00:00:17: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

00:00:19: Hello everybody from our fifth edition actually From the second day of ITB And it's now The early afternoon.

00:00:30: It is still a very busy day.

00:00:34: I'm glad to have as my special guest Mrs Wendy Olson-Killian.

00:00:39: Hello!

00:00:39: This is Killian Cheese, CEO of Roam To Rio Which is a travelling platform that needs you everywhere basically not only from room to real but basically form a two b whatever and be might be assist.

00:00:53: That's right is it?

00:00:55: set platform that is answering one deceptively simple question of how do get there?

00:01:02: And that surround the world across, two hundred and forty countries in territories.

00:01:08: answer in my question How Do I Get From A To B The C D E N F and all of the different modes you can use to do so.

00:01:17: So whether that be plane, train automobile bus water buffalo hot air balloon the nicular anything that you can in an all those different combinations of those multi-modes traveling.

00:01:32: You took a position as CEO not that long ago right?

00:01:35: It's

00:01:35: about eighteen months ago.

00:01:36: it has been one year and half gone by very quickly.

00:01:39: I've read from Washington State actually

00:01:41: Correct.

00:01:42: You studied in Washington state, you're from...you study at Tacoma right?

00:01:46: Correct!

00:01:46: Well we've got good intelligence

00:01:49: and then the UU had several positions in the US for various companies all over the country.

00:01:55: I knew

00:01:56: yeah.

00:01:57: And then you moved back to Washington State.

00:01:59: That's right.

00:02:00: some once a recruiter call it The Salmon Effect like the fish That, you know the salmon always go home to spawn and have babies.

00:02:08: And they say that's what happens with people from the Northwest.

00:02:11: You go and move around in United States Have these experiences...you're like a fish..You've got children then you stay there.

00:02:18: I said but the fish dies after this?

00:02:22: Exactly!

00:02:23: put that analogy to the side.

00:02:25: So yeah, so I had the opportunity to live all over the U?

00:02:28: S and then we knew when went back to the Northwest That would be

00:02:32: there for more than great places you can go in the US at other Great sites and cities You can visit it in the u s. i mean Washington state is a little bit of an underrated State?

00:02:42: And then your don't have over tourism.

00:02:44: they're right.

00:02:45: well i'm biased and i definitely think that It Is A Bit Under The Radar.

00:02:50: People Think Of Seattle.

00:02:51: They think as

00:02:52: well famous.

00:02:53: the fish market

00:02:53: are bucks, The Fish Market airplanes make your song culture on all of those things yet.

00:03:00: But Washington state is actually very diverse in when you think about the West Coast.

00:03:05: All the west coast states kind of have this that You Have from Ocean the mountains, to planes.

00:03:12: You have all of these different types and geographies which means you have all these different kinds of communities and industries.

00:03:18: so where I grew up is actually in the heart of Washington State and the central part which is known for agriculture famous apples, washington's famous apples.

00:03:29: we grow eighty-ish percent of hops from America So We Grow Your Beer And Wine.

00:03:36: We have all sorts of fruit, cherries and pears.

00:03:38: that orchard I grew up on.

00:03:40: My parents are beekeepers And so it's actually very different than what you think about Seattle.

00:03:46: That diversity.

00:03:47: being able to be in the ocean then go skiing Then out in middle-of-nowhere camping.

00:03:55: You can do all.

00:03:56: I lived in Seattle, i studied in Tacoma.

00:03:59: I love all of the state and everything that we have... ...and just open-mindedness for the Pacific Northwest as a community.

00:04:05: Despite

00:04:06: all these great places you can do to the US from a German perspective or European traveller.

00:04:14: relations between Europe & The U.S are not at best when it comes to travelling right now.

00:04:20: When I talk to operators here who were U.S.-German travel market, of course they have a difficult time at the moment because Germans are very hesitant or Europeans are very hesitating At the moment.

00:04:34: to come to the S for visa restrictions that might've become you might Have problem at the border.

00:04:40: so there's negative media coverage about all That on my podcast here.

00:04:45: You're The only American.

00:04:47: what do make out Of situation right now?

00:04:49: The world is A Very complicated place Right Now and getting more Complicated by the day.

00:04:55: What I look at is we have to give travelers confidence that they have the information, know how to get someplace.

00:05:04: Have confidence in their destination and then make these decisions.

00:05:08: Governments are complicated.

00:05:10: people are amazing And when you think about all of those countries which i've been to or were a bit more controversial I wasn't talking to the politicians.

00:05:27: Those who are in travel and tourism, people at ground offering amazing hospitality.

00:05:36: that is an amazing experience no matter where you go.

00:05:39: That's why information becomes power.

00:05:44: For people to be able to go into these destinations.

00:05:46: They need to be very educated and understand what those restrictions are.

