Why Pawcation?
There are many travel shows on television, but there are no shows about traveling with your pet, until now. As of 2017, 85 million U.S. households own pets with 75% of pet owners viewing their pets as a beloved member of their family and "pawrents" are wanting to bring their furry loved with them everywhere they can.
A recent New York Times article touches on the fact that people are spending more and more money on their pets. Ten years ago pet industry expenditures were $40 billion and as of 2017 total expenditures for the pet industry reached a staggering $70 Billion. With growth like this, well known brands such as Budweiser, Heinz, Doritos, Subaru and Pedigree, have paid up to $5 million for a 30 second spot showcasing a pet in their Super Bowl ads showing that companies are willing to shell out big money for advertisements directed towards pet owners. According to Forbes many big companies like Subaru, Alaskan Airlines, IKEA, and Mulberry are creating more products for pets with many other brands following suit. Nissan recently designed a car specifically for dog owners who want to easily travel with their pets. Not only are companies targeting dog owners, but they are also helping people be more aware of the large number of homeless pets in America. Bissell, Amazon and Petsmart are just a few large companies who are helping to end pet homelessness by donating a percentage of their profits to animal welfare organizations and make it a point to say this in their advertising.
Why Bella, Erin and Mike?
Our first trip with Bella was to Jackson Hole, WY and Yellowstone National Park. We hadn't traveled with a pet before, so we were hesitant about taking her with us. While we were walking around the main square we had at least five different pet owners ask us where we were staying with her, if there were dog friendly restaurants near by and what they can do with their dog while they were visiting. This is when we came up with the idea for Pawcation. More and more people want to travel with their pet, but one of the reasons why they don't take them with them is because they don't know they can. Pawcation will help pet owners become comfortable traveling with their pet by showing people where to stay with their pet, where to eat with their pet and what to do with their pet while on vacation. Bella goes with us everywhere we can take her and since we went to Jackson Bella has joined us in Lake Tahoe, Sun Valley and several other dog friendly cities.
We are avid travelers and are very passionate about animal rescue. We would like to help as many animals as we can by creating an awareness that there are several animals in need of adoption and we would do this through the stories we hear in the different locations we travel to. One of inspirations for Pawcation is John Steinbeck's famous novel, Travels With Charley, In Search of America. Pawcation will be Travels With Charley for the 21st century.
We are looking for a company who would like to help us make Pawcation into a nationally syndicated show.
