Solo Travel and Soft Adventures: Your Guide to the Main Character Experience

In this episode of Travel Buddy by Switchfly, Ian Andersen is joined by Lucy Mui, Switchfly’s Market Manager and self-proclaimed solo travel enthusiast. Together, they explore the rise of solo adventures, the allure of “main character” trips, and how technology is making independent travel easier and more rewarding than ever. 

Lucy explains how solo travel offers freedom to pursue personal interests, set your own schedule, and connect more deeply with local cultures and people. She also describes how her travel style has evolved from demanding adventures, such as trekking to Everest Base Camp, toward experiences that combine hiking and exploration with comfort and great food.

The conversation explores how smartphones, social media, and AI have made independent travel easier to plan and navigate. Lucy also highlights opportunities for travel and loyalty programs to better serve solo travelers through flexible itineraries, meaningful experiences, and genuinely personalized recommendations. Tune in for a lively discussion brimming with tips, stories, and ideas to inspire your next memorable solo getaway.

56 Solo Travel, Soft Adventure, and the Main Character Trip (feat. Lucy Mui)
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[00:00:00] Welcome to Travel Buddy, presented by Switchfly. In this podcast, we talk about all things travel, rewards, and loyalty. Let's get to it. 

Brandon Giella: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Travel Buddy by Switchfly. Today, we are talking about solo travel, soft adventure, and what some might call the main character trip. And we have a special guest to talk to us about this named Lucie Muhi, who oversees a lot of the supplier partnerships at Switchfly.

So Lucie, please introduce yourself. Tell us about yourself today

Lucy Mui: Sure. Hi everybody. My name's Lucy Mui. I the market manager here at Switchfly overseeing all of our, supplier partnerships. So anything from hotels to cars to activities, I have my hand in those partnerships, making sure that, our customers get what, you know, what we're trying to sell, making sure that [00:01:00] the, the relationship is healthy and, Switchfly continues to be able to offer, you know, the best products 

Brandon Giella: And you were telling us before we started recording that you're a bit of a solo traveler yourself. So give us a little bit of your travel history. Where have you been? What's your favorite trip?

Lucy Mui: Oh, wow. That's, that's kind of a hard question because I've been on so many. so I've been to probably about 50 countries. most of them were solo. and, favorite trip, that's hard because there's So many, but a recent one I took was, I spent two weeks in, in Taiwan. And, you know, everyone thinks of Taiwan as just Taipei, but it's got amazing nature. I went there f- to do some hiking, to of course eat, 'cause Taiwan's got some am- amazing cuisine, and, to actually practice my Mandarin because it's a little rusty right now

Brandon Giella: So I would love to travel to [00:02:00] that region of the world. I've never been more east than Istanbul, so I've got, I've got some further ways to go depending on how you define east and west because, you know, the globe is a circle. It's a big circle. Anyways,

Ian Andersen: don't know

Brandon Giella: okay. So tell us a little bit about, your definition or your understanding or description of solo travel and how that might, I don't know, distinguish from more of a, a traditional travel adventure.

'Cause we know that, you know, a lot of people are kind of taking these trips to think more about, like, their interests, their journeys, and just kind of embarking on their own thing. And so when you think, like, w- when people are defining their own itinerary around something that they would like to do by themselves, why is that an important trend for you, and, and how do you think about that?

Lucy Mui: Well, there's all kinds of, t- trips and, and travel styles out there. my definition of solo travel and why I love to do it, [00:03:00] specifically, it's, you know, there's a lot of places that I wanna go to that may not be on everyone's, bucket list or, or travel destination, ideal travel destination. And for me, I think travel really broadens your understanding of yourself, the world. So, specifically, I don't wanna wait for someone to say, "I, I'll go here with you." So I, I've taken a lot of solo trips because I feel like I don't it now, I might not be able to do it, and having to wait for someone, it doesn't always happen, right? Like, it could be from, you know, waiting for someone to say, "I wanna see this show with you," and then tickets sell out. so if I wanna do something, I do it. I- if I wanna go to China in December, I'm just gonna book that, that flight, right? And, and the world's a lot more connected than it used to be, so everything's a lot easier

Ian Andersen: So that's, that's amazing. I'm [00:04:00] very jealous and would love to do a China trip in December, especially when it's freezing cold here. but, do you... When you're booking your trips, is it, of location first? Is it, is there someone s- somewhere specific you want to go? Or, do you see what's available and kinda sort by price?

