Turning Destinations into Immersive Storytelling Experiences with Geotourist

Send us a text

Imagine walking into a distillery and being greeted by the master as a hologram who already knows your questions. That’s the bold vision of Geotourist, and where our conversation with CEO and Founder Shaon Talukder begins. From its start as an “audio map of the world” to hosting community voices, screen tourism, and accessibility routes across 94 countries, GeoTourist is redefining how stories connect travelers to place.

Shaon shares how DMOs use the platform’s view-to-visit data to prove impact, why communities and fans create the most compelling tours, and how Holoxar—an AR layer powered by light AI—is bringing guides into real-world spaces without distraction. We also look ahead to the traveler’s near future: natural language interfaces, ambient AR glasses, and real-time translation that dissolve barriers.

Packed with insights on immersive travel, destination marketing, and the future of in-destination experiences, this episode shows why the best tech amplifies human stories instead of replacing them. For more information on Geotourist, please visit geotourist.com.

👉 Listen to Turning Destinations into Immersive Storytelling Experiences Now

🔥 Special Thanks to our Season 6 Title Sponsors for their Support: Holafly, Propellic, PayCompass, Kaptio, Civitatis and WeRoad

The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds.

https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:03):
You have minority reports which shows Tom Cruise
walking through a shopping mall.
It's a vision of the futurewhere he's wearing smart lenses,
and as he's walking through,there are various holograms that
pop up and speak to himdirectly.
They know who he is, they knowthat he's visited these shops
before.
And he's got this personalizedexperience of the world around
him, and that's essentially whatwe've created.

(00:23):
We've created this newtechnology called Coloxar, which
takes Geotourist to the nextlevel.

SPEAKER_02 (00:30):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Travel Trends.
This is your host, DanChristian, and today we're going
to be speaking to the founderand CEO of GeoTourist, Shaum
Tulichter.
Now, this is the third episodein our In Destination
Experiences part two, which isbrought to us in partnership
with our friends over at PernoRicard, who certainly share our
passion for authenticexperiences and are very much

(00:52):
leading the way of immersivetravel.
You can find out moreinformation about their brand
homes at Perno-Ricard.com.
Now we started our second serieswith Vince Katalubic from
MeowWolf.
And then last week we spoke toLaurel Greatrix, who then was
the VP of Marketing at Viator.

(01:13):
And since we published thatepisode, she has now become the
chief communications officer atTripAdvisor Group.
So a huge congratulations toLaurel.
We hope that this podcast helpedon that journey, but I'm sure
most of that was already in theplans.
But congratulations to Laurel.
It was great to have you on theshow last week.
And now we're going to round outthis series with Sean Talikdar.

(01:36):
Now he also is a captain ofindustry.
He is an advisor to the Britishgovernment.
He's part of the WTTC.
He serves an associate advisor.
He's been recognized byentrepreneur.com as one of the
top entrepreneurs to watch.
He advises startups and he has alot of passion and interest in
this space.
He's been running Geotaurus nowfor almost 14 years.

(01:57):
So we get to talk about theearly journey of Geotaurus and
where they've gotten to today inthe age of AI.
So I'm really looking forward tosharing this discussion with
you.
Don't forget that we do have ourAI summit coming up at the end
of October, the 28th and 29th.
You can register on our website,traveltrendspodcast.com.
And we do share clips andhighlights from all of these

(02:19):
episodes on our social channels,which you can find at LinkedIn,
YouTube, and Instagram at TravelTrends Podcast.
Now let's bring Shaoun into theconversation and talk about
Geotourist.
Welcome, Shaun.
Great to have you on TravelTrends.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Thank you.
Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 (02:35):
I'm really excited about this.

SPEAKER_02 (02:36):
For sure.
I think you're a perfect fit inour In Destination series.
Obviously, we have a mutualfriend in Laura at Pernault
Ricard, and she was very much uhkeen for you to join us as part
of this series.
And I certainly can understandwhy, as I was preparing for our
conversation as part of the InDestination series, which all of
our listeners they've heard fromVince Katalubic from Meowwolf,

(02:57):
who is one of the most inspiringpeople I've seen on stage.
And I know she's highlightedthat you are very similar for
her when she saw you at TourismInnovation Summit.
And then we had uh Laurel, GreatTricks, from Viator last week.
So we've literally gone fromhaving someone innovating and
creating in-destinationexperiences like Meowwolf to
Viator, which is the leadingexperience provider globally

(03:18):
with more than 400,000destinations uh activities they
offer.
And then now we have someonethat has been building an
incredible app that reallytransforms the in-destination
experience.
And I've been playing aroundwith the app and I'm like, I
think it's fantastic.
I love it, and I'm surprised Ididn't hear about it sooner.
But um tell everyone, Shaoun,about your background and give

(03:39):
everyone a little bit of anoverview of what GeoTourist
does.

SPEAKER_01 (03:43):
Thanks.
Um so my background was not intravel and tourism, and this is
one of the one of the um thingsthat I have to qualify because
now um I often go and speak atuh universities and you know
lecture at um you know umtourism uh university courses

(04:06):
and their professionals intourism, or they're starting to
be professionals in tourism.
I actually studied pharmacy, sonothing even remotely close.
And I practiced that for 10years.
And during that time, my sisterand I set up a real estate
business.
Um so we went into uh creatingshort-term uh service

(04:27):
departments for professionalswho are moving around graduates
and professionals moving arounduh the UK.
And while we were setting thatup, I traveled to Australia with
my wife for um one of herfriends' weddings.
And while we were out there, sheum she decided to add do a

(04:49):
add-on to our journey.
So she bolted on an additionaltrip um, not just to the
wedding, but also to uh uh Uluruor Ezrock as it used to be
called.
Um and she said, Look, it's notgonna take any extra time for
us, it's gonna be just a 24hours in and out.
And um she said, we'll arrive atnight and then we'll fly out the

(05:13):
following night.
So and she said, Look, I'vealways wanted to see it, and you
know, who was I to come to arguewith that?
Um and while we um you know,while we were preparing for
that, we were trying to ensurethat we maximize the opportunity
and the experience we got whenwe were there.
I mean, my you know, my wifedoes like to kind of immerse

(05:34):
herself in local culture andunderstand.
And you know, she's one of thesepeople that gets the museum
guides and stands at everyplinth and podium, you know,
reading every sign, listening toall of the content.
And when we um were preparingfor Ayers Rock, um, we did what
everyone else did.
And this is like going back, Ithink four, yeah, 12, 14 years.

