Tell us what you did for that.

Yes.

It's a really humbling moment, and it kind of feels very surreal still, even after all this time, but I was awarded an OBE in the King's Honors last year, and that was for services to business and tourism, and it was just the most surreal experience of my life.

And not only being awarded the OBE, but the process thereafter.

So you're invited along to Windsor Castle to receive your honor.

You don't know who's going to give you the honor.

You don't know who's going to be there.

Mm

In a special live episode of The Green Room, Julia Lobu-Saeed, CEO of Advantage Travel Partnership, who work with independent travel businesses across the UK, and Deloitte's Tom Mastil shared their insight.

I think we've seen a real cross-section of different approaches.

I think for a lot of businesses that are investing in AI and are using it to really empower their overall process, they're starting to see the difference.

And I think that's kind of what Tom said, I think the added element for the travel industry.

It's about not, I said before, not just telling the customer what they're prompting, what they think they want.

How do you really ensure that you can deliver what you know they need or what you can encourage them to think about? It's using AI and using the power of AI to help support that process.

But I think, you know, we're living through, you know, kind of, you know, a really significant time now where you've got, you know, almost democratisation of AI empowering, giving us all opportunities to empower businesses and consumers around decision making.

What, what are your reflections on that?

I think it's really interesting.

I think independent businesses are not, um, naive to the power that a tool like AI can deliver for them, and what they're trying to do is balance actually kind of cost pressures that they've got in the business, operational pressures, versus the benefit that they can... that the technology and AI in, in particular here can, can deliver for them.

So I think for a lot of businesses, it's about actually what's the cost of implementation? What's the cost of, you know, how can I improve operationally by investing in, in a new solution that ultimately can empower the process for me? I think it's quite interesting, because when, when people think about travel agents or independent business, they have this real old-fashioned bricks and mortar type mentality in their head.

And actually, I've spoken to a lot of different kind of stakeholders, and they, and they all say, "What travel agents actually exist still?" And I'm like, "Yes, they do." They may not typically look like how you expect them to look.

A lot of them do and are thriving, but there are lots of different type.

You know, have you heard of Expedia? Have you heard of On the Beach? They are travel agents.

But how are you seeing brands combat the ease of AI for customers or utilize it with their customers?