August 14, 2025 • 46 mins
Imagine exploring Rome with an archaeologist who's unearthed its ancient secrets, wandering Tokyo with an architect shaping its skyline, or navigating Barcelona's vibrant markets with a culinary expert who knows every vendor by name. This is the transformative experience Context Travel has been perfecting for over two decades.
In this conversation with CEO June Chin-Ramsey, we discuss how Context Travel is redefining guided tours through its unwavering commitment to expert-led experiences. Unlike traditional tour companies that rely on guides reciting memorized scripts, Context exclusively collaborates with academics and professionals holding advanced degrees. These experts bring depth and authenticity to every tour, making complex topics not only accessible but also deeply engaging. As June explains, "They actually make the most exceptional guides because they're able to take fascinating, complex concepts and make them simple, digestible, and entirely relatable."
The company’s journey began in Rome as a rebellion against the cookie-cutter approach of mass tourism - those all-too-familiar scenes of large groups trailing behind flag-waving guides at overcrowded landmarks. Instead, Context pioneered intimate, small-group walking tours where personalization and meaningful connections take center stage. This philosophy has fueled their growth to nearly 70 cities across six continents, from iconic cultural hubs like Paris and London to dynamic, emerging destinations like Mexico City and Seoul.
Whether you're a history buff, an art lover, or a curious traveler, Context Travel offers more than just a tour - it’s an invitation to see the world through the eyes of an expert. We hope you enjoy this spotlight episode.
The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds.
https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Because they are expert-led tours, we are able to
tailor them to the interest ofwhoever is standing in front
right, like whether that's an8-year-old child or an
80-year-old Nona with aninsatiable curiosity about.
You know, this is my first timein Croatia and I'm going back
home to Sicily for the 10th timewe're able to kind of satiate
(00:26):
their curiosity.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hello everyone and welcome to a special spotlight
episode of Travel Trends.
This is your host, DanChristian, and in today's
episode, we're going to bespeaking to the CEO of Context
Travel, jun Chin.
Now, context Travel is acompany, as you'll hear from Jun
, has been around for over 20years.
It was started in Rome and thewhole concept was around
(00:50):
providing travelers with eithermaster's degree or PhD guides
and giving small groups and alsoprivate tours.
I had the privilege of doing onein Barcelona recently after the
Focusrite conference, and itwas extraordinary.
Brendan gave me a tour of themarkets.
I'm a huge fan of markets andhe actually took me to a number
of the markets.
I'm a huge fan of markets andhe actually took me to a number
of local markets.
He knew the people, they knewhim.
I had the most amazing time.
(01:11):
It was a one-on-one tour.
I've not done that before.
I will definitely be doing itagain and I'll definitely be
booking through Context Travel.
I have quite a few friends andcolleagues that have traveled
with Context Travel over theyears and loved it, so it was a
real delight to finally sit downwith June Chin learn more about
Context Travel.
If you're interested in more ofour spotlight episodes.
Be sure to check outTravelTrendscom slash spotlights
(01:33):
.
Now let's bring June into theconversation.
June, it's fantastic to haveyou on Travel Trends.
Welcome and thanks for joiningus.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Thanks, dan, super excited to be here.
Travel Trends is an awesomepodcast.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Thank you so much.
That means a lot, especiallycoming from you, because, as
I've gotten to know you, I meanI was always a big fan of
Context Travel, but you'veactually come in to lead this
brand.
So actually tell everyone, ifyou wouldn't mind, just a bit of
your background in tourism andhow you came to be the CEO of
Context Travel.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Sure, definitely not your cookie cutter background,
but I was actually in emergingmarkets investments before
context, and I was traveling theworld, uh, spending a lot of
time over in Asia and Europe andSouth America, and I was not
doing it the way I wanted to doit.
And, you know, I saw a uh acontext.
Um, I got, I wanted to getgetting in house and, uh, I saw
(02:21):
a context, ad, uh, love travelknew there had to be a better
way to do it.
I had experienced the productin New York and so I reached out
and you know, kind of the restis history In 2020, when
everybody was kind of runningaway from it, I stepped up.
You know, I stepped up evenmore and took over as a CEO and
it's been phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
That's fantastic, and the reason I wanted to ask that
is that this is where it's veryinteresting when you see people
that have either come up in theindustry, that are innovators
and that you know have learnedthe craft, and other people that
actually come into thisindustry that have disrupted
other sectors, and that's whatstood out to me from your
(02:59):
background and in getting timewith you, it's just like you've
been able to very quickly getyour hands around this role and
be able to grow and scale thisbusiness, which is all the
things I want to get intobecause it's such a fascinating
company and background.
But yeah, so let's let all ourlisteners in.
For those people who are notfamiliar with Context Travel,
give us a bit of the backgroundabout how this company was
created and a bit of an overviewof what you guys do.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Sure thanks.
So our founders, Paul andLonnie Bennett they were an
expat couple living in Rome inthe early 2000s and Lonnie
Bennett, they were an expatcouple living in Rome in the
early 2000s, and you know, theywere just tired, dan, of seeing
all of these 50 person tourgroups hopping on and off the
buses, trampling the culturaland heritage sites of this
beautiful city, and they saidthere had to be a better way.
(03:38):
And so they founded ContextTravel, almost almost as a
protest against mass tourismSmall, very small group walking
tours led by a local expert.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Very interesting and then tell us where it started
and I guess where I guess thecore business was.
Because one of the things I'mintrigued about context travel
is you organize excursions withexperts, you know, like the
professors, and this is the sortof thing that like even the
whole idea of context.
I mean I'm a history buff, solike the professors and and this
is the sort of thing that likeand even the whole idea of
context.
I mean I'm a history buff, solike the idea of context is
(04:08):
everything in many ways of likeyou know, you don't go visit an
art gallery.
It's like someone needs to giveyou the context, um, to really
appreciate it.
So I've always loved thebranding.
But yeah, tell us how thatrelated to the types of
experiences you've offered andand where it all really kind of
got started yeah, sure and sure,and so it got started in Rome,
as I mentioned.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And I think the biggest thing as you called it
right out that sets us apartfrom any other company is that
we have experts, not guides,right?
So what do I mean by that?
You won't be taken around by acollege kid that's memorized a
script.
Our experts, they're carefullyselected for their knowledge and
(04:48):
their unique ability to framethat knowledge in the context of
people, place, history andculture.
And I'll be honest, you know,sometimes people hear, oh, an
expert-led walking tour, andthey've never been on that and
you're a history buff.
So I think you get it right.
But sometimes I get well, oh,most of you.
What do you mean by experts?
Most of your guides havemasters and PhDs.
(05:10):
That's that sounds scary, thatsounds a little bit not fun or
intimidating, and it's quite theopposite.
They actually make the mostexceptional guides because
they're able to take thesereally fascinating, complex
concepts and just make it simple, digestible, entirely relatable
.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Well, it's interesting because certainly it
is the case that most travelersare looking for the insider
perspective.
They're looking for the expertadvice from locals and, as you
just described that, actuallysomeone with a deep degree of
expertise.
It's actually what most peopleare trying to make sure that
they're going to get on theirnext holiday because they want
to make the most of their time,their precious time that they
(05:48):
have for their vacation, to makesure that they have the best
possible experience.
And so you know, you do havecompanies that highlight that
they're expert guides, but, toyour point, what level of
expertise you know if they'vebeen there for many years or
they have local knowledge.
But this is where I was reallyintrigued with how this company
got started and how importantthat has been to create a
(06:09):
differentiator in themarketplace.
So tell us a little bit moreabout that, because I think
that's obviously, you know, socritical for any business to
succeed in scale is, you know,having a differentiator.
That's not necessarily priceand the experience someone's
going to have with contexttravel they're not going to get
elsewhere.
So tell us a little bit about,I guess, what that means in
terms of the actual experience.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
On, sure thing.
So you know, I mentioned thatwe were very small groups before
, right, and it was almoststarted as a protest against
mass tourism.
But the other thing is our, acore value of ours is is
learning, right, and so we.
The other premise is liketravel is the ultimate form of
education and one that's likebest served with a heaping side
of memorable conversation, right?
(06:51):
So you know, imagine going to.
You know, imagine going to notPompeii, but Ostia Antica with
an archaeologist that's actuallydug and excavated history there
.
Or imagine walking around.
You know, my family and I justwalked around last summer, tokyo
, with a practicing architectthat's developing the city, and
you know he took us into a homethat he had actually helped
(07:18):
build for this famous architectand it had this amazing pre and
post-war structures.
It was absolutely justphenomenal.
And so you talk about locals,you talk about this move towards
kind of authentic localexperiences and we give that
it's like having, if you thinkabout then traveling to a city
where you have a best friend,that best friend knows all the
(07:39):
bars, they know all therestaurants to go to, they know
the hole-in-the-wall places thatwill just make you feel truly
special.
But now layer on top of that,the most knowledgeable, best
friend, right that will be ableto kind of put everything in
context for you.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
That's certainly how I came to know Context Travel
and while I was so keen to speakto you when we got a chance to
meet at dinner, I was just likeI'm such a fan of the brand and
I'm really intrigued by thebusiness and obviously getting
your insider perspective on howthe company has evolved and
(08:14):
changed.
You know ownership and youroverall strategic expansion
plans, because the companycertainly obviously has a great
expertise in walking tours,which you know.
There's obviously the privatewalking tours, there's museums
you can have like food, wine andmarket tours.
I'm a huge fan of markets, sothat's massively appeals to me.
But you also do audio guidesand that's just something that I
(08:36):
also.
So tell us a little bit about.
I know you kindly mentionedthat the business kind of got
started in Italy, but you reallyare global now and the number
of tours that you offer.
So tell us a little bit aboutthe I guess the expansion Was it
focus on.
Let's expand the walking toursglobally.
Where did the audio guides comein?
And, I guess, what is thebreakdown of the business today?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Sure, so we are global.
I think the number keepschanging, but I believe we're
somewhere close to 70 citiesaround the world, six different
continents, been to five of themso far, and you know in terms
of how.
So, from Italy, you know, we arein all of the major cultural
(09:16):
capitals that you would expectin Europe Rome, paris, london,
barcelona, amsterdam but youknow, as we, one of the, besides
learning, another big value ofours is connection, and human
connection, right.
And so I think what sets usapart is we establish that
connection not just on theground with the clients and the
(09:39):
experts, but between context,the company and the clients,
right.
And so, as we got to know ourtravelers, our guests, as we got
to know where they were going,what they, what their interests
were, how they like to travel,we expanded with them.
Some of them still tell us wehaven't, we're not expanding
fast enough.