(05:56):
And um at the time we were usingTripAdvisor, so we were
scrolling through TripAdvisor,looking at um experiences, and
there were some tour guides thatwere available.
And there was this one tourguide, and I I believe his name
was Doug.
Don't, you know, don't hold meto that.
But um he just kept gettingthese five-star reviews from

(06:16):
loads and loads of people.
So everyone said, Oh, he bringsthe rock to life, he lives and
breathes the rock.
You know, so we were like, weneed to book this guy.
You know, this is the guide.
We're only there for a fewhours.
We need to just make sure we youknow get a hit when we when we
get there.
Um so we booked, we booked thewe booked the guide.
Um, it was heinously expensivefrom from uh from my

(06:37):
perspective.
Um, but you know, when you'rethere, you're a captive
audience, there's you know, youhave very few options, and so we
thought, okay, we'll go aheadand do that.
Um and when we land, you know,we we were there the night
before, um, and then we had towake up before dawn, I think it
was like 5 a.m.
or something, really, reallyearly.
We showed up to the uh thetourist office, which is

(06:57):
basically a porter cabin, it'slike a you know, a trailer, like
a lorry trailer, and theyconverted it into an office with
like two or three desks inside.
And we said, Look, we're herefor the tour, um, you know,
we're here to do see Doug.
And um they said, Oh, sorry,it's Doug's day off.
So we we basically kind ofshowed up and we were like, oh,

(07:20):
okay.
And they said, Well, not toworry, we have somebody to take
you around.
And um essentially they had uh aguide who took us around the
rock, and the whole tourconsists of you walking around,
so about three or four hours towalk around the actual thing,
and you do it at either dawn ordusk, and as you're doing the
walk and the kind of the sunrises or it sets, and the rock
just changes colour from a youknow, like a dark red, blood red

(07:43):
colour to a golden colour by theend of it, like a golden orange
colour, and it's stunning.
And at different points aroundthe rock, the guide would tell,
you know, would have thisnarrative, and you'd look at the
rock face and it would kind ofum they would tell you kind of
what the Aborigines, theindigenous uh population would
uh, you know, with the storiesthat they would tell and how
they would see the rock andperceive it.

(08:05):
And from that, um, you know,they would get, you know, they'd
be smoking various things andthey'd have this, you know, this
uh story that they wouldrecount.
And within that there were cavepaintings to kind of, you know,
to echo these stories.
And it was all great, and we sawthe cave paintings, they looked
like they were kind of paintedyesterday, it's all very, very,

(08:25):
you know, good.
Um, but at the end of the wholetour, um, I did not fit get that
feeling of a five-star uhexperience.
And I'm not sure it was becauseof the depth of the knowledge of
the guide or not, but um at theend of it I just felt left
wanting.
I felt cheated, I felt robbedbasically.
And so at this at the time as wewere flying back from uh Ezrock

(08:50):
or Uluru to Melbourne, I wassitting on the plane thinking,
look, I I really, you know, I'veseen everything, it's stunning,
it's beautiful, but you know, II I wish I could just listen to
what Doug had to say in hisversion of the story.
If only there was a way he couldleave his voice on the on, you
know, in location on the map forme to um show at my own

(09:11):
convenience, um, that would beamazing.
And I thought, well, I'm notcoming back here anytime soon
because it took two days to getthere, right?
Um and so I thought, well, thenext place I travel to, who's to
say I won't have the samenegative experience again?
And that was the light bulbmoment that kind of started the
ball rolling with geotourist.
Um and I thought, wouldn't it beamazing if you could create a

(09:31):
platform for the whole worldwhere everyone can share their
stories and selfishly I cantravel around learning from um
other people.

SPEAKER_02 (09:38):
Yeah, that's fascinating.
I always great to get the originstory of an entrepreneur and
exactly what the pain point wasthat you wanted to solve.
And obviously, this goes backnow, like 14 years.
So, like you were very early indeveloping an app for tourism
and and and creating GeoTourist.
Um, but let's tell everyonewhere you are today.
You're in London, that's homefor you.
Tell us a little bit about moreabout uh uh about you and your

(10:01):
and your life now.
So obviously, GeoTourist is abig part of it, but I know
you're also an advisor to theWTTC, as people heard in the
introduction.
You work with uh the Britishgovernment.
So give us a bit of anunderstanding of how you went
from Air's Rock developing thisapp to being a part of these
global organizations.

SPEAKER_01 (10:20):
So so yeah, we were, I mean, as I said back when we
um before we set up, there werevery few travel apps on the
market.
Um I mean, there wasBooking.com, they're the big
players, so the TripAdvisortypes.
Um there wasn't that many, uh,or there weren't that many apps
in the way of you know,experience and guiding.
And if there were, they werevery focused on very specific

(10:42):
destinations.
So if you were looking for adigital solution, um, it may not
exist for the destination you'regoing to.
And so, you know, you know, ifyou wanted to have that
experience, you would have to goto the specific place, or you
would have to kind of findwhatever traditional solutions
there were.
Um and so since then, um, youknow, apps started to kind of

(11:06):
you know have a life of theirown, and people, every every man
and the dog wanted to make anapp.
So there was there was a hugepro proliferation of lots and
lots of apps.
And before we'd even set up thecompany, we'd actually we
actually um did some work withthe university in the UK um to
do research in the space beforewe set up, you know, before we
even kind of incorporated.
And the the research kind ofbasically entailed understanding

(11:30):
what traveler needs were.
So understanding what does thebest companion tool for travel
look like.
Um and so, you know,understanding that, you know,
when you're there, provided youhave the ability to see what's
in front of you, you can create,you know, the the thing that
would augment the experience wasthe story.

(11:50):
And so um, you know, compared towhether you wanted something
that played video or you know,be more visual, you know, when
you're there, you've got thething around you, you want to
immerse yourself.
So it was those um stories, andit would have to be by people.
So it wasn't kind of a syntheticuh robot at the time and now AI.
It was uh preferred to be um youknow stories created by local

(12:14):
people or local or experts onsubject matters.
And so we had this um and alsowhat they wanted was a single
solution and not have to keep ondownloading an app every time
they, you know, went traveling.
So you know, download yourtravel, you know, your transport
app, your hotel app, your museumapp, your you know, theme park
app.
You know, there was just youknow, people just essentially as

(12:35):
you know, what they what they dois they don't download anything
and or unless they need to toget access to what they need,
right?
So that was the kind of theprevailing feedback.
So we had to kind of address allof those kind of uh needs for
the travelers.
So as we saw the proliferationof loads and loads of apps out
there, we we over the next kindof you know two, three years, we

(13:00):
saw that those destinations thathad created, you know, got
funding to make apps, you know,for sp for specific
destinations, found that theyweren't getting the engagement
and the kind of the uptake thatthey were had anticipated
because they thought, you know,building left when everyone will
come, right?
And that's that's definitely notthe truth.
So um so what we what we thenkind of did is we kind of tried

(13:24):
to understand what the industryneeds were.
So we kind of we realized we'daddressed what travelers might
need, but we needed to kind ofonboard content.
So we started kind of speakingto a lot of the industry leaders
specifically from destinationsbecause we saw them as the
custodians of the stories and ofthe stories that you might well
know.
So we thought if we work withthem, then we will have stories

(13:46):
that people will recognize ortrust, and we can kind of give
them a home.
And that worked in part in a fewdestinations, but for every one
or two destinations we bring onboard, there were nine or you
know, eight or nine that wouldsay no.
So we kind of lent into theno's.
We kind of said, Well, you know,what is the reason that they're
doing this when we know thetravellers want a single

