Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon called it.

It's fair to say that the travel industry comes up with some new ideas and innovation is, of course,

extremely welcome. But one concept which has really caught my eye is from Regent Holidays, a very long established and

reputable company who I've travelled with a few times myself, who have a new brand called

Holidays with Friends. And the idea is that actually it's not just all about families. You can plan to go in a group of four or more

on all sorts of holidays. To find out more, I'm joined by the head of Regent Andrea Godfrey. So,

first of all, I need to know how you thought this would be a good idea. Well, we launched this type of holiday, kind of

holidays with friends, because we're actually seeing a real shift in how people want to travel.

And we're seeing friends kind of wanting to spend meaningful time together, celebrating birthdays,

reconnecting, or just escaping. And of course, without the hassle of all the nies and everything

themselves, which is where tour operators and reputable travel agents come into play. These are

private, tailor-made, sort of bespoke trips for, like I said, small groups are four or more,

and they're built around shared experiences like food, culture, adventure. And I think it's what's interesting

it, that it's not just couples traveling together because we're seeing that. We're seeing,

you know, maybe two couples going away or three couples going away. But we're actually

seeing groups of friends in their 50s and beyond. Booking maybe with people that they've

traveled with for years. And often sometimes couples don't actually want the same

time for holidays. So we are seeing, you know, groups of women going away, maybe some groups of men going

away. And it's not about joining at all. It's about, I guess, travelling together and sort of properly

on a bespoke arrangement. What sort of places are they going to? Because region has really made

its name on taking people to the kinds of

destinations that nobody else goes to. From destinations such as Albania, Armenia, Cambodia, Cambodia,

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