August 12, 2025 • 39 mins
Ep. 49 – Fiji, Festivals & the Future of Travel with Steve Pirie-Nally
What does it take to turn a trip into a life-changing experience? Steve Pirie-Nally has the answer. From staging Diplo’s unforgettable Antarctica performance to reimagining Gen Z spring breaks in Fiji, Steve has spent his career blending culture, entertainment, and purpose in ways that inspire and connect people.
In this episode of Tickets to Travel, we explore how the South Pacific is becoming a hotspot for sports tourism, music festivals, and wellness-focused, multi-generational travel. Steve shares insider stories about building travel packages that sell out years in advance, why “people of influence” often move more tickets than celebrities, and how destinations like Fiji are breaking into the American market.
If you work in ticketing, travel, or live events—or simply love hearing how unforgettable experiences are designed—this episode delivers fresh insights and bold ideas from one of the industry’s most creative minds.
Listen now to learn:
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Why packaging is the secret weapon for Gen Z and family travel
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How sports, music, and wellness trends are driving tourism in the South Pacific
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The power of community in creating loyal, long-term travelers
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What’s next for destination events and superfan experiences
Follow Steve Pirie-Nally on LinkedIn and connect with Tickets to Travel at tttpod.com or on social @Tix2TravelPod.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to Tickets to Travel, the Business of Travel Experiences. I'm your host, Mario DeWine, and today's guest is a man who doesn't just plan trips, he redefines them. Steve Purelli has carved out a visionary path across some of the world's most awe inspiring destinations, blending entertainment, culture and purpose in a way few others can.
(00:01):
Whether it's throwing down with Diplo and Antarctica through unbound reinventing spring break with unleashed in Fiji for thousands of Gen Z travelers, or building transformational family retreats with reimagined, Steve is proving that travel experiences can do more than just entertain. They can educate, connect, and inspire a pilot by trade, a cultural connector by nature.
And a community builder at heart. Steve has helped put the South Pacific back on the map literally for American travelers. And if you're still thinking, Fiji is three layovers and a canoe away, think again with direct flights from the US and custom packaged experiences built for ease, meaning an unforgettable memories.
There's never been a better time to discover the magic of the islands. So if you're a travel ticketing or tourism, and especially if you work with artists, athletes, or family groups, take note. Steve's work is more than a business. It's a mission to build a global community rooted in joy. Culture and real connection.
And we need partners, yes, you to help bring it all to life. Because from Diplo to paddle tournaments, spring breakers to wellness retreats. This isn't just travel, this is transformation through travel experiences. So follow us on all the socials at Tick two Travel Pod, and visit ttt pod.com because tickets to Travel starts now.
Welcome to the tickets to Travel, the Business of Travel Experiences. I'm your host, Mario Bwin, and today on the pod we have. Steve Peer, welcome to the pod, Steve. Yeah, no, it's great to be here. Privilege. Hey, I appreciate you saying that. I think when we first met, mainly probably 'cause of the podcast, but also just being in the same world of merging travel and entertainment, I think we found some commonality and so you've had a long career of doing this, and in particular in the South Pacific.
It is, yeah, south Pacific, born and bred down this part of the world. Um, yeah, it's in my backyard and uh, it's given me some great opportunities, but also being able to create some amazing impact there for these island nations down here.
I'm, I'm a California kid, and it was always an exotic thing to say, Hey, I'm gonna get to Australia, New Zealand, or Fiji, or, I think when we first started talking, it was about Bali.
You
were working on something in
Bali? Yeah, totally. So for me, I'm a a pilot by trade, so I suppose, uh, and it's inherited through a multi-generation, so always had this exploration in my blood to go and explore the world. And New Zealand, that's what you have to do. You literally have to jump on a plane and you're in another country.
So yeah, Bali is a great place for Australians and New Zealanders and now globally. It's a hot spot. So yeah, we're actually looking at, um, teaming up with the incredible company at club mid around credit, multi-generational experiences and festivals. 'cause we know the trends post COVID is that these baby boomers that have solved their houses and travelers, number one on their list, but they want to travel with their families and they want to travel and have enrichening experiences and they want to be able to build moments together.
It's one of the projects that we're kind of working on at the moment. Yeah, there's been, but Bali also has a few sort of things that are not as safe and secure as maybe Fiji and the Pacific, which is literally a paradise, safe, secure, and easily accessible from everywhere. So especially the us, which again, we spent a lot of time in in Fiji, but now there's.
Four direct flights out of mainland US and it's an education piece for us because a lot of people think this, uh, Fiji water and this magical. CG place is three flights in a canoe way, whereas actually it's, uh, you jump on a plane out of LA at 10 o'clock, you have a meal, have a sleep, and you wake up in Paradise.
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We're a non-profit ticketing platform. Turning live events into global impact. So if you're hosting an event or just buying tickets, choose tickets for good, not. Greed. Join the movement@tics.com. No, that, that's a, it's funny you say that because I was like telling my family, I'm like, Hey, there's a couple of, uh, opportunities where we may get to go see Steve and you know, go and check out Fiji.
And my son goes, do we get the water? Can we get the water? Is that something that's real? I'm like, yeah, it's totally real. But I say that because it's like, it's kinda the only thing that Americans can relate to. Obviously there's beautiful. B-roll video and things online about it because I think to your earlier point, there's been a ton of influencers who are now based in Bali and are probably making their way to Fiji, and there's just a ton of just social media presence in general.
Have you seen that really shift over the last few years? Is that something that you and your clients have capitalize on a bit or or plan to?
Yeah, definitely. There's the sort of the influencer that are going to destinations and some of these smaller tourism. Destination offices don't have these big budgets like a, a Dubai or a Saudi or these other destinations.
So I kind of love to double click on the people of influence instead of the influencers. So they might be a hundred th thousand followers, but they a highly engaged audience. So we love to kind of, especially with the past company that I exited pre COVID. Where we looked at the spring break model in the US and took over 40,018 year olds to, to Fiji and chartered islands, chartered planes, DJs, and everything like that.
It was not the influences that moved the tickets, it was actually the people of influence and affiliate models that really moved the ticket and large numbers like we've also. An ex extremely awesome experience with Diplo and Antarctica where we, we chartered a ship and we had Diplo, people have probably seen that clip of him paying on the back of the boat.
(00:22):
Um, Diplo didn't actually move the tickets 'cause it's a different type of experience. People used to paying 150, $200. But when you're talking about $10,000 for an intimate experience, it was actually the wellness people on the crews, the yoga instructor. Michael Sealey that shifted and moved the tickets.
So yeah, it's been really interesting, interesting to see what happened pre COVID and then what we can do with the limited budgets that we're working with with some of these tourism smaller operators. So, so you
partner with the various tourism boards in the South Pacific to help drum up events, various tourism initiatives, really targeted to Gen Z slash millennials.
Definitely Gen Zs is where we started to play back in my twenties. As I said, I grew up in the Cook Islands and was the, the only white kid with a grass skirt on, uh, in culture. And that was, I pay heritage back to there 'cause it was such an awesome learning experience outside the classroom. But then pulling that through when I was 23, we were like, instead of.
Australians going to, to the Gold Coast or like a Miami type of spring break by, why don't we take them away and create a new environment, a safe environment? And Fiji was that place where we charter at whole island. It was only for 18 year olds, so we didn't have any outside influence. And it was just this incredible experience.