Do you think of an adventure you'd like to do and then kind of hone in on it that way? How, how do you go about booking your, your travel?

Lucy Mui: It really depends. for this specific trip that's coming up, it's been a decade since I've, I've been back to China and, I felt like it's time. I also have... My, my, my sister and my, my, my brother-in-law recently went back to Macau, which is right next to Hong Kong in, in China, and they did a little, kind of like homecoming trip. So I felt like it's, I should do the same. And, and [00:05:00] having recently been to Taiwan, which is so close to China, I felt like it's, it's another opportunity for me to, practice my, my, my, my Chinese. I, I speak Mandarin and, and Cantonese and, a local dialect called Taishan. also, it's a trip that's just been on my bucket list for a long time

Ian Andersen: Awesome.

Brandon Giella: You're, and you're going by yourself?

Lucy Mui: I am going by myself.

Brandon Giella: Amazing

Lucy Mui: China has changed a lot. I, I, I, even from, like, a decade ago, it's, you know, it's, it's, it's a country that's, rapidly changed. They, it's, it's so well-connected now. Everything's done through an app. So the fear of doing it alone is, it's not an issue. specif- especially if I speak the language.

you know, reading and writing may be a different story, but I could at least communicate with locals

Brandon Giella: Well

Lucy Mui: for everything.[00:06:00] 

Ian Andersen: it's funny the more you learn about China, the more, I mean, fascinating it is. But like, know, as a kid you think like, "Oh, people in China speak Chinese." And then you realize, oh, well, no, there's Mandarin and Cantonese. Oh, no, wait, there's like a thousand dialects of each of them, right? Like, the language thing alone must be, must be difficult to navigate

Lucy Mui: It, it is even, so one of the things that I do here, it's I, I oversee, this, you know, little strip on our homepage, featuring a couple of hotels and, and I- I do the marketing text for that and select certain, hotels that kind of fit with the theme that we're doing for that month. I have to, do the translations into the different languages that we support. one of the languages is Chinese and, and in the tool that we use, there's Chinese and simplified Chinese. At the very beginning, I had to clarify with the team, like, what's the Chinese version that we, you know, the, the, that, of [00:07:00] script that we use? anyway, it's, it's, it's simplified Chinese that we

Brandon Giella: And can Claude help you with this or is this-- is AI just... Okay, that's great. Good to know. Okay. You never know. n-

Lucy Mui: There's a tool for everything

Brandon Giella: and Noel, every time we're on the episode together he, he talks about how complex travel is because of all these very, very specific, you know, either it's a currency or, you know, the exchange rates and the regulations and compliance issues regarding, you know, the different localities.

It's just always such a, such a difficulty. So yeah, I love that you have some expertise in that area. so I know that, you know, we talked about how i- i-- there's-- this is a, a growing trend of people traveling more, by themselves, and I think e-exactly what you said is there's an app for everything, whether you're trying to translate something or you're trying to pay or hail a-an Uber.

Whatever it is you getting around, it's a lot easier if you have a smartphone, than it was, you know, ten or twenty years ago. My wife talks about when she studied abroad in, in Italy fifteen years ago that it-- she had to use a map, you know, and try to [00:08:00] get her way around. Whereas now it's, you know, of course you don't need any of that.

You just need your phone. so I know it's, it's, it's kind of reduced that, that risk. but another component is, this idea of soft adventure, and so this idea that maybe because of that reduced fear or risk there-- people are more willing to be a little bit more adventurous. Now I am not the adventurous sort.

I like to sit in my chair with a coffee and a blanket even when I'm abroad. but some people like to have a, a little bit more adventurous spirit. So tell us about how you think of this trend, soft adventure, and how you think about having an adventurous trip when you're solo traveling.