00:05:50: so there are no problems.

00:05:52: I think that the challenges That people have on the borders or actually very, Very small they just get very blown up for political reasons Or whatnot right now.

00:06:03: But really?

00:06:03: The reality of it is It's very seamless to travel inside in then out at the United States.

00:06:12: I've had my challenges at Frankfurt Airport, for example or the long lines in Berlin earlier this week as people were trying to get through that line.

00:06:19: So i think it's understanding giving knowledge given confidence and then keeping people opportunities to connect because This is the best industry In The World Because we connect People And We Make The World Come Closer Together?

00:06:33: And then that will help all of these things, our challenges across the governments.

00:06:43: Especially when you look at people who work for DMOs or do marketing world... For whatever their destination is?

00:06:49: People are so dedicated and passionate about marketing… Their destination!

00:06:53: They're so representative.

00:06:55: I love it.

00:06:55: It's so cool to ask people what they favorite parts are in a destination.

00:07:00: So the message basically keep on keeping on.

00:07:02: We have to keep going Keep traveling because this how we get closer together Because if we are disconnected, We're going to get further apart and that becomes dangerous.

00:07:14: So when we look at the other direction from west-to east Americans go into Europe?

00:07:19: How is it market?

00:07:20: because I mean From Rome to Rios.

00:07:22: It's also for Americans who were not so familiar how to travel with Europe.

00:07:26: you offer a lot of help For them right?

00:07:29: The thesis the problem That the founders were trying To solve.

00:07:32: there was actually two expats Who worked for Microsoft And lived in Seattle but they Were Australian and they wanted to come to Europe, we all have learned it's a romantic way of traveling throughout Europe by train.

00:07:47: And they thought oh this will be easy.

00:07:49: but we know that is not as easy as could be.

00:07:52: there are lots complications.

00:07:53: how do I find where go what the schedules?

00:07:56: How buy my ticket or transfer?

00:07:59: All those things couldn't find any good information.

00:08:03: so they went back to Australia And that was really one of the founding problems, and then it's expanded to be much more global.

00:08:11: American is a very big market for us who are looking at European travel.

00:08:16: so that's one of biggest audiences we have on our site as how do connect those Europeans back or Americans Back To The European Market?

00:08:24: figure out with ease to travel into live romantic dream that we saw in movies Even on the soccer field, uh... On the sidelines my son's soccer game.

00:08:37: Someone is like why isn't there a site?

00:08:39: They literally- The week I had started at Rome Street.

00:08:41: Why Isn't There A Site That Makes That Easy?

00:08:43: It Is Not Easy.

00:08:45: Well that what i've been looking for.

00:08:46: So um..That is absolutely.

00:08:48: theres alot of demand and interest in Europe.

00:08:51: There always is Americans.

00:08:53: Many Of Them Have Ethnic Backgrounds And Familiar Backgrounds With Europeans.

00:08:58: We Are Drawn Back to European continent all the time.

00:09:01: I'm bringing my family this summer for the first time, My kids are going to be able... They've been to Turkey they have been to London but haven't actually been in Western or Central Europe.

00:09:10: so we're kind of come this Summer

00:09:12: and this whole notion of traveling Europe by train is still a very... Absolutely romantic idea

00:09:19: absolutely

00:09:21: But it's a complicated thing to do, because we have different railways and different systems.

00:09:27: And that is what we do both at Romterio and then we were bought about five years ago by Omeo... ...and Omeos are solving the booking problem on their very fragmented ground transportation front so you can have this unified itinerary and ticket that you can book there.

00:09:44: That make is easier, so we're just trying to continue To Make It Easier for People.

00:09:48: Give Them Trust give them Confidence So They Can Have This Amazing European Experience

00:09:53: Okay?

00:09:53: So Is Europe Your Main Market At The Moment?

00:09:55: Or

00:09:56: Is A Big Market For Us?

00:09:58: Its An Important Market For us the United States.

00:10:00: You Know When We Think About The Challenge With The World Cup Being Across So Many Different Locations Three Different Countries All Of These Different Sites.

00:10:09: That's a problem we're solving as well.

00:10:11: We have a very large presence, hundreds and millions of travelers who are coming to our sites every year from every region.

00:10:20: so they're all important.

00:10:21: in one thing were seeing surface transportation ground transportation being much more important.

00:10:28: people whether that be due the some regional flight restrictions in Europe Dua Lipa posting about going on train.

00:10:37: Cool, people are wanting to do this.

00:10:39: So we're seeing a large uptick in people searching for trains, searching for alternative types of transport all over the world and so this is just... In general We're seeing this incredible demand on how to get to places And a lot of people are going beyond the capital cities.

00:10:56: They're going beyond The really well-known points of interest.

