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. #5 | Foodie Journeys and Financing Your Next Vacation
How does the passage of time transform our travel experiences, especially in an age of evolving educational schedules and technological shifts? Join us on Tech Travel and Twang for an insightful exploration into the rising trend of taking on debt for vacations and how services like Affirm and Klarna are making travel more accessible.
Ever had a flight ruined by an unruly passenger or outdated airline systems? We share our own air travel frustrations, from a disruptive flight from San Francisco to the inefficiencies plaguing various airlines, and discuss the growing anxiety many feel about flying. We compare the headaches of air travel with the trials of road trips and consider how these challenges might shape future tourism trends. Plus, we vent about the endless spam and marketing calls we all endure, especially during election periods, and ponder their impact on our peace of mind.
If you're a food lover, this episode's for you! We dive into the world of foodie-based travel, where the quest for the perfect meal becomes the journey itself. Hear our personal tales, like Drew's hunt for the ultimate rib and the magnetic pull of a famous breakfast taco. We also explore how social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram are elevating small, local eateries to viral fame. Finally, we tackle the emerging trend of age-restricted restaurants, debating the pros and cons of these policies and the importance of teaching etiquette and financial literacy in schools. Don't miss this engaging mix of travel tales, tech talk, and tantalizing food adventures!
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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. Welcome back to Tech Travel and Twang, our Tuesday tea edition. I'm Jen Barbie with my co-host, kristen Cruz. Hi Kristen, hello Jennifer Barbie, and we are here staring at August in 2024. Can you believe it?
Speaker 2:I'm so just, I'm just baffled at how fast this year, actually this month, like where did July go? That's true, right, it actually did start off as like the slowest month ever, because the kids are home from school, so it's like summer and it's like you know, for those of us that work from home it's like you know, a circus. But then all of a sudden it was like boom, we're done with July and I'm like wait, I wasn't ready, that's crazy and we were talking a little earlier and you're talking about your kids running around.
Speaker 1:I'm like why are they out of school today? I keep forgetting.
Speaker 2:Your kids. We have like eight years of summer and your kids have like eight minutes of summer. It's really weird. Between that and then the weirdness that we have to deal with when daylight saving time rolls around is just you know crazy.
Speaker 1:It is. You know, crazy it is, but you know, I think there's going to be more schools doing the kind of slightly year-round like we are here in Arizona, which could be really good for the travel industry because it flattens a lot of you're not trying to get everything into summer because you don't have that much summer but you have all these long breaks during the year.
Speaker 2:I, I know I wish, I really do wish that we had more, because who wants to travel in the majority of the country? It's like one hundred and ten degrees, you know, like it's not. We need a fall break. Like I need to figure out how I go and advocate for this, this freaking date, to do more fall breaks.
Speaker 1:Because that fall break is my is my favorite break breaks because that fall break is my is my favorite break. They get two weeks off in fall and two weeks for spring, but the fall one's the best because it's October, it's right for the holidays start like.
Speaker 2:That is my favorite break they take is it such a perfect travel time like you can get to so many places? It's, the temperature is mild, it's not like a crazy amount of people, you're not fighting in lines, the traffic isn't nuts, I don't know. But then if you do all that, you know, then fall becomes a summer 2.0. So, who knows, you know, like we're just kind of rolling with it at this point. Who knows? Yeah, but we have two more weeks and these kids go back to school and then mama is going to be real productive again. Like my head will be on straight in the mornings, I can you know. So that's the struggle bus we're on.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, Absolutely, and I think a lot of you know, a lot of people are dealing with that and also, like you mentioned that you know there's so much travel going on right now. I think we hit like the record on air on air travel july 4th weekend, like it's road trip travel.
Speaker 2:It's record air travel. It's record international travel. There's protests going on because of over tourism. It's like people are like get out of my, get out of my hometown, I'm done with y'all. It's just because you know. It's funny. Um, I saw this stat. That was kind of crazy, but it makes sense. This was like from last year, but they kind of keep updating it. It's about? It's basically a stat about the amount of people in the US, people that travel in the US, live in the US, the amount of debt they are willing to absorb and go into.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's like upwards of 25 to 30 percent of people are like you know what? I'll go into debt just to take a vacation, like I'm not going to sacrifice my travel and like my relaxation and get away from the world. And it's really funny too. A lot of them say a lot of those that go into debt don't have travel budgets, like don't put a budget on when they're like well, and then they come back.