We're from South America toAsia, we're far beyond just kind
(10:13):
of the cultural capitals ofEurope at this point.
And then, during your questionabout digital and audio guides,
we are the idea behind that.
Actually, you know, crisis isthe mother of all innovation and
during the pandemic.
That's kind of when that conceptwas first birthed and it
(10:34):
actually started because we knewthat there was a problem
between both for our customersthat were lacking the ability to
travel they're sitting at homeand our experts that were all
around the globe trying tofigure out how they were going
to make a living.
And so what we did was weconnected them online, not like
trying to walk around a barrencity, you know, with a webcam,
but we just connected themonline as people and that kind
(10:54):
of forged this relationship fromtheir digital content kind of
surface and it just kind ofcreated this lasting stickiness.
I'll pause there and see.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
No, I'm glad you mentioned that because it's one
of the things that you know.
This show obviously was anoutcome of the pandemic itself
to try to understand travelerbehavior post pandemic and what
changed.
And certainly one of the thingsI was working on during the
pandemic was virtual tours withAmazon and you know, obviously
Airbnb moved in that direction.
So I'm glad I asked thisbecause I was genuinely curious
and didn't know that that wasthe case.
(11:23):
But that makes total sense.
But the thing I'm keen to knowfrom your perspective because a
number of companies decided toshut down some of those programs
, like Airbnb to Amazon movedaway from it with doing some of
these virtual tours and Iactually thought there was
something quite meaningful andexciting there.
And I genuinely love audioguides.
I like the idea of being ableto choose a guide, but if you
don't have the right time andavailability, I like the idea of
(11:44):
being able to choose a guide,but if you don't have the the
right time and availability, Ilove the idea of being able to
freedom and independence, to beable to go at your own pace, and
so, um, I liked it before.
I still, I still love this idea.
Now.
I've done a number of differentaudio guided tours and I I
really enjoy it so.
So how have you seen that now,in 2025, with how important that
is to your business?
Is it important to get peopleto consider context?
(12:05):
Is it a great feederopportunity to get people to
take the walking tours?
How have you balanced that?
Because, again, some peoplehave moved away from it.
It seems like you guys are.
You've built up a strengththere.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
So how do you see?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
that playing into your strategy.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It's definitely a way for us to engage and continue
in a natural conversation yearround and be relevant year round
to our customers, right?
Because how many times are mostpeople doing long haul
international travel?
Once, maybe twice a year?
Some of our brand you know,brand advocates are traveling 10
times, but not for most people.
And so I think it does twothings.
(12:41):
For me, inclusivity has alwaysbeen very important, as well as
business, and it democratizesaccess to our experts, right?
And the other thing, too, ismost of our travelers are FIT
travelers, free, independenttravelers.
They kind of want to do theirown planning.
They might want to go with anart historian to a museum one
day, they might want to do amarket tour with a culinary
(13:02):
expert another day.
But when they first land on theground, we always say you
should never do an in-personexperience.
You don't know what yourflight's like, you don't know
how jet lag you're going to be,you don't know how you're going
to feel.
So we recommend the audio guidecontent for that first day.
They just checked into thehotel and maybe their room isn't
ready yet and they're walkingaround and you plug in an audio
guide for an hour and get yourintro to the city, get your lay
(13:23):
of the land and it's fantastic.
And then they go meet ouractual in-person guides later in
the week and they have thatcontext already, so it just
enriches the experience.
The other thing we have ispre-trip talks.
So internally we say like talksand walks right, and so the
talks are great as something towatch before they arrive in city
(13:45):
.
And we work also besidesdirect-to-consumer.
We work with a lot of travelagencies and this allows the
travel agents to be specialistsfor all the destinations that
Context is in, because they'rewhat we found.
We didn't even intend it to befor them, we intended it to be
for the customers traveling, butthey're finding that this
content is helping them tobecome an expert and service
(14:08):
their clients even better, andso it's interesting how that's
kind of evolved as well.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, for sure.
And the other thing I was keento know, given the fact that
what my understanding is, mostof the tours are English
language is clearly with audio,there's an opportunity to very
easily translate.
But when it comes to your coremarkets I mean we talked about
the business starting in RomeYou're obviously based in New
York City.
The US is clearly a massiveoutbound travel market, or even
(14:36):
domestic for that matter.
But yeah, where would be sortof the, I guess, the big markets
for context travel?
Where are you seeing thatgrowth in terms of the source
markets, Because clearly you'reopening up new destinations all
the time?
Speaker 1 (14:47):
yeah, we are.
We are still heavily on northamerican outbound, lots of
americans and canadians.
We do have quite a lot of um orgrowing base out of mexico and
brazil as well.
I'd say um and interestingly,as we've been partnering with
more of the luxury traveladvisors, do like consortia,
like Virtuoso Signature, it'stapping into other travel
(15:08):
corridors like UK outbound, evenAustralia outbound, etc.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Got it Okay, that's good.
A helpful context, because Iwould assume that some of those
luxury travelers like that fitinto your.
I mean, when I've not had theprivilege of doing a context
travel, I will make that.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Oh my gosh, Dan.
You told me that last time whenI said we're going to get you
on a tour, yeah.
You have to, we have to stopthat.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Definitely, it's my commitment to you for making the
time for this conversation.
I will absolutely, on my nexttrip, do a context travel
experience.
I guess that's where what I waslooking, though, and just doing
research in advance of our call.
Some of looking, though, andjust doing research in advance
(15:51):
of our call.
Some of the prices are veryreasonable, um, uh, for these,
uh, and so in terms of, but Iwould assume that you actually
would have, uh, private toursand, and certainly many affluent
travelers.
You know, obviously there's adirect correlation between those
people that are highly educatedand tend to travel and also
have higher incomes andtherefore can, can, can spend
more on travel.
So, when you think about thatcustomer that you're marketing
to, I guess, is luxury andaffluent travelers a major
market for you, or is it justone of many markets that you are
(16:14):
able to realize, because thisactually has broader mass appeal
?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, I would say our core regional base definitely
skewed, affluent, highlyeducated, kind of customer based
demographic.
I think it does have much widerappeal.
You know I have had friends sayoh well, you know, I don't know
if that's true, I'm a lawyer,I'm a banker and I don't know if
(16:42):
that's me and actually a lot,lots of our customers are folks
that aren't, they haven't donethe humanities track and they
miss that aspect of their livesand they kind of want to
understand a place deeper.
So we do try and have we haveprivate tours, we have
semi-private tours and then wehave a small group options as
well, and so, as well as thedigital content, so we are
(17:04):
trying to make sure that we haveentry level products for
someone that maybe is just kindof dipping their toe into.
You know what is this exactlyPeople are talking about these
kind of expert led experiences.
I don't want to miss out, butI'm not sure if I'm ready to
kind of pay the price for aprivate tour.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
So let me hop on a small group, let me try and one
of audio guides and it's kind ofgiving them access to the brand
and then they get a taste of itand they want to kind of take
that next step.
And we certainly all saw thispost-pandemic and actually
Douglas Quimby had highlightedjust at ITB recently a graphic
of the number of people thattraveled private In 2018, it was
about 17%.
In 2024, it was 47% um hadtaken a private tour, right?
(17:58):
So it's just like so clearlyyou guys are in that sweet spot
as well that like it makes totalsense.
People have realized that, waita second, I can actually just
book a private guide and have myown exclusive tour.
So, like you have that optionand that's why I say even the
cost of those is um accessible.
But then, for sure, when I seesome of the price points of
being able to join a group tour,um, because my perception of
(18:18):
context travel was that it was,you know it is premium and
clearly that is the theexperience, but it's great that
it's accessible because I thinkyou know you only have students,
you're going to have peoplethat that just just want that
level of expertise and content.
So so where are, in terms ofactually building out the
product, given that you do havesuch a, I guess, a wide
selection of options?
(18:40):
Where are you seeing the mostinterest in growth, and are
there specific areas that you'realready looking at going into
2026 that you're looking to, youknow, add new experiences to
the collection.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Sure.
So I mean geographically, weare seeing tremendous growth to
Japan, right To Japan, and youknow, I'd say even Asia more
broadly we're currentlydeveloping Seoul, korea.
I think that people, you know,maybe they weren't quite ready
to do that in 2022, 2023, but2024, 2025, it's happening in
(19:17):
droves.
And I think what's happening isthere are onsites or DMCs on
the ground in Japan that havekind of local guides, but they
don't really know how to appealto a North American audience
base and kind of how do you havethat expertise and the
knowledge but how do you alsobring that alive?
And that's where Context hasbeen able to fill, I think, a
(19:38):
really big gaping hole, and sowe're seeing phenomenal growth
there In terms of the types ofother types of experiences.
I personally have a 13-year-oldnow.
She was seven or eight when Istarted at Context and she's 13
now, and so I've been, myselfand the team, we've been really
excited to further grow ourfamily portfolio for tweens and
(20:00):
teens.
It's kind of at that age wherethey're starting to love this a
lot more than their parents.
And you know, I'm holding upaudio.
It's audio only, but I'mholding up my smart, my iPhone,
and so kind of building out.
The family portfolio is huge.
We're seeing a lot ofmulti-generational travel,
heritage travel, people thatwant to take, you know, their
(20:22):
kids, their grandkids, toCentral Europe and see the
places where you know theirpoppy lived before they
immigrated to the US.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Those are all great trends for sure.
I'm glad you pointed a few ofthose out, especially
multi-generational travel.
Being a big driver, withgrandparents paying for not only
their kids but their grandkids,partly because they can and
obviously they want that timetogether, so that's been an
interesting development.
And that heritage travel it'sinteresting that that has almost
, you know, has resurfaced inimportance and popularity, with
(20:52):
people trying to trace theirroots and especially with Europe
, and I guess the one thingalong those lines as we, you
know, sit here together, aCanadian and American in 2025,
we obviously know there'svarious geopolitical challenges
around the world.
The one thing that has reallystood out to me, having just
been in Europe for a couple ofweeks, is that Europe was, for
(21:12):
many of us, it is a central hubfor tourism, and I would say
that from my perspective I'mkeen to get your take here is
that actually, given everythingthat's going on in the world
today, europe is becoming thatmuch more prominent and
(21:32):
important again that people wantto travel to Europe, and
there's always been greatreasons to travel Europe, but it
seems like it's, from what I'mseeing and hearing, even having
more of a renaissance this year,despite the fact that some
people will say, oh, italy isovercrowded and you know some of
those destinations areoverheated in the summertime and
people sure have flocked toNorthern Europe or to Asia, but
Europe is such a um, anincredible destination for this
style of travel.