00:11:00: they're looking For that undiscovered hidden gem Looking for smaller destinations which Is incredibly impactful from a sustainability perspective on how they get there, and from an economic impact.

00:11:13: And from a dispersion by design.

00:11:15: let's get people out of these crowded places that really aren't that pleasant when they have too many people.

00:11:21: I don't believe in overtourism.

00:11:23: i believe in responsible tourism.

00:11:25: so we need to get people into other places So That They Can Benefit Both The Communities And The Travelers

00:11:36: travel stage some minutes ago, and it was basically about AI.

00:11:40: And I think you're very confident about AI?

00:11:43: I love the AI!

00:11:44: AI will solve a lot of problems in the travel industry.

00:11:48: yet in the past or...

00:11:50: AI is such a powerful tool.

00:11:52: It's how we use it.

00:11:55: We look at LLMs as being great partners of ours because content that solves problems.

00:12:02: And we want to make sure that we are keeping that fresh, whether it be schedules and routes.

00:12:06: We know these things were always changing in travel.

00:12:09: How do we make sure?

00:12:10: That we have the best information and we do that using AI and other types of large data ways of helping us scale faster.

00:12:18: But we also had this human verified element.

00:12:22: so without having that Human Verified there was a destination recently in Tasmania, in Australia.

00:12:30: In which AI created a hot springs that didn't exist and thousands of people were directed to there And they started asking people locally where is this?

00:12:37: and it doesn't exists.

00:12:39: So how do you get people confidence?

00:12:41: You can use AI as very powerful tool.

00:12:43: We have thirty five experts around the world who are validating saying these routes work.

00:12:50: They're real!

00:12:53: We create that trust because without trust in the way you get there, and your not going to trust the destination.

00:12:59: But AI is an incredibly powerful tool for us.

00:13:01: do all sorts of things to make this more efficient be able.

00:13:05: we just updated our app?

00:13:07: We did so much on.

00:13:08: it was almost all written by a I someone with prompts than being able to do this.

00:13:13: We were able to doing or quickly.

00:13:14: we're able to give more experiences out too.

00:13:17: are customers in away.

00:13:19: we can give them more connection.

00:13:21: two hour partners to book Ground transportation, for example wasn't an option that we had now.

00:13:27: We do.

00:13:27: getting them more maps being able to give them the keys of a castle To personalize the experience how they want.

00:13:34: if they're looking for The most Sustainable route They can find that If they're Looking For the fastest or the cheapest Or any Of these sorts of things were Able to provide a lot More this data at real time because of our use of AI.

00:13:48: So it's trust its efficiency is accuracy

00:13:51: It's depth and breath, having as much information as we can.

00:13:55: And we can also manage over tourism with it?

00:13:58: We can redirect people... Dispersion

00:14:01: by design!

00:14:02: I think AI will do that when people go down.

00:14:04: I think A.I.

00:14:05: will help us surface it.

00:14:06: Then we as an industry have to share this.

00:14:10: As we partner with tourism boards in destination organizations….

00:14:14: …we partner with destinations on creating more routes showcasing off-season travel.

00:14:20: you know, I think that's one thing we can do.

00:14:22: We can just create alternatives and we can showcase those in a way if we know what people are looking for.

00:14:28: so we have these hundreds of millions of people—we can understand the demand —and then we can suggest alternatives that... ...We Know What They Want?

00:14:37: Well here is another thing… If You Thought About This or …You Can Stay Here And You Could Maybe Go In-And Out Via Train And See Something And You Can Have All These Experiences.

00:14:46: Absolutely We Can Do That.

00:14:48: Would you consider over tourism a real problem for the industry?

00:14:52: or because some tourists managed to say, well it's not such a big thing and get rid of that very easily.

00:14:57: The demand is not the problem.

00:14:59: we want all of that demand.

00:15:00: We just have to disperse in a responsible way Just like we did with visit Brazil as getting people Rio is phenomenal.

00:15:08: Go to Rio, but then you can go see all of these other regions and impact small-and medium businesses and have all this impact in the world.

00:15:16: And we show how you do that sustainably through different types of transportation.

00:15:21: All those things come together.

00:15:22: We absolutely can solve it.

00:15:24: It's better for the traveler.

00:15:27: The traveler at heart has everything he does.

00:15:29: When I look back on my past experience... I started my career with JD Power.

00:15:33: That was where we learned about data So important.

00:15:37: And then at Expedia, we put the traveler at the heart of everything.

00:15:40: We do so taking that data Taking those experiences bringing it together on a platform like Rome to Rio or within partner with tourism boards and others To try and solve this.

00:15:51: It's working really really well because travelers want to find those undiscovered locations.

00:15:56: They wanna find those hidden gems.

00:15:58: You just have to surface that information in their self selecting.

00:16:02: We, like I said we're seeing towns and villages.