Speaker 2:It's like the people that come back and they're like checking their bank account, like what did we do? But it's so true, because it's just one of those things that keeps us from just like saying and like it's a mental health need, it's a necessity. It's a necessity, but it's crazy that that amount of our, of our population, is like yeah, I will take on a credit card just to take a vacation and pay that thing off for the next, however many years it takes you know absolutely, and that's why it's so, so smart that like a firm in clarna got into that with expedia and the other, because people can pay off their, their uh trip without interest it's so smart, it's one of the artist things that we could do and it's so it's such a mainstream thing.
Speaker 2:Now. You know, it's like you walk, you walk into the mall and you see all of these stores doing it. You see, you know rental car places. You sit at the grocery store like there's so and again like it's it's it's. There's pros and cons. Right, because if you do it enough, like you're basically like a huge chunk of your income every month is just paying all of these like clarna after pay. You know it enough. Like you're basically like a huge chunk of your income every month is just paying all of these like Klarna after pay. You know what I mean. Like it's just, but it's. It feels like you have more purchasing power. You know, and plan those things when you don't have all of that vacation budget all at once. Plus it lets you get ahead of it. You know, like you're not waiting until you know 30, 60 days before you travel to actually reserve something.
Speaker 2:You know so you take care of it in the moment yeah, it's really I mean where we're going, with it is really it's necessary, with where we are I think so too, and just to that point, just what the technology is doing in hospitality now.
Speaker 1:So it's, it's, as people are increasing their appetite to demand travel, the tech is keeping up with ways for them to be able to travel easier, and that's, you know, that's kind of where it runs, that afterpaying Florida stuff that you know the big conversation is always over tourism, right, and you know some countries are doing crazy stuff, but I think we have to take that word, like we take that word, out of our vocabulary. What are the real symptoms? Is it angry residents? Is it parking? Is it infrastructure, like, look at what the issue is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think it's, I think it touches on on so many things and that's why it's all bucketed under this, like over tourism umbrella, because it's all of those things and it's and it's also especially internationally. It's a lot of places that are like you know, I mean you're talking about like Spain and and italy, and countries that have just, you know, like historically it's, it's there's a lot of sacred areas, you know what I mean like areas that have been around a lot longer, you know, than things that we are used to here in the us?
Speaker 1:yeah, in that case you have to.
Speaker 2:You have to preserve that footprint it's a preservation aspect and it's a lack. I think there's a lot, of, a lot of animosity because there's lack of respect in that way. Right like you have a lot of people, obviously you're going to have a lot of foot traffic. You're going to have a lot of you know things happening in the, especially in these smaller areas where you're going to. When you get like a flood of people, you're going to see the smaller areas where you're going to when you get like a flood of people, you're going to see the aftermath of that. You're going to see things start to depreciate very quickly, you know, and there and that country, those residents, the people that live and live there and preserve that, then that becomes their problem. Right Like I got to figure out how to preserve this.
Speaker 1:And that's a much bigger issue. Do you remember our episode with Leon McAnally on the dark tourism for UK?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Book just came out and hit number one on Amazon. I saw it reminded me of what we discussed with him when you were talking about you know the respect and pieces of that too, because there's also you know the issue about the respect from the tourism aspect and I know what. One of the things we discussed with him was what went viral when those two teen girls were taking selfies all across the holocaust museum like also there should be, especially with preservation.
Speaker 2:There should be some rules, some etiquette, some pieces, and you know they don't respect right, and that just goes back to proper home training, right, like if you're going to take your teenagers to, you know, like another country, and you're going to go to these, like you know, historical sites and these places that are in that sacred category, please have your kid like, educate them on ways to you, you know just ugly American.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's where where it boils down, and it's like that here in the U S. I mean there's several. I mean look at the people that go to Yellowstone and try to, like you know, pet the, exactly like just, or you know, or just there, just a lot of again because so many more people are traveling. It's just part of the cycle, right, you just have more people doing more things.