Lucy Mui: Sure. So when I was younger, I, I, I was more of the, true adventure seeker type traveler. I've, I've done the Everest base camp trek many years ago, and that was 12 days of suffering. a- amazing suffering,but, you know, 12 days of that,

Ian Andersen: That's, that's quite a term. Yeah.[00:09:00] 

Lucy Mui: But now, I still incorporate a lot of hiking into my trips, now for example, you know, I'll go hike, in the Alps or, or, or, or the Dolomites, and I'll do... I'll base myself out of, a, a, a small town while do a day hike or, or take the cable car, 'cause that's available. get to the peak, and then, you know, feel some sort of accomplishment. I've seen the, the, the peaks. I've seen the, the nature that's there, and then hike back down or take the cable car back down and enjoy a, a delicious three-course meal at a Mi- a Michelin restaurant or, or, you know, some equivalent. you know, that, that in my mind it's, like, where I'm at in my life, that stage in my life where I like to do adventurous things, but at the same time, I love creature comforts as well, right? gone are the days where I would even fathom doing a 12-day hike where you're, you're, you're, sleeping in a tent or, you know, eating,[00:10:00] dehydrated food.

Brandon Giella: That is 12 days of suffering to me. I would never, I would never.

Ian Andersen: No

Brandon Giella: so I wanna roll this into the idea of the main character trip as well. So when you think of like, you know, you are, you know, you have this passion or this interest, or you wanna go to this kind of off the beaten path spot that most people don't think of or want to go, or nobody's raising their hand to go, why do you think this idea that we're seeing on social media with the main character trip is, is resonating with travelers right now?

What, what's the, what's the, the thing underneath the thing, if you will?

Lucy Mui: I think, it's, it's important... Like, social media has made everything so easy now, right? You can find, an influencer that caters to everyone's different tastes. And we're living in a world that's so connected and a little crazy at times, that it's, it's, it's important, you know, to [00:11:00] be able to, really just kinda step back and think of, of exactly makes you happy, what are the experiences that you've always wanted to do, what are the things you've want- you've always wanted to see, right?

in the past, you know, vacations have always been like, let's just, it's all about sightseeing. Now it's more about I go to Italy, I wanna take that cooking class with Nonna, right? I wanna take, I wanna learn how to tango if I'm... I'm, I'm, I'm a terrible dancer, but I wanna, let's just say I wanna learn how to tango if I'm in Argentina. you know, doing the, the take, doing experiences that make you feel more like you're part of the local culture. You're, you're, you're, you're experiencing something that an Italian or Argentinian may do. and you're doing it on your own schedule. You're, you're, you, you have no one else you [00:12:00] have to answer to, to if, if the class was terrible. You, you, it's, it's okay, right?

Brandon Giella: right

Lucy Mui: accountable for what happens and, and, and, it, I, I've had trips that have gone wrong, you know. I, and, and it's okay

Brandon Giella: W- what I'm hearing is-

Ian Andersen: stories.

Brandon Giella: Yes, that is very true. That is very true. The off the beaten path, I didn't mean to go here, or I got randomly connected to this stranger who led me to this place, and it just turned out amazing. Got tons of those stories

Ian Andersen: I think to, to weigh in, I think, you know, Lucy, you're, you're absolutely right, and Brandon, even in the way you framed the question as far as the social media ability, social media aspect of, our day-to-day lives and, and finding, you know, whether you call them influencers or, or channels or whatever that, that, can speak to your work, can speak to your hobbies, can speak to [00:13:00] your life as well as, you know, your, your aspirations for travel as well.

You know, it, there's so much, external influence. I wa- I was thinking when, when we were prepping for this episode about, 100 years ago, you know, taking a European trip for an American, it was a luxury, you know, only for the upper, upper class that would take weeks if not months of time, you know. that it wasn't just, you know, college kids couldn't take a long weekend and go to Rome or whatever.

Like, the just the availability and connectedness that Lucy keeps talking about is, like it's almost unreal as far as the, the travel opportunities we have compared to 30, 50, 100 years ago, you know. and it, you know, it, it, I think it's wonderful. I think it's helping a [00:14:00] lot of people learn a n- lot of new things, but it definitely comes with its own unique challenges.

But, I, like Lucy, love to just sorta throw a dart at the board and take off somewhere, every now and then by myself 'cause I think those can be the most rewarding, rewarding trips

Lucy Mui: I, I, I 100% agree. And also having a tr- I, I just have a, a plane ticket booked right now, right? But, and I'm not going for a while, but the months leading up to it, the planning stage of

Ian Andersen: Yeah.

