{"id":7550,"date":"2025-12-01T06:57:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T06:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/global-travel-news\/extraordinary-travel-festival-announces-roberto-helou-as-speaker\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T09:41:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T09:41:26","slug":"extraordinary-travel-festival-announces-roberto-helou-as-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/global-travel-news\/extraordinary-travel-festival-announces-roberto-helou-as-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Extraordinary Travel Festival Announces Roberto Helou As Speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div style=\"margin-bottom:20px;\"><img width=\"900\" height=\"677\" src=\"https:\/\/www.travelnewshub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Extraordinary-Travel-Festival-Announces-Roberto-Helou-As-Speaker.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Extraordinary Travel Festival Announces Roberto Helou As Speaker - TRAVELINDEX\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.travelnewshub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Extraordinary-Travel-Festival-Announces-Roberto-Helou-As-Speaker.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.travelnewshub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Extraordinary-Travel-Festival-Announces-Roberto-Helou-As-Speaker-750x564.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.travelnewshub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Extraordinary-Travel-Festival-Announces-Roberto-Helou-As-Speaker-768x578.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.travelnewshub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Extraordinary-Travel-Festival-Announces-Roberto-Helou-As-Speaker-86x64.jpg 86w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.travelnewshub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Extraordinary-Travel-Festival-Announces-Roberto-Helou-As-Speaker.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-59126\" src=\"https:\/\/www.travelnewshub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Extraordinary-Travel-Festival-Announces-Roberto-Helou-As-Speaker-750x564.jpg\" alt=\"Extraordinary Travel Festival Announces Roberto Helou As Speaker - TRAVELINDEX\" width=\"750\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.travelnewshub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Extraordinary-Travel-Festival-Announces-Roberto-Helou-As-Speaker-750x564.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.travelnewshub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Extraordinary-Travel-Festival-Announces-Roberto-Helou-As-Speaker-768x578.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.travelnewshub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Extraordinary-Travel-Festival-Announces-Roberto-Helou-As-Speaker-86x64.jpg 86w, https:\/\/www.travelnewshub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Extraordinary-Travel-Festival-Announces-Roberto-Helou-As-Speaker.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\"><\/a>Bangkok, Thailand, December 01, 2025 \/ TRAVELINDEX \/ <strong>The Extraordinary Travel Festival (ETF)<\/strong>, the leading gathering of the world\u2019s most adventurous and accomplished travelers, is excited to announce <strong>Roberto Helou<\/strong>, known online as <em><strong>Explorob<\/strong><\/em>, as a featured speaker for <strong>ETF III<\/strong>, scheduled for <strong>October 22\u201325, 2026<\/strong> in Bangkok.<\/p>\n<p>Roberto Helou is a French-Lebanese cyclist, filmmaker, and environmental activist with a massive and engaged following (380K+ on Instagram as @explorob). His journey is defined by epic overland adventures, sustainability, and storytelling. After leaving his studies in environmental engineering and audiovisual communication, Helou dedicated himself to exploring the world, founding <strong>Plastic Free Lebanon<\/strong> to fight plastic pollution while embracing zero-waste and ecological travel.<\/p>\n<p>One of his most remarkable undertakings: <strong>cycling from Cairo to Cape Town<\/strong>, capturing raw and human stories across Africa, highlighting issues of culture, sustainability, and shared humanity. This expedition became the foundation for his YouTube mini-series and Instagram storytelling, bringing light to environmental and social realities often unseen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>Roberto Helou embodies sustainable exploration and creative courage<\/strong>,\u201d said ETF co-founder <strong>Ric Gazarian<\/strong>. \u201cHe teaches us that travel is not just about distance, but about connection\u2014with people, landscapes, and the planet itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At ETF III, Helou will share insights drawn from his life on the road, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Long-distance overland cycling strategies<\/li>\n<li>Capturing travel stories through film and photography<\/li>\n<li>Environmental activism and sustainable travel<\/li>\n<li>Building human connections across diverse communities<\/li>\n<li>The mental and physical discipline required for epic journeys<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The festival will bring together hundreds of elite travelers\u2014country collectors, adventurers, explorers, and storytellers from around the globe. Among its 20+ speakers, ETF III will spotlight individuals pushing the boundaries of what travel means in a deeply connected world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>Our vision for ETF is to inspire a community rooted in curiosity, creativity, and purpose,\u201d Gazarian adds.<\/strong> \u201cRoberto\u2019s approach to travel \u2014 methodical, artistic, and environmentally aware \u2014 is an ideal example of what it means to live adventurously and responsibly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ETF III will feature keynote talks, breakout sessions, film screenings, cultural events, and social gatherings, culminating in a gala dinner. Previous editions of the festival have drawn front-page attention from major media outlets including the <em>Wall Street Journal <\/em>and the<em> Australian Financial Review<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ticket Information<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tickets for ETF III are on sale now:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/16.0.1\/72x72\/1f449.png\" alt=\"\ud83d\udc49\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/extraordinarytravelfest.com\/tickets\/\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">extraordinarytravelfest.com\/tickets\/<\/a><br \/>\nUse code <strong>BANGKOK<\/strong> for a special discounted rate.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.travelnewshub.com\/people\/extraordinary-travel-festival-announces-roberto-helou-as-speaker\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bangkok, Thailand, December 01, 2025 \/ TRAVELINDEX \/ The Extraordinary Travel Festival (ETF), the leading gathering of the world\u2019s most adventurous and accomplished travelers, is excited to announce Roberto Helou, known online as Explorob, as a featured speaker for ETF III, scheduled for October 22\u201325, 2026 in Bangkok. Roberto Helou is a French-Lebanese cyclist, filmmaker, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2315,37,14,2316,1966],"class_list":["post-7550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-travel-news","tag-global-travelnews","tag-news","tag-travelindex","tag-travelindex-media-group","tag-untourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}