(14:08):
solution or a single easy way toaccess this content?
And so that was the beginning ofour journey into the industry to
understand really what the painpoints for the industry were and
what kind of challenges theywere facing.
And I mean, in the UK, it'ssimilar to different parts of
the of the world, but the thestructure, the kind of the

(14:30):
industry structure of tourismhas changed dramatically.
So they've gone from being agovernment-led,
government-funded nationalorganization to having funding
withdrawn and then creating avacuum that suddenly gets um uh
filled by lots of smalloperators and other solutions

(14:51):
and DMOs of different types.
And that creates a lot offragmentation, and this is
replicated in lots of differentdestinations around the world.
And with Geotroads, what we wereable to see was we were able to
see that people were not justgoing to one location, they were
going to other locations becausethey were using the app.
We had stories in differentparts of the UK or America or

(15:11):
Australia or you know, wherever.
We've got content in 94countries right now, but we saw
that users were kind ofaccessing all these different
stories.
And within the UK, in the kindof the kind of the more um
focused area around London, forexample, we could see if people
were using tours in London andthen if they were using any

(15:33):
tours outside of London.
And this was, you know, when wekind of shared this insight with
uh the industry, it was like wewere showing them magic because
you know they didn't they didn'tknow this.
And so that was our light bulbmoment when we said, okay, well,
look, we have insights about howthese places are connected
together.
Because the the travelers, theconsumers, they don't see the

(15:54):
barriers that exist in the tr inthe travel industry.
They go to places that they wantto, and they you know, they have
different reasons for traveling,and we had some insights on
that.
So that was the beginning of ourA, our relationship with the
industry, but B, our journeyinto becoming more of a data
platform and kind of connectingand aggregating uh data

(16:15):
together, understanding whatdata was missing from the uh
from the industry, andcritically we've uh we focused
our kind of efforts on oneunique uh metric, which was the
view-to-visit ratio, which iswhat stories actually bring in
real visitors.
So the conversion of um, say,for example, a digital view into

(16:40):
a real feet on the ground, andwe were able to measure that.
Um and so that um, you know,just kind of doing some pilots,
doing some uh work with um, youknow, in the beginning, some
like small uh city type uh DMOs,and then you know, then going
branching out to regional andthen uh you know expanding that

(17:03):
to national, we were able tokind of map different
organization stories all in thesame platform and then show how
they were all you know connectedthrough the movements of people
and you know various otherinsights.
And and that um, you know,again, like I said, you know,
I'm not a DMO, but I can sitwith uh destination leaders and

(17:26):
say, look, let's look at howpeople are engaging with your
destination uh before theytravel and then when they're
there.
Uh and so um one of my roles isthat I'm the chair of something
called the National Council ofDMOs in the UK with the Tourism
Management Institute.
Um and and that has led on to mejoining the Visitor Economy

(17:48):
Advisory Council by the um thethe current ministry, Minister
of Tourism in the UK.
Um and on that I'm leading ondata for travel and AI.
So I mean this there's a throughline through the story that has
brought me here, but that's kindof where I'm at now.

SPEAKER_00 (18:08):
We'll be right back.
Travel has changed, but manymulti-day tour operators are
still stuck with spreadsheetsand disconnected systems.
Today's travelers expect morechoice, flexibility,
unforgettable experienceswithout the friction.
That's where Captio comes in.
Built on Salesforce, Captio isthe modern platform designed

(18:30):
specifically for multi-day touroperators.
From tailor-made trips to grouptours, rail to river, we bring
your itineraries, bookings,payments, and operations
together in one seamless system.
With automation, real-timeinventory, and supplier
integrations, we make complextravel simple so you can do what
you do best.
Serve travelers, notspreadsheets.

(18:50):
Check out Captio.com for moredetails.
PayCompass is the leadingmerchant processor built
specifically for the travelindustry.
PayCompass makes it easy fortravel businesses to get
approved with high processinglimits, so operators and
agencies can scale withoutbarriers.
They deliver some of the highestauthorization rates in the
industry, backed by powerfulchargeback mitigation services

(19:11):
that protect revenue andreputation.
Plus, with tools like virtualcards, PayCompass helps travel
brands manage payments smarterand more efficiently.
Simply put, PayCompass isn'tjust a processor.
They're helping travelbusinesses grow stronger and
faster.
Got clients who want to travel,but none of their friends can?
Meet We Road, one of the hottesttravel scale-ups, named by

(19:33):
Financial Times back sifted FT,two years running among Europe's
fastest growing startups.
They create community-drivensmall group trips where about
90% start solo and come backwith new friends.
All departures arecoordinator-led and easy for
advisors to package becauseflights aren't included.
You own the air and add-ons.
Their trade program bringscompetitive commissions,
flexible holds, and toolkits.

(19:54):
Go to www.weero.com/slashwelcome-travel-advisor.

SPEAKER_02 (20:00):
And now, back to the show.
Many of our listeners would havebeen uh also listening to a
spotlight series we've just donewith Mind Trip, which is an AI
company that's focused on uhDMOs, destination management
organizations, and tourismboards.
But obviously, this is where youknow you are um around long
before AI.
So one of the things I wanted totalk about that I think would be
a great benefit to all of ourlisteners.

(20:22):
I mean, now understanding yourbackground and then how you
created GeoTourists, look wetalk about the journey that
you've been on with GeoTourist,and you mentioned you know
you've got content in 94countries.
Tell us a little bit about theexperience of the app itself.
I mean, I'm sure people will bedownloading it, and obviously
we've mentioned the website atthe beginning, and I've uh been
playing around with it to seewhat's in my hometown in

(20:44):
Toronto, and I was surprised howmuch content you have.
But tell us a little bit aboutwho's using the app today.
Like what are the countries thatare uh predominant in terms of
like uh source market, Isuppose?
Where where are you seeing themost activity?
And then I also noticed that youhad another development, which
is this uh uh Holo XR, Holox R,the you know hologram

(21:04):
technology, which obviously youwere ahead of the curve on when
you know the everyone wastalking about metaverse before
it became AI.
Uh so tell us a little bit aboutwhere you've gotten to with
GeoTourus app, who uses it, andand what are the, I guess, the
most um uh common utilizationsof it today?

SPEAKER_01 (21:22):
Yeah, so um it's a great question.
I think when we when we started,we wanted to make sure the
barrier to entry was as low aspossible.
Because the the kind of thevision behind it was that
everyone has really, you know,everyone has potentially great
stories that they can share.
And often what you what you haveis that um you you know we've

(21:46):
all had the experience wherewe've met somebody local and
then they tell us some storiesabout their experiences of
living in that location.
And those are often the onesthat are the most compelling.
And for Geotories, what wewanted to make sure is that we
had a way that we could capturethose stories by locals and of
community members, as well ashaving the kind of the official

(22:10):
kind of uh typical destinationuh led stories.
So um so the types of peoplethat have um left stories
include community groups, ofwhich, you know, and that's one
of our kind of you know thethings we're most proud of,
because often they they aren'tthe voices that get represented
um in a digital way um fordestination marketing.

