Tech, Travel, and Twang!
Come for the thoughts, stay for the tea. The co-founders of Destination Innovate, Jennifer Barbee and Kristen Cruz brew up the latest industry tea every Tuesday - diving into simmering issues, hot trends, and special guests. Grab a cup and let’s spill the tea!
Tech, Travel, and Twang!
Tuesday Tea Ep. #1 | Magnesium Water and Maximizing the Individual Experience
Discover the transformative power of wellness tourism and its impact on mental health to kickoff our Tuesday Tea series! We'll share our personal wellness routines, from sipping magnesium water to taking mental health days, and discuss how self-care is becoming more accepted in the workplace thanks to the rise of remote work. Take time with us to reflect on why prioritizing mental well-being is essential for both personal satisfaction and effective teamwork.
We explore the resilience of the travel industry amid economic and societal challenges. Hear about how travel is increasingly seen as a vital escape from daily pressures, and the unique hurdles faced by Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) leaders. There's hot tea to spill on our upcoming Travel + Transformation Think Tank and Retreat! We'll also highlight a shift in vacation preferences towards personalized experiences through short-term rentals and the innovative retreat concepts that are gaining popularity in the wellness tourism sector.
Get nostalgic with us as we unpack the cultural comeback of Eminem and his clever appeal to Gen X, and share the excitement for movie reboots like Beetlejuice. We'll also explore the nuances of generational identity and the joy of introducing classic films to younger audiences. Plus, we notice a trend towards cooler travel destinations to beat the summer heat. Don't miss our new series where we spill the tea on the latest trends every Tuesday, and be sure to share your ideas for future episodes with us!
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The Tech, Travel, and Twang Podcast is hosted by Co-Founders, Kristen Cruz and Jenn Barbee with Destination Innovate. Learn More! https://destinationinnovate.com/about/
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Well hell, welcome back to Tech Travel and Twang. Well, hi there, welcome back to Tech Travel and Twang. This is our Tuesday Tea Editions. I'm here with Kristen Cruz. Hey, kristen.
Speaker 2:Hey Jen.
Speaker 1:Happy Tuesday, because Mondays suck.
Speaker 2:Happy Tuesday yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited about this new segment we're doing.
Speaker 2:I am too. I love the idea of dishing, you know, kind of keeping it all in like a little, you know, a format that makes sense for all the, all the things we learned throughout the week. So I love the idea of doing a Tuesday tea. I think it's fun.
Speaker 1:I love it. So first question up is is there actually tea in your mug?
Speaker 2:Okay, so I have. I do have like my magnesium water in here. It's kind of like a tea, but it's a little bit more water than tea. Um, this is probably the one healthy thing I do in the morning is like drink my magnesium, and I'm still working on it. So obviously it's not the doesn't taste the greatest, but magnesium. For you, if you didn't already know that, I love it.
Speaker 1:I love it and that kind of runs into our first, our first segment of hospitality. And, uh, this week we want to talk about wellness and coming off of mental health awareness month, how wellness tourism is is spiking and I know, I know you've been on a journey of just getting healthier, which I commend and I try to follow, but I can tell you right now this is monster energy drink in this cup.
Speaker 2:That's so funny. I feel, like I talk a big game when it comes to like health and things like I do. I feel like I have a pretty good routine. Got my skincare regimen on point, I feel like, and know, so that's obvious um, but I think otherwise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like coming off a mental health awareness month. I think we should all just check in with each other like how, how is your mental health, these, you know. Like coming off of the month where it's like top of mind, like how are we doing, you know, is our, is our mental wellness in check? How are we feeling? I feel like this is beyond, like just obviously there's a month to celebrate and all the accomplishments we've made and what we're wellness travel is going, but it's always good to check in. Right, it really is and I love that.
Speaker 1:I love the pack that you and I made that we do for ourselves and also our team members, which is, you know, no question asked. Can't anymore days Like just text me in the morning can't anymore, got you, get off, take care of yourself. I think those things are important because you know we still have sick time and these sort of things and I just think that's such an outdated concept. Sometimes you just don't know and you need that break, you need that mental health piece of it. So we try to be and obviously we all work from home so we try to be as flexible as possible, because maybe you need to go take a walk at two o'clock in the afternoon and that's totally cool.