So I guess, yeah, I'd love toknow the signals you're seeing
(21:53):
this year.
Are you seeing more demand forEurope?
Are you starting to see itspread out across the regions?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I know, obviously you , you mentioned Japan, but
beyond Japan and Asia, are youseeing more interest to South
America?
What are Paris, london?
But what we're seeing is a lotmore secondary markets as well.
We're seeing, you know I thinkyou mentioned the Nordic kind of
northern parts.
Because of the over not justover tourism in some of the
flagship cities, but also thiskind of intense heat in the last
(22:34):
couple of years and the climatechanges, folks are going kind
of further north.
We're also seeing trendstowards.
You know we're seeing a lot oftravelers to Mexico City, south
America, buenos Aires, argentina.
I think you know, even for this, there's plenty of articles out
there about like how travel gotso overpriced in 2023, and so
(22:58):
there was this move towards,even for luxury folks that had
the money, where can I go, um,where my dollar will really go a
really long way, and you know,and so they're looking at things
.
You install it again.
You install it, you know, to tothe peso, etc yeah, that's a
really good point.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
that's one of the reasons that I, you know,
certainly that travel to japantook off, as you know, and
people realized they did themath and all of a sudden it was
actually much more affordablebecause Japan was always seen as
such a um, an expensive traveldestination.
And then certainly, places likeColumbia, as I've highlighted
on our show that you know, it'slike 20% of the cost of what
you'd otherwise pay in the U?
S.
So it's like your money goes sofar and I feel it's so exciting
(23:33):
as a traveler to uh, to go fordinner and have it be $40.
And you've had, you know,you've had a small group and two
bottles of wine.
It was like, how can this be?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Yeah, I'd taken my, my, my exec team out to like a
really nice Michelin star inMexico city when we were there
and it was, you know it was, itwas phenomenal, and so you can
get those types of experiencesand the US of the Frida Kahlo
museum and all those you know,other great kind of really
cultural places.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yeah for sure.
Just on that topic, since youmentioned about your own travels
, I'm very curious to know, june, where have you experienced
some of the context travel?
I'm sure you've done a lot oftravel You're a global traveler
but what would be a couple ofstandout experiences that you've
had that you would recommend toour listeners to say this is
one of our best offerings?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Tell us a couple of your highlights from, uh, from
traveling with context this isalways a question that I get and
always one that I struggle withbecause there are just so many
and I hate having to pick out afavorite child, but I I guess I
think one of the beauty, youknow, one of the beautiful
things about working for, youknow, and running a kind of a
global company, is that I canalways find an experience,
(24:40):
depending on the circumstanceand my mood at that moment,
right of the trip, right and so,like when I'm traveling by
myself.
For example, when I went toRome by myself, I loved going,
doing our Caravaggio tour, andkind of discovering these
masterpieces, not just in theVatican but all around the
churches that were tucked away,and I had no idea, you know,
(25:02):
that there were these Caravaggiopaintings hanging right up in
these churches.
That was a special experiencefor me.
If I travel with my husband,who's more of like a Caribbean
kind of beach vacation guy, youknow, he's also a martial artist
, though, and he loved Japan,right, and so when we went to
Tokyo, him and my daughter wereall about well, we got to try
the food.
My husband wanted sushi, mydaughter thought sushi meant
(25:23):
salmon sushi rolls, and so youknow it was a phenomenal
experience where you know theygot to learn a lot more about.
You know I mentioned earlierkind of the architect that took
us around into actual homes thathe had developed.
My daughter ran around likepretending like she lived there
and then she learned you, andthen she learned that she loved
Wagyu beef and udon things thatshe had never tried here, and
(25:44):
now we're buying tons of udonsoups from Costco those sorts of
transformative things that Iget to experience, not just
myself as an individual traveler, when I'm traveling with my
colleague that are museum loversand history buffs, but even
with my family that typicallywouldn't have done these
vacation lists by themselves.
We're creating these kind ofreally meaningful moments
together.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah Well, I'm sure the term that we've also heard
repeated far too many times isimmersive experiences.
That certainly started, youknow, like there's lots of local
now immersive experiences andwhat is an immersive experience.
But one of the things thatcertainly makes an experience
much more immersive is when it'spersonalized or it's kind of
catered to you, and you kind ofmentioned that there.
(26:25):
I guess that's one of thethings.
When you have people that havespecific interests in history or
culture or cuisine or languageand like visiting museums, how
much can you do to personalizefor a group or for an individual
?
And also, just out of curiosity, if that plays a role in people
coming back to context travel,because you're able to then
(26:45):
personalize their next tripbased on what you've learned
about them.
How does that play in, or doesit?
I think that's a great question.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Because they are expert-led tours, we are able to
tailor them to the interest ofwhoever is standing in front
right, like whether that's aneight-year-old child or an
80-year-old Nona alike with aninsatiable curiosity about.
You know, this is my first timein Croatia and I'm going back
(27:14):
home to Sicily for the 10th timewe're able to kind of satiate
their curiosity.
In terms of personalization, Ithink, again, it comes down to
the expertise and the people,right?
And so when we hire, recruit,you know we're recruiting, we're
hiring, we are interviewingthem just as we would our
(27:36):
full-time staff, and we're fullyvetting them, and then we trust
them at that point.
And so you know we go throughtraining, we go through
onboarding and we're fullyvetting them, and then we trust
them at that point.
And so you know we go throughtraining, we go through
onboarding, but we know weencourage, we allow them and in
fact we even we really encouragethem to take into account who's
standing in front of you,what's the moments, the
conditions on the streets atthat time, and like, yes, you
(27:57):
know you might want to hit likethese three points during your
trip, but you might, maybe youwant to swap something out
because you've learned somethingabout your client.
They're interested in modern.
You know they're interested inmodern art and so you want to.
You know you're going to takethem to another, a smaller
museum that really showcasesthat just learned about, I don't
(28:18):
know, the French Revolution,and so you want to kind of walk
down another street and kind oftalk a little bit about the
rebellions that happened there.
That's kind of what we'reempowering, this personalization
, and then we write it.
The experts have notes, theyput it back into the system and
we keep them for next time.
We attach it to the customerprofile.
So when they're travelingelsewhere it's like, oh yeah,
this kid was eight now.
(28:39):
He's 12 years old now and he'straveling with his grandparents.
This time we already knowsomething about that kid.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
That's really fascinating when I think about
the company that you've builtand they're now leading and
there's a lot of competition,and so one of the challenges for
sure, I mean, look at a companylike Airbnb and their
experiences.
I mean, if they're relaunchingit now, there's this perception
there's a big opportunity here,but a lot of companies do
struggle to remain relevant, tocome up with the right product
(29:04):
offering operationally, as youtalked about saying, you know,
in terms of recruiting thistalent, retaining them, uh, you
know as going through yourwebsite and looking at all the
amazing people that, uh, thatoperate these tours, and that's
a big factor for for me, as atraveler, to validate who is
going to be leading this, andlooking at their backgrounds,
which was just so impressive.
So obviously you have to um,it's always going to be
(29:25):
difficult to recruit and trainand and, uh, retain those people
.
But tell us a little bit moreabout what really does set
context travel apart and why youhave had such significant
growth and success.
Um, that and I think that'sthat's certainly come out in a
number of the things you'vehighlighted so far, but I'd love
to dive into that a little bitfurther, because there's
(29:46):
obviously got to be a lot ofthings that you do that are
quite unique to your point aboutpersonalization, that attract
repeat guests but also continueto grow the consideration set.
So what are some of the otherthings that context does that
have become competitiveadvantages for you in the
marketplace?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
I think, very Simply, it comes down to the people,
the quality and the level ofcare right, and you know, in
terms of how we think about ourexperiences, it's not just for
the customer, because on theother side of that experience is
(30:28):
our expert right, and they'repart of the community and we are
trying to enrich the experiencefor all the people involved in
the context community, both thecustomers, the experts, the
employees, all of our partners.
And I think that that's reallyspecial because it's not just
like we are trying to matchdemand and supply, where we're
not an algorithm that's justtrying to aggregate supplier,
(30:50):
aggregate tours.
We are hyper-focused oncurating the experience and
knowing that behind every greatexperience is this phenomenal
person right.
And so you know we're doing Ijust talked about it on LinkedIn
.
You know we're readingUnreasonable Hospitality as a
company with staff, and weinvited all of our experts
(31:12):
around the globe to join thatbook club discussion, and so you
know it's really about likeintegrating everybody as part of
a bigger whole and this kind ofinterconnectedness.
I think that's such a support.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
That's great.
Did that answer the?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
question Dan.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Very well, June, as I would expect from you, and this
is where I've got, oh, I've gotso many questions for you, but
I'm like I want to try and uh,one other one.
You um picked up your phone andjust referred, which obviously
stood out to me, with technology.
We were talking a bit aboutaudio guides.
Clearly, with AI and some ofthis tech, and we don't have to
do a deep dive into AI, there'scertainly enough um discussions
on this topic, so I'm not goingto hammer you with a bunch of AI
(31:45):
questions, but certainly, youknow, when, you see, I saw an AI
session of the ITB and Googlewas up there holding out, you
know, people asking questions of, like the Brandon brigade, like
tell me more about this, andlike, so, clearly there is a lot
more happening with technologyand how it's going to impact
travel.
I'm just genuinely curiousabout how you see the role of
technology at context travel,whether it's AI or virtual
(32:08):
reality, but, like, given thekey focus is human led in
destination experiences, wheredo you see the role of
technology and how are youleveraging it?
Um, you know, either as theguest experience or even just,
uh, you know, in the day-to-dayoperations of the business.
So I guess, where do you seethe role of technology in you
know guided tours for people in2025 and beyond?
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Sure Um AI.
It's a hot topic at everysingle conference and every
single panel discussion forpeople in 2025 and beyond.
Sure AI.
It's a hot topic at everysingle conference, every single
panel discussion.
I will say so.
I mean, there's no doubt AI isgoing to revolutionize the
travel industry from every partin the customer journey, from
planning to booking to thein-destination experience.
That said, it will never, everreplace the need for human
(32:55):
connection and, in fact, I thinkit is going to drive that need
higher and higher People.
You know they're supposedlyconnected 24-7.
You know they're training chatGPT to be their personal admins
and you know they're walkingaround like glued to their
iPhones, but you know, at theend of the day, they're feeling
(33:15):
more disconnected than everbefore in history.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Right, and so I think that we have to be really
careful about how AI and tech isgoing to drive people away from
being present in the momentthere and trains, a lot of
(33:53):
guides, and someone like alexbainbridge runs a company called
autora which is very focused onum ai-led tours and the
question about where the humanrole comes into play.