(22:32):
Whereas we feel that's often thething that can drive people to
connect at a deeper level withthe destination.
So we get to work with, youknow, not just museums and
galleries, we get to work withcommunity groups, charities, um
niche, you know, niche types ofoutfits.
So in the US, for example,there's someone who's created a

(22:53):
tour of missile bases around hishometown.
We've got um an archaeology tourof, you know, I can't remember
50 or 100 points around Iowa.
Um we've, you know, there aretours of architectural tours
where you've had open housetype.
I don't know, there's a there'san organization in the UK called

(23:14):
Open House, and they haveanother one in America called
Doors Open.
So every year they have an o anopen day where you can enter
public buildings that for therest of the year you can't.
So we've represented that.
Um and so you know, the the thepoint is that there are lots of
different types of stories thatare available on here.
We have accessible tours forpeople who want to navigate

(23:37):
through places with a certainkind of uh route and you know,
understanding how to navigateum, you know, various
challenges.
Um, we've got some the other Ithink one of the other ones
we've kind of found um a sweetspot in is uh something called
screen tourism.

(23:58):
So when people uh watch filmsand TV shows, often those
locations will drive travel.
So we've become the home of alot of those stories.
So we've um been in in Scotland,for example, we're the official
platform for the Outlander map.
So the TV show called Outlander.

(24:18):
It's very popular in the US andand Europe.
Um and it's um we work with uhVisit Scotland to host their
official map of the of the TVshow.
But also there are some fangroups that have created their
own versions of tours.
Um, and that has led to a lot ofum kind of traffic.

(24:40):
And in fact, I think the the fangroups are driving much more
traffic than the official umVisit Scotland tour.
And the point is there is thatpeople can leverage the
technology and you know drivethat um you know, drive the that
story to the people that want,you know, want to access it.

(25:01):
So those are the types of umpeople that can benefit from
using it.

SPEAKER_02 (25:07):
It's really fascinating.
So tell us where you've gottento.
Obviously, that's great to havean understanding of who's using
the app and the journey you'vebeen on.
Tell us where the app stands in2025, especially as you
introduced the hologram.
Tell us about some of the newfeatures and functionality and
where GeoTourist is today.

SPEAKER_01 (25:22):
Yeah, so uh initially we had, you know, our
vision statement was we werelooking to build an audio map of
the world.
And um in the in the 10 years orthe 14 years that kind of um
happened after we kind of setthat as the vision, we had so
many people saying, What aboutvideo?
What about video?
What about video?

(25:43):
And when we put that out to um,you know, user groups for
feedback, you know, we'd getmixed responses.
So some people said, yeah, orkind of indifferent, or why
would we use your platform forvideo when we've got YouTube?
And others were like, you know,we don't want distractive
technology, we want immersivetechnology.

(26:05):
And so we kind of put it to oneside and we thought we're only
going to go into um visual uhtechnologies only when we're
when we're able to createsomething that is truly
engaging.
For us, the story is key, themedium by which it's delivered

(26:25):
can vary, and we've always beenkind of uh flexible about that.
But um, we always wanted tokeep, you know, we wanted to be
the home of human stories,right?
So we wanted to make sure thatpeople could create stories,
share them, and find a way forothers to kind of connect with
that.
In the last couple of years, myuh dev team have been working

(26:46):
and playing around withaugmented reality.
Um when the metaverse came out,we we couldn't really understand
why people would kind of spendtheir time, you know, locking
themselves away, going intothese uh, you know, these
virtual places.
Um but we do see the value ofaugmenting what's around you.

(27:08):
Um and there's various um kindof uh versions that have been
seen on TV and sci-fi showsbefore.
Um things like you know,Superman when he's speaking to
his, he's speaking to Jarel, hisdad, and there's a hologram that
pops up.
Um Star Wars, you've gotPrincess Leia pops up when
Arthur Dita shines the hologramon the ground.

(27:29):
Um, and then you have minorityreports, which um shows Tom
Cruise walking through ashopping mall.
It's a vision of the futurewhere he's wearing smart lenses,
and as he's walking through,there are various holograms that
pop up and speak to himdirectly.
They know who he is, they knowthat he's visited these shops
before.
And he's got this personalizedexperience of the world around

(27:50):
him, and that's essentially whatwe've created.
We've created this newtechnology called Holoxar, which
takes GeoTouries to the nextlevel.
So we haven't just mapped, youknow, we've we've gone beyond
mapping uh, you know, or youknow, building the audio map of
the world.
We're now putting people uh inlocations so that they can tell
stories and leveraging theadvances in uh generative AI to

(28:16):
personalize that experience andto create um unique knowledge
bases for specific kind of umlocations or attractions.

SPEAKER_02 (28:26):
Very interesting.
And I guess that's where youknow, for myself, I love
history, and obviously you'vegot architecture, and there's
you know, one of the things I uhlove about traveling, and I have
um chosen different tools asI've traveled.
Rick Steves is one of myfavorite uh uh travel guide
publisher of of all time.
Yes, exactly.
He's uh and uh so I often listento his podcast as I'm walking

(28:47):
around a destination likePrague.
Prague was actually one of myfavorite destinations to
explore.
And I just kept pausing it as Ias I stopped to appreciate I
I've often thought there's juststill a massive missed
opportunity here.
Um and so when you look at wherethe business stands today and
where you want to take it, tellus a little bit more about the
the the overall plans for thefuture of GeoTourists, because I

(29:08):
mean I'm sure obviouslyinvestment is one big component
given how expensive technologyis to develop.
But um and that's why I wasasking is who's utilizing it,
what are the use cases, who someof the partners are, because
clearly tourism boards, numberone, obviously they want people
to go to their destinations,learn more, and be able to
showcase all the amazing thingsyou can do in a destination.
But yeah, tell us a little bitabout where you see the the

(29:29):
future of GeoTours in the nextfew years.

SPEAKER_01 (29:32):
Well, I I mean the the idea is that we want to be
your personal guide to theworld.
So rather than building theaudio map to the world, we want
to be your personal guide to theworld.
So this is something that willunderstand who you are as a
traveler and what your interestsare based on the types of things
you engage with.
So um our kind of proxy that wemodel a lot of what we do is

(29:55):
YouTube.
So YouTube as a platform allowsopen access to everything.
So I can freely go onto YouTube,consume content about anything I
want.
So and the value exchange thereis that YouTube knows me as can
as a um consumer of content.
So they know that I love towatch travel content, they know
like I like to watch cookingcontent, they know that I like

(30:17):
sport.
And but they have a very basedon all the videos that I've ever
watched, and obviously peopleare watching, you know, dozens
of videos, if not more, um,every week, they have a DNA-like
profile of me as a uh consumer.
And obviously what that ha youknow what happens next is that
they then um can tailormarketing ads um towards my

(30:39):
interests.
And so that's something whichyou if you apply the filter of
travel and travel content andtravel movements, that's where
we're going next.
Um so understanding whatconsumers are interested in and
then using that to um thenconnect them with products and
services on the ground based onthe things that we know that

(31:02):
they are engaging with.
Because there's a lot of um uhmoney that's spent by
advertisers on demographics andwho people are, but often what
we've seen in our data is thatit what you do is much more
important.
So because we've seen whatconverts people from uh engaging

(31:22):
with the platform into realvisitors, we can see before they
travel that they are potentiallylikely to travel.
And we've been working with um auniversity in the UK to um use
our data to explore whether wecan predict if a person is
likely to travel to adestination next and apply
actual probabilities to thelikelihood that these people may

(31:44):
travel to destination X or Y.
And then with that knowledge,looking to see whether we can
then also nudge some otheroptions and suggestions to those
uh travelers.
Um and so we we feel there's ahuge amount of value for our
future in that knowledge.
So understanding where peoplemight go before they've actually

(32:05):
traveled.