Speaker 2:It's totally cool, it's, it's and it's extremely important to be self aware, so you know when you you need to step away, and that I think that's where this trend in the industry is is happening is you find that there are more and more people that are willing to say, okay, I need to step away for a few days. I need to not just step away, but I need to go somewhere. I need to go somewhere to either disconnect, push the reset button, just unplug or whatever. That need is where you feel like you need to go reset mental health and, like you know, kind of get back in tune with yourself.
Speaker 1:That's obviously showing in the trends, in the travel trends absolutely take advantage of that travelers are growing, um, just specifically for wellness tourism, domestically too, which you see, usually see a lot of that international, you know, with retreats and so forth. But domestically is growing, which you see, usually see a lot of that international, you know, with retreats and so forth. But domestically is growing at a almost a 13% growth driven rate year over year, because there's so many reasons we could talk about societally but like we're tired and we're burned out and we don't know when the next thing's going to change or the next shoe's going to drop or the next crisis pops up. So we you know travelers are taking taking control of that with wellness tourism and again I think it's a lot more acceptable.
Speaker 2:Like more there are more and more in leadership roles who are saying take care of yourself you know, take your time off yeah, like, use your vacation days, don't don't.
Speaker 2:We're not trying to burn each other out.
Speaker 2:You know, in terms of how we work together and how we collaborate with each other, we all need each other to be well in order for our team to function the way that it should function, and so I think, just collectively, we're taking better care of each other in the workforce, you know, especially with remote work. So I think that it continues to show in the trends and it also, I feel, like the just wellness aspect in general, just outside of just traveling, just, you know, putting that time and that effort and that investment aside to do things consistently for yourself, whether that's investing in, you know, a certain brand of skincare that you know works really well for you, or getting that massage every few weeks, or whatever that is. I think people are willing and it shows in the trends are willing to put more, more effort aside for it, and it's extremely important and it's definitely you feel it like when you work with people that take care of their mental health and they're very self aware of how that affects. It makes a world of difference.
Speaker 1:It's a really good point about it becoming more acceptable from a, from a work in a business aspect, Like if you want your people, your team, to be at peak performance, which we do, then it's not the hustle and pressure environment anymore, it's not the 80s, you know, it's definitely a more holistic look, which I know we have been also experimenting in how moods matter in the tourism industry and you know how we create spaces, you know, for our colleagues that way too. So that's been super interesting to to explore and to go down for us. But. But wellness tourism is definitely on the rise. I saw KLM just launched a travel well campaign, which means more luxury but is also kind of that double entendre of how to travel. So we're using it in their branding as well. Like it is really a growth market there.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and even in some of the stuff that Skift is putting out on some of the summer travel trends and just travel trends for 2024 and beyond, the solo travel is on the rise and how people are looking at taking, you know, traveling by themselves, which is not, you know, not your typical way of travel, but doing so so that they can, kind of they can focus on themselves and they could also meet people along the way, that sort of enrich their relationships you know, Um, and it's such a just it's.
Speaker 2:It's fun, it's also scary. I don't think I've ever traveled outside of work, like I've never actually taken like a trip just by myself to like leisurely go someplace. And I don't know if there are a lot of people like me who haven't really solo traveled, or if there's, I think there are.
Speaker 1:There are, but it's becoming like a bigger appetite because, especially with women, you know, who have older children and are suffering from that superwoman syndrome, I think that's where the trend, where I've seen the trend, really rising, is you know what this season and you have this on your Facebook Actually, this season is called me, my turn, my turn. There you go Actually this season is called me, my turn, my turn. There you go, my turn After a block.
Speaker 2:It's called my turn and I feel like, too, when I am an official empty nester and we can just like do what you know, kind of make our schedule and do what we want, you, betcha, I'm going to be out there, I'm going to be like I told my kids mom is going to be everywhere, because it does feel like it's a lot easier to do and a lot less scary. I feel like schedule wise, you know, and that sort of thing, but that's definitely you're seeing that more and more in some of the research. Is that uptick in solo travel?
Speaker 1:well, I think that solo travel is also yeah, just speaks to the mental health piece of that too.
Speaker 1:And you know, look at this whole thing, as you've got to put your, you know your face mask on first before you help somebody else.
