Ask Us Anything

In this episode we meet Ari Charlestein, Owner and “Evil Genius” of Competitours, the only company in the world to offer full-scale international team travel competition trips. Competitours trips combine travel with creative, competitive fun - and a mystery itinerary. Ari explains the unique aspects of mystery travel and the Competitours experience, not only from the consumer p

In this episode we talk to João Cortes, two-time volunteer of the World Youth and Student Travel Conference (WYSTC).Most likely João welcomed you to the trade hall or an educational session at a recent edition of WYSTC in Lisbon, Portugal but now he finds himself in Spain doing a seven-month internship with a major international hotel chain. João has an eye and appreciation for

Haydn Marriner, Chairperson of the Backpacker Youth Adventure Tourism Association (BYTA) of New Zealand discusses the country's losses in international youth arrivals in the latest episode of the WYSE Ask Us Anything podcast. You'll discover the economic value and ripple effect of the backpacker and working holiday markets for New Zealand and what BYATA is doing to recover their lo

Professor Konstantina Zerva is our guest for this episode of Ask Us Anything, she is Professor of Marketing and Market Investigation at the Faculty of Tourism, University of Girona in Spain. Professor Zerva’s research is related to niche tourism market segments, gender and mobility, social marketing and theories of social exchange. She is the coordinator of the special interest g

In this episode of the WYSE Ask Us Anything podcast we hear from Catherine Gilvarry, Head of Supply at Hostelworld, an OTA specialised in serving the hostel market. As a member of Hostelworld’s ESG Steering Committee, Catherine discusses Hostelworld’s new “Stairway to Sustainability” programme, a framework for hostels to assess and communicate their sustainability initiativ

Guests for this Ask Us Anything conversation are Kevin Morgan and Randy LeGrant, co-founders of Academic Language Solutions. The company specialises in English language proficiency testing, and offers a range of tests under the brand iTEP. There are iTEP tests to assess conversational or business English, as well as career-specific tests for hospitality or child care. There are als

What’s one of the most important aspects of developing a new hostel brand in the post-pandemic travel space? Staffing? Tech? TikTok? And what about the bed? Comfort? Cool? Cheap? This Ask Us Anything conversation with Louise Garner, Commercial Director of Kabannas, a new hostel brand in the UK, offers some opinions and insights on the question. Louise discusses the development of

CEO and Co-founder of India’s vibrant new brand Olive Living is our guest on this episode of the Ask Us Anything podcast: Kahraman Yigit. Kahraman talks about experience-driven travel and Olive Living's ambition to become the first members club for millennials and gen z. Having launched Olive just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Kahraman also reflects on some o

In this episode of Ask Us Anything you’ll meet two outstanding female founders in international educational and volunteer travel: Justine Trembicki of Freepackers and Agustina Gutiérrez of Tingua Intercultural Experiences. Together, Justine and Agustina recently won the very first Global Youth Travel WYSTC Partnership Award. This award recognizes an outstanding collaboration bet

Hear the origin story of Welcome to Travel from co-founder Darryl Newby in the latest episode of Ask Us Anything. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Welcome to Travel caters to the orientation needs of backpackers arriving in Australia with working holidaymaker visas. Darryl reflects on some of the product and marketing experimentations that have propelled the company’s sales and gro