Speaker 1:But it also makes me feel like there could be more know before you go, type of marketing communication. Back to visitors here's something you should know about our town, or this or that. Back to your visitors here's something you should know about our town. Are this, are that like? That would be a good piece. We just we tend to stop talking to them unless they're buying from us and we're not servicing them well enough after they buy from us to say welcome, first off, because you're a guest. As a guest, here's some things you should know about our culture or whatever. Guess, here's some things you should know about our culture or whatever. I mean this would be. That would be to be much more productive uh, production video budget than just, you know, putting out random marketing pieces.
Speaker 2:I think it also speaks to like the resurgence of you investment in a visitor center or or just in pop-up areas around your destination. That is like education focused. You know the what to do while you're here, what you know how to just how to travel, respect, respectfully, and how to do things in a destination that does make sense for everyone. You know like because you're, you know you're in the midst of people that live there, that are traveling there, like you're just just be just being. But I think that a lot of that's what is what we're dealing with with all the protests and the quote unquote over tourism conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's completely true, it is, but did you?
Speaker 2:also hear that. Well, I think you're the one that told me this that Southwest has got their open.
Speaker 1:They're assigning seats, so also it's perfect. I don't know, I don't think you read the article, but let me tell you how perfect you just teed this up. They're doing it because of over tourism no-transcript about that too. Like I think about those things like in terms of air travel always is, though, what? Because there was an end of an era, like when drew and I were dating, I could walk him to the gate when he flew off, obviously, that's not a.
Speaker 1:Thing or like air travel used to be fun, like it really did and now it's just so stressful yeah, there's so many.
Speaker 2:There's so many reports now of just and it's just flooded the news channels of like just disasters at the airport and how much you should be compensated when you get inconvenienced, and like did you know that 78 percent of airfare workers are physically and verbally assaulted or have been? Like they suffer through it?
Speaker 1:I would never, never. Actually, the last flight I was on when I was going, coming back, I think, from san francisco. I don't think I told you this. I didn't pull my phone out fast enough, but I saw karen in the wild, did you? She was yelling at that flight attendant about. I don't want to hear that baby. You need to move that baby from yelling. I mean it was a whole.
Speaker 2:I can't stand people that that that that I can't stand people with the babies like if you can't handle a child on a plane. You have much bigger problems that you need to deal with. You know what I mean. Like, come on, yeah.
Speaker 1:I didn't. I didn't pull my phone. She was behind me, a couple of rows behind me, and there was like the dude beside me. He was like his little phone and I almost said texted to me because this woman was going off it's just, it's so unnecessary and that's.
Speaker 2:I think that that goes. That becomes you part of your experience, right like everybody on the plane now has the experience of the lady yelling because the, you know, she had a screaming baby on the plane, and so that's what gets people like I feel anxious when I fly. I used to really like be able to go to the airport and I would always get there early because I'm already anxious about, you know, making, making the flight and everything you know. But now I'm over, like I get on the plane anxious, I get off the plane anxious, I'm waiting for my bag, anxious because it's just, it doesn't feel simple anymore, it feels exhausting.
Speaker 1:It's not, it's really not. And you know, honestly, road trips aren't that better, because you have so much else to deal with with a road trip as well. Plus, it sure as hell ain't cheaper anymore.
Speaker 2:Oh, it really isn't, but people are still doing it because, I mean, what choice do you have, right, until they create teleportation devices? I mean, I don't know. To me I think, because of the time situation just being on a schedule, being on my own schedule, it feels easier to put bags in the car and like, leave on my terms, go as fast as I need to stop when I need to. It's not a whole lot easier, but it definitely feels like it's more on your own terms. Know, um, yeah, but yeah, the whole situation with airfare. I have saw so many um, and I think it had to do a lot with Southwest announcement and then the. I saw the stat about airfare workers. Yeah, and there was. And then also, you know, last week or was it the week before, we had the issue with the, the shoot, the tech issue with, yeah, like my gosh it's been a lot.
Speaker 1:Oh, by the way, speaking of Southwest, to another thing when they crowd strike, you know why it didn't bother Southwest? Because they're still running their systems on Windows 3.1. That's not like a meme. That's not a joke. They literally have not updated their systems since the mid-90s. So Southwest didn't crash off of CrowdStrike because they haven't updated their computer since 1993, apparently.
Speaker 2:That's going to be the same with my computer. You can't have my computer. I haven't changed it in like 30 years.