Speaker 1:So there is just such a because of other things that we can't control, that we can't, you know, on an individual basis, have any effect on, like the economy, like the price of milk, like the price of gas, and I could go on and on the things that we can control ourselves in our mental state, and whatever happens between your ears is your own business. So I think people are going to where they can control things, which is also like a side benefit, kind of some lanyard of that mental health and our mental health improving completely absolutely. But, yeah, with those personalized vacations too. Also, I noticed on Skift that rise which applies to solo travel but also smaller group travel. People aren't wanting to do the normal thing that you know, whatever's in the box, the pre-thought itineraries. They're hiring private drivers instead of you know group tour in some cases, or they're doing that on a small group basis as well, like bachelorette parties. Those things are really more personalized travel I've noticed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it makes a lot of sense too, because in a lot of ways you're getting away to get away from a structured schedule and having to be at a certain place by a certain time to do a certain thing that ends at this time, and then you know, like structuring travel and not being able to be flexible and, just you know, be spontaneous, it can feel not like a vacation. And so that makes a lot of sense that you'd want to have that flexibility and have a little bit more of your own schedule and just kind of go with the flow.
Speaker 1:I'm really encouraged to see that summer travel is going to hit well I hate to say the word pre-pandemic levels, because we say this way too often. I'm kind of tired of that phrase by now. But actually summer travel looks bigger than ever. So I'm super excited for our destinations but also our travelers in that aspect. And you know, know they're taking. The travelers are telling us now what they want, just kind of like some of those things we hit on. But also there's sleep cations.
Speaker 1:There's cool cations like travelers love I know, well, you know, that's the thing I love the fact that you know we've become kind of this buzzword, create your own word society where they tell us what the trend is and even give it a name Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and it goes to show that travel is just one of those industries, it's just one of those areas where you know we could be just burning down around us, right, Just like things are just like happening on dumpster fires to the right, to the left, and we're still going to plan our travel, Okay, we're still going to put that money aside and go. Look, I know groceries are more expensive this week, but we have got to get away, we have got to go somewhere, and so it's encouraging to see that a lot of what else is happening. You know we're in an election year. Economy, inflation, all of that continues to be a topic of mainstream media and again, like we're all you know, we're all on the edge, right, we're all waiting to see what things might happen, but at the end of the day, we're still prioritizing, even if it's little spurts, even if it's three or four day weekends, a lot more consistent.
Speaker 2:Consistently, we're getting away, we're making that time we're spending that money and it goes to show that, at the end of the day, travel is considered part of your mental health. It's considered part of your wellness. Journey to get out, do new experiences, meet new people and take care just check that necessary box of just walking away from the stress of life, enjoying yourself for a little bit of time and coming back to it. So travel we're going to. It's just a good industry to be in when it comes to. We're going to all the time.
Speaker 1:It is, and I think we're more creative and more productive when we think that way, which is what I love that we've created with this little retreat and think tank for the industry. Quick little plug here, because we've been thinking about this and kind of in the lab, in the kitchen, whatever you want to call it developing like, how do we you know DMOs? We forget that this is, you know, a very compressed position. There's a lot of extra things that have to happen all the time. It's a very stressful place to be. You don't just have one boss, you know, you have your boards, you have your stakeholders, you have your residents. It's a never ending opinion fest. So you know, in these conferences just continue to kind of regurgitate the same death by PowerPoint session that I see over here here, that I see over there. We're like you know what, if we could create something that did mind, body, spirit and tourism industry development. So more think tanky environment, that's going to be super exciting. I cannot wait.
Speaker 2:No, and it's. I am thinking about what DMO leaders need. We've been in the industry for so long now. We've I felt like we've seen so many scenarios.
Speaker 1:We've seen.
Speaker 2:DMO leaders have to walk away from their position because it's the stresses and the amount of pressure was just not not what they wanted. You know, and rightly so, there's an amount of pressure and amount of stress that you can take and then there's that point where you're like, ok, for my mental health, I need to walk away. But also, you know, we've seen there's just so much understanding, I think, now of what DMO leaders need in this, at this point in our careers, and a lot of it is that collaboration, it's the conversations they have, and a lot of it is that collaboration it's the conversations they have. It's not necessarily the session material at a conferences that we hear.
Speaker 2:It's the conversations, it's the sidebars, it's the hey, I haven't talked to you in five or six years, you know, or whatever that looks like. What have you been up to? What are you hearing? What are you seeing? It's those check ins that make a lot of sense for our DMO leaders to kind of gut check. You know, you all, we. It's a lot like you said, it's a you're cut, you're getting direction from so many different people and you're having to appease so many different people and organizations at the same time. So what path do you take? And sometimes you need your, your support system. You need your other DMO leaders. You need your, your support system. You need your other dmo leaders. You need your other industry people to kind of gut check with occasionally, like how are you handling this or how have you seen this happen?