So I've seen those debates andI think that's where and I've
had them both on our, ourpodcast, and I think it doesn't
move the conversation forward ifthere's just two very strong
views.
It's like, well, actually, um,there is a role for it to play,
and how?
How best can you?
(34:15):
You factor that into yourbusiness but not necessarily
change the guest experience,because ultimately it you know
your business fundamentally isis about that human connection
and being able to have theexpert-led guide.
You can get facts andinformation from chat, gpt or
from any number of sources, butin terms of actually someone in
front of you being able tonavigate through so, so I guess
(34:36):
where I'm going with this.
I'm assuming then you're you'renot looking at any way to
replace that human touch withtechnology.
That you know the human elementis clearly one of the the
biggest differentiators you'regoing to have going forward is
that you have that expert-ledguide.
So, if anything, it sounds liketo me, june, if I'm hearing you
correctly, you're going to leaninto that more at a time when
(34:58):
people are feeling disconnected,and so there's not a view that
you guys are going to becomemore of a tech company.
You guys are going to lean onthe fact you've you know you're
a people first organization andyou're there for the human touch
and connection.
Is that?
Speaker 1 (35:10):
fair.
That's very fair.
We will never lean away fromthe human connection.
We will be leaning into itquite hard and continue to do so
in 2025 and beyond.
That said, we are atech-powered, tech-enabled
company.
The way we are able to scalethat human connection experience
is through our platform, isthrough tech.
(35:32):
There's AI working in thebackground to generate.
You know, our engineers areusing it every day, and even our
operational folks.
It's really interesting.
We just did this exercise, youknow, with the leadership team,
and we were like stop looking atour site, stop looking at
competitors' site.
You're traveling by yourselfright now.
You're traveling with yourfamily right now to Barcelona,
to London, to pick your city.
(36:00):
What are you going to do?
Right, and half of them went toGoogle and half of them went to
chat, gpt, and it became reallyinteresting.
So what did we find?
What did we learn by thisexperience?
And so we are really.
We can't pretend it doesn'texist.
We're not pretending it doesn'texist.
We're going in, eyes wide open,into like, how can we now use
this to make ourselves, to learn, how can we learn from this,
grow from this and makeourselves even better than
before?
But again, it's going toamplify, not replace, the human
(36:21):
connection.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Then, when we think about the guest experience, you
kindly highlighted a couple ofthe trends.
One of the things I just wantedto better understand from your
vantage point is what are someof the other consumer trends
you're seeing?
And specifically, one thing Iwanted to ask you on that is, um
, the journey, because youmentioned about ai changing all
aspects of travel and one of thethings is like when someone
(36:45):
books a context travel uh,experience, uh, where are they
in their, uh, their journey interms of like, have they already
booked their trip to Europe andare looking for?
Are they in destination?
I guess booking is one thingI'm keen to know how much of it
is, is advanced Um, and where doyou see it fitting into the
booking flow?
Are they making the decisionsto take context travel first and
(37:06):
planning around it, or are theyplanning a trip and then adding
it in?
I'm just genuinely keen to know, um, keen to know how it's
working today, how it's evolvingand changing and some of those
things that you have a uniquevantage point of figuring out
how best to market position thisbusiness.
So I'm genuinely curious whatyou're seeing as far as consumer
behavior.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Sure, and I think consumer behavior is shifting.
If you had asked me five yearsago, I could tell you our exact
bookings to service day trends,you know, and it was.
It was the same as it was in2010, as it was in 2007, you
know, 17.
But now I think it's shifting.
(37:46):
We are still seeing a lot ofpeople booking anywhere between
two weeks, I would say, to twoto three months before their
time and destination with us.
But we're also seeing thatshift.
We're seeing some people, youknow, maybe they'll book their
first thing a little bit furtherout, one month before, and then
(38:06):
they'll have a fantasticexperience.
They realize they have an extra, you know, an extra day or an
afternoon that's free andthey'll want to hop on another
one until they'll do that indestination Are people, have
they already booked?
Still, I would say.
I'd like to say that they goexperience first, but the
reality is you still have a lotof people that have booked their
flight, they've booked theirhotel and then they book their
(38:28):
experience.
But we are hearing, especiallyfrom our repeat customers that
come back because we talk tothem not just before the trip
and during the trip, but afterthe trip as well.
You know, how was it?
What can we do better than nexttime?
What did you love about youknow, what did you love about
this particular experience?
And they'll tell us, you know,I'll almost say, where are you
(38:50):
going next?
Of course you know.
And they'll say, oh, somewherein.
I've been here, here, here andhere I'll.
You know, I might want to go toistanbul, uh, next, uh.
So they'll tell us they haven'tbooked it, but I haven't booked
anything yet.
It'll be a few months out.
Make a little note.
And you know well, a few monthsbefore you know, we'll check
back in somewhere between a fewmonths from that conversation, a
few months before, when theysaid they were going, uh, and
and see where they are, but theykind of, and so we're trying to
(39:10):
catch them earlier in thatjourney.
But still, I would say, to befair, a lot of folks are still
booking flight and hotel firstand then they experience your
activity.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Then you've highlighted therejust the complexity of the
travel booking process and forcompanies trying to figure out
how best to position themselveswhether it is that
in-destination people arealready in Rome and now we're
looking for something to do, orthey're planning their trip
ahead of the time, and obviouslyyou need to be there for both.
The other thing I was also keento ask you about is you are a B
Corp, and I was actually one ofthe things I was really
(39:42):
impressed to see, and we haven'ttouched on that yet, but I
wanted to bring it up in thecontext of sustainability and
responsible stewardship, whichwe know is so important to all
of us that love this industry somuch, and it's something that I
was keen to know how thatimpacts the experiences you
offer, because obviously youknow when you do have the
community connection or you knowjust environmental elements you
(40:04):
need to be aware of and soprotecting these communities and
also these places so that forfuture generations, obviously
that's such an important part toall travel companies today.
So I guess, knowing you're a bcorp which I was again thrilled
to see because that's soimportant you can obviously
kindly explain what a b corp isbecause you guys have been, I
guess, since 2011.
Um, uh, we've had a few guestson the show, like james thornton
(40:27):
from intrepid or untours, andand so, um, but by all means,
highlight a few more detailsabout why you guys are B Corp
and what it means.
But, specifically, I'd love tounderstand how that translates
into the experiences you offerand how you weave in responsible
, sustainable travel.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Sure, so we've been.
The B Corp aspect is extremelyimportant to us, you know, and
I'm sure there are people thatcan explain it more eloquently
than I.
But the way I like to thinkabout it is you know, we're not
just a company that's focused on, you know, on profits.
We're focused on the other P'sas well the people, the planet,
(41:14):
right, and for us, you know, howdo we encourage responsible,
sustainable travel?
What does it mean?
Certainly, in very simplestform.
We're walking tours.
Right, we're not hopping on andoff buses or driving people,
you know, around in, in, in, in,in cars, uh, every day, we're
doing walking tours, uh, and weare having the conversation.
I think the first it startswith an awareness, really, uh,
and so we are talking.
We don't have all the solutions, but we are definitely talking
about the problem ofover-tourism with our experts on
(41:37):
a regular basis, and we'reencouraging them in turn to talk
about it with all of our guestson the ground.
How do you be and I thinkintentionality is a word that we
use a lot at Context and how doyou just be more intentional
about where you're spending yourmoney, where you are eating,
what are the implications oflike, you know, getting on, you
(41:57):
know, of just of going.
Yes, you might want to see themusty attractions.
If you go to Barcelona, you'regoing to want to be amazed by
the architecture of the SagradaFamilia.
You're going to want to see theimpact of the stained glass.
You know the sun coming throughthe stained glass windows but,
like you know, if you go to, ifyou go more off the beaten path,
you will have the experiencethat really allows you to see
(42:19):
the lens of the city.
You know much moreauthentically through the life
of the locals there.
And so we're encouraging, youknow, we certainly encourage
folks to think about thesedecisions.
Right, like, what you think isgoing to be the best part of
your trip that you'll be talkingabout for years to come might
not be at the Colosseum or theLouvre or the Sagrada Familia.
(42:42):
You know.
It will probably be in, youknow, in some other smaller
museum, in some of theneighborhood.
Um, and it's kind of about theit's it's that feeling, that
that we're trying to create andbuild um and that understanding.
Quite frankly, I feel like Iwent a little away from the b
(43:05):
corp question, but really itkind of comes back to how do you
think about travel, uh, and howdo you just be much, much more
intentional about it?
Speaker 2 (43:12):
june.
I've really enjoyed thisconversation.
I find I could definitely go onand on.
I definitely obviously have toget on a context travel, but
just before we wrap up and giveeveryone a chance to find out
where best to connect with youand learn more about the team,
tell us a little bit about justwhat's ahead for context travel
as a business.
I know we've talked a lot aboutthe product and a lot about the
(43:33):
experiences and, like I wouldjust love to know, as you're,
you know talking to the team andplanning for your future, what
are some of the other excitingdevelopments we can look forward
to?
Speaker 1 (43:43):
We have spent the last two decades perfecting the
best, the best part of the trip,right?
I mean, luxury has taken onsuch a different connotation and
the industry has gotten socommoditized in terms of like
hotels and kind of you know, andthe restaurants.
Everybody's trying to createthis experience.
(44:05):
We already have it.
We spent the last 20 yearsperfecting half and full day
experiences that people aregoing to talk about for
generations to come, and I thinkas a company, we're seeing that
being recognized now, you know,in kind of in the partnership
space, right, places that hadfocused on hotels or concierge
(44:27):
service like kind of like cardyou know, card benefits or
vacation stay rentals, whateverit might be.
I think big banks they're allthinking about now.
What's my hook?
Right, I need some sort ofexperience that will give me
differentiated value, and Ireally do think that kind of
(44:47):
context has been at theforefront of that conversation
long before things likeexpert-led or authentic local
travel or hidden gems or evenbuzzwords, and so I'm really,
really excited about not just2025, but the next two decades
to come for us.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
No, that's great, and I think that there is a very
bright future, not only for thiscategory but specifically for
context, and it certainlyvalidated for me having this
conversation with you.
I was certainly looking forwardto it.
I would say it exceeded myexpectations.
I mean, you clearly are adynamic leader of a company that
is poised for continued growthand success and a very important
(45:28):
part of the overall travelcommunity, so I'm very keen to
continue to follow your journey.
I've certainly wish you and theteam every success in that.
The next two decades to come,where travelers are going to
double, you know that we'reexpecting there to be, you know,
going from 400 to 800 milliontravelers.