SPEAKER_02 (32:06):
Very interesting.
And I guess that's where youknow your app is designed to be
uh utilized in destination.
I think that's one of the thingsthat you know stands out that
you know you can you know thereare ways to experience the
destination remotely.
Some people are embracing someof those tools, but the idea
that you can actually go to, andI guess I'll use maybe an
example of uh you know a Prenoracard, like a brand, a home, like

(32:28):
um let's use um uh uh Dublin asan example, like the Jameson
distillery.
So uh tell us in in thosescenarios where you're working
with partners that they want toensure that people discover
their local activities and andthen also in a way that can um
enhance the experience by havingsome sort of augmented reality

(32:49):
or you know, utilizing theGeoTorus platform to give you
additional insight, context, andbenefit.
So how does that work inpractice?

SPEAKER_01 (32:58):
So it's in in a couple of different ways.
So um from the inspiration stageof the journey, so before
they've gone to Dublin, so let'ssay they're in you know in
Toronto or London, they youknow, they they begin their
research.
So, you know, now I would say aa lot a large contingent of
people are using AI to createitineraries or to do some of the

(33:21):
research for them.
So they will say, you know, youmight say to Chat GPT or Gemini,
I'm planning a trip to toDublin, I'm gonna um be there
for a couple of days, and I'mreally interested in drinking
and you know, Guinness andfamous and whiskey, you know,
and uh, you know, and it willcreate an itinerary.
And the idea is that Geotouristexists as a platform, so if you

(33:45):
you know you might go on thereto find more uh content that's
created by local people or localorganizations in Dublin.
We can also plug in ourtechnology into other people's
sites.
Um and the reason you you knowan organization might do that is
because then they get the datato see whether something is
converting into a real visitor.
Right.
Um and so the idea is that fromthat stage you can see your um

(34:09):
who's interested, where youknow, where they are on the kind
of things that they the othertypes of things that they're
interested in.
And then when they're inlocation, then it comes into its
own because suddenly you have animmersive way to A, confidently
travel around that destinationand be guided to each of the
places that you want to go andsee.
Um, and then use you know, usingthings like the holograms, you

(34:31):
you can suddenly have really,really engaging narratives that
will say, Hey Dan, welcome toyou know Jameson, we want to
take you on a journey.
And it can be, you know, becausethey're holograms, they can be
the proprietor of thedistillery, or it could be a
local celebrity.
You know, the you know it'slimitless in terms of the types

(34:52):
of uh storytellings that that'spossible.
Um one of the things that we weknow with AI um it's possible to
kind of really create syntheticthings, but we think the the
real kind of engagement willhappen when you have real people
telling their real life uhstories and kind of that will
bring it to life.

SPEAKER_02 (35:11):
That's interesting.
Stories, things coming to life.
I think those are the thingsthat you know with technology.
I mean, I certainly see and I'lljust share my view on this,
which is that you know, itshould be an aid to the human
experience and not replace it inmany ways.
That's exactly what I think mostof us are looking for.
You still want that strongcultural connection, you still
want to taste that glass ofwhiskey.
You still like you want to, youknow, you you want to, at least

(35:33):
I do in my travel, you want toexcite all the senses.
That's kind of like you knowwhat's like so wonderful and
overwhelming about being in andnew destinations.
Um you really feel alive.
And uh and so uh one of thethings I'm keen to ask you
about, since you mentioned AI,and obviously that's you know
dominates every conversationtoday.
So I've actually deliberatelyheld off on discussing AI until

(35:55):
now.
Um, but how are you utilizing AIwithin GeoTours today?
And how do you see AI enhancingthe experience for your users in
in the the years to come?

SPEAKER_01 (36:07):
So I mean what was interesting is like I I think
the discussion around AI andtravel maybe started what two
years ago when ChatGPT firstkind of showed itself uh to the
world.
Um and the first thing that Isaw other providers like myself
looking at doing was usingutilising AI to scale the

(36:29):
building of content, because itwas much quicker to do that.
And we chose not to do thatbecause you know there's a
labour of love that's put intothe tools that um are on our
platform um and they're done byreal real people.
Where we use AI is topersonalize the the kind of the

(36:50):
narrative.
So, like I said, you could haveum you know a celebrity
welcoming you to London and theyall say, Hey Dan, welcome to
London, and then it will launchinto the uh the recorded
content.
Um in terms of the you know,with the uh holograms, there's

(37:10):
some AI that's used to kind ofum with the kind of the
visualization of um the theholograms.
Um so we use some technologiesaround that.
And then around the data, sounderstanding um we've got some
models which are looking at umhow to predict certain behaviors

(37:32):
and whether that's going to kindof guide people to certain
locations.
So we're using kind of machinelearning and AI there.
Um but that's kind of very earlystages because we're still
trying to scale out.
Um but yeah, yeah, earlyevidence is showing that we've
got some very highly predictiveuh data.

SPEAKER_02 (37:54):
Very interesting.
And I guess that's where thedata is one of the advantages
that incumbents have uh is thatyou've got data to draw from
that you can then you knowdetermine how people are using
the app and the and and andwhere you can build out
enhancements.
So um tell us a little bit aboutthe overall trends you're
seeing.
That's one of the things I'malso keen to get your take on,
since we're having thisconversation about

(38:15):
in-destination experiences andhow the consumer journey is
changing.
Clearly, you've seen that overthe better part of 14 years, and
here we are having thisconversation at the end of 2025,
going into 2026, and you know,um, you know, and we're three
years past the pandemic, andobviously that's when this show
started, was trying tounderstand what was the same,
what was different aboutconsumer behavior, and trying to

(38:37):
tap into the trends.
And I know our listeners arevery keen.
So if you, you know, as soon asyou said data, I'm like, that's
the sort of thing that I youhave access to the data of how
people are using it, and I'mvery keen to know what our
listeners can understand andbenefit from that.
So tell us, you know, just ingeneral terms, but also feel
free to reference anythingthat's uh related to GeoTourists
as far as where you think thetraveler experience is headed in

(39:00):
2026.
And I'll give one last uh caveatas we're having this
conversation because today theannouncement was coming out that
um the new meta glasses havearrived.
And uh uh incredibly, Facebookslash meta has had a great deal
of success with these Ray-Ban uhsunglasses.
And you know, there's been a lotof people that are uh concerned

(39:20):
about privacy and having acamera on your glasses to be
able to record things, but itseems like they've gotten way
cooler.
They're they're less um and Ithink this is where all of a
sudden I do think thistechnology will be better
utilized.
And I do see some people thatuse it that absolutely love it.
And so tell us a little bitabout what you're seeing, what
you're paying attention to, andwhere you think the traveler

(39:40):
experiences is heading in 2026.