And yeah, the Pacific have just got this, a few little tick boxes that. Just make it easy for Gen Z, and then we moved into different brackets, business events, retreats, experiences, and that sort of stuff. But yeah, we work with them.
It's interesting because, I mean, it's a far flight for us. You know, if you're talking from, it's at least 10 to 12, right?
From Los Angeles. Yeah.
To 10 outta LA and 10 outta San Fran. 12 out of Dallas now, and then Vancouver. What I love about, and to be honest, we've got some incredible communities and our first exit was to a Toronto based company. The time zones really work really well, travel backwards and forwards. I find it easier.
Traveling backwards and forwards to the US on a 10 hour flight than it is actually going. What you guys would do an east to west coast trip is that two hour time difference. So jumping on a plane at 10 o'clock out of LA once you've kind of finished a day having a meal and going to sleep and waking up at 5:00 AM in Fiji and Paradise, it's an easy route to do.
And then vice versa. You're going back, you're leaving at 10 o'clock at night. Having dinner, you're gonna sleep and you're waking up at midday on the same day on a Sunday in la. So it actually works really well from like a jet lag perspective.
That's interesting because that seems to be one of the bigger hurdles.
'cause everything you've described up into this point, Steve, is very similar to the spring break business that's here in the States to either you're going to Mexico or the Caribbean or other parts, you know, maybe Florida for example. It's about having a good time with your friends, um, having a, an entire experience getting into a party.
Obviously there's an entertainment element to it. Again, it's shorter, and I think for parents in general who are maybe footing the bill for these trips, they're saying this is a pretty manageable thing. I, I've even heard there's a new trend where the parents actually go on spring break, but they stay in the house or something like,
yeah.
It's definitely a big trend down this part of the world as well. It's like, okay, we're taking this opportunity, the kids away. We are gonna travel as well. Yeah, definitely. It's a moving trend.
They're like, is it safe? We'll just go. I had just heard this, uh, earlier this year. We're in Dominican Republic.
There's a bunch of kids who are on a break there. Uh, and then we ran into a bunch of parents who are just staying a villa close by. This is, oh, let's just keep an eye on the kids kind of thing. But it becomes the, an experience for the entire family. But what I was getting at too is that there's probably a little bit of a hurdle to say to, uh, let's say someone who goes to UCLA who may wanna spend spring break.
Not in Cancun, but wanna go to Fiji. And that barrier of the flight has probably been removed to a certain degree. Within your explanation, which I understand, I love to take a red eye and just wake up on the beach the next day. Are there other things that you've noticed that would be, that you're solving for when trying to Yeah.
Get access to the American market?
I think, and you've highlighted this on the PO podcast and the, and the recent episodes in regards to packaging. Especially Gen Zs, actually all demographics, we deal with the whole spectrum, but people want ease. People are looking at AI as the prime example. We're trying to buy back time and being able to package things up complete so it's a one click experience.
(00:43):
So yeah, you've got this education hurdle to get over with, especially North Americans traveling long distance 'cause it's just not due. DNA, but it is changing. So I've gotta do more research around what that flight is, where I'm getting, and then where do I look for accommodation? So there just becomes more choices in the booking process.
Whereas what we found when we created Unleashed back in the day was that we packaged everything up. So it was a simple one click type of cruise booking. So flights, transfers, accommodation, meals, experience was all wrapped up and people were happy to pay a premium for that as well. And that's why. It just became a rite of passage in certain parts of in Australia to do that.
And I think the US is very similar, but a few more hurdles because in the D in the DNA in Australia and New Zealand, we used to fly into Fiji three hours, four hours. But the US you've just got this other education piece.
It's interesting 'cause even from a US perspective, when you talk to US travel suppliers, they love the Australian market because you typically are spending.
20 days, I think on average here in the States, that particular market. And so doing a seventh Night Free, for example, at a hotel is very lucrative for them. They can offer a longer discount because once they're here, they're a guaranteed booking. I'm, I'm curious if you see like one you're trying to get Americans to come out to Fiji, for example.
Have you taken any information from your particular sort of Gen Z college markets and do you see similarities in how Americans would travel during the same time, or is it completely different and you guys have from, from scratch?
Uh, there's definitely some, uh, similar, uh, similarities. We don't really have a spring break, massive movement of travel down this part of the world versus America.
North and other pa that kind of comes down to our schooling as well, so, which is a kind of light bulb moment for us. So we have, instead of two semesters, which you guys have and a big break in the middle of the year, we have more breaks throughout the year. So we have four terms of 12 weeks and then two week breaks.
So I think it's great in some ways because you're spreading a load of, uh, peak travel across four periods instead of two. So yeah, you have people going away at Easter. There's a two week window there. You have a two week window in July and a two week window in September, October, and then you have the six week over Christmas or our summer, which is like your summer break.
So yeah, it spreads the load. But then from a creating a spring break movement. So it takes a lot more from this side of things, but what I'm also seeing is a lot of influence happening from sport entertainment. Coming down to this part of the world, so NBA sport college, sport, N-B-A-N-F-L, like they're all coming down to this part of the world and one, it's attracting talent and it's attracting fans to travel long distances.
As you said, Australians will fly to North America and they'll do an NBA game in LA and they'll might go to a, a football game, a college, and then something else. So they're buying. 15 days worth of travel, plus tickets, plus accommodations. So the spins through the roof and again, working. One of my mentors is in that space and just there's this massive acceleration curve of sport travel, and that probably comes back to Netflix.
I was having a great conversation with him as Netflix is being this incredible free marketing advertising, like the drive to survive, and typically the main purchase has been. The man on the couch, but actually the wife is sitting down and watching and going, oh, that, that trip in Monaco looks pretty good.
You're gonna watch the road. Well, let's go. So I think some of these documentaries on Netflix is really, uh, driving travel. Yeah. Inspiration as well.
There are quite a few themes of this happening and you know, the F1 with the film coming out, but also mm-hmm the, there's a definite, there's a definite correlation between.
The F1 series on Netflix and increased attendance at each one of the races and just overall awareness. 'cause it wasn't really an American sport, right? It's a global sport, but now you've got so many people bought into it. Now everyone who wants to get to Las Vegas or they wanna get to Mexico City or, or one of these venues to actually experience a race because it is an experience.
I haven't been yet myself, but it's gonna, it's going to happen very soon. And so I think you're right. There's all this media. Emphasis that really promote the destinations around the sports that are there. Sports are such a driver of travel in general, and so are there any upcoming things that you can think of that would drive Americans to get to your destinations?
Yeah. Obviously 2028 is the Olympics in la, but that's obviously gonna fuel this huge drive in 2032, which is Brisbane the Olympics. So. We know that's just a global movement of travel. Yeah. Obviously we've had, I wouldn't say, I would say niche sports to the globe, but huge number one sports down here, like Rugby World Cup.
Actually, the soccer World Cup happened down here last year. So yeah, we're starting to attract these really big sports and the biggest of them all with the Olympics. So think 2032. This next four years, you can see this massive influx of teams coming down here. The Rams are coming down, I don't know, next year.
There's just gonna be this lovely cross pollination of inspiring people to travel that way. And then people inspired to come down here, cruise lines, deploying more cruise lines down here, doing that sort of stuff. And that's something that really niches, thematic cruises that happened massively in North America is doing that down here we ran a, an entrepreneur's cruise where crews at Sea learn connect, uh, with Virgin Voyages, which was a great partnership.