Speaker 1:um, and creating with yourself and, yeah, yeah, to check in with yourself and some, you know, personal development as well, which can be, you know, in the way of sound healing. It could be in the way of attention setting, vision, questing. Those are the kind of things that I think we're creating spaces for which, again, I think it's going to be something super special.
Speaker 2:It's extremely important and again, it's saying invest in the area that you feel like makes the most sense for you. The area that you feel like makes the most sense for you. If it's not necessarily to go and spend time with yourself and spend time with your peers and do that, then do it in a in a travel way, do it in a, you know, find, find your space to create your own wellness retreat. If it's not this, it's that, but just, you know, be cognizant of it. I think that's, I think that's the message to be cognizant of those things that you need to do to kind of consistently, you know, work on your wellness. That's a really, really important right now.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And coming off the Skift article piece of it too last piece of news from that no big surprise. Short-term rental demand is still increasing. Oh yeah, it's been a big, a big debate lately whether it would be or not, you know, coming out of the pandemic. But people again back to personalized vacations. You can't really get that in a hotel room, the same room you've seen since 1950. So the personalized vacation trend does not surprise me. That affects that short-term rental trend as well.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. And Airbnb has a huge campaign right now where they are directly saying you want to be in this space versus a hotel. Like this is the experience you want to have versus being in a hotel room, and there's a lot of that. I mean, I think that there is so much, there's so much demand now, but there's also so much inventory Like there are. There are so many more opportunities to stay in some really amazing places in so many more destinations than there were. Pandemic or read it even right after.
Speaker 1:So it's really expanded.
Speaker 2:It's a huge. It's going to continue to be something that we deal with from an from an industry perspective, because you still have to take care of your hotels. That's where a lot of the funding comes in. You still have some. You still have a lot of work to do with the short-term rental factor being a level of funding for a lot of DMOs. There's just so much work and it's going to take a while to get there where we're looking at the holistic picture.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I can't imagine that ever, and I can't imagine that anytime soon being something that we see shift.
Speaker 1:No, it's become a new normal. We talked about new normal forever, but that is definitely a new normal. Yeah, absolutely Awesome. Well, there's some other pop culture tea that we kind of kind of curated for us to talk about today, and we'll come off the wellness part and then we'll talk TikTok. But speaking of the wellness and those pop culture things, didn't you see, is it Hallmark doing something kind of destination hospitality? Oh my gosh, hallmark doing something kind of destination hospitality.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Well, this crosses into some opportunity that we've talked about.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:I, you know I am, uh, uh. I have to confess that I'm a little bit of a Hallmark junkie, which not a lot of people like to say, but love cheesy, corny, hallmark movies. Okay, and there's a whole group of people like me out there. Okay, there's a lot of people out there and just okay.
Speaker 2:So hallmark is doing an experience christmas hallmark sort of experience um in kansas city for their first time ever this year, happening in November and December, where they're basically taking over this portion of downtown Kansas City and they're transforming it into what I would imagine to be like walking into a Hallmark Christmas movie. It is very much like yeah, it's a very immersive experience, but they're bringing to life various aspects from different Hallmark Christmas movies, which is like that very Hallmark Town feel, with your shops and your tree lightings and your reindeer games and like all of the corny Christmas stuff that Hallmarkies love. But they're doing it for the first time downtown Kansas City and I feel like you know, obviously there's a lot of like pop culture with this, but there's also a lot of opportunity that we really haven't seen Kansas City truly take advantage of. In that this is a huge thing. Like I jumped on immediately, I went on, went to the group on Facebook, just hopped on. A whole bunch of stuff on Instagram, just started following everywhere I could. Whole bunch of stuff on Instagram, just started following everywhere I could. And the demand, the response it's a frenzy. It's a frenzy about this experience. Very cool, Something that I think a lot of other destinations could do.
Speaker 2:Hopefully it's not just in Kansas City. Maybe they do some sort of activation in other destinations, which would be kind of cool. I know that's been this way for a long time. But you can, as a DMO, if you feel like your destination has that Hallmark-y vibe you know that small town charm vibe you can submit your destination to potentially be chosen for a future Hallmark production. Wow. So if you feel that way and we see this all the time, especially in some of our small town areas of our of the DMO world we see where people describe their, their holiday downtown is very Hallmark vibe, Hallmark-esque. Send your, send your destination, yeah, yeah, Put it in the, put it in the hat, put it in the put it in the hat um.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I thought that was fun.