So the types of organizationsthat handle this well are
(45:48):
obviously going to be the mostsuccessful, and they're the ones
that we need to learn from.
So I thank you so much, june,for joining us, for sharing all
these valuable insights andadvice, and I look forward to
keeping in touch and seeing youon a Context Travel Experience
sometime this year.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Thanks so much Dan.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Thanks so much for joining us on this special
spotlight of Travel Trends.
I hope you enjoyed ourconversation today with the CEO
of Context Travel, june Chin.
For more information,definitely check out
contexttravelcom, and if you'reinterested in more of our
spotlight episodes, be sure tocheck out traveltrendscom.
Slash spotlights.
Until next time, safe travels.
Because they are expert-led tours, we are able to
tailor them to the interest ofwhoever is standing in front
right, like whether that's an8-year-old child or an
80-year-old Nona with aninsatiable curiosity about.
You know, this is my first timein Croatia and I'm going back
home to Sicily for the 10th timewe're able to kind of satiate
(00:26):
their curiosity.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hello everyone and welcome to a special spotlight
episode of Travel Trends.
This is your host, DanChristian, and in today's
episode, we're going to bespeaking to the CEO of Context
Travel, jun Chin.
Now, context Travel is acompany, as you'll hear from Jun
, has been around for over 20years.
It was started in Rome and thewhole concept was around
(00:50):
providing travelers with eithermaster's degree or PhD guides
and giving small groups and alsoprivate tours.
I had the privilege of doing onein Barcelona recently after the
Focusrite conference, and itwas extraordinary.
Brendan gave me a tour of themarkets.
I'm a huge fan of markets andhe actually took me to a number
of the markets.
I'm a huge fan of markets andhe actually took me to a number
of local markets.
He knew the people, they knewhim.
I had the most amazing time.
(01:11):
It was a one-on-one tour.
I've not done that before.
I will definitely be doing itagain and I'll definitely be
booking through Context Travel.
I have quite a few friends andcolleagues that have traveled
with Context Travel over theyears and loved it, so it was a
real delight to finally sit downwith June Chin learn more about
Context Travel.
If you're interested in more ofour spotlight episodes.
Be sure to check outTravelTrendscom slash spotlights
(01:33):
.
Now let's bring June into theconversation.
June, it's fantastic to haveyou on Travel Trends.
Welcome and thanks for joiningus.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Thanks, dan, super excited to be here.
Travel Trends is an awesomepodcast.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Thank you so much.
That means a lot, especiallycoming from you, because, as
I've gotten to know you, I meanI was always a big fan of
Context Travel, but you'veactually come in to lead this
brand.
So actually tell everyone, ifyou wouldn't mind, just a bit of
your background in tourism andhow you came to be the CEO of
Context Travel.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Sure, definitely not your cookie cutter background,
but I was actually in emergingmarkets investments before
context, and I was traveling theworld, uh, spending a lot of
time over in Asia and Europe andSouth America, and I was not
doing it the way I wanted to doit.
And, you know, I saw a uh acontext.
Um, I got, I wanted to getgetting in house and, uh, I saw
(02:21):
a context, ad, uh, love travelknew there had to be a better
way to do it.
I had experienced the productin New York and so I reached out
and you know, kind of the restis history In 2020, when
everybody was kind of runningaway from it, I stepped up.
You know, I stepped up evenmore and took over as a CEO and
it's been phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
That's fantastic, and the reason I wanted to ask that
is that this is where it's veryinteresting when you see people
that have either come up in theindustry, that are innovators
and that you know have learnedthe craft, and other people that
actually come into thisindustry that have disrupted
other sectors, and that's whatstood out to me from your
(02:59):
background and in getting timewith you, it's just like you've
been able to very quickly getyour hands around this role and
be able to grow and scale thisbusiness, which is all the
things I want to get intobecause it's such a fascinating
company and background.
But yeah, so let's let all ourlisteners in.
For those people who are notfamiliar with Context Travel,
give us a bit of the backgroundabout how this company was
created and a bit of an overviewof what you guys do.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Sure thanks.
So our founders, Paul andLonnie Bennett they were an
expat couple living in Rome inthe early 2000s and Lonnie
Bennett, they were an expatcouple living in Rome in the
early 2000s, and you know, theywere just tired, dan, of seeing
all of these 50 person tourgroups hopping on and off the
buses, trampling the culturaland heritage sites of this
beautiful city, and they saidthere had to be a better way.
(03:38):
And so they founded ContextTravel, almost almost as a
protest against mass tourismSmall, very small group walking
tours led by a local expert.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Very interesting and then tell us where it started
and I guess where I guess thecore business was.
Because one of the things I'mintrigued about context travel
is you organize excursions withexperts, you know, like the
professors, and this is the sortof thing that like even the
whole idea of context.
I mean I'm a history buff, solike the professors and and this
is the sort of thing that likeand even the whole idea of
context.
I mean I'm a history buff, solike the idea of context is
(04:08):
everything in many ways of likeyou know, you don't go visit an
art gallery.
It's like someone needs to giveyou the context, um, to really
appreciate it.
So I've always loved thebranding.
But yeah, tell us how thatrelated to the types of
experiences you've offered andand where it all really kind of
got started yeah, sure and sure,and so it got started in Rome,
as I mentioned.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And I think the biggest thing as you called it
right out that sets us apartfrom any other company is that
we have experts, not guides,right?
So what do I mean by that?
You won't be taken around by acollege kid that's memorized a
script.
Our experts, they're carefullyselected for their knowledge and
(04:48):
their unique ability to framethat knowledge in the context of
people, place, history andculture.
And I'll be honest, you know,sometimes people hear, oh, an
expert-led walking tour, andthey've never been on that and
you're a history buff.
So I think you get it right.
But sometimes I get well, oh,most of you.
What do you mean by experts?
Most of your guides havemasters and PhDs.
(05:10):
That's that sounds scary, thatsounds a little bit not fun or
intimidating, and it's quite theopposite.
They actually make the mostexceptional guides because
they're able to take thesereally fascinating, complex
concepts and just make it simple, digestible, entirely relatable
.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Well, it's interesting because certainly it
is the case that most travelersare looking for the insider
perspective.
They're looking for the expertadvice from locals and, as you
just described that, actuallysomeone with a deep degree of
expertise.
It's actually what most peopleare trying to make sure that
they're going to get on theirnext holiday because they want
to make the most of their time,their precious time that they
(05:48):
have for their vacation, to makesure that they have the best
possible experience.
And so you know, you do havecompanies that highlight that
they're expert guides, but, toyour point, what level of
expertise you know if they'vebeen there for many years or
they have local knowledge.
But this is where I was reallyintrigued with how this company
got started and how importantthat has been to create a
(06:09):
differentiator in themarketplace.
So tell us a little bit moreabout that, because I think
that's obviously, you know, socritical for any business to
succeed in scale is, you know,having a differentiator.
That's not necessarily priceand the experience someone's
going to have with contexttravel they're not going to get
elsewhere.
So tell us a little bit about,I guess, what that means in
terms of the actual experience.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
On, sure thing.
So you know, I mentioned thatwe were very small groups before
, right, and it was almoststarted as a protest against
mass tourism.
But the other thing is our, acore value of ours is is
learning, right, and so we.
The other premise is liketravel is the ultimate form of
education and one that's likebest served with a heaping side
of memorable conversation, right?
(06:51):
So you know, imagine going to.
You know, imagine going to notPompeii, but Ostia Antica with
an archaeologist that's actuallydug and excavated history there
.
Or imagine walking around.
You know, my family and I justwalked around last summer, tokyo
, with a practicing architectthat's developing the city, and
you know he took us into a homethat he had actually helped
(07:18):
build for this famous architectand it had this amazing pre and
post-war structures.
It was absolutely justphenomenal.
And so you talk about locals,you talk about this move towards
kind of authentic localexperiences and we give that
it's like having, if you thinkabout then traveling to a city
where you have a best friend,that best friend knows all the
(07:39):
bars, they know all therestaurants to go to, they know
the hole-in-the-wall places thatwill just make you feel truly
special.
But now layer on top of that,the most knowledgeable, best
friend, right that will be ableto kind of put everything in
context for you.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
That's certainly how I came to know Context Travel
and while I was so keen to speakto you when we got a chance to
meet at dinner, I was just likeI'm such a fan of the brand and
I'm really intrigued by thebusiness and obviously getting
your insider perspective on howthe company has evolved and
(08:14):
changed.
You know ownership and youroverall strategic expansion
plans, because the companycertainly obviously has a great
expertise in walking tours,which you know.
There's obviously the privatewalking tours, there's museums
you can have like food, wine andmarket tours.
I'm a huge fan of markets, sothat's massively appeals to me.
But you also do audio guidesand that's just something that I
(08:36):
also.
So tell us a little bit about.
I know you kindly mentionedthat the business kind of got
started in Italy, but you reallyare global now and the number
of tours that you offer.
So tell us a little bit aboutthe I guess the expansion Was it
focus on.
Let's expand the walking toursglobally.
Where did the audio guides comein?
And, I guess, what is thebreakdown of the business today?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Sure, so we are global.
I think the number keepschanging, but I believe we're
somewhere close to 70 citiesaround the world, six different
continents, been to five of themso far, and you know in terms
of how.
So, from Italy, you know, we arein all of the major cultural
(09:16):
capitals that you would expectin Europe Rome, paris, london,
barcelona, amsterdam but youknow, as we, one of the, besides
learning, another big value ofours is connection, and human
connection, right.
And so I think what sets usapart is we establish that
connection not just on theground with the clients and the
(09:39):
experts, but between context,the company and the clients,
right.
And so, as we got to know ourtravelers, our guests, as we got
to know where they were going,what they, what their interests
were, how they like to travel,we expanded with them.
Some of them still tell us wehaven't, we're not expanding
fast enough.
We're from South America toAsia, we're far beyond just kind
(10:13):
of the cultural capitals ofEurope at this point.
And then, during your questionabout digital and audio guides,
we are the idea behind that.
Actually, you know, crisis isthe mother of all innovation and
during the pandemic.
That's kind of when that conceptwas first birthed and it
(10:34):
actually started because we knewthat there was a problem
between both for our customersthat were lacking the ability to
travel they're sitting at homeand our experts that were all
around the globe trying tofigure out how they were going
to make a living.
And so what we did was weconnected them online, not like
trying to walk around a barrencity, you know, with a webcam,
but we just connected themonline as people and that kind
(10:54):
of forged this relationship fromtheir digital content kind of
surface and it just kind ofcreated this lasting stickiness.