But yeah, just sing. Much more diverse products happening down here and these big events that are attracting large. Large crowds,
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Tick stock.com where tickets move smarter. I think as Americas, we forget about. The South Pacific has a market to develop as well, whether it's LA Rams going there or Diplo going to Antarctica. Ha. Have you found it tougher to maybe book talent or to attract these type of either sports properties or entertainment properties to, to do those things there or, 'cause it's gotta be a bit of a sales pitch from your perspective to say, Hey, have you considered this?
We have the venues and the capacity and the flights. Is that something that you work on?
Yeah, I definitely think there's much respect to the big players in the game of huge festivals like the Coachellas, the Live Nation tours and everything like that. It's just not a place I'm interested in in regards to.
That's, that's a big fish to, to fry. So what we've always been able to double click on is like, how do we work with an artist and their team and collaborate and build something together? Unfortunately, when we're down this part of the world, we have to collaborate because we go to war as anzacs, right?
It's like on the battlefield. So like, how do we collaborate and win things together? So we sit down with talent and we're like, okay, how do we build something that you're excited about? Your content team is excited about, but more importantly, how do we really look after your super fans? So that's where we navigate sort of talent.
And then there's some talent out there that they're on that trajectory and that window that it's like we need to pay more bigger shows and that's where we make the money. 'cause we are never gonna be able to match the same fee as paying, playing in front of 40,000 people. Yeah. So that's very about co-develop.
Working with a couple of bands and artists right now is let's develop a travel product with you or you. Around you and build a longevity plan to it. Yeah. With the Jimmy Buffet went to Antarctic kill, it's how do you do those things that have longevity past potentially just the prime time of playing on stages in front of hundreds of thousands of people?
We talk about this a lot because with artists and promoters, managers doing the traditional tours are one very expensive to do. They're very taxing. You're traveling the entire time. That's why the onset of residency have made a lot of sense in Las Vegas, but also doing exactly what you're talking about is creating a travel product.
So whether it's, it's a combination, a vacation, and a performance, and you get to really connect with your superfan. I think you're right with companies like Vibey and there's a few other like groove crews and others that are like, they find the artist and they curate these type of packages to get them really excited and they plan these things out, right?
Like on a quarterly basis or to try to figure out, so it sounds like you, you're involved in trying to do the same thing, whether it's finding the right talent and matching them up with the destination to create this destination festival. Yeah. A hundred.
Building it into an annualized experience. So instead of just committing to one show or one event, one experience, it's like, how do we build a pipeline of five years and, and multiple destinations and move, move it round like a tour, but over five years, it's very intimate.
It's most of the time it's shoulder tapping in regards to inviting people to the event or the experience. And then it's also finding. And coming talent as well, which we are really excited about. So it's like, okay, you've just broken through. And again, it comes back to my first commenters instead of the influencer.
It's the people of influence that you've got these super fans that are traveling across state or just following that person or that band. That's enough for us. We don't want a hundred thousand people. We don't want 10,000 people. We want 180 people to pay $7,000 a ticket. And have that intimate experience.
So yeah, that sounds like a deal. But there's a, there's a massive market out there in regards, like we know, right? You brought up the whole Taylor Swift movement is that it was cheaper to fly from Australia, sometimes up to Toronto to go to a show or Paris or something like that. People just, especially Gen Zs, it's like experiences over things.
It's like they're happy to jump on a plane and go and experience a moment with their friends. Um, so group travel, it's where I've always. Played and got me excited. 'cause there's no better thing than traveling with your mates and a group and meeting new groups. 'cause tell them what they want. Travel and experience.
Give them what they need, which is friendship, belonging, community. Yeah. They do things again together.
You, you hit the nail on the head there with the community piece. That seems to be a common theme when I, I do these super fan, fan travel stories, podcasts, where. They're just, they just wanna be in the building, be able to sing the same songs, wear the same t-shirt exchange, friendship bracelets, things like that.
It got to a point where I think some of these entertainment companies are just looking at the dollar and they're not developing the community. And so I think like these bespoke trips, these travel experiences really encouraged that and also add to the longevity of that artist or that program, that sport.
I'm just curious, like what do you think is the, the next wave for you in terms of the type of content that you would like to provide? Because there's obviously, we talked about sports briefly and we talked about different, different artists that you work with, but what do you think is the next trend for travel to Fiji, for example?
(01:25):
Yeah. Uh, we can double click on community, right? So community is. Everything for me, it's whether I'm part of a mastermind community and travel to the US and there's something down this part of the world called tool poppy syndrome. One poppy grows tooler than the other. It's quickly shop down. So to be able to yeah, travel to North America and connect with great people like you and community and uh, open source in regards to co-creation is amazing and that kind of.
Flows through into events and experiences. So whether it was unleashed back in the day, it was, yeah, we created a travel and event, but actually we created a community and some of those people are still working for that company 14 years on, which just can't pay for in regards to creating that type of community.
I think the blending of multiple components into an experience like just going to music festival or just going to a sports event. People are gonna seek more. So when I'm going to that sports event, I'm happy to pay more to have, what is it called? The party in the car park. I also wanna meet people that have been super fans and have a dinner with them, and I'm happy to pay three and a half thousand dollars for that experience because it's intimate.
So I think there's gonna be this sort of shakedown in regards to the intimacy of events and experiences that people were willing to pay a premium for. There's always gonna be the mass, but then there's gonna be all these splinters that happen in regards to like, no, I want to dive deeper onto that. And there's all these niches that are exploding.
Yeah. We see how many people that travel for ComicCon around the world, the amount of people that are running a marathon on seven continents and paying $40,000. Space is the next frontier, which I know people in that space, it's like there's no better time to be in travel events and experiences and ticketing with this explosion of baby doomers.
Our parents-in-law just came back after a huge six week trip. They're about investing in moments and experiences with themselves, their friends and their families. And then Gen Zs are like, I'm not gonna be able to afford a house. I'm gonna live an amazing, awesome experience. With my mates and maybe we'll buy a house together.
So I just think we're in a really exciting time.
One thing I wanted to to understand is, because there's just lack of knowledge about Fiji in particular, what's the perfect experience? What artists, what, you know, what type of venue? How would you build something that would attract the US audience? I, yeah.
So I'm
actually working on a couple of projects in different genres. Now. Yeah. One in the sport, the sports fair and a niche sport that is, uh, growing pretty quickly in, in North America. I don't wanna give too much away 'cause nothing's been signed, but there's this movement of these new sports that are growing and it's pickle ball, pickle ball, pedal ball, padel, there's so many of them popping up because it's become more accessible.
I'm a father, I have five, five beautiful kids. Do I really want them to go into contact sport or rugby? 'cause there's so many injuries, head con, concussions, these people are bigger, stronger, faster. But so all these other sports that are maybe not as technical or like tennis, I played tennis, serving you take that out of it makes it way more accessible.
So being able to take tournaments to paradise is a big shift for me. So Fiji bringing the tournament and experience there. Where, so Spartan happened there last year and they had 3000 participants from 23 countries coming in, doing a challenge. We know Hydrox is a net massive movement. People travel for Hydrox.
