Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Corder. It's Monday the 30th of June.

We are nearly halfway through the year.

Peak travel months of July and August start tomorrow, which means it's a very good day to catch up.

With one of the travel industry's leading figures, great friend of the podcast, Julia Logbuay-Said, who is the chief

executive of the Advantage Travel Partnership. And Julia, just remind me what the Advantage Travel

Partnership does. Hello, Simon. Yes, Advantage is a network of independent travel agents and our

members are experts in leisure and business travel across the UK. What a year it's been so far.

I mean, six months has gone and it feels as though it's been six years. So much turmoil,

both on the world stage and indeed affecting travellers. What's the mood among your members?

I think you're right. I think unfortunately not a day goes by now where there are

travesties and situations around the world that we're dealing with. I think in one hand,

there is still that huge appetite to travel. People are desperate to get away. They still are.

We've seen a real upsurge in demand this year. The first six months have been really busy.

I think the reality is what we also now see as we approach the peak summer

periods. You've got higher pricing. There is a degree of uncertainty in the world now. And people really

starting to think about actually, should I travel? Do I want to travel? And actually what our members

can confidently do is really work with travellers to make sure that they have that confidence.

The world is a safe place. It may be a bit of thermal, but it is safe. And there are amazing

destinations for people to think about travelling to. Can we home in on the Gulf area, though?

I was speaking on Friday about the problems in the Gulf region and the fact that you have

Qatar coming under attack from

Iranian missiles, this of course is a global aviation hub. It's all a bit worrying from the

...