I'll pause there and see.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
No, I'm glad you mentioned that because it's one
of the things that you know.
This show obviously was anoutcome of the pandemic itself
to try to understand travelerbehavior post pandemic and what
changed.
And certainly one of the thingsI was working on during the
pandemic was virtual tours withAmazon and you know, obviously
Airbnb moved in that direction.
So I'm glad I asked thisbecause I was genuinely curious
and didn't know that that wasthe case.
(11:23):
But that makes total sense.
But the thing I'm keen to knowfrom your perspective because a
number of companies decided toshut down some of those programs
, like Airbnb to Amazon movedaway from it with doing some of
these virtual tours and Iactually thought there was
something quite meaningful andexciting there.
And I genuinely love audioguides.
I like the idea of being ableto choose a guide, but if you
don't have the right time andavailability, I like the idea of
(11:44):
being able to choose a guide,but if you don't have the the
right time and availability, Ilove the idea of being able to
freedom and independence, to beable to go at your own pace, and
so, um, I liked it before.
I still, I still love this idea.
Now.
I've done a number of differentaudio guided tours and I I
really enjoy it so.
So how have you seen that now,in 2025, with how important that
is to your business?
Is it important to get peopleto consider context?
(12:05):
Is it a great feederopportunity to get people to
take the walking tours?
How have you balanced that?
Because, again, some peoplehave moved away from it.
It seems like you guys are.
You've built up a strengththere.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
So how do you see?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
that playing into your strategy.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It's definitely a way for us to engage and continue
in a natural conversation yearround and be relevant year round
to our customers, right?
Because how many times are mostpeople doing long haul
international travel?
Once, maybe twice a year?
Some of our brand you know,brand advocates are traveling 10
times, but not for most people.
And so I think it does twothings.
(12:41):
For me, inclusivity has alwaysbeen very important, as well as
business, and it democratizesaccess to our experts, right?
And the other thing, too, ismost of our travelers are FIT
travelers, free, independenttravelers.
They kind of want to do theirown planning.
They might want to go with anart historian to a museum one
day, they might want to do amarket tour with a culinary
(13:02):
expert another day.
But when they first land on theground, we always say you
should never do an in-personexperience.
You don't know what yourflight's like, you don't know
how jet lag you're going to be,you don't know how you're going
to feel.
So we recommend the audio guidecontent for that first day.
They just checked into thehotel and maybe their room isn't
ready yet and they're walkingaround and you plug in an audio
guide for an hour and get yourintro to the city, get your lay
(13:23):
of the land and it's fantastic.
And then they go meet ouractual in-person guides later in
the week and they have thatcontext already, so it just
enriches the experience.
The other thing we have ispre-trip talks.
So internally we say like talksand walks right, and so the
talks are great as something towatch before they arrive in city
(13:45):
.
And we work also besidesdirect-to-consumer.
We work with a lot of travelagencies and this allows the
travel agents to be specialistsfor all the destinations that
Context is in, because they'rewhat we found.
We didn't even intend it to befor them, we intended it to be
for the customers traveling, butthey're finding that this
content is helping them tobecome an expert and service
(14:08):
their clients even better, andso it's interesting how that's
kind of evolved as well.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, for sure.
And the other thing I was keento know, given the fact that
what my understanding is, mostof the tours are English
language is clearly with audio,there's an opportunity to very
easily translate.
But when it comes to your coremarkets I mean we talked about
the business starting in RomeYou're obviously based in New
York City.
The US is clearly a massiveoutbound travel market, or even
(14:36):
domestic for that matter.
But yeah, where would be sortof the, I guess, the big markets
for context travel?
Where are you seeing thatgrowth in terms of the source
markets, Because clearly you'reopening up new destinations all
the time?
Speaker 1 (14:47):
yeah, we are.
We are still heavily on northamerican outbound, lots of
americans and canadians.
We do have quite a lot of um orgrowing base out of mexico and
brazil as well.
I'd say um and interestingly,as we've been partnering with
more of the luxury traveladvisors, do like consortia,
like Virtuoso Signature, it'stapping into other travel
(15:08):
corridors like UK outbound, evenAustralia outbound, etc.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Got it Okay, that's good.
A helpful context, because Iwould assume that some of those
luxury travelers like that fitinto your.
I mean, when I've not had theprivilege of doing a context
travel, I will make that.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Oh my gosh, Dan.
You told me that last time whenI said we're going to get you
on a tour, yeah.
You have to, we have to stopthat.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Definitely, it's my commitment to you for making the
time for this conversation.
I will absolutely, on my nexttrip, do a context travel
experience.
I guess that's where what I waslooking, though, and just doing
research in advance of our call.
Some of looking, though, andjust doing research in advance
(15:51):
of our call.
Some of the prices are veryreasonable, um, uh, for these,
uh, and so in terms of, but Iwould assume that you actually
would have, uh, private toursand, and certainly many affluent
travelers.
You know, obviously there's adirect correlation between those
people that are highly educatedand tend to travel and also
have higher incomes andtherefore can, can, can spend
more on travel.
So, when you think about thatcustomer that you're marketing
to, I guess, is luxury andaffluent travelers a major
market for you, or is it justone of many markets that you are
(16:14):
able to realize, because thisactually has broader mass appeal
?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, I would say our core regional base definitely
skewed, affluent, highlyeducated, kind of customer based
demographic.
I think it does have much widerappeal.
You know I have had friends sayoh well, you know, I don't know
if that's true, I'm a lawyer,I'm a banker and I don't know if
(16:42):
that's me and actually a lot,lots of our customers are folks
that aren't, they haven't donethe humanities track and they
miss that aspect of their livesand they kind of want to
understand a place deeper.
So we do try and have we haveprivate tours, we have
semi-private tours and then wehave a small group options as
well, and so, as well as thedigital content, so we are
(17:04):
trying to make sure that we haveentry level products for
someone that maybe is just kindof dipping their toe into.
You know what is this exactlyPeople are talking about these
kind of expert led experiences.
I don't want to miss out, butI'm not sure if I'm ready to
kind of pay the price for aprivate tour.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
So let me hop on a small group, let me try and one
of audio guides and it's kind ofgiving them access to the brand
and then they get a taste of itand they want to kind of take
that next step.
And we certainly all saw thispost-pandemic and actually
Douglas Quimby had highlightedjust at ITB recently a graphic
of the number of people thattraveled private In 2018, it was
about 17%.
In 2024, it was 47% um hadtaken a private tour, right?
(17:58):
So it's just like so clearlyyou guys are in that sweet spot
as well that like it makes totalsense.
People have realized that, waita second, I can actually just
book a private guide and have myown exclusive tour.
So, like you have that optionand that's why I say even the
cost of those is um accessible.
But then, for sure, when I seesome of the price points of
being able to join a group tour,um, because my perception of
(18:18):
context travel was that it was,you know it is premium and
clearly that is the theexperience, but it's great that
it's accessible because I thinkyou know you only have students,
you're going to have peoplethat that just just want that
level of expertise and content.
So so where are, in terms ofactually building out the
product, given that you do havesuch a, I guess, a wide
selection of options?
(18:40):
Where are you seeing the mostinterest in growth, and are
there specific areas that you'realready looking at going into
2026 that you're looking to, youknow, add new experiences to
the collection.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Sure.
So I mean geographically, weare seeing tremendous growth to
Japan, right To Japan, and youknow, I'd say even Asia more
broadly we're currentlydeveloping Seoul, korea.
I think that people, you know,maybe they weren't quite ready
to do that in 2022, 2023, but2024, 2025, it's happening in
(19:17):
droves.
And I think what's happening isthere are onsites or DMCs on
the ground in Japan that havekind of local guides, but they
don't really know how to appealto a North American audience
base and kind of how do you havethat expertise and the
knowledge but how do you alsobring that alive?
And that's where Context hasbeen able to fill, I think, a
(19:38):
really big gaping hole, and sowe're seeing phenomenal growth
there In terms of the types ofother types of experiences.
I personally have a 13-year-oldnow.
She was seven or eight when Istarted at Context and she's 13
now, and so I've been, myselfand the team, we've been really
excited to further grow ourfamily portfolio for tweens and
(20:00):
teens.
It's kind of at that age wherethey're starting to love this a
lot more than their parents.
And you know, I'm holding upaudio.
It's audio only, but I'mholding up my smart, my iPhone,
and so kind of building out.
The family portfolio is huge.
We're seeing a lot ofmulti-generational travel,
heritage travel, people thatwant to take, you know, their
(20:22):
kids, their grandkids, toCentral Europe and see the
places where you know theirpoppy lived before they
immigrated to the US.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Those are all great trends for sure.
I'm glad you pointed a few ofthose out, especially
multi-generational travel.
Being a big driver, withgrandparents paying for not only
their kids but their grandkids,partly because they can and
obviously they want that timetogether, so that's been an
interesting development.
And that heritage travel it'sinteresting that that has almost
, you know, has resurfaced inimportance and popularity, with
(20:52):
people trying to trace theirroots and especially with Europe
, and I guess the one thingalong those lines as we, you
know, sit here together, aCanadian and American in 2025,
we obviously know there'svarious geopolitical challenges
around the world.
The one thing that has reallystood out to me, having just
been in Europe for a couple ofweeks, is that Europe was, for
(21:12):
many of us, it is a central hubfor tourism, and I would say
that from my perspective I'mkeen to get your take here is
that actually, given everythingthat's going on in the world
today, europe is becoming thatmuch more prominent and
(21:32):
important again that people wantto travel to Europe, and
there's always been greatreasons to travel Europe, but it
seems like it's, from what I'mseeing and hearing, even having
more of a renaissance this year,despite the fact that some
people will say, oh, italy isovercrowded and you know some of
those destinations areoverheated in the summertime and
people sure have flocked toNorthern Europe or to Asia, but
Europe is such a um, anincredible destination for this
style of travel.
So I guess, yeah, I'd love toknow the signals you're seeing
(21:53):
this year.
Are you seeing more demand forEurope?
Are you starting to see itspread out across the regions?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I know, obviously you , you mentioned Japan, but
beyond Japan and Asia, are youseeing more interest to South
America?
What are Paris, london?
But what we're seeing is a lotmore secondary markets as well.
We're seeing, you know I thinkyou mentioned the Nordic kind of
northern parts.
Because of the over not justover tourism in some of the
flagship cities, but also thiskind of intense heat in the last
(22:34):
couple of years and the climatechanges, folks are going kind
of further north.
We're also seeing trendstowards.
You know we're seeing a lot oftravelers to Mexico City, south
America, buenos Aires, argentina.