So that is one thing that, uh, we're pulling Coke, nothing. There's no better country on planet Earth, I don't believe that can do and showcase happiness, culture and the, and like you walk into a village in Fiji. You're greeted there, there's an energy about the place, whether you're spiritual or not. It's like there's an energy when you get off the plane and you're just like, God damn, these people are happy.
So sport is one thread. And then from Unbound in the experience, like with my five kids, how are they gonna celebrate the end of school? They're gonna travel with their friends, they're gonna learn things outside the classroom and they're gonna experience culture 'cause it's gonna give them this worldly perspective that I feel like with the.
With AI and everything like that, perspectives is everything. You have a greater perspective, and that's what travel and tickets to travel really give you is like whenever you get off a plane, how often are we ever looking down at our screen? We're always get off and we're inspired by what's in front of us.
So that's what travel can do for us. So yes, the Unbound experience is a reimagined Spring break University experience where. People can come together, they can navigate transition. Right now, there's so much uncertainty around transitioning out of high school to college or career to entrepreneur, and so I, I'm big in that space and we've run a lot of business events and experiences.
You bring, you create a container, you bring people into a container and environment and a safe one. Just see what magic happens and that that's what happened at Antarctica. Last year with 153 entrepreneurs, leaders coming down there and yeah, the conversations that happened and a $50 million impact fund was created over someone having a cup of coffee on the back of the boat.
So yeah, again, I come back to this travel community experiences. It's where magic really happens.
Yeah. It's cultural for you guys there. Because I didn't travel up until I had worked at Expedia and I was probably, I was already. Maybe 26, 27 years old, and I decided to take a break and I cashed out some stock.
Very unwise thing to do, but like I did it because I wanted to travel. So I took a break and I traveled through Europe for three months and throughout North America for another month. And then I said, you know what? I'm gonna figure my life out when I get back. But I learned this about people in Australia, New Zealand and such because as I'd go to, I had some very good friends, obviously being in the online travel world where I got comps in different cities, and when I didn't have a comp Steve, I would stay at a hostel.
And that's where I would connect with Australians in New Zealand and they were kids. Here I am 27 years old. I've been done a lot of stuff in the States, but here are these guys who are like 17, 18 young kids traveling and maybe there's probably, there're probably groups of like three or four guys or three or four girls just traveling throughout, uh, Europe and no plan.
(01:46):
They're just, they're just doing their own thing. And every day it was like, what are you doing today? We're gonna go with you or not. And I think that's really the magical thing about the culture there is that one, you allow your kids to do that, um, right when they get out, what we would call high school here to go out and do that before they get to college and really handle a little bit more responsibility.
But how does that culture get ingrained in all of you? Is it something that you lived or. Was just generational because I think it's a different thought for people here in the US to let their kids go and do that
for once. Yeah, I, this question comes up quite a bit, and I suppose I'm fortunate that yes, we've got this Pacific Power ice.
I've grown up in the Cook Islands, which is a magical place. I've done a lot of work and business and impact in Fiji. I'm a Kiwi, but I'm married to an Australian, so I really do have this. Melting pot of influence and culture around me. And the question comes up of even the differences between New Zealand and Australia is America, Canada?
Yeah. Put it down to the end of the day, we're part of the Commonwealth and so we were colonized from the uk. If I want to go all the way back, so there's always the seek of like. People going, okay, we were colonized, so we want to go and travel and see the world and go exploring. And it's just whether it was the gap year or opportunities abroad, like definitely like from a business point of view, there's only 4 million people in New Zealand.
So if we are looking at global, there's companies like Rocket Lab or Xero or a bids and experiences. You've gotta go, you've gotta go traveling. Explore and grow, but the culture is definitely a big thing, right? We have such a diverse culture. New Zealand, rich and Australia with all the islands are so close.
So we literally have six or seven different nationalities that are landing on our doorstep and being part of our economy and shifting at a moving, and that comes down to sports events, experiences. It's really woven and I'm super grateful and privileged that New Zealand has this like deep. Lineage back to Maori culture and like my kids even learn it still at school.
And it's like this connection part to the past is super powerful. And then Australia's got obviously, yeah, the Aboriginal culture and going all the way back. So we're really lucky. And sometimes you've gotta go traveling to feel like how lucky you are to when you go back home.
And so I was thinking about as we were talking through the kids again, or the college trips.
And we're talking about trends. One of the trends that keep coming up is sober spring break and wellness, spring break. Is this something that you have also noticed in your markets and is this something you're developing?
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Gabe Past company, uh, with Unleashed, it's like the 10 years old.
I was involved from startup through to exit was. You saw these trends? It was at the start it was like, okay, how many, like we had to control drinking and we did that from a wristband and whatever, and then it moved to, okay, people are talking about other things that they do back home, obviously. And then the last two years that I was there, it was like mental health.
We, we saw people, we always obviously. Medical disclaimers is, wow, anxiety, depression is really on the rise. And we really had to cater around how that looks like. 'cause if you mix antidepressants, alcohol, it's not good. And then, yeah, in the last two, three years, it's like the amount of people that are like, I do not wanna wake up with a hangover.
We want to go and do a hike. So yes, massive shift. Like I'm talking 20 to 30% of total travelers and looking at alternative experiences and. We are building for that. So yeah, yoga, hydroxy, hydro's one of the fastest growing sports, right? And the participation level of young people at 16 all the way through to 80.
So there's a massive movement. So I think that whole wellness, I used to be in the wellness space, past chapter, is that, yeah, longevity, wellness, travel to reset, recover, reimagine. It is everything. And that's, yeah. We built something in Fiji this October, which is called. Reimagine for exact that reason where it's like, it's the first business retreat for families and 'cause we've noticed, it's like families always have to make a choice.
Sometimes it's like, okay, dad's on the road, lots mom's on the road, lots who's staying behind to look after kids. And we're like, imagine if we created a fully inclusive experience where we actually bring in these amazing facilitators to which we call future citizen to help. It's like a education outside the classroom.
Fun play creativity, like with the kids that come and then the adults get to learn about business connect and all that sort of stuff. So we've wrapped this up in this experience in Fiji because then you don't have to make the choice. It's investors family. 'cause we know there's personal development.
There's business development. But what's most important right now is family development. And there's, we just read an article yesterday. The Wall Street Journal. Next mega trend in travel is family, multi-generational trips and there's one in New Zealand for $80,000 for a week, and it's sold out for the next two and a half years.
So yeah, it's really interesting. I'm excited. And the people like yourself that's connecting the dots in the travel industry and opening up these ideas. 'cause never, as I said, I'm a collaborator. It's like more people diving into this family stuff and events, experiences, and moments is. Gonna help this next generation.
How do we be best stewards on planet earth to help shift this next generation?
I'm all for it, man. And I, I think that's a good place to, to, to stop our conversation because you've covered so much in terms of being opened up to new cultures, breaking into student group travel into the US to talking about sports and entertainment as a driver of travel.
(02:07):
And of course now. Family and business being merged, uh, because of travel, uh, and influence. So thank you for your time. I know that you're gonna come back and we're gonna talk more about different things, but I really appreciate you coming on the pod.
No worries. Love, love your work and what you're doing and shining a light on tickets and travel.
Awesome. Thank you. What an inspirational ride with Steve Perry, founder, operator, and all around trailblazer. Redefining what it means to travel with purpose from staging unforgettable experiences like Diplo in Antarctica to pioneering Gen Z spring breaks in Fiji. To now crafting Wellness forward multi-generational family retreats.