SPEAKER_01 (39:43):
So um again, it's I mean, technology is moving
rapidly.
Um and I think what we're seeingis kind of a convergence of
certain technologies and youknow, AR glasses um are one of
those things that can reallyaugment or bring us closer to a

(40:03):
seamless experience of what'saround us.
Um and I think the interface,provided it it you know, it is
kind of immersive and not kindof uh onerous, you know, there's
not too much that it is requiredin terms of inputs.
I think from a user designperspective, what you want to
do, you're always trying to umensure that there's minimal uh

(40:26):
inputs from the user to get theoutputs that you're looking for.
And so um the glasses are a goodexample of that.
AI is a good example of that.
So generative AI, when you askit a simple question, it will
give you a whole essay on youknow whatever whatever you've
asked.
So minimising that need toeither have, you know, you know,

(40:47):
type something or you knowputting all of you know, putting
more input in, but getting more,you know, but putting what's
minimal in and um getting themost out, which is why the
natural language processing,when it understands what people
are saying and can give it a youknow a human type answer or

(41:07):
response, those are the thingsthat are gonna get the most
engagement and growth.
I think the other thing where Isee um some big uh kind of
transformations will be thingsthat remove barriers.
So I think is it in tomorrow orthe day after AirPods are gonna
release their live translationum AirPods.

(41:29):
And so what that will enablepeople to do who are wearing
them, it will enable them tolisten to someone speaking in a
different language and have thattranslated in real time.
Now, if you imagine two peoplewearing those, and that you
know, one person is from onecountry and another person's
from a different country andthey don't know each other's
language, what you'll have istwo people speaking their own
language and the other personseamlessly understanding that

(41:51):
and responding in their ownnative tongue, but you know,
they'll have a you know aconversation that feels
seamless.
And I think those are the typesof things that suddenly remove
the barriers to travel becauseyou may decide, you know, up
until now, you may have felt uhnot confident to travel to
places like, say, for UK, youknow, for Western travelers to

(42:14):
say Asia, because there's hugeum travel barriers.
And I know that thosedestinations spend lots of time
and investment trying to make itmuch more um accessible to you
know uh Western travelers.
Um this kind of technology isthe thing that will open the
doors to much more travel bylots more demographics.

(42:35):
Um, you know, Gen Zs andMillennials are using technology
much more for, you know, inevery part of their life, and
travel is probably one of thebiggest ones.
And so, you know, these toolsbecome an aid to facilitate
that.
Um so I think you're gonna see alot more of that kind of thing.
And you know, we can't reallyget away from AI.

(42:55):
AI, it the way I see AI um kindof doing the biggest
transformations are are in thethings for shortcutting.
So, you know, previously peoplewho wanted to travel somewhere
would have to go through thiswhole gauntlet of research,
booking, um, you know,arrangements, and AI can, you

(43:15):
know, shortcut that down to kindof a few prompts.
And so I think that's wherepeople will start to kind of um,
you know, that's kind of gonnabe a new behavior for travelers.
And I think, you know, we'reseeing that already, and it's
doing a lot of the work.
I think obviously there's beensome concerns around accuracy in
terms of the response.
Um, I think what will probablybe, you know, the answer to that

(43:38):
is where you'll have focused AIon certain things.
So, you know, if it's a specificdestination or a specific type
of kind of cultural theme, youmight be able to interrogate a
certain AI about that subjectand get very detailed, accurate
responses.
So I think we may see the growthof those types of solutions

(43:59):
going forward.
But I think anything that makesit removes friction from the
traveler experience is somethingthat will be adopted by most
people.

SPEAKER_02 (44:10):
So glasses and you raise an important point there,
and something that I think isone of the most exciting
developments from my point ofview, which is real-time
translation.
And I'm saying that from aperson that is, you know, uh
born in England, raised inCanada, and I, although I speak
some functional French, havinguh been uh gone through the
school system here, it's Quebeccrois French, which isn't uh

(44:31):
also uh with all due respect tomy uh all of my friends in
Quebec, it's not as useful onthe on the world stage,
especially in France, because Ialways get teased for my choice
for my word choice.
And um and I've struggled tolearn Spanish, and I just I do
not have a natural proclivity uhtowards language.
However, I love culture and I dolove language, but it's uh you

(44:51):
know, I'll use the example ofwatching uh foreign films, which
I think uh many of our listenerscan identify with exactly what
I'm gonna say here.
And you can even take probablylet's let's pick the most pop
culture example, um, which isyou know the um incredibly
successful Netflix uh series outof Korea.

SPEAKER_01 (45:07):
Squid Game, yes.
Yeah, it's exactly Squid Game,yes.

SPEAKER_02 (45:10):
No, Squid Games, yeah.
Well, and what I findfascinating about that is
because people argue aboutwhether or not you should watch
it in with um dubbed orsubtitles.
I mean, dubbed is a horribleexperience.
Subtitles is absolutely the wayto go.
And watching any show, likeNarcos, um, is another obviously
popular series.
It's a totally differentexperience to watch it in
Spanish with subtitles than itis to watch a dubbed version.

(45:30):
And I, you know, when I've beentraveling in the last couple of
years, I've been heavily usingGoogle Translate.
And I was in uh Panama last yearfor the Adventure Travel and
Trade Association conference,and I had a guide for the day,
and uh we used Google Translate,and he could express himself um
in the most dramatic way inSpanish, and I could understand
what, and then I would I wouldtalk back in in English to into

(45:51):
the Google Translate, and wewould have a much more
interesting conversation thaneither of us would have had in
broken English back and forth toeach other.
And I love this.
And I think all I could thinkwas, you know, I cannot wait
until this is real time and thatmy AirPods will be able to
translate.
And I know there's various toolsout there now that's just not as
uh not yet quite as accessibleas I think it will be very

(46:13):
shortly, um, to be able to havethose real-time exchanges.
And I couldn't agree with youmore.
Like that's a development in2026 that will truly change your
travel experience because nowboth sides can converse in their
own language that they'recomfortable with and be able to
have the full meaning of aconversation, which you know is
is only enabled by the virtue oftechnical like we've never had

(46:34):
that point, unless you had hadthe privilege of a translator,
you know, you've never, youknow, we've not had that
opportunity before, right?
Uh accessible to everybody.