I think you know, even for this, there's plenty of articles out
there about like how travel gotso overpriced in 2023, and so
(22:58):
there was this move towards,even for luxury folks that had
the money, where can I go, um,where my dollar will really go a
really long way, and you know,and so they're looking at things
.
You install it again.
You install it, you know, to tothe peso, etc yeah, that's a
really good point.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
that's one of the reasons that I, you know,
certainly that travel to japantook off, as you know, and
people realized they did themath and all of a sudden it was
actually much more affordablebecause Japan was always seen as
such a um, an expensive traveldestination.
And then certainly, places likeColumbia, as I've highlighted
on our show that you know, it'slike 20% of the cost of what
you'd otherwise pay in the U?
S.
So it's like your money goes sofar and I feel it's so exciting
(23:33):
as a traveler to uh, to go fordinner and have it be $40.
And you've had, you know,you've had a small group and two
bottles of wine.
It was like, how can this be?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Yeah, I'd taken my, my, my exec team out to like a
really nice Michelin star inMexico city when we were there
and it was, you know it was, itwas phenomenal, and so you can
get those types of experiencesand the US of the Frida Kahlo
museum and all those you know,other great kind of really
cultural places.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yeah for sure.
Just on that topic, since youmentioned about your own travels
, I'm very curious to know, june, where have you experienced
some of the context travel?
I'm sure you've done a lot oftravel You're a global traveler
but what would be a couple ofstandout experiences that you've
had that you would recommend toour listeners to say this is
one of our best offerings?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Tell us a couple of your highlights from, uh, from
traveling with context this isalways a question that I get and
always one that I struggle withbecause there are just so many
and I hate having to pick out afavorite child, but I I guess I
think one of the beauty, youknow, one of the beautiful
things about working for, youknow, and running a kind of a
global company, is that I canalways find an experience,
(24:40):
depending on the circumstanceand my mood at that moment,
right of the trip, right and so,like when I'm traveling by
myself.
For example, when I went toRome by myself, I loved going,
doing our Caravaggio tour, andkind of discovering these
masterpieces, not just in theVatican but all around the
churches that were tucked away,and I had no idea, you know,
(25:02):
that there were these Caravaggiopaintings hanging right up in
these churches.
That was a special experiencefor me.
If I travel with my husband,who's more of like a Caribbean
kind of beach vacation guy, youknow, he's also a martial artist
, though, and he loved Japan,right, and so when we went to
Tokyo, him and my daughter wereall about well, we got to try
the food.
My husband wanted sushi, mydaughter thought sushi meant
(25:23):
salmon sushi rolls, and so youknow it was a phenomenal
experience where you know theygot to learn a lot more about.
You know I mentioned earlierkind of the architect that took
us around into actual homes thathe had developed.
My daughter ran around likepretending like she lived there
and then she learned you, andthen she learned that she loved
Wagyu beef and udon things thatshe had never tried here, and
(25:44):
now we're buying tons of udonsoups from Costco those sorts of
transformative things that Iget to experience, not just
myself as an individual traveler, when I'm traveling with my
colleague that are museum loversand history buffs, but even
with my family that typicallywouldn't have done these
vacation lists by themselves.
We're creating these kind ofreally meaningful moments
together.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah Well, I'm sure the term that we've also heard
repeated far too many times isimmersive experiences.
That certainly started, youknow, like there's lots of local
now immersive experiences andwhat is an immersive experience.
But one of the things thatcertainly makes an experience
much more immersive is when it'spersonalized or it's kind of
catered to you, and you kind ofmentioned that there.
(26:25):
I guess that's one of thethings.
When you have people that havespecific interests in history or
culture or cuisine or languageand like visiting museums, how
much can you do to personalizefor a group or for an individual
?
And also, just out of curiosity, if that plays a role in people
coming back to context travel,because you're able to then
(26:45):
personalize their next tripbased on what you've learned
about them.
How does that play in, or doesit?
I think that's a great question.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Because they are expert-led tours, we are able to
tailor them to the interest ofwhoever is standing in front
right, like whether that's aneight-year-old child or an
80-year-old Nona alike with aninsatiable curiosity about.
You know, this is my first timein Croatia and I'm going back
(27:14):
home to Sicily for the 10th timewe're able to kind of satiate
their curiosity.
In terms of personalization, Ithink, again, it comes down to
the expertise and the people,right?
And so when we hire, recruit,you know we're recruiting, we're
hiring, we are interviewingthem just as we would our
(27:36):
full-time staff, and we're fullyvetting them, and then we trust
them at that point.
And so you know we go throughtraining, we go through
onboarding and we're fullyvetting them, and then we trust
them at that point.
And so you know we go throughtraining, we go through
onboarding, but we know weencourage, we allow them and in
fact we even we really encouragethem to take into account who's
standing in front of you,what's the moments, the
conditions on the streets atthat time, and like, yes, you
(27:57):
know you might want to hit likethese three points during your
trip, but you might, maybe youwant to swap something out
because you've learned somethingabout your client.
They're interested in modern.
You know they're interested inmodern art and so you want to.
You know you're going to takethem to another, a smaller
museum that really showcasesthat just learned about, I don't
(28:18):
know, the French Revolution,and so you want to kind of walk
down another street and kind oftalk a little bit about the
rebellions that happened there.
That's kind of what we'reempowering, this personalization
, and then we write it.
The experts have notes, theyput it back into the system and
we keep them for next time.
We attach it to the customerprofile.
So when they're travelingelsewhere it's like, oh yeah,
this kid was eight now.
(28:39):
He's 12 years old now and he'straveling with his grandparents.
This time we already knowsomething about that kid.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
That's really fascinating when I think about
the company that you've builtand they're now leading and
there's a lot of competition,and so one of the challenges for
sure, I mean, look at a companylike Airbnb and their
experiences.
I mean, if they're relaunchingit now, there's this perception
there's a big opportunity here,but a lot of companies do
struggle to remain relevant, tocome up with the right product
(29:04):
offering operationally, as youtalked about saying, you know,
in terms of recruiting thistalent, retaining them, uh, you
know as going through yourwebsite and looking at all the
amazing people that, uh, thatoperate these tours, and that's
a big factor for for me, as atraveler, to validate who is
going to be leading this, andlooking at their backgrounds,
which was just so impressive.
So obviously you have to um,it's always going to be
(29:25):
difficult to recruit and trainand and, uh, retain those people
.
But tell us a little bit moreabout what really does set
context travel apart and why youhave had such significant
growth and success.
Um, that and I think that'sthat's certainly come out in a
number of the things you'vehighlighted so far, but I'd love
to dive into that a little bitfurther, because there's
(29:46):
obviously got to be a lot ofthings that you do that are
quite unique to your point aboutpersonalization, that attract
repeat guests but also continueto grow the consideration set.
So what are some of the otherthings that context does that
have become competitiveadvantages for you in the
marketplace?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
I think, very Simply, it comes down to the people,
the quality and the level ofcare right, and you know, in
terms of how we think about ourexperiences, it's not just for
the customer, because on theother side of that experience is
(30:28):
our expert right, and they'repart of the community and we are
trying to enrich the experiencefor all the people involved in
the context community, both thecustomers, the experts, the
employees, all of our partners.
And I think that that's reallyspecial because it's not just
like we are trying to matchdemand and supply, where we're
not an algorithm that's justtrying to aggregate supplier,
(30:50):
aggregate tours.
We are hyper-focused oncurating the experience and
knowing that behind every greatexperience is this phenomenal
person right.
And so you know we're doing Ijust talked about it on LinkedIn
.
You know we're readingUnreasonable Hospitality as a
company with staff, and weinvited all of our experts
(31:12):
around the globe to join thatbook club discussion, and so you
know it's really about likeintegrating everybody as part of
a bigger whole and this kind ofinterconnectedness.
I think that's such a support.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
That's great.
Did that answer the?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
question Dan.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Very well, June, as I would expect from you, and this
is where I've got, oh, I've gotso many questions for you, but
I'm like I want to try and uh,one other one.
You um picked up your phone andjust referred, which obviously
stood out to me, with technology.
We were talking a bit aboutaudio guides.
Clearly, with AI and some ofthis tech, and we don't have to
do a deep dive into AI, there'scertainly enough um discussions
on this topic, so I'm not goingto hammer you with a bunch of AI
(31:45):
questions, but certainly, youknow, when, you see, I saw an AI
session of the ITB and Googlewas up there holding out, you
know, people asking questions of, like the Brandon brigade, like
tell me more about this, andlike, so, clearly there is a lot
more happening with technologyand how it's going to impact
travel.
I'm just genuinely curiousabout how you see the role of
technology at context travel,whether it's AI or virtual
(32:08):
reality, but, like, given thekey focus is human led in
destination experiences, wheredo you see the role of
technology and how are youleveraging it?
Um, you know, either as theguest experience or even just,
uh, you know, in the day-to-dayoperations of the business.
So I guess, where do you seethe role of technology in you
know guided tours for people in2025 and beyond?
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Sure Um AI.
It's a hot topic at everysingle conference and every
single panel discussion forpeople in 2025 and beyond.
Sure AI.
It's a hot topic at everysingle conference, every single
panel discussion.
I will say so.
I mean, there's no doubt AI isgoing to revolutionize the
travel industry from every partin the customer journey, from
planning to booking to thein-destination experience.
That said, it will never, everreplace the need for human
(32:55):
connection and, in fact, I thinkit is going to drive that need
higher and higher People.
You know they're supposedlyconnected 24-7.
You know they're training chatGPT to be their personal admins
and you know they're walkingaround like glued to their
iPhones, but you know, at theend of the day, they're feeling
(33:15):
more disconnected than everbefore in history.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Right, and so I think that we have to be really
careful about how AI and tech isgoing to drive people away from
being present in the momentthere and trains, a lot of
(33:53):
guides, and someone like alexbainbridge runs a company called
autora which is very focused onum ai-led tours and the
question about where the humanrole comes into play.
So I've seen those debates andI think that's where and I've
had them both on our, ourpodcast, and I think it doesn't
move the conversation forward ifthere's just two very strong
views.
It's like, well, actually, um,there is a role for it to play,
and how?
How best can you?
(34:15):
You factor that into yourbusiness but not necessarily
change the guest experience,because ultimately it you know
your business fundamentally isis about that human connection
and being able to have theexpert-led guide.
You can get facts andinformation from chat, gpt or
from any number of sources, butin terms of actually someone in
front of you being able tonavigate through so, so I guess
(34:36):
where I'm going with this.
I'm assuming then you're you'renot looking at any way to
replace that human touch withtechnology.