Steve is building a new model for meaningful travel in the South Pacific. He doesn't just sell trips, he curates communities, connects cultures, and creates once in a lifetime moments that change the way people see the world and themselves. If you're in ticketing travel or tourism and you're not watching what Steve's doing, you're already behind.
Follow Steve's journey and learn more about his work by connecting with him on LinkedIn. And for more episodes that explore the future of travel and experiences, follow us at Tick two Travel pod and visit ttt pod.com. And remember, every ticket is a ticket to travel. Save travels. Scrolling is listening.
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Welcome back to Tickets to Travel, the Business of Travel Experiences. I'm your host, Mario DeWine, and today's guest is a man who doesn't just plan trips, he redefines them. Steve Purelli has carved out a visionary path across some of the world's most awe inspiring destinations, blending entertainment, culture and purpose in a way few others can.
(00:01):
Whether it's throwing down with Diplo and Antarctica through unbound reinventing spring break with unleashed in Fiji for thousands of Gen Z travelers, or building transformational family retreats with reimagined, Steve is proving that travel experiences can do more than just entertain. They can educate, connect, and inspire a pilot by trade, a cultural connector by nature.
And a community builder at heart. Steve has helped put the South Pacific back on the map literally for American travelers. And if you're still thinking, Fiji is three layovers and a canoe away, think again with direct flights from the US and custom packaged experiences built for ease, meaning an unforgettable memories.
There's never been a better time to discover the magic of the islands. So if you're a travel ticketing or tourism, and especially if you work with artists, athletes, or family groups, take note. Steve's work is more than a business. It's a mission to build a global community rooted in joy. Culture and real connection.
And we need partners, yes, you to help bring it all to life. Because from Diplo to paddle tournaments, spring breakers to wellness retreats. This isn't just travel, this is transformation through travel experiences. So follow us on all the socials at Tick two Travel Pod, and visit ttt pod.com because tickets to Travel starts now.
Welcome to the tickets to Travel, the Business of Travel Experiences. I'm your host, Mario Bwin, and today on the pod we have. Steve Peer, welcome to the pod, Steve. Yeah, no, it's great to be here. Privilege. Hey, I appreciate you saying that. I think when we first met, mainly probably 'cause of the podcast, but also just being in the same world of merging travel and entertainment, I think we found some commonality and so you've had a long career of doing this, and in particular in the South Pacific.
It is, yeah, south Pacific, born and bred down this part of the world. Um, yeah, it's in my backyard and uh, it's given me some great opportunities, but also being able to create some amazing impact there for these island nations down here.
I'm, I'm a California kid, and it was always an exotic thing to say, Hey, I'm gonna get to Australia, New Zealand, or Fiji, or, I think when we first started talking, it was about Bali.
You
were working on something in
Bali? Yeah, totally. So for me, I'm a a pilot by trade, so I suppose, uh, and it's inherited through a multi-generation, so always had this exploration in my blood to go and explore the world. And New Zealand, that's what you have to do. You literally have to jump on a plane and you're in another country.
So yeah, Bali is a great place for Australians and New Zealanders and now globally. It's a hot spot. So yeah, we're actually looking at, um, teaming up with the incredible company at club mid around credit, multi-generational experiences and festivals. 'cause we know the trends post COVID is that these baby boomers that have solved their houses and travelers, number one on their list, but they want to travel with their families and they want to travel and have enrichening experiences and they want to be able to build moments together.
It's one of the projects that we're kind of working on at the moment. Yeah, there's been, but Bali also has a few sort of things that are not as safe and secure as maybe Fiji and the Pacific, which is literally a paradise, safe, secure, and easily accessible from everywhere. So especially the us, which again, we spent a lot of time in in Fiji, but now there's.
Four direct flights out of mainland US and it's an education piece for us because a lot of people think this, uh, Fiji water and this magical. CG place is three flights in a canoe way, whereas actually it's, uh, you jump on a plane out of LA at 10 o'clock, you have a meal, have a sleep, and you wake up in Paradise.
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We're a non-profit ticketing platform. Turning live events into global impact. So if you're hosting an event or just buying tickets, choose tickets for good, not. Greed. Join the movement@tics.com. No, that, that's a, it's funny you say that because I was like telling my family, I'm like, Hey, there's a couple of, uh, opportunities where we may get to go see Steve and you know, go and check out Fiji.
And my son goes, do we get the water? Can we get the water? Is that something that's real? I'm like, yeah, it's totally real. But I say that because it's like, it's kinda the only thing that Americans can relate to. Obviously there's beautiful. B-roll video and things online about it because I think to your earlier point, there's been a ton of influencers who are now based in Bali and are probably making their way to Fiji, and there's just a ton of just social media presence in general.
Have you seen that really shift over the last few years? Is that something that you and your clients have capitalize on a bit or or plan to?
Yeah, definitely. There's the sort of the influencer that are going to destinations and some of these smaller tourism. Destination offices don't have these big budgets like a, a Dubai or a Saudi or these other destinations.
So I kind of love to double click on the people of influence instead of the influencers. So they might be a hundred th thousand followers, but they a highly engaged audience. So we love to kind of, especially with the past company that I exited pre COVID. Where we looked at the spring break model in the US and took over 40,018 year olds to, to Fiji and chartered islands, chartered planes, DJs, and everything like that.
It was not the influences that moved the tickets, it was actually the people of influence and affiliate models that really moved the ticket and large numbers like we've also. An ex extremely awesome experience with Diplo and Antarctica where we, we chartered a ship and we had Diplo, people have probably seen that clip of him paying on the back of the boat.
(00:22):
Um, Diplo didn't actually move the tickets 'cause it's a different type of experience. People used to paying 150, $200. But when you're talking about $10,000 for an intimate experience, it was actually the wellness people on the crews, the yoga instructor. Michael Sealey that shifted and moved the tickets.
So yeah, it's been really interesting, interesting to see what happened pre COVID and then what we can do with the limited budgets that we're working with with some of these tourism smaller operators. So, so you
partner with the various tourism boards in the South Pacific to help drum up events, various tourism initiatives, really targeted to Gen Z slash millennials.
Definitely Gen Zs is where we started to play back in my twenties. As I said, I grew up in the Cook Islands and was the, the only white kid with a grass skirt on, uh, in culture. And that was, I pay heritage back to there 'cause it was such an awesome learning experience outside the classroom. But then pulling that through when I was 23, we were like, instead of.
Australians going to, to the Gold Coast or like a Miami type of spring break by, why don't we take them away and create a new environment, a safe environment? And Fiji was that place where we charter at whole island. It was only for 18 year olds, so we didn't have any outside influence. And it was just this incredible experience.
And yeah, the Pacific have just got this, a few little tick boxes that. Just make it easy for Gen Z, and then we moved into different brackets, business events, retreats, experiences, and that sort of stuff. But yeah, we work with them.
It's interesting because, I mean, it's a far flight for us. You know, if you're talking from, it's at least 10 to 12, right?
From Los Angeles. Yeah.
To 10 outta LA and 10 outta San Fran. 12 out of Dallas now, and then Vancouver. What I love about, and to be honest, we've got some incredible communities and our first exit was to a Toronto based company. The time zones really work really well, travel backwards and forwards. I find it easier.