Speaker 2:You know it's because it's scary. There's so many things. I get literally totally going off topic here. But I swear, every other day I get a letter in the mail or an email saying that my information has been compromised. And then I'll start getting all of these text messages about health insurance and so-and-so realtor, you know, like trying to figure out if I still live at this address and I'm like geez man, like it really is a lot right now. It's a lot.
Speaker 1:Yes, when they leak the information. I don't fear a scammer as much as I fear the marketers. Like I could shut a scammer down, I could lock back, I could do whatever, but I can't stop them from texting me from this one or that one or the other.
Speaker 2:No, and they come at all hours of the night. The other day I got one in the middle of the night and it was from somebody in the UK trying to sell me leads. And it was like two in the morning and I woke up in a panic, like you see your phone light up and you're thinking it's an emergency, like something's happened.
Speaker 2:You know like I was so mad I spent like the next three or four hours just laying there, going what in the world? I can't go back to sleep now, but that is what we're dealing with, and so yeah anyway, yeah, and that's that actually brings something else in mind.
Speaker 1:I was reading about that. Talking to the text messages like text marketing is now becoming really ineffective because of all the spam you know, it doesn't matter what you sign up for too, plus because it's election year. I don't know if you're getting those, but I counted mine up over the weekend. I Mm hmm.
Speaker 2:Your number's on the list, baby, I'm on that list. It's like you're on the list. It makes you want to go to a different country. I'm just like take me out of here.
Speaker 1:It'll be interesting to see how the over-tourism starts to as we get to the holiday season. Of course, most people friends and family that once we come off the election. I think we're going to see a drastic hit for just a short, short period of time, domestic, I think short trips domestically may be a problem, but then we get back into Thanksgiving holidays. I think we'll see back to normalcy and we'll be back right back up right, yeah, but you, I did see.
Speaker 2:What I think is really cool is the amount of shorter trips, smaller excursions that people are willing to take that are foodie based, like food, like the whole idea of traveling, like we'll travel for food, is like a serious thing right now, and I'm not simple things simple things and I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1:So drew, my husband, does you listen? Not a big foodie, but still like he's a barbecue man, right? So there's one place and I'll forget the name of it, and dakota will probably kill me because I should know but there's one place where they do the ribs and one rib is as big as my head, like one. He's like I'm gonna go there. He didn't care about like. He's not like, oh, let's go to Austin so we can see our daughter and her new house. He's like I need to go have that rib.
Speaker 2:It's true. I mean, you'll be in the car for hours just to go have that like breakfast taco at that one place you know, or like that burger at that one, and people are willing to do it. I think it's. I think it's the idea that you can, you can get your travel out of the way right. You're not going and trying to spend an exorbitant amount of money and like paying a resort fee and all that. You're really just going for a simple experience, you know, but you're still getting away for a minute.
Speaker 2:And who doesn't want to go eat? You know what I'm saying. Like there's, it's like, but it's like the best of both worlds, um, but literally having like little mini excursions, like thinking about as a destination right, all the little simple places that people can go, just little stops, a taco here, a certain type of drink here, a burger here, whatever that is. But but thinking about the most popular spots and then reaching people in like a three to four hour radius and saying you could drive here in a day you can have the best burger in the state, you know like and that's why the trails did so well, you know, for a little while, but now I think about it, they need to be more curated.
Speaker 1:Like a taco trail is great, but I'm not eating a taco every day. I like tacos, I like burgers, I like steaks, like I want something.
Speaker 2:If my experience is saying that destination is three or four days, I want the best in every kind of category or like, if you're going like it's a 24-hour trip, right, like you're gonna leave, you're gonna go in the afternoon, you're gonna stay the evening, so maybe it's a do your best lunch here, your best dinner thing here, your brunch, and then you're back on the road and it's like it's all about the food. But it's not this crazy. Like planning, yeah, you have to put into it, feel like that is it's. It's a simpler idea to really capitalize on that drive, market traffic, get people into these restaurants because obviously they're going right like you're driving in for the food. But it's a huge like the foodie tourism is. I feel like it's going to continue to grow no matter.
Speaker 1:And one note about that that I really like with the, with the foodie travel piece, is it's not always about the aesthetics. They're not saying send me to the fanciest restaurant no, it could be a hole in the wall like does that gas station have a good barbecue sandwich? I'm gonna stop over there, it's okay it's about what people rave about.
Speaker 2:It's about what I'm raving about yeah, and it is those mom and pops.