Lucy Mui: that

Ian Andersen: Yeah

Lucy Mui: people hate trip planning, but I love it

Ian Andersen: I agree

Lucy Mui: my passion, and

Brandon Giella: Hmm.

Lucy Mui: it'll give, it'll fuel me through the next couple of months,

Brandon Giella: Why do you love it so much?

Lucy Mui: trip. I love it so much because, I'm controlling my itinerary fully, right? You, you have, you have these package holidays out there, for example, right? Where, you'll, you'll hit all the main highlights. But for me, maybe those aren't the destinations that I wanna go to, or my, my, what [00:15:00] I'm seeking is different than someone taking that specific trip. and, you know, being able to plan The best restaurants I could possibly eat at in a destination. where I wanna stay in the heart of like the, the city or, somewhere more quiet. In Hong Kong there's a, a of places you can stay at, but you know, I'm, I'm quite specific. and the, the planning stage it's just kind of gives me that fuel.

Like it, it, it paints this amazing trip that I have coming up in December and, gives me something to look forward to. it's as, it's as simple as that. It, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a privilege to be able to travel and, I, I fully em- embrace that. And, and working for a travel company, I get to look at, you know, hotels, I get to look at, [00:16:00] everything, right?

that's related to travel. So I'm, I'm definitely in the right field, you know, in terms of profession. it's, it's also just, is, is, is an, an amazing,luxury

Ian Andersen: I wholeheartedly agree. I love, I, I also just love that planning stage. I have, spreadsheets from travels past of, like, mapped out, okay, the third through the fifth I'm gonna be here, and, like, a list of things underneath that I've, I've found that would be fun to do, and yeah. No, I totally agree

Brandon Giella: What a

Lucy Mui: with AI, it's so easy to plan your trips.

Ian Andersen: Yeah.

Brandon Giella: That's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah, it, it's super helpful to... We, we, we've talked about this on the show before, but, to be able to create, just kinda brain dump all these things that you wanna get out of a trip and help, and, and allow AI to help y- help you arrange it maybe. You know, what's the fastest way?

If I wanted to do this and this, is there a, a route that actually makes sense [00:17:00] that's not gonna be overly delayed, that kinda thing, it can be really, really helpful. But then

Ian Andersen: too

Brandon Giella: having your expertise, you know, that you've been there, it helps a little bit to say like, "No, no, no, I want this very, very specific thing that you don't know about."

You know, that could be re- really great as well

Ian Andersen: I think the soft adventure t- part of it too, along with kind of, you know, the solo travel is you don't necessarily always know how you're gonna feel day to day, right? And if

Brandon Giella: Mm.

Ian Andersen: doing a big or, you know, group travel thing and you have certain things happening on this agenda, you know, maybe I don't wanna go to a museum today.

Maybe I wanna just kinda lounge around at the beach instead or, you know, whatever, vice versa. it, it gives you that flexibility to, to sort of throw all those plans out the window and do something else if you want also, you know?

Brandon Giella: Or if you do go to a museum, let's say the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and you actually want to sit and read the placards at all of the art pieces while your wife doesn't and just keeps [00:18:00] going, just hypothetically speaking, not that I would know from experience, but you can actually sit and read the placards if you want if you're by yourself, which would be really great.

Um

Lucy Mui: you're, you're on your own schedule,

Brandon Giella: Yeah, I love that. I think that the theme that I, that I'm hearing in this conversation is s- is around connection, and that is travel allows you to connect with, you know, br- other cultures and, and the world at large, of course. But social media, you know, despite so much of the discussion, a lot of it warranted about how it creates so much division, it actually creates a lot of connection as well, of course.

That is, that is, you know, it's, its promise. There's so many trips that I've been on where we're doing specific things simply because we saw them on social media. Going to the London Market, for example, and seeing, you know, a particular stall that we saw on social media or going to a, a, a particular vendor in, in Italy because we saw it on social media.