Traveling backwards and forwards to the US on a 10 hour flight than it is actually going. What you guys would do an east to west coast trip is that two hour time difference. So jumping on a plane at 10 o'clock out of LA once you've kind of finished a day having a meal and going to sleep and waking up at 5:00 AM in Fiji and Paradise, it's an easy route to do.
And then vice versa. You're going back, you're leaving at 10 o'clock at night. Having dinner, you're gonna sleep and you're waking up at midday on the same day on a Sunday in la. So it actually works really well from like a jet lag perspective.
That's interesting because that seems to be one of the bigger hurdles.
'cause everything you've described up into this point, Steve, is very similar to the spring break business that's here in the States to either you're going to Mexico or the Caribbean or other parts, you know, maybe Florida for example. It's about having a good time with your friends, um, having a, an entire experience getting into a party.
Obviously there's an entertainment element to it. Again, it's shorter, and I think for parents in general who are maybe footing the bill for these trips, they're saying this is a pretty manageable thing. I, I've even heard there's a new trend where the parents actually go on spring break, but they stay in the house or something like,
yeah.
It's definitely a big trend down this part of the world as well. It's like, okay, we're taking this opportunity, the kids away. We are gonna travel as well. Yeah, definitely. It's a moving trend.
They're like, is it safe? We'll just go. I had just heard this, uh, earlier this year. We're in Dominican Republic.
There's a bunch of kids who are on a break there. Uh, and then we ran into a bunch of parents who are just staying a villa close by. This is, oh, let's just keep an eye on the kids kind of thing. But it becomes the, an experience for the entire family. But what I was getting at too is that there's probably a little bit of a hurdle to say to, uh, let's say someone who goes to UCLA who may wanna spend spring break.
Not in Cancun, but wanna go to Fiji. And that barrier of the flight has probably been removed to a certain degree. Within your explanation, which I understand, I love to take a red eye and just wake up on the beach the next day. Are there other things that you've noticed that would be, that you're solving for when trying to Yeah.
Get access to the American market?
I think, and you've highlighted this on the PO podcast and the, and the recent episodes in regards to packaging. Especially Gen Zs, actually all demographics, we deal with the whole spectrum, but people want ease. People are looking at AI as the prime example. We're trying to buy back time and being able to package things up complete so it's a one click experience.
(00:43):
So yeah, you've got this education hurdle to get over with, especially North Americans traveling long distance 'cause it's just not due. DNA, but it is changing. So I've gotta do more research around what that flight is, where I'm getting, and then where do I look for accommodation? So there just becomes more choices in the booking process.
Whereas what we found when we created Unleashed back in the day was that we packaged everything up. So it was a simple one click type of cruise booking. So flights, transfers, accommodation, meals, experience was all wrapped up and people were happy to pay a premium for that as well. And that's why. It just became a rite of passage in certain parts of in Australia to do that.
And I think the US is very similar, but a few more hurdles because in the D in the DNA in Australia and New Zealand, we used to fly into Fiji three hours, four hours. But the US you've just got this other education piece.
It's interesting 'cause even from a US perspective, when you talk to US travel suppliers, they love the Australian market because you typically are spending.
20 days, I think on average here in the States, that particular market. And so doing a seventh Night Free, for example, at a hotel is very lucrative for them. They can offer a longer discount because once they're here, they're a guaranteed booking. I'm, I'm curious if you see like one you're trying to get Americans to come out to Fiji, for example.
Have you taken any information from your particular sort of Gen Z college markets and do you see similarities in how Americans would travel during the same time, or is it completely different and you guys have from, from scratch?
Uh, there's definitely some, uh, similar, uh, similarities. We don't really have a spring break, massive movement of travel down this part of the world versus America.
North and other pa that kind of comes down to our schooling as well, so, which is a kind of light bulb moment for us. So we have, instead of two semesters, which you guys have and a big break in the middle of the year, we have more breaks throughout the year. So we have four terms of 12 weeks and then two week breaks.
So I think it's great in some ways because you're spreading a load of, uh, peak travel across four periods instead of two. So yeah, you have people going away at Easter. There's a two week window there. You have a two week window in July and a two week window in September, October, and then you have the six week over Christmas or our summer, which is like your summer break.
So yeah, it spreads the load. But then from a creating a spring break movement. So it takes a lot more from this side of things, but what I'm also seeing is a lot of influence happening from sport entertainment. Coming down to this part of the world, so NBA sport college, sport, N-B-A-N-F-L, like they're all coming down to this part of the world and one, it's attracting talent and it's attracting fans to travel long distances.
As you said, Australians will fly to North America and they'll do an NBA game in LA and they'll might go to a, a football game, a college, and then something else. So they're buying. 15 days worth of travel, plus tickets, plus accommodations. So the spins through the roof and again, working. One of my mentors is in that space and just there's this massive acceleration curve of sport travel, and that probably comes back to Netflix.
I was having a great conversation with him as Netflix is being this incredible free marketing advertising, like the drive to survive, and typically the main purchase has been. The man on the couch, but actually the wife is sitting down and watching and going, oh, that, that trip in Monaco looks pretty good.
You're gonna watch the road. Well, let's go. So I think some of these documentaries on Netflix is really, uh, driving travel. Yeah. Inspiration as well.
There are quite a few themes of this happening and you know, the F1 with the film coming out, but also mm-hmm the, there's a definite, there's a definite correlation between.
The F1 series on Netflix and increased attendance at each one of the races and just overall awareness. 'cause it wasn't really an American sport, right? It's a global sport, but now you've got so many people bought into it. Now everyone who wants to get to Las Vegas or they wanna get to Mexico City or, or one of these venues to actually experience a race because it is an experience.
I haven't been yet myself, but it's gonna, it's going to happen very soon. And so I think you're right. There's all this media. Emphasis that really promote the destinations around the sports that are there. Sports are such a driver of travel in general, and so are there any upcoming things that you can think of that would drive Americans to get to your destinations?
Yeah. Obviously 2028 is the Olympics in la, but that's obviously gonna fuel this huge drive in 2032, which is Brisbane the Olympics. So. We know that's just a global movement of travel. Yeah. Obviously we've had, I wouldn't say, I would say niche sports to the globe, but huge number one sports down here, like Rugby World Cup.
Actually, the soccer World Cup happened down here last year. So yeah, we're starting to attract these really big sports and the biggest of them all with the Olympics. So think 2032. This next four years, you can see this massive influx of teams coming down here. The Rams are coming down, I don't know, next year.
There's just gonna be this lovely cross pollination of inspiring people to travel that way. And then people inspired to come down here, cruise lines, deploying more cruise lines down here, doing that sort of stuff. And that's something that really niches, thematic cruises that happened massively in North America is doing that down here we ran a, an entrepreneur's cruise where crews at Sea learn connect, uh, with Virgin Voyages, which was a great partnership.
But yeah, just sing. Much more diverse products happening down here and these big events that are attracting large. Large crowds,
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Tick stock.com where tickets move smarter. I think as Americas, we forget about. The South Pacific has a market to develop as well, whether it's LA Rams going there or Diplo going to Antarctica. Ha. Have you found it tougher to maybe book talent or to attract these type of either sports properties or entertainment properties to, to do those things there or, 'cause it's gotta be a bit of a sales pitch from your perspective to say, Hey, have you considered this?