Speaker 1:It's so smaller. The restaurant industry is really driving to this. Appetite for food travel is propping up mixed use retail, which is still hurting.
Speaker 2:It is, it really is, and I feel like the surge of the tiktok, just the whole social era that we've been in. But because it's so much easier for a restaurant owner, a mom and pop, to go and start a TikTok right and then put a TikTok out there or be on Instagram, they're able to do more of that homegrown, organic marketing and that is what people want to see. They want to see People want to run with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the thing They'll love it.
Speaker 2:And I wonder if there's a stat for this. But I wonder how many businesses have been saved because they got on social and did more of the social thing right more reels, more organic content and let that go viral.
Speaker 1:I'll give you what on that. It wasn't the restaurants themselves, it was the DMO. So Lake Charles did that, after COVID, a couple of. I think it was a donut shop. I want to say they did that for mom and pop just got started, didn't even know how to do marketing. They show up with their camera, they put it on TikTok. It went viral and I don't know if that saved their business as much as it like launched their business. And that was just going in there for some content.
Speaker 2:Man and you see all these stories too about these little shops. I've seen a few of them where they're just like posting Like. I know one I couldn't remember. It was a little taco joint somewhere but the owner, or the owner's son, took a video of her just sitting behind the counter kind of waiting for customers to come in and the place was empty. He was like my mom works so hard, she makes such great food. You know, people flooded that place. When I say that, it was like we got no more tacos. We got no more tacos like there's. That is the social. That's why social works.
Speaker 1:That's what it's meant to do yeah, that's what it's meant to do, but yes, it does the other thing but also, did you?
Speaker 2:did you have you heard about some of the age restrictions they're putting in at restaurants now, especially ones that serve alcohol? So this has become like more mainstream, there's more conversation about it, but restaurants are putting age restrictions, especially if they're open a little bit later. You know, some restaurants kind of turn into more of like an after you know, you're sort of five, but they're putting restrictions where you have to be like 25 and up, or 30 and up, to go to that restaurant because of the amount of younger, newly licensed, you know drinkers who are causing a lot of ruckus at restaurants and that's up going on social and then people going and I've seen what that looks like. I don't really want to go there. Or kind of dragging, you know, dragging the atmosphere down, literally putting age restrictions.
Speaker 2:There's pros and cons, I feel like. But how do you turn like the 21 and up, like, how do you? How do you turn that around? You know it's never going to be 25 and up or 30 like it just would feel so confusing to walk into a place as like a 24 year old and be like, yeah, you have to be 25 and be like what? What you know?
Speaker 2:yeah so many more people are do, are doing it and because of the amount of tip, etiquette, younger, these younger generation, our, this generation.
Speaker 1:Now they're not leaving the amount of tip, like the amount of percentage that the older, older demographics leaving and so they're doing it for their you know, for their staff, or I'm gonna I'm gonna make a an argument for the younger people on this, because, first off, how can they afford to like come on, look at the economy, we have them in number one right they'll probably do what they can um.
Speaker 1:But also, like you know, I just don't like the general age thing. It feels very much and I know there's still plenty of restaurants that do this but it feels very much like you need a coat and tie. Like here, I'll give you our coat and tie. That's been sitting in that closet for 20 years, never been laundered. But it feels like that.
Speaker 1:It feels like putting on airs for no real apparent reason and if we don't embrace and I think about this like when I raise kids too. So a lot of people don't take their little kids to restaurants, because how little kids act? I'm the complete opposite. If you take them out, if you put them, if you put them in the environment where they need to act accordingly, then they'll learn their manners that way. But if they've never been there, guess what? When they're 21, you don't put them in the environment where they need to act accordingly, then they'll learn their manners that way. But if they've never been there, guess what? When they're 21, you don't want them in that restaurant.
Speaker 2:And where are the school districts that still do etiquette classes or like teach our kids my kids' school. Don't do that. They don't do that here and I don't think we've ever had that in Texas. I don't't remember ever having that.
Speaker 1:I didn't I didn't but uh you know because we need that.
Speaker 2:We need help in the etiquette they actually have.
Speaker 1:It's so funny. They have a, a class in this junior high the girls are going to. Now it's called, uh, life sciences, but it's not what you think like. They teach them how to balance a checkbook which I know is an old term but they actually teach them like a little bit of finance manners and main like how to take care of yourself, how to do laundry. It's kind of like home ec, but with, like there's even one in there about your self-confidence in building your future goals shoot.