And so, and you're allowed to connect obviously to other people as well when [00:19:00] you're traveling, which it- it's like people feel less like strangers. But then at the same time, you're allowed to connect with yourself. I think that's such an, a great thing about this main character trip idea is that you're the main character, and you're just kinda reconnecting with yourself, like Lucy, reconnecting with your past, your ancestors, your family in different ways, even by going by yourself, and I think that's, it's such a cool theme to think about a solo travel trip actually making you feel like you're less alone

Lucy Mui: Exactly. And I think also with, for me a- at least, when I am traveling by myself, you know, at a certain point I'm like, "I just need to meet human beings. I need to talk to other people. I need to socialize." I'm a lot more receptive to the idea of, you know, talking to a stranger or, or, or, you know, getting out of my, my, my usual comfort zone.

I live in New York, for example, right? I, I... If I'm on the subway, you don't talk to anybody. You're just kinda looking at your phone. If someone talks [00:20:00] to you, you're like, "What do they want from me?" You know? that, that, "He's a weirdo," or whatever the case may be. But what, if I'm sitting on the subway in Japan and someone tries to talk to me, I'm all for that. I, I wanna, I wanna talk to a local. I I wanna hear what you're, you know, what, what you w- you have to say. so I, I tend to let my guard down a little bit. and, and, and just take in my, my surroundings a lot more. I'm a lot more,focused. I, I, I... There's not a million things going on in my head. and, you know- talking to a stranger, it's, you can find out so much. could learn about what are some great restaurants you can eat at, you know, w- i- in the destination that you're at. or just make a new friend. I, I, I have this one [00:21:00] experience, this is a couple years ago, before COVID, actually just right before COVID. I had taken a trip to, Southern Africa, and I was in, Victoria Falls. I was with a group, because Africa's one of those places that it's really hard to do solo traveling. But I had a couple of hours to myself, and there was like a specific place that I wanted to see which was, this bridge that connected Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side to Zambia. And so I was finding, trying to find my way from my hotel to see the Zambian side even though I'm not going over the bridge. I just wanted to say, "Oh, I saw Zambia." so got a little lost and, and I asked a, a police officer, "Can, can you, can you, show me the way?" And so then we struck up a conversation.

He's like, "Where are you from?" Which is the, the first question most people ask, right? "Where are you from? You, you look Chinese, but you sound American." anyway, we, we, we started chatting. He's [00:22:00] like, "I'll just take you where, where you need to go." It wasn't very far. But, he's a police officer, and he was just gonna walk me to, to my destination. And long story short, we, we got to the place. I was like, "Let's take a selfie together." So I have a selfie with this man. We exchanged numbers to be able to communicate on WhatsApp even though at that point I was just like, "Oh, it's never gonna happen. I'll, I'll give you my number, but..." he s- when COVID happened, he was constantly texting me because he read in the news or, or saw on the news that there was all this stuff happening in New York, and he was just checking in

Ian Andersen: Check it in

Lucy Mui: stranger he met, you know, i- i- in his hometown.

Ian Andersen: That's awesome

Brandon Giella: I love that story. I love that story. That, that is exactly the point of travel, is connecting with people you would never have reached out to otherwise

Ian Andersen: And Brandon, I mean, we've talked about that a lot on this show of like one of the [00:23:00] best parts of travel is just sort of realizing wherever you go, people are just people, right? Like there, there's so many, similarities and, and, connections you can make. And like Lucy going to Southern China, you know, I'm sure I would stand out quite a bit more, than you

Brandon Giella: No, definitely not.

Ian Andersen: initially.

But like, you know, I guarantee I could go there and find people with the same interests and the same senses of humor and, and, you know, value systems and all that stuff. And even though some of the like more superficial language and, and things like that might be, difficult to, connect with initially, once you sort of get beyond that, just dealing with regular people that you would literally meet next door, you know, the, the exact same people in a different, in a different circumstance.

So that's... I've always loved that about travel

Brandon Giella: Mm-hmm.

Lucy Mui: Yeah.

you just have to find [00:24:00] that one connection, right? Like, besides travel, which I'm very passionate about, my other passion when I'm in New York, it's, pickleball.

Brandon Giella: Oh.

Lucy Mui: the last couple of trips that I've taken, I've played pickleball, in Vietnam. I've played pickleball in Taiwan. I've played pickleball in, when I was in Osaka. Right? You... I, I, i- in, in Vietnam, my, the, I specifically,you know, found a place and, and, connected with some people, via Facebook and, they invited me to join their group. Most of them didn't speak English, but pickleball you just need to know how to score,

Ian Andersen: Yeah

Lucy Mui: right?