We have the venues and the capacity and the flights. Is that something that you work on?
Yeah, I definitely think there's much respect to the big players in the game of huge festivals like the Coachellas, the Live Nation tours and everything like that. It's just not a place I'm interested in in regards to.
That's, that's a big fish to, to fry. So what we've always been able to double click on is like, how do we work with an artist and their team and collaborate and build something together? Unfortunately, when we're down this part of the world, we have to collaborate because we go to war as anzacs, right?
It's like on the battlefield. So like, how do we collaborate and win things together? So we sit down with talent and we're like, okay, how do we build something that you're excited about? Your content team is excited about, but more importantly, how do we really look after your super fans? So that's where we navigate sort of talent.
And then there's some talent out there that they're on that trajectory and that window that it's like we need to pay more bigger shows and that's where we make the money. 'cause we are never gonna be able to match the same fee as paying, playing in front of 40,000 people. Yeah. So that's very about co-develop.
Working with a couple of bands and artists right now is let's develop a travel product with you or you. Around you and build a longevity plan to it. Yeah. With the Jimmy Buffet went to Antarctic kill, it's how do you do those things that have longevity past potentially just the prime time of playing on stages in front of hundreds of thousands of people?
We talk about this a lot because with artists and promoters, managers doing the traditional tours are one very expensive to do. They're very taxing. You're traveling the entire time. That's why the onset of residency have made a lot of sense in Las Vegas, but also doing exactly what you're talking about is creating a travel product.
So whether it's, it's a combination, a vacation, and a performance, and you get to really connect with your superfan. I think you're right with companies like Vibey and there's a few other like groove crews and others that are like, they find the artist and they curate these type of packages to get them really excited and they plan these things out, right?
Like on a quarterly basis or to try to figure out, so it sounds like you, you're involved in trying to do the same thing, whether it's finding the right talent and matching them up with the destination to create this destination festival. Yeah. A hundred.
Building it into an annualized experience. So instead of just committing to one show or one event, one experience, it's like, how do we build a pipeline of five years and, and multiple destinations and move, move it round like a tour, but over five years, it's very intimate.
It's most of the time it's shoulder tapping in regards to inviting people to the event or the experience. And then it's also finding. And coming talent as well, which we are really excited about. So it's like, okay, you've just broken through. And again, it comes back to my first commenters instead of the influencer.
It's the people of influence that you've got these super fans that are traveling across state or just following that person or that band. That's enough for us. We don't want a hundred thousand people. We don't want 10,000 people. We want 180 people to pay $7,000 a ticket. And have that intimate experience.
So yeah, that sounds like a deal. But there's a, there's a massive market out there in regards, like we know, right? You brought up the whole Taylor Swift movement is that it was cheaper to fly from Australia, sometimes up to Toronto to go to a show or Paris or something like that. People just, especially Gen Zs, it's like experiences over things.
It's like they're happy to jump on a plane and go and experience a moment with their friends. Um, so group travel, it's where I've always. Played and got me excited. 'cause there's no better thing than traveling with your mates and a group and meeting new groups. 'cause tell them what they want. Travel and experience.
Give them what they need, which is friendship, belonging, community. Yeah. They do things again together.
You, you hit the nail on the head there with the community piece. That seems to be a common theme when I, I do these super fan, fan travel stories, podcasts, where. They're just, they just wanna be in the building, be able to sing the same songs, wear the same t-shirt exchange, friendship bracelets, things like that.
It got to a point where I think some of these entertainment companies are just looking at the dollar and they're not developing the community. And so I think like these bespoke trips, these travel experiences really encouraged that and also add to the longevity of that artist or that program, that sport.
I'm just curious, like what do you think is the, the next wave for you in terms of the type of content that you would like to provide? Because there's obviously, we talked about sports briefly and we talked about different, different artists that you work with, but what do you think is the next trend for travel to Fiji, for example?
(01:25):
Yeah. Uh, we can double click on community, right? So community is. Everything for me, it's whether I'm part of a mastermind community and travel to the US and there's something down this part of the world called tool poppy syndrome. One poppy grows tooler than the other. It's quickly shop down. So to be able to yeah, travel to North America and connect with great people like you and community and uh, open source in regards to co-creation is amazing and that kind of.
Flows through into events and experiences. So whether it was unleashed back in the day, it was, yeah, we created a travel and event, but actually we created a community and some of those people are still working for that company 14 years on, which just can't pay for in regards to creating that type of community.
I think the blending of multiple components into an experience like just going to music festival or just going to a sports event. People are gonna seek more. So when I'm going to that sports event, I'm happy to pay more to have, what is it called? The party in the car park. I also wanna meet people that have been super fans and have a dinner with them, and I'm happy to pay three and a half thousand dollars for that experience because it's intimate.
So I think there's gonna be this sort of shakedown in regards to the intimacy of events and experiences that people were willing to pay a premium for. There's always gonna be the mass, but then there's gonna be all these splinters that happen in regards to like, no, I want to dive deeper onto that. And there's all these niches that are exploding.
Yeah. We see how many people that travel for ComicCon around the world, the amount of people that are running a marathon on seven continents and paying $40,000. Space is the next frontier, which I know people in that space, it's like there's no better time to be in travel events and experiences and ticketing with this explosion of baby doomers.
Our parents-in-law just came back after a huge six week trip. They're about investing in moments and experiences with themselves, their friends and their families. And then Gen Zs are like, I'm not gonna be able to afford a house. I'm gonna live an amazing, awesome experience. With my mates and maybe we'll buy a house together.
So I just think we're in a really exciting time.
One thing I wanted to to understand is, because there's just lack of knowledge about Fiji in particular, what's the perfect experience? What artists, what, you know, what type of venue? How would you build something that would attract the US audience? I, yeah.
So I'm
actually working on a couple of projects in different genres. Now. Yeah. One in the sport, the sports fair and a niche sport that is, uh, growing pretty quickly in, in North America. I don't wanna give too much away 'cause nothing's been signed, but there's this movement of these new sports that are growing and it's pickle ball, pickle ball, pedal ball, padel, there's so many of them popping up because it's become more accessible.
I'm a father, I have five, five beautiful kids. Do I really want them to go into contact sport or rugby? 'cause there's so many injuries, head con, concussions, these people are bigger, stronger, faster. But so all these other sports that are maybe not as technical or like tennis, I played tennis, serving you take that out of it makes it way more accessible.
So being able to take tournaments to paradise is a big shift for me. So Fiji bringing the tournament and experience there. Where, so Spartan happened there last year and they had 3000 participants from 23 countries coming in, doing a challenge. We know Hydrox is a net massive movement. People travel for Hydrox.
So that is one thing that, uh, we're pulling Coke, nothing. There's no better country on planet Earth, I don't believe that can do and showcase happiness, culture and the, and like you walk into a village in Fiji. You're greeted there, there's an energy about the place, whether you're spiritual or not. It's like there's an energy when you get off the plane and you're just like, God damn, these people are happy.
So sport is one thread. And then from Unbound in the experience, like with my five kids, how are they gonna celebrate the end of school? They're gonna travel with their friends, they're gonna learn things outside the classroom and they're gonna experience culture 'cause it's gonna give them this worldly perspective that I feel like with the.
With AI and everything like that, perspectives is everything. You have a greater perspective, and that's what travel and tickets to travel really give you is like whenever you get off a plane, how often are we ever looking down at our screen? We're always get off and we're inspired by what's in front of us.
