They'll separate you within the golf cart.

So you look at these protocols and you go, wow, that's that's like over the top.

But again, it's just a um, it's just the the messaging's got to get out there, and people gotta realize that you gotta live your life.

And if you want to be part of the sheep crowd, you know, move to Wales, because a lot of sheep in Wales.

I'm kidding, I love Wales, but there's three million sheep.

I think there's three million sheep and one million people.

I may be wrong about the numbers, but it's there's a definitely a lot of sheep in Wales, okay?

Um, you know, make your own choices, folks, and do what's smart for you.

Do what's right for you.

If you have any health issues that are, you know, associated with COVID complications, you know, hunker down.

Protect yourself.

If you are a healthy person, I encourage you to go to the CDC website, look at the breakdown by age, look at the breakdown by states.

You know, they don't give you the comorbidities, but also the really weird thing is you'll see certain types of deaths are way down this year, like pneumonia, and COVID's up, like because there's a lot of COVID deaths.

That's a new thing.

So, you know, there's also, according to Burks, who's with the CDC, she's one of the uh task members on the council.

About six, eight weeks ago, she came out and said they're overcounting by at least 25% with these counts, you know, these death counts.

But again, the media doesn't want to cover that because then that would make it less bad for the current administration.

And depending on where you sit, you're encouraging that, but you shouldn't because then it's just spreading incorrect information yet again.

Um, and we've got to tamp it down because otherwise we're all gonna be screwed because businesses that can't stay open, you know, what's gonna happen to those people if they're out on the street?

I mean, there's a huge homeless problem in California.

What happens to the people that can't get money from the government, can't pay their mortgage, can't pay their rent, where do they go?

Are we gonna have a homeless crisis in six, twelve months, eighteen months, twenty four months?

Because if I own a building and you aren't paying the rent, I gotta pay my mortgage.

Like you can't just you can't just create money out of thin air, although the Federal Reserve is doing a pretty good job of that these days.

And we're all gonna pay for that one way or the other down the line.

So everybody's gotta get their shit together and use common sense.

SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.

I agree, I agree.

Well, well, man, I really appreciate you coming back on the podcast again to talk about all the latest happenings with coronavirus and and all the uh the hysteria and and more importantly, about getting people back out and enjoying life again and getting out and traveling and stuff.

And uh so Mark, I just really want to thank you so much for uh taking the time out of your day to come back on.

SPEAKER_02: Hey, you know what?

Uh I love travel.

I love what it how it brings people together, I love how it helps, you know, reduce global conflict because you realize that the guy in a country where you can't even understand him, you need an interpreter, he's got, she's got the same goals for their children, their parents, you know, we all literally in our own worlds, you know, have the same values and desires for the most part.

And it's only the extremists that get amplified in the media that change that.

So the more people travel, the more they engage with different cultures, the better the world overall is.

And this COVID thing is stopping that in its tracks, and that's gonna have negative repercussions down the road.

So travel's been great, great to me.

The media world, you know, we've covered it straight up.

And I know the media business inside and out.

And as you know, Kevin, I go on a lot of these broadcasts, even though I'm retired.

If I get a call from Fox or CNN or whoever, if I can get to a studio, I will go ahead and disrupt my trip to do that because I think it's so critical we get the word out.

And I appreciate you doing your podcast.

You're a good man, and uh, you know, keep it up and you know, let's get through this and get people traveling.

SPEAKER_01: Sounds good.

Sounds good.

Well, well, Mark, thank you so much.

I think maybe it's time for uh pop a bottle of a corona and have a lime and uh exactly that would be the end of Corona for this segment.

So your mouth to God's ears, brother.

Take care, man.

Thank you so much for all of you listening.

Hope you enjoyed and tune in next week for another episode of the lowdown on life and travel.

Have an awesome day.

SPEAKER_00: And that's the lowdown on life and travel.

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