Ian Andersen: Yeah.

Lucy Mui: And three hours together, we, we were like friends afterwards, right?

You know, they offered me their snacks and, and gave me recommendations of where I, I, I should go eat in Hanoi. And, we connected on [00:25:00] Instagram and, and, you know, someday they might come visit me, and I said, "We'll go play pickleball here in New York."

Brandon Giella: I can see it now. The beginning of your social media influencer career is playing pickleball on all seven continents, and it's a great Instagram challenge, you know?

Ian Andersen: Or, or even just like the, the, the Asian, you know, hemisphere kind of, expert on pickleball. Where to go in Asia for

Brandon Giella: Yeah, that's right.

Ian Andersen: be Lucy. Yeah.

Brandon Giella: great. That's great. I love it. I love it. I love it. No, yeah, it's, it, it proves the point that, the world is smaller than we think. We're a lot more alike than we think, and traveling helps you see that, especially when you travel, solo, because I, I think to your point, Lucy, I love what you said that people have, lower barriers when they're traveling abroad.

I, I-- when I went to London last, people kept asking me about politics. What was our political situation like in America? Whereas if I'm in Dallas and somebody's asking me that, it's like, "I don't know where this conversation's going." But overseas, it's kind of fun to just kind of... They just wanna get to know you, and they're curious, and it's just like a fun conversation, so.

Ian Andersen: One, point to quibble [00:26:00] with, there's never been any such event as a weirdo talking, talking to you on the subway in New York City. That has never happened once, ever.

Brandon Giella: Never. Yeah, that's not been my experience at all Well, as we close, I want to shift gears a little bit and talk,about thinking of, of our audience, which are, are mostly travel leaders and, and loyalty program leaders. what is your view or advice for them when you're thinking about solo travel, this main character trip idea?

What do you think about, how that trend relates to their work when they're thinking about building programs or thinking about inventory and, and their travel, you know, programs or the itineraries that they might be building? What does that mean to you? How do you think through that, and what advice would you have for them?

Lucy Mui: I, I think a lot of the, the partners that we work with, travel redemptions is just a small component [00:27:00] of the offerings that they may have, that, their employees can redeem. I, I, I personally feel like there should be more emphasis on promoting, that you do have this program that's out there. you know, your employees work hard. You've g- you've awarded them these points. travel is, like, one of the best, ways to incentivize them, right? Like, they'll go on their vacation, and they'll come back just with, you know, refreshed and, and with, you know, a, a different attitude or perspective and, and, and learnings. so, don't think there's enough emphasis right now on just promoting some of the travel, benefits that are available to their employees. You know? Gift cards are nice, but the satisfaction that you will get from redeeming points for, you know, a cooking [00:28:00] class in Hong Kong or, or, in Sicily, that's gonna stick with you a lot longer than that $50, Amazon card that I then use to redeem, you know, toothpaste or whatever be.

Ian Andersen: She buys really nice toothpaste if you, if you don't, Yeah.

Brandon Giella: $50 toothpicks.

Lucy Mui: of it.

Ian Andersen: That's, that's

Lucy Mui: bulk

Ian Andersen: some...

Brandon Giella: That's a great point. w- do you think that, that technology or, or kind of the way that, that, you know, a lot of the industry is kind of evolving now, do you see that as helping create personalized recommendations or unique experiences like what you're saying? it's kind of a leading question, but just the idea of, like, there, there are new ways to create these kind of experiences, especially for solo travelers trying to build their own custom itinerary w- for things that matter to them.

Do you think that there's some kind of, like, interplay there that you're seeing with your, your data, your, your partners, the platform, anything like that, that might help them [00:29:00] think about new ways to create travel?

Lucy Mui: I, so I, I think, not specifically, Switchfly, but in general, a lot of the websites that are out there, they cater more to, like, two people traveling or couples, right? Like, y- you know, there's always some sort of fee if you're, if you're, you're going alone. You know, you're paying for a double room.

And, it's Solo travel, a solo traveler's gonna look for something different than, you know, a couple, you know, a couple traveling together, right? so that's one. You know, like, there's just everything that's out there for the most part, it, it's designed for, more than one traveler. an- another one is, the way I travel specifically, when you're You know, y- you know you're gonna save if you bundle a h- a hotel and, and flight together, but I don't know of any websites that allow you, let's say, to book your flight to, [00:30:00] my three-week flight to Hong Kong, but I wanna book a stay as well, but it's gonna ask you to book three weeks in Hong Kong, and that's not what I wanna

Brandon Giella: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hmm.