So that's what travel can do for us. So yes, the Unbound experience is a reimagined Spring break University experience where. People can come together, they can navigate transition. Right now, there's so much uncertainty around transitioning out of high school to college or career to entrepreneur, and so I, I'm big in that space and we've run a lot of business events and experiences.
You bring, you create a container, you bring people into a container and environment and a safe one. Just see what magic happens and that that's what happened at Antarctica. Last year with 153 entrepreneurs, leaders coming down there and yeah, the conversations that happened and a $50 million impact fund was created over someone having a cup of coffee on the back of the boat.
So yeah, again, I come back to this travel community experiences. It's where magic really happens.
Yeah. It's cultural for you guys there. Because I didn't travel up until I had worked at Expedia and I was probably, I was already. Maybe 26, 27 years old, and I decided to take a break and I cashed out some stock.
Very unwise thing to do, but like I did it because I wanted to travel. So I took a break and I traveled through Europe for three months and throughout North America for another month. And then I said, you know what? I'm gonna figure my life out when I get back. But I learned this about people in Australia, New Zealand and such because as I'd go to, I had some very good friends, obviously being in the online travel world where I got comps in different cities, and when I didn't have a comp Steve, I would stay at a hostel.
And that's where I would connect with Australians in New Zealand and they were kids. Here I am 27 years old. I've been done a lot of stuff in the States, but here are these guys who are like 17, 18 young kids traveling and maybe there's probably, there're probably groups of like three or four guys or three or four girls just traveling throughout, uh, Europe and no plan.
(01:46):
They're just, they're just doing their own thing. And every day it was like, what are you doing today? We're gonna go with you or not. And I think that's really the magical thing about the culture there is that one, you allow your kids to do that, um, right when they get out, what we would call high school here to go out and do that before they get to college and really handle a little bit more responsibility.
But how does that culture get ingrained in all of you? Is it something that you lived or. Was just generational because I think it's a different thought for people here in the US to let their kids go and do that
for once. Yeah, I, this question comes up quite a bit, and I suppose I'm fortunate that yes, we've got this Pacific Power ice.
I've grown up in the Cook Islands, which is a magical place. I've done a lot of work and business and impact in Fiji. I'm a Kiwi, but I'm married to an Australian, so I really do have this. Melting pot of influence and culture around me. And the question comes up of even the differences between New Zealand and Australia is America, Canada?
Yeah. Put it down to the end of the day, we're part of the Commonwealth and so we were colonized from the uk. If I want to go all the way back, so there's always the seek of like. People going, okay, we were colonized, so we want to go and travel and see the world and go exploring. And it's just whether it was the gap year or opportunities abroad, like definitely like from a business point of view, there's only 4 million people in New Zealand.
So if we are looking at global, there's companies like Rocket Lab or Xero or a bids and experiences. You've gotta go, you've gotta go traveling. Explore and grow, but the culture is definitely a big thing, right? We have such a diverse culture. New Zealand, rich and Australia with all the islands are so close.
So we literally have six or seven different nationalities that are landing on our doorstep and being part of our economy and shifting at a moving, and that comes down to sports events, experiences. It's really woven and I'm super grateful and privileged that New Zealand has this like deep. Lineage back to Maori culture and like my kids even learn it still at school.
And it's like this connection part to the past is super powerful. And then Australia's got obviously, yeah, the Aboriginal culture and going all the way back. So we're really lucky. And sometimes you've gotta go traveling to feel like how lucky you are to when you go back home.
And so I was thinking about as we were talking through the kids again, or the college trips.
And we're talking about trends. One of the trends that keep coming up is sober spring break and wellness, spring break. Is this something that you have also noticed in your markets and is this something you're developing?
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Gabe Past company, uh, with Unleashed, it's like the 10 years old.
I was involved from startup through to exit was. You saw these trends? It was at the start it was like, okay, how many, like we had to control drinking and we did that from a wristband and whatever, and then it moved to, okay, people are talking about other things that they do back home, obviously. And then the last two years that I was there, it was like mental health.
We, we saw people, we always obviously. Medical disclaimers is, wow, anxiety, depression is really on the rise. And we really had to cater around how that looks like. 'cause if you mix antidepressants, alcohol, it's not good. And then, yeah, in the last two, three years, it's like the amount of people that are like, I do not wanna wake up with a hangover.
We want to go and do a hike. So yes, massive shift. Like I'm talking 20 to 30% of total travelers and looking at alternative experiences and. We are building for that. So yeah, yoga, hydroxy, hydro's one of the fastest growing sports, right? And the participation level of young people at 16 all the way through to 80.
So there's a massive movement. So I think that whole wellness, I used to be in the wellness space, past chapter, is that, yeah, longevity, wellness, travel to reset, recover, reimagine. It is everything. And that's, yeah. We built something in Fiji this October, which is called. Reimagine for exact that reason where it's like, it's the first business retreat for families and 'cause we've noticed, it's like families always have to make a choice.
Sometimes it's like, okay, dad's on the road, lots mom's on the road, lots who's staying behind to look after kids. And we're like, imagine if we created a fully inclusive experience where we actually bring in these amazing facilitators to which we call future citizen to help. It's like a education outside the classroom.
Fun play creativity, like with the kids that come and then the adults get to learn about business connect and all that sort of stuff. So we've wrapped this up in this experience in Fiji because then you don't have to make the choice. It's investors family. 'cause we know there's personal development.
There's business development. But what's most important right now is family development. And there's, we just read an article yesterday. The Wall Street Journal. Next mega trend in travel is family, multi-generational trips and there's one in New Zealand for $80,000 for a week, and it's sold out for the next two and a half years.
So yeah, it's really interesting. I'm excited. And the people like yourself that's connecting the dots in the travel industry and opening up these ideas. 'cause never, as I said, I'm a collaborator. It's like more people diving into this family stuff and events, experiences, and moments is. Gonna help this next generation.
How do we be best stewards on planet earth to help shift this next generation?
I'm all for it, man. And I, I think that's a good place to, to, to stop our conversation because you've covered so much in terms of being opened up to new cultures, breaking into student group travel into the US to talking about sports and entertainment as a driver of travel.
(02:07):
And of course now. Family and business being merged, uh, because of travel, uh, and influence. So thank you for your time. I know that you're gonna come back and we're gonna talk more about different things, but I really appreciate you coming on the pod.
No worries. Love, love your work and what you're doing and shining a light on tickets and travel.
Awesome. Thank you. What an inspirational ride with Steve Perry, founder, operator, and all around trailblazer. Redefining what it means to travel with purpose from staging unforgettable experiences like Diplo in Antarctica to pioneering Gen Z spring breaks in Fiji. To now crafting Wellness forward multi-generational family retreats.
Steve is building a new model for meaningful travel in the South Pacific. He doesn't just sell trips, he curates communities, connects cultures, and creates once in a lifetime moments that change the way people see the world and themselves. If you're in ticketing travel or tourism and you're not watching what Steve's doing, you're already behind.
Follow Steve's journey and learn more about his work by connecting with him on LinkedIn. And for more episodes that explore the future of travel and experiences, follow us at Tick two Travel pod and visit ttt pod.com. And remember, every ticket is a ticket to travel. Save travels. Scrolling is listening.
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