SPEAKER_01 (46:42):
With with with glasses as well.
I mean, that I mean with GoogleLens, I mean obviously it was on
a phone to begin with, but thatcan also translate what you're
reading as well.
So when you're let's say you'retraveling and there's like road
signs and directions, withGoogle Lens, you can actually
just hold it over and it will dothe translation for you.
Imagine once that's plugged intoyour glasses and your, you know,

(47:04):
basically ever all of thebarriers have been then removed
and you can literally goanywhere in the world and talk
to anyone.
I mean, that's for me, that isthe equivalent of in the UK we
used to have when the mobilephones first came out, so cell
phones first came out, therewere I think four big providers.
And um but when they starteddoing um SMS, so short short

(47:29):
messages to each other, sobefore WhatsApp and all that,
you could text people, sendmessages to each other.
You could only send people tosend messages to people within
your own um provider, and thenand it was insane.
So you you know, if your friendwas on a different network, you
couldn't you couldn't messagethem, so it was ridiculous.
But then there was a stage wherethey opened the the doors to be

(47:50):
able to text each other withoutany additional, you know, you
know, prohibitive costs.
And suddenly you had aproliferation of um engagement
of people to people usingmessages.
And I think this is a similartype of thing that will change
the game in terms of it suddenlyremoves a massive barrier um and
allows people to consider placesthat they may not have otherwise

(48:11):
considered traveling to.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (48:12):
No, it's so fascinating, and I guess that's
where you know your platform andum you know the the the
potential is, you know, I thinkI would say um even greater
today than when you started it.
We'll be right back.

SPEAKER_00 (48:26):
Planning your next trip abroad?
Stay connected the smart waywith Olafly, the global leader
in eSIMs for travelers.
With coverage in over 200destinations and a 4.6 out of 5
trust pilot rating, Olafly isthe go-to for international
travel.
Forget fumbling with SIM cards,Olafly's eSIM activates
instantly with a QR code.
You'll be online in just twominutes with unlimited data and

(48:49):
no surprise roaming charges.
Whether it's a short getaway,frequent business travel, or
life as a digital nomad, Olaflyhas a plan for you.
Get started today atesim.olafly.com.
That's esim.holy.com.
In a world of endless traveloptions, how do you guarantee
quality?

(49:09):
The answer is curation, and it'sthe core of Civitadas, the
leading marketplace for globaltours and activities.
Instead of just more options,their promise is more quality.
Their experts handpick the bestfrom over 90,000 activities in
4,000 destinations worldwide,ensuring every tour meets the
highest standards of quality,availability, and price.

(49:31):
They focus this winning strategyon capturing the world's fastest
growing customer market,travelers from Latin America.
By connecting these travelers totheir global portfolio of
experiences in native Spanish orPortuguese, Civitatus creates
the powerful customer loyaltyyour business can count on.
Their model is a proven formulafor generating massive demand
and driving industry-leadingconversion.

(49:51):
For the travel trade, themessage is clear.
Partnering with Civitatus isyour strategy for capturing the
massive outbound Latin Americanmarket and turning their growth
into your revenue.
Visit Civitadas.com for moredetails.
Today, 65% of travel queriestrigger an AI overview.
If your brand isn't showing upthere, you're losing bookings.

(50:12):
It's that simple.
This is the new reality thatPropelic, the AI First Digital
Marketing Agency for Travel,helps brands master.
Their entire focus is ondelivering what matters
performance bookings, not justclicks.
They've done the research on howAI is changing everything from
search to purchase.
You can find theirgroundbreaking new report right
on their website.

(50:32):
And while you're there, joinover a thousand travel marketers
by subscribing to theirnewsletter, the Navlog.
Stay ahead of the curve.
Visit propelic.com.

SPEAKER_02 (50:42):
And now, back to the show.
To finish off, I just had acouple last uh questions for
you, and then we're going to doa quick rapid fire uh round of
questions to close off.
But um tell us where you thinkGeoTourist will be in 2030.
I mean, if you uh I know what,and again, that's we're moving
into pretty uncharted territory,and I I liked your uh

(51:03):
description um uh with regardsto not being just beyond audio
tours, but basically helping youplan.
But where where do you seeGeoTourist in the consumer
journey?
Like what is your ultimatevision to be realized here with
GeoTourist?

SPEAKER_01 (51:17):
So we've this with our technology, it's not just
about maps anymore.
It's not just about um pinning astory to a map, and then you're
walking, you know, it isgeofence story that activates
when you're there.
Now, what it is is that we cantake people through buildings,
you can look at a painting on awall in the gallery, and using

(51:38):
um AR glasses or using yourphone, the phone will recognize
what you're looking at, and thenit will activate uh the story or
the hologram to tell you moreabout it, and then it will
literally map your uh footstepsthrough uh buildings so that you
could have the most effective,efficient, and experiential um

(51:59):
you know, journey through placesthat you want to kind of spend
time in or go and explore.
And so and it's not just um saytravel um where the use case
lies.
I mean, obviously we we um whatI mentioned earlier the minority
report example, we've that's thetechnology we've created.
So there's a huge retail um usecase there.

(52:22):
And earlier this year when wedid a soft launch, we did a uh
conference.
So we uh there was a bigconference in the Middle East
where we um had all thedelegates using uh Holoxar
around the conference.
And when they arrived in the uhthe airport, there was a
hologram that greeted them, andit was uh by the host of the

(52:45):
conference.
So we created a hologram of herand she personally welcomed
everyone as soon as theyarrived, and then when they got
to the hotel room, they wouldscan, you know, they would they
would use their phone to look ata thing in the room, and then
the hologram would pop up andyou know, tell them about what
the conference itinerary wasgoing to be, and then they would
use it around the kind of theexhibition hall to be guided

(53:05):
from you know room to room, orif they scanned, say, a sponsor
logo, they would then be guidedall the way directly to the
sponsor's uh exhibitor table.
So, you know the use casepotential is that it facilitates
um you getting much more fromwhat's around you.

SPEAKER_02 (53:26):
Yeah, it's really interesting.
And the one other thing just tohighlight, too.
I know you speak at a lot ofconferences, so knowing that you
are gonna be continuing to be atthe biggest uh stages in the
world, like you were at TourismInnovation Summit.
I know we won't see each otherthere.
I know you're still planning outsome of your schedule, but just
to make sure that people knowwhere they can find you if they
want to reach out to youdirectly.
And then I've got a fewrapid-fire questions to finish

(53:47):
off.
But tell everybody a bit whereyou're gonna be um through the
end of 2025, any of the bigconferences, depending on when
people are listening to this.
So 26 for that matter.

SPEAKER_01 (53:56):
Yeah, so um the ones I know about are World Travel
Markets, so that's in London, sothat's easy for me to be at.
So I'm gonna be there for thethree days in November.
Um there's a question mark onTourism Innovation Summit at the
moment.
Um in the UK, we're hosting uhthe Tourism Management Institute

(54:19):
um annual convention.
So I'll be doing an AI workshopthere.
Um and that's as far as I knowfor this year.
I can't remember what else.
Um but if anyone wants to followme on LinkedIn, they'll find out
what I'm doing.
They'll know better what I'mdoing.
I was speaking at a creativeagency tomorrow, right?

(54:41):
Consulting in in the UK in CovenGarden.
So there's there's various onesthat come up and uh on my radar.

SPEAKER_02 (54:49):
Got it.
That's great.
Well, um, I certainly lookingforward because I've not seen
you present in person, butobviously you came highly
recommended, so I'll lookforward to seeing you on stage.
But let's do a few rapid-firequestions that hopefully will
also illuminate a little bitmore about you and how people
can use the GeoTourist app.
So the first one is if there'sone specific tour that you could

(55:11):
do or recommend to others onGeoTourists, which one would
that be?