Lucy Mui: wanna be able to have that flexibility to, okay, I wanna still save on my hotels, 'cause that's the point of booking a bundle, but allow me to break up my itinerary so that I can go days in Hong Kong, three days in Macao, the rest of the trip, you know, in different places in, in, in, in, in, in China. Right? Having that flexibility. maybe there are websites out there that, that do this, but I've been in this industry for, for, for many years and, and I don't know of any

Brandon Giella: That's it

Ian Andersen: tried to do some of that. I believe, working with some of our product team on, on the platform there, there is some kind of ways to do that. I don't know exactly how front and center that availability or that, that, functionality is, but, but no, you're totally right. I [00:31:00] mean, I think flexibility in general is just a huge part of the, the personalization aspect of, of travel offerings, right?

Like being able to, to, to modify, you know, certain packaged items, to, to fit your needs a little better. and with the rise of, of travel booking and on, on personalization, I, I think hopefully we're gonna see a lot more of that

Lucy Mui: Yeah, websites are definitely getting smarter. They know a lot about me and, you know, when I return, to those websites, the, you know, for, on Switchfly I know a, a lot of what is on the homepage is personalized for, based on, you know, my, my searches. so if I'm searching for, Hong Kong, it's gonna, offer me, you know, h- here are some price drops at hotels that, are in Hong Kong, or here are some activities that are available.

and you know, that's, that's evolved s- so much since [00:32:00] when I first started doing solo trips of the days of s- carrying a Lonely Planet around and, and looking at the different sections for, for, for recommendations on hotel, hotels, restaurants. you know, they, it, it's, it's come a long way, but I think, knowing s- everything that it knows about me, some of these websites, which is a lot, I, I, I, I...

The expectations are higher from the consumer, right? I, I, when I search for hotels in a city, offer me the most expensive hotel because you're gonna make the most money, right? I want you to actually offer me something the f- top of the search that's Lucy's, you know,gonna buy,

Brandon Giella: Mm-hmm.

Lucy Mui: right?

I, I, w- we're getting there, but it'll take

Ian Andersen: Big time. Yeah.

Brandon Giella: Yeah.

Ian Andersen: I think

Brandon Giella: Yeah

Ian Andersen: an important point that, that's a big theme on our show is loyalty is, more about [00:33:00] more than just, you know, discounts on a, the next buy, right? It's, it's building that, that holistic sort of ecosystem for, for travelers to like, you know, there's a reason to be loyal to a specific provider,

Brandon Giella: Yeah

Ian Andersen: and offering that, Lucy's exactly right. It's, it's not you know, destination personalization, but it's actually real personalization in that, you know, if you're taking a lot of solo trips, you know, starting to bubble up the activities and hotels and things that are more aligned with a solo traveler. so yeah, it's

Brandon Giella: Yeah. Yeah, that technology's not far away. That, that feature's coming, coming sooner than we think probably. You know, typing in a couple of different things about you and where you wanna go, and it creates a very, very custom itinerary and a good package. You know, I think Lucy, that's a great point. You can't get the bundles [00:34:00] to, to get, you know, broken up as personalized as you'd like.

That's, that's a hard thing to do. But, well, this has been such a good conversation. Lucy, thank you so much for your insight and your wisdom, your expertise in this area, based on all your experience doing this over the years. And I know that one day there is going to be a really great pickleball bundle that you're gonna build for people, and I'm very excited to, to see that.

Ian Andersen: Lucy, Lucy's package, yeah

Brandon Giella: Lucy's package. This is great. Well, Lucy, thanks so much. I love talking about connection, solo travel, and doing things on your own, but trying to, relate to others as well, and other cultures, and people around the world. So thank you so much, and I hope to have you back on the show

Lucy Mui: Thank you.

Ian Andersen: Definitely. We're definitely bringing Lucy back.

Brandon Giella: That'd be great. That'd be great.

Ian Andersen: Sure.

Brandon Giella: always a pleasure. We'll see you guys next time 

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