Speaker 2:Obviously I have a very like my, my sense of personal, like I just want to like put me in coach, like what can I do to help you?
Speaker 1:you hear, that Kansas City yes, or at Hallmark.
Speaker 2:Look, there is so much opportunity Call me. Why did that email actually? I love that.
Speaker 1:I love that that's such a good little study too for tourism, because there's no doubt people who are not even into Hallmark, they still know what that Hallmark Christmas vibe is and who's not into Christmas. So you know that also is smart for Hallmark to cross over to the non. You know Hallmark people. But also again, that's going to have definitely have an increase in tourism.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely, absolutely. I love it.
Speaker 1:I love it. That's a really, really, really cool one. And um, so over in tiktok land, we'll talk about some non-hospitality pop culture stuff going on. I think I texted you this weekend. Um, so there's been this, and I'm the opposite of like quit tiktok because they're threatening to ban it. I'm like doubling down, I am yeah, but um, so there's been this kind of you know, gen x was became real hot on tiktok, like during the pandemic, because they didn't have anything to do and they got their little stick up and then they started kind of disappearing. So there's been this trend going on, like where is gen x? Like they're the, they're the reason for all these problems too. So they're calling gen x. And then who woke up? Slim shady?
Speaker 2:on friday I saw because you, because you sent it. You were like meant to send this to y'all yesterday. I'm like, why is jennifer sitting meaning to send me eminem music videos? I had to watch the whole.
Speaker 1:That was like, oh okay, I get it now which which again is like pop culture within pop culture, because what he did so smart was first off, they're calling out Gen X and he's like all right, that is me, mic drop number one. But he, you know, he weaved in so many other things too, like how we're so obsessed with. I think he was literally singing this for probably Gen X moms, because he weaved in some true crime in there anyway. Did you notice that?
Speaker 1:I picked up on that for sure Sherry Papini, which is a whole other thing that kind of went off the summer documentary wise. But yeah, and so then, and then I found out that Gen Z's big mad about Eminem coming back.
Speaker 2:Are they? I haven't checked in with the Chinzay.
Speaker 1:Oh, I did. When we were grilling yesterday, I had Houdini on repeat just to irritate them.
Speaker 2:Oh, no, I love it.
Speaker 1:So you know, and I don't know how that connects back to hospitality in any way it probably doesn't, but just like it's interesting in any way. It probably doesn't, but just like it's interesting. It's more for me like, when I look at those things culturally, I'm like what are the act? What's it activating from a psychological, generational standpoint? Because except for marketers, nobody ever really talked about generations, like my kids certainly didn't know what generation they were in, or anything like that it was only for us in media and targeting right, so we were really talking about generations.
Speaker 1:But now it's like a thing people talk about all the time. My youngest said you know, I looked it up and technically I'm not a Gen Alpha, I'm a Gen Z because I was born in 2012. And I'm like no, I don't think, how do you? And she's like yes, so like they're identifying self-wise.
Speaker 2:I was going to say it's an identifier now it's a way that you identify and a lot of people use it, like in their intro conversation, like hey, I'm on, we're on our first date. Like, oh, I'm Gen Z, oh, I'm a you know like.
Speaker 1:How is that like the signs from the 70s baby?
Speaker 2:exactly and people still are asking that. Well, here's my sign I'm an Aries, you're what you know. It's like it's, but it's one of those like identifiers like you gotta check that box so people kind of know where you, where you fit, and it's back to personalization, it's back to a personal brand, and our personal brand extends to our social brand.
Speaker 1:I mean andy warhol, who knows why. He was right that we all have our 15 minutes, because how we identify um generation, by preferences, by the way we travel, by the way we, you know mother, are we a crunchy mom? And I think it's because, just overall our identity, you know, that's where our real pride comes from in a lot of ways. So I think we're we're learning more about ourselves, we're identifying differently for ourselves.
Speaker 2:So I think that's the only like marketing takeaway I could say from Slim Shady being back is it's just another like generation identity thing it is, and it also is one of those where you feel like you find your people right, so, like it pulls, it pulls your people together and you feel like you have your little, your little community. Yeah, exactly, it makes a little bit of relevancy back into it. There's so many little aspects, but yeah, I see what you're saying it was.
Speaker 1:It was pretty fun to watch though I know, oh, and also what's also big and again we'll go generation. Here is how people are flipping out over the Beetlejuice trailers.
