ABTA - The Assoc. of British Travel Agents love Michael Palin - we are told in the final episode of "The Way We Travelled" - BBC (UK) TV, that they hold him responsible for the upsurge in people wishing to take adventurous holidays to such places as the Sahara, in the footsteps of the great man. The travel industry call this the "Palin Effect."
Palin's TV journeys have opened up the world for TV audiences on many levels. Fifteen years ago he embarked on his first odyssey, "Around the World in 80 Days." Palin tells us he was not the BBC's first choice, though it is hard now to imagine it working with anyone else as our guide. (Noel Edmunds was one of the people the BBC first approached.)
With his genuine interest in the people he met, and his joy in exploring, Michael Palin became the benchmark by which all other TV travellers have since been judged. With typical self-depreciation, he claims he was simply "bungling his way around the world."
- This is a quote from the Radio Times for the week ending 1st August Thurs 31st July