SPEAKER_01 (55:18):
That's a really good question.
I mean, we have some celebritytours on there.
So if that floats your boat, sowe have some like Game of
Thrones actors, or um you know,these are kind of depending on
what you're interested in, thereare some interesting people on
there.
So um there's those types oftours.
I think the two that come tomind in terms of tours that

(55:40):
really made me think deeper.
There was one which was it areally obscure tour that we did
in partnership with the NationalTrust in the UK, and it was
about a local reservoir in inBirmingham, England.
And the reason it was uminteresting, it was it part of
the tour was narrated by a mumand her, I think she was like

(56:00):
three or four, likefive-year-old daughter,
something like that, young,young daughter.
And they were talking about whatthat reservoir and the walks
that they used to do um throughthat place that meant to them.
And it was a, you know, theywould have, you know,
mother-daughter time and theywould walk through and they
would kind of create thesenarratives and you know, explain

(56:21):
to the listener what, you know,why they felt that this location
was quite special.
So that was one.
Um the there's another one whichwas definitely it was on
Geotaurist, but I think therewas a it was built for one other
person.
So it was about a uh a guy whocreated this tour, um presumably

(56:42):
for his his wife stroke partner,and it was literally talking
about um moments, specialmoments in their lives.
So like um there was onelocation where they met and
where they had their first kissand when where they um where
they uh were like the doctor'soffice um where they found out
when you know when uh the wifewas pregnant or the partner was

(57:04):
pregnant.
Um and then basically this tourwas created, and then the I
think the last point was meet mehere.
So I think he'd designed thistour as a personal journey for
um for his partner.
And that's that really stuckwith me.
Um but I mean we we've got somereally, you know, really, really
um, you know, we're reallyprivileged to have like some

(57:24):
indigenous tours.
So like in in the US, we havesome native uh Indian tours.
Um so yeah, there's there's somereally, really kind of you
wouldn't find them anywhereelse.
And so those ones we're I'm youknow, I'm really proud of.
That was a good one.

SPEAKER_02 (57:39):
And what's the next destination that you're missing?
Yeah, that you're missing thatyou want to make sure gets
added.
Either you personally want totravel to and get onto
Geotourist.

SPEAKER_01 (57:50):
So we're on we're on six continents.
We want to be on seven.
I don't know whether anyone inAntarctica will do a tour, but
that's no that's that's um bythe by.
No, there's loads of places toadd.
In terms of my own personaltravels, I have yet to go to
South America, and it's been onmy radar for most of my life,
and like just it's just escapedme.

(58:11):
So traveling to say Brazil,Argentina, um, Paraguay, Mexico,
um just that whole region.
I mean, it's huge, obviously.
Um, I'd love to go there.
And Africa, Africa as well.
So two big continents that haveso much to offer.
Um, I mean, I've traveledextensively around Europe,

(58:32):
extensively around America andAsia.
Um, obviously, GeoTours was bornin Australia, so we had done
some travels around there.
But um, yeah, I've still havesome traveling to do.

SPEAKER_02 (58:43):
That's great.
And then uh when you're notusing the GeoTouras app and you
are traveling, what's your otherother go-to app or website?
Like what else do you leave thehome, leave home and you don't
want to travel without?

SPEAKER_01 (58:56):
Um so I mean, I think everyone uses YouTube as a
as a kind of a leisure tool aswell as a learning tool.
And I think there's, you know,it's it's an example of it's
it's whatever you want it to be.
And I think it's it's a greatmodel for understanding um
consumer behavior.
So YouTube is obviously upthere.

(59:18):
Um I'm using AI a lot more now.
Um, so I use uh AI Studio,Gemini, um, ChatGPT, because I
you know I'm getting my headaround some of the more deep
research type tools, which arereally, really powerful.
And I think there's a lot ofopportunity for learning there.

(59:41):
I mean, I'm using it all thetime now for learning, um,
whether it's industry stuff,whether it's kind of more
personal stuff that I want tolearn about.
Um, you know, I come from ascience background, so it's a
really interesting way to kindof do deep, deep dives into
certain things that you'reinterested in.
So Um yeah.
So those are the ones I wouldsay I use the most.

(01:00:05):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:06):
And if you weren't running geotourist or uh working
as an advisor to all of thesetourism organizations, what
would you be doing?
It sounds like you were apharmacist, so maybe would you
go back to that?
But what would you be doingotherwise?

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:19):
Look, if if if if money was no object, I'd
probably set up a restaurant andcook.
I love cooking.
Um I love eating.
I love cooking.
Um I don't know.
I love I love architecture, butI don't necessarily have the
skills.
So I know I can cook.
So that's something I I woulddo.
I look I love traveling.

(01:00:40):
I I would do I would travel ifif if money was an object, I
would take my family around theworld.
And it may well happen that thatbecomes the way of life going
forward once AI takes everyone'sjobs.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:53):
Yeah, true enough.
Well, you go, like you could beinspired by Anthony Bourdain and
uh and just cook and travel theworld.
So I think that's that that'scertainly the ideal lifestyle
for me, not cooking, butactually um eating my way around
the world.
I guess maybe that would be partof it.
Yes, indeed, exactly.
Uh well, um it's been a realpleasure to meet you.
I've thoroughly enjoyed ourconversation.

(01:01:15):
I just want to finish by uhmaking sure that people can find
out where to connect with you,get more information.
Obviously, I'll include a fewdetails in my outro here, but
yeah, uh just want to give youthe last word to make sure that
people can find you, connectwith you, and learn more about
GeoTourus.
So, where would you encouragethem to go?

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:31):
So um Geotouris.com.
So Geotaurus.com is the mainsite.
We have apps on Apple Store andAndroid or the play Google Play.
Um I'm on LinkedIn and so isGeotaurus.
So if you want to connect withme, do reach out.
Um, I'm writing a book which iscoming out next year, hopefully,
on AI and uh travel technology.

(01:01:52):
Um so hopefully that will happenprobably the first half of next
year.
So look out for that.
Um yeah, that's that's where Iam.
And if ever if anyone's ever inLondon, uh do reach out.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:05):
Perfect.
That's great.
Well, a real pleasure to meetyou.
Thanks for joining us on theTravel Trends podcast, and I
look forward to keeping intouch.
No, thanks for having me.
Thanks so much for joining us onour latest episode of Travel
Trends.
I really hope you enjoyed theconversation today with Shaun
Thulikdar, the founder and CEOof GeoTourists.
And I hope you enjoyed ourentire part two of our
in-destination experiencesbrought to us in partnership

(01:02:28):
with our friends over at PurneauRicard.
If you want to find out moreabout their brand homes, check
out Purneau-Ricard.com.
Now, our next episode is goingto feature another true captain
of industry, one of theco-founders of Get Your Guide
and the Chief Operating Officer,Tao Tao.
I had an amazing conversationwith him that I cannot wait to

(01:02:50):
share with you next week.
So please make sure that you aresubscribed on the streaming
platform of your choice.
And don't forget, we do postclips and highlights from all
these conversations on oursocial channels.
And you can also sign up for ourmonthly newsletter at
traveltrendspodcast.com.
Until next week, safe travels.