00:16:06: And small enclaves are the things that people are really looking for on our platform.

00:16:10: They sure they look at the big ones as well.

00:16:13: but when we bring these all together That's a really powerful impact and then we solve this.

00:16:18: Like i said...I don't like The word over tourism..i think we just need to focus on Responsible Tourism.

00:16:23: How do you take irresponsible tourism?

00:16:25: So it is basically all of those secondary places where they need more awareness or marketing.

00:16:31: But do you think they're attractive enough in themselves?

00:16:35: Absolutely.

00:16:36: And we just need to tell people how to get there, I don't like the word secondary because i'm not second.

00:16:41: They're just Not as big or it's well known and We Don't want To send People There In An Irresponsible Way That They Can't Handle.

00:16:49: So It'S Really Looking At How Do We Get The Right Traveler In The right Place at The Right Time Which Is What We'Re All Aiming To Do Because that's Going To Be The Best Thing For The Community As Well As The best thing for the traveler.

00:17:00: So that means you don't have to go through Paris, there are fifty other cities in France which is as beautiful or even more beautiful.

00:17:06: I think so because it's less

00:17:07: people

00:17:08: then!

00:17:08: There're so many of them...I've been to France multiple times and never been to Paris.

00:17:12: Yeah.. I see amazing places like driven thru the countryside done all these different things.

00:17:19: i traveled trough Germany by car and seen a place where they really were off the beaten track.

00:17:25: Those are my best memories.

00:17:26: You wouldn't call that secondary places?

00:17:28: No, just undiscovered and lesser known.

00:17:31: That's a better term What I read from your biography.

00:17:34: you have worked in so many different industries.

00:17:37: you've worked in advertising... ...you've worked for the travel industry.. ..you work in automotive.... ...you worked in e-commerce And even worked in agriculture.

00:17:45: Yeah!

00:17:46: what was that agriculture ?

00:17:48: My parents were farmers.

00:17:51: They had cherries.

00:17:52: but cherries is very interesting Crop because you have a very short window.

00:17:58: when they're ready You have to get them off the trees and just like millions of pounds of cherries.

00:18:02: Do you have ten days?

00:18:03: To Get Them Off The Trees And They All Have, To Be Handpicked By A Human Because We've Very Hilly Land And Other Things Like That.

00:18:11: So I Would Go Back And They Identified This Problem Where They Had Gotten Too Large To Use The Type Of Old School Notebook Pen Paper.

00:18:21: It's all Peacework As You Pay it all Those sorts of things that Couldn't do That They need to bring technology into it.

00:18:26: And so what we did is, We implemented a system using iPhones and scanning and bringing technology in the harvest So that this small business could then continue to grow and expand.

00:18:40: That's one example of.

00:18:41: I ran the Harvest.

00:18:42: What i learned would take vacation from Expedia for about twelve years.

00:18:47: What I learned were so many valuable lessons i could bring back to the team about.

00:18:51: The power of even pitching products.

00:18:54: there was a product that could solve this problem, i didn't look at it because the pricing structure is completely wrong for us.

00:19:00: and then there's elements up innovation.

00:19:04: you don't have an option not get those off.

00:19:06: when you come in the other tractor coming in its Somehow a stick is keeping something together.

00:19:11: It's because you have no option to not have that tractor used at the time, so it had to be innovative.

00:19:15: view failures are an option and ultimately all this comes down into having the right people on your team Because thats what makes magic happen.

00:19:23: And there were many corporate types of initiatives I thought about when we looked in the heat summer harvesting cherries.

00:19:32: It could tie it back, but ultimately people is what makes everything work and you have the right team.

00:19:36: And all working towards the same goal You'll achieve.

00:19:40: in that agritourism and we think about y'all In my slice of the world We grow like I said eighty-five percent of hops for America and The type of beers that we can make there?

00:19:51: We can't make elsewhere because a fresh hop and how you get them in the wines.

00:19:55: But also just to fruit and people are really curious About What they eat and where comes from then.

00:20:01: And who are the people that were making it happen?

00:20:03: It's closely tied.

00:20:05: They all experienced a qualified for Korea in tourism, right?

00:20:09: My first job was working at a fruit stand and selling fruit... ...and there were a lot of tourists coming through this tiny town with about five hundred residents.... ...and they would come on their way to Mount Rainier to the National Park into the mountains... ...they did want to know when is this picked?

00:20:26: how has it grown?

00:20:27: what do you do?

00:20:29: And that's when I think, I started to get the bug of.

00:20:31: where are all these people from?

00:20:32: Where they going.

00:20:33: From all over the country!

00:20:35: Wendy

00:20:35: it was great having you here.

00:20:36: It was a pleasure.

00:20:38: Thank You very much

00:20:42: for having me.