Cathy Adams

Oh, absolutely.

And, you know, I would agree with everything that Finula has just said, actually.

You know, I look at social media as a kind of source of inspiration.

And of course, my Instagram feed working in travel is absolutely chock-a-block, you know, with travel videos, with advice, you know, and I really respect what TikTokers and Instagrammers are doing.

And I think they're doing a really great job to show us the kind of visual side of things.

Obviously, my job is, you know, finding out about history, context.

I've been working in this industry a lot, you know, for 15 years and have seen a lot of the world and can bring, as Vinita said, some of the negatives and some of the context, I would say, kind of around a place.

Now, to give you an example, I went to, and she just mentioned it, Universal University.

reversal Orlando last year and there was a group of journalists and there was a group of sort of what we might call content creators and we're doing completely different jobs like they the content creators are there they're there taking videos they're there doing first persons you know they're getting those angles that people want to see on social media what I'm doing I'm obviously riding some of the roller coasters of course I'm not complete savage but you know I was there talking to the CEO I was talking to the the ride directors I was trying to get all of those

kind of stories that you know you can't capture in say a video or just a single visual so yeah I think people should be there you know people that want to go travelling we can use a variety of sources but I would absolutely say it's really important to double check anything that you see online you know as you would normally as a consumer Okay I suppose the danger on social media is you see an image it looks stunning but the photos are taken from a certain angle you don't know what's behind the photographer for starters

Of course.

Yeah.

I mean, this is always the risk.

And, you know, this is why, obviously, I spend a lot of my time really kind of trying to get under the skin of somewhere and speak to as many people as possible and hear about those kind of human stories.

Because, yeah, all that you can see in one image is just one image.

And it's a very sort of narrow aesthetic, I think, that it doesn't necessarily give you a view of what that place is like, what it feels like.

You know, travel is so emotional and it is all about kind of feelings and the person that you feel like when you're there.

And you can't capture that in an image.

All you're going to get is, well, I want that same visual.

And I think, unfortunately, that is what has driven sort of over tourism around the world, really, because people are chasing that one very specific shot that they want for their Instagram grid, for their TikTok.