Speaker 2:They need to adopt that across the board because I'm excited for that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at the end of the school year they get to fill out their own taxes wow, can they do mine too?
Speaker 2:what tax benefits did you bring home today? No, but they're. They're starting to.
Speaker 1:I know all school districts are different, but I thought what tax benefits did you bring home today? No, but they're starting to. I know all school districts are different, but I thought that one was really interesting and they need to. But yeah, with the age restrictions, I wonder what that's going to do.
Speaker 2:I feel like it causes confusion and I think a lot of it is because there's so many like there's this, and you see this in the Airbnb commercials, I've seen it in other ones too, and it's basically like this, this, um, this vibe where, if you're not bringing your own kids, you don't want to be around someone else's kids, or if you're not, like, if you're going out, oh yeah, that's the hotel, yeah, you don't want to be around younger kids. You know, hooting and hollering, with a lot more energy, I guess. But I feel like it's going to cause confusion and also it feels a little bit like I don't know, it's discriminatory, like I know that my 24 year old would act, you know, would act probably more mature than most 30 to 35 year olds you know like you know.
Speaker 2:So I don't know. I don't know. We'll see where that goes. But I feel like it's a lot more of the adult only kind of like the resorts are doing now with a lot more adult only options and things.
Speaker 1:So I just feel like they got to think about that, because I think that's the cancel culture, environment, like what do we ban? How do we get rid of this instead of how do we? How do we curate something better? Because the problem is they're getting rid of 25 and under and millennials don't even want to leave the house anymore, so they're kind of um yep, doordash and uber eats and all of those things are like number one at this point, I think.
Speaker 2:But you know, oh, what a what a year we're in and who knows? Where we're gonna be by the end of the year with everything we've got for the rest of 24, and then we kickstart 2025, which sounds insane. I don't even know what to do with that information. It just feels like I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1:It's really weird to me, I feel like we aren't far enough along. Like in my mind, 2025 was like, not what it is. In my mind, we'd already be at the Jetsons age. Like we're just now getting an AI.
Speaker 2:It is weird because and I was thinking about this the other day because when I first took Alicia to kindergarten, her graduation year was 2026. Like they had that like future 2026 and I thought, oh my god, that's so far away, like what would? Where would Girl? We're almost at 2026 and I think about that and I'm like it's just mind boggling really.
Speaker 1:Yes, and it's so quick. Jackson had one of those little rubber wristbands from school the other day. It's in class of 2030. I'm like how long is she going to be in school? I'm not realizing. That's hopefully six years from now.
Speaker 2:It's real quick. It's about to be here in about 10 more minutes About as quick as our weekends go.
Speaker 1:Pretty much, but it'll be interesting to see what comes out of. You know, if this appetite for travel continues, what's going to happen with economy, with jobs, like all of that's going to make a play. But you know, everything I've seen looks real, real strong for everybody and, as we spoke about, over tourism. So if you're not seeing good occupancy rates, maybe it's you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's true. And I think too, I wonder, just going back to the, to people who are willing to go into debt to travel and you know how often we want to travel, to go into debt to travel, and you know how often we want to travel, right, like, what is that going to do to our economy? At some point, you know, like, at some point you know we can only have so much debt, right they're erasing student debt.
Speaker 1:Think they'll erase travel debt.
Speaker 2:I don't know I mean let me know okay, I'll go ahead and wrap it up now. That's the platform I'm gonna run on I mean we get amex on the on the horn, I don't know, expedia travel. I mean let's just like yeah, I mean you're about to be at a big, uh, big board meeting this week with some big old travel head honchos.
Speaker 1:Maybe you can I'm excited about that, yeah well, um, that'll be my first time meeting up for the cultural heritage economic alliance, which is really to help, as we talk about those small businesses, really helping those small DEIA black and brown businesses get their share in the destination. So big passion project for me. It'll be fun and I'll see you later in the week then.
Speaker 2:And maybe our next podcast will be in person instead of virtual. Maybe we'll just go live.
Speaker 1:Maybe we should Feeling cute Might go live. So we hope you guys have a great week and enjoyed our little rambles.
Speaker 2:Our rambles and banter and we'll see you soon.
Speaker 1:Bye.
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