Speaker 2:I'm one of the people flipping out. I was also one of the people flipping out over the Ghostbusters trailers when they came back not this last one, but the, but the first one. But I wasn't as impressed with this last one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it wasn't as great.
Speaker 2:I don't know, even though it was like the whole gang's every I don't know, I don't know, I don't know it was, there was something that wasn't as good. The fetal juice better come through, cause I'm planning like a whole thing.
Speaker 1:I am planning, of course you are.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to make my kids, cause they're going to be, I'm going to make sure they watch the original, like they've got that thing locked down, cause that's what I did with the first Ghostbusters. I did not introduce the original Ghostbusters movies to Royce when I took him to the movies to watch the reboot and he was so lost in like who was what and why that mattered.
Speaker 2:And he was like, what does that matter? And I'm like, oh man, I have really failed you. I really should have introduced the others. But yeah, I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I make my kids go back and watch everything except for John Hughes movies, which I love, but like do not age well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is true, oh, I know, but yeah, beetlejuice would be fun and I think too there's this whole. There's a seasonality aspect to the industry that is very prominent in the fall and holidays Because of the again, the cool-cations Going back to some of our trends that we're seeing. People don't want to travel as much in the summer Because the good chunk of this well, us-wise is so remarkably incredibly hot and just it's very frustrating to travel in the heat these days. So cool occasions essentially, where people are traveling to more northern parts of the country in the summer or planning their travel in the fall and holiday season because they don't have to deal with a whole bunch of heat is becoming more normal. They don't have to deal with a whole bunch of heat is becoming more normal. So you know you can get away with, like putting together some sort of itinerary in the fall that has really cool fall nostalgia added to it and you've got the cool theater in your destination that's showing Beetlejuice. Wrap it all together you know, like make it feel like a cool fallcation.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Or if you want to push summer travel, like, focus on the indoor aspect of it. So you know, even though Minneapolis and Minnesota doesn't get as hot as Phoenix, arizona, you know I might still use the skywalks to go in between things when I'm traveling, just to stay comfortable. So you know, if you're thinking about summer travel in your destinations, think about comfort.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. And also consider that everyone's watching the weather Everyone kind of has a gist of. You know, if summer travel was a big thing several years ago but it's a lot more seasonally warm and irritating in the summer in your destination. Then save a little bit of that effort and and kind of adjust 've got to adjust climate-wise like we adjust for other things. But if it's easier and you have similar assets and you have some experiences that you can push a little later, later summer, also think about how to reallocate some of that effort and some of those funds to do so.
Speaker 1:Well, we have to think year-round for a lot of reasons too, not just climate change, and before it was more. Like you know, it's all summer travel and no other times but not just from a climate standpoint, but also from a remote worker standpoint, from the fact that people are a lot more flexible. I think you do have to think year-round.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have to think that too. I think the other thing to really consider is the change of schooling and how there are a lot more homeschoolers these days, especially since 2020. And also how the school districts and how various schedules are becoming different. You know we have schools now that are going to four day school weeks in certain districts to open up more long weekends. It changes that summer schedule. There's a shorter summer but there's more breaks throughout the year. There's two week long breaks in fall and three weeks in holidays and not as much summer. So there's so much evolving. All of that is like you said it's, it's on the table.
Speaker 1:Gotta look at it from a whole annual perspective and I think that, just like to me, ties a bow around all of this being, uh, wellness, individuality and that sort of piece of it. I think it does come back to personalized travel and individualized taste and what people are identifying as in terms of their social media culture and those sort of things. I think this all comes back to. You know, take care of the person and that'll take care of the destination Absolutely, which is kind of like I'm going to tie the end of our bow around our travel and transformation. Think, take and retreat. One of the reasons we did that is we're taking care of the individual so they can come back and take care of the destination.
Speaker 2:And their people too, exactly.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Exactly. Well, thanks for joining me, Kristen, on our first. Thanks for spilling the tea.
Speaker 2:We'll be back again on Tuesday, again next week, to spill more tea. Obviously we're keeping up with all the trends, but if you guys have things that you want to throw in like we always welcome topics or things that you want to hear us chat about or get more into or whatever that looks like definitely engage in Linda Snow awesome, awesome, definitely engage and let us know, awesome, awesome.
Speaker 1:So now it's time for you and I. We got to get back to work.
Speaker 2:Back to work. We go Bye.
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