That you know the human elementis clearly one of the the
biggest differentiators you'regoing to have going forward is
that you have that expert-ledguide.
So, if anything, it sounds liketo me, june, if I'm hearing you
correctly, you're going to leaninto that more at a time when
(34:58):
people are feeling disconnected,and so there's not a view that
you guys are going to becomemore of a tech company.
You guys are going to lean onthe fact you've you know you're
a people first organization andyou're there for the human touch
and connection.
Is that?
Speaker 1 (35:10):
fair.
That's very fair.
We will never lean away fromthe human connection.
We will be leaning into itquite hard and continue to do so
in 2025 and beyond.
That said, we are atech-powered, tech-enabled
company.
The way we are able to scalethat human connection experience
is through our platform, isthrough tech.
(35:32):
There's AI working in thebackground to generate.
You know, our engineers areusing it every day, and even our
operational folks.
It's really interesting.
We just did this exercise, youknow, with the leadership team,
and we were like stop looking atour site, stop looking at
competitors' site.
You're traveling by yourselfright now.
You're traveling with yourfamily right now to Barcelona,
to London, to pick your city.
(36:00):
What are you going to do?
Right, and half of them went toGoogle and half of them went to
chat, gpt, and it became reallyinteresting.
So what did we find?
What did we learn by thisexperience?
And so we are really.
We can't pretend it doesn'texist.
We're not pretending it doesn'texist.
We're going in, eyes wide open,into like, how can we now use
this to make ourselves, to learn, how can we learn from this,
grow from this and makeourselves even better than
before?
But again, it's going toamplify, not replace, the human
(36:21):
connection.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Then, when we think about the guest experience, you
kindly highlighted a couple ofthe trends.
One of the things I just wantedto better understand from your
vantage point is what are someof the other consumer trends
you're seeing?
And specifically, one thing Iwanted to ask you on that is, um
, the journey, because youmentioned about ai changing all
aspects of travel and one of thethings is like when someone
(36:45):
books a context travel uh,experience, uh, where are they
in their, uh, their journey interms of like, have they already
booked their trip to Europe andare looking for?
Are they in destination?
I guess booking is one thingI'm keen to know how much of it
is, is advanced Um, and where doyou see it fitting into the
booking flow?
Are they making the decisionsto take context travel first and
(37:06):
planning around it, or are theyplanning a trip and then adding
it in?
I'm just genuinely keen to know, um, keen to know how it's
working today, how it's evolvingand changing and some of those
things that you have a uniquevantage point of figuring out
how best to market position thisbusiness.
So I'm genuinely curious whatyou're seeing as far as consumer
behavior.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Sure, and I think consumer behavior is shifting.
If you had asked me five yearsago, I could tell you our exact
bookings to service day trends,you know, and it was.
It was the same as it was in2010, as it was in 2007, you
know, 17.
But now I think it's shifting.
(37:46):
We are still seeing a lot ofpeople booking anywhere between
two weeks, I would say, to twoto three months before their
time and destination with us.
But we're also seeing thatshift.
We're seeing some people, youknow, maybe they'll book their
first thing a little bit furtherout, one month before, and then
(38:06):
they'll have a fantasticexperience.
They realize they have an extra, you know, an extra day or an
afternoon that's free andthey'll want to hop on another
one until they'll do that indestination Are people, have
they already booked?
Still, I would say.
I'd like to say that they goexperience first, but the
reality is you still have a lotof people that have booked their
flight, they've booked theirhotel and then they book their
(38:28):
experience.
But we are hearing, especiallyfrom our repeat customers that
come back because we talk tothem not just before the trip
and during the trip, but afterthe trip as well.
You know, how was it?
What can we do better than nexttime?
What did you love about youknow, what did you love about
this particular experience?
And they'll tell us, you know,I'll almost say, where are you
(38:50):
going next?
Of course you know.
And they'll say, oh, somewherein.
I've been here, here, here andhere I'll.
You know, I might want to go toistanbul, uh, next, uh.
So they'll tell us they haven'tbooked it, but I haven't booked
anything yet.
It'll be a few months out.
Make a little note.
And you know well, a few monthsbefore you know, we'll check
back in somewhere between a fewmonths from that conversation, a
few months before, when theysaid they were going, uh, and
and see where they are, but theykind of, and so we're trying to
(39:10):
catch them earlier in thatjourney.
But still, I would say, to befair, a lot of folks are still
booking flight and hotel firstand then they experience your
activity.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Then you've highlighted therejust the complexity of the
travel booking process and forcompanies trying to figure out
how best to position themselveswhether it is that
in-destination people arealready in Rome and now we're
looking for something to do, orthey're planning their trip
ahead of the time, and obviouslyyou need to be there for both.
The other thing I was also keento ask you about is you are a B
Corp, and I was actually one ofthe things I was really
(39:42):
impressed to see, and we haven'ttouched on that yet, but I
wanted to bring it up in thecontext of sustainability and
responsible stewardship, whichwe know is so important to all
of us that love this industry somuch, and it's something that I
was keen to know how thatimpacts the experiences you
offer, because obviously youknow when you do have the
community connection or you knowjust environmental elements you
(40:04):
need to be aware of and soprotecting these communities and
also these places so that forfuture generations, obviously
that's such an important part toall travel companies today.
So I guess, knowing you're a bcorp which I was again thrilled
to see because that's soimportant you can obviously
kindly explain what a b corp isbecause you guys have been, I
guess, since 2011.
Um, uh, we've had a few guestson the show, like james thornton
(40:27):
from intrepid or untours, andand so, um, but by all means,
highlight a few more detailsabout why you guys are B Corp
and what it means.
But, specifically, I'd love tounderstand how that translates
into the experiences you offerand how you weave in responsible
, sustainable travel.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Sure, so we've been.
The B Corp aspect is extremelyimportant to us, you know, and
I'm sure there are people thatcan explain it more eloquently
than I.
But the way I like to thinkabout it is you know, we're not
just a company that's focused on, you know, on profits.
We're focused on the other P'sas well the people, the planet,
(41:14):
right, and for us, you know, howdo we encourage responsible,
sustainable travel?
What does it mean?
Certainly, in very simplestform.
We're walking tours.
Right, we're not hopping on andoff buses or driving people,
you know, around in, in, in, in,in cars, uh, every day, we're
doing walking tours, uh, and weare having the conversation.
I think the first it startswith an awareness, really, uh,
and so we are talking.
We don't have all the solutions, but we are definitely talking
about the problem ofover-tourism with our experts on
(41:37):
a regular basis, and we'reencouraging them in turn to talk
about it with all of our guestson the ground.
How do you be and I thinkintentionality is a word that we
use a lot at Context and how doyou just be more intentional
about where you're spending yourmoney, where you are eating,
what are the implications oflike, you know, getting on, you
(41:57):
know, of just of going.
Yes, you might want to see themusty attractions.
If you go to Barcelona, you'regoing to want to be amazed by
the architecture of the SagradaFamilia.
You're going to want to see theimpact of the stained glass.
You know the sun coming throughthe stained glass windows but,
like you know, if you go to, ifyou go more off the beaten path,
you will have the experiencethat really allows you to see
(42:19):
the lens of the city.
You know much moreauthentically through the life
of the locals there.
And so we're encouraging, youknow, we certainly encourage
folks to think about thesedecisions.
Right, like, what you think isgoing to be the best part of
your trip that you'll be talkingabout for years to come might
not be at the Colosseum or theLouvre or the Sagrada Familia.
(42:42):
You know.
It will probably be in, youknow, in some other smaller
museum, in some of theneighborhood.
Um, and it's kind of about theit's it's that feeling, that
that we're trying to create andbuild um and that understanding.
Quite frankly, I feel like Iwent a little away from the b
(43:05):
corp question, but really itkind of comes back to how do you
think about travel, uh, and howdo you just be much, much more
intentional about it?
Speaker 2 (43:12):
june.
I've really enjoyed thisconversation.
I find I could definitely go onand on.
I definitely obviously have toget on a context travel, but
just before we wrap up and giveeveryone a chance to find out
where best to connect with youand learn more about the team,
tell us a little bit about justwhat's ahead for context travel
as a business.
I know we've talked a lot aboutthe product and a lot about the
(43:33):
experiences and, like I wouldjust love to know, as you're,
you know talking to the team andplanning for your future, what
are some of the other excitingdevelopments we can look forward
to?
Speaker 1 (43:43):
We have spent the last two decades perfecting the
best, the best part of the trip,right?
I mean, luxury has taken onsuch a different connotation and
the industry has gotten socommoditized in terms of like
hotels and kind of you know, andthe restaurants.
Everybody's trying to createthis experience.
(44:05):
We already have it.
We spent the last 20 yearsperfecting half and full day
experiences that people aregoing to talk about for
generations to come, and I thinkas a company, we're seeing that
being recognized now, you know,in kind of in the partnership
space, right, places that hadfocused on hotels or concierge
(44:27):
service like kind of like cardyou know, card benefits or
vacation stay rentals, whateverit might be.
I think big banks they're allthinking about now.
What's my hook?
Right, I need some sort ofexperience that will give me
differentiated value, and Ireally do think that kind of
(44:47):
context has been at theforefront of that conversation
long before things likeexpert-led or authentic local
travel or hidden gems or evenbuzzwords, and so I'm really,
really excited about not just2025, but the next two decades
to come for us.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
No, that's great, and I think that there is a very
bright future, not only for thiscategory but specifically for
context, and it certainlyvalidated for me having this
conversation with you.
I was certainly looking forwardto it.
I would say it exceeded myexpectations.
I mean, you clearly are adynamic leader of a company that
is poised for continued growthand success and a very important
(45:28):
part of the overall travelcommunity, so I'm very keen to
continue to follow your journey.
I've certainly wish you and theteam every success in that.
The next two decades to come,where travelers are going to
double, you know that we'reexpecting there to be, you know,
going from 400 to 800 milliontravelers.
So the types of organizationsthat handle this well are
(45:48):
obviously going to be the mostsuccessful, and they're the ones
that we need to learn from.
So I thank you so much, june,for joining us, for sharing all
these valuable insights andadvice, and I look forward to
keeping in touch and seeing youon a Context Travel Experience
sometime this year.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Thanks so much Dan.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Thanks so much for joining us on this special
spotlight of Travel Trends.
I hope you enjoyed ourconversation today with the CEO
of Context Travel, june Chin.
For more information,definitely check out
contexttravelcom, and if you'reinterested in more of our
spotlight episodes, be sure tocheck out traveltrendscom.
Slash spotlights.
Until next time, safe travels.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com