The Culinary Compass: How Gastronomy Is Redefining Travel with Wayne Conte

Travel and dining have always gone hand in hand. Historically, most travelers will book their destination first, and then they figure out where you wanna eat, secure that reservation. Second, But with the rise in popularity of international food lists, the rise of the Michelin Star Reading system, the accessibility of the world's fifty best restaurants and social media overall, giving so many more people insight onto what's going on in these other culinary destinations. We're seeing travelers start to actually build their itineraries around a specific reservation. Not only domestically, like we historically would see with someone trying to get a reservation at the French laundry, but we're seeing people build this around internationally. Now, I was skeptical at first, even as someone who is a significant planner, would people really build international itineraries around a reservation first. Is Paris still a king of culinary tourism? I wanted to have my friend Wayne Conte CEO of aspire America's leading lifestyle, hospitality, concierge service to help us learn further and figure out what the data says about culinary tours. You feel a lot to sit the dance floor. Don't wait till high my break to back though. Return at the back, the king is back though, corvin and cashing that let go. That time gets time for no day one. Welcome to the crow knows podcast. This is gonna be fun one today, combining a couple of my favorite topics, travel, and food. I am joined by Wayne Conte CEO of a buyer America's. Wade, thanks for coming all the show. How you doing? Good, AJ. Thank you for having me on today. Awesome. I'm excited to talk about this. But first, before we get into this and and really start diving deep, tell us a little bit about you, what you do at a buyer, what a buyer does, and a lot of people are probably familiar with what you do, but not necessarily that they're interacting with you. So walk us through that. Sure thing, AJ. So my name is Wayne Conte. I'm the CEO of Aspire Lifestyle Americas. I've been with Aspire since two thousand sixteen. We've actually been in business for for over thirty five years. We're the largest global concierge provider. We do about three million requests. We have twenty three offices in nineteen countries. And when we talk about request AJ, we're looking at, as you talked about your two topics, when you joined travel, which typically is airline bookings, hotels. We do a lot of dining reservations or or one of our top requests. We may help somebody with, searching for a Rolex watch as an example. And our clients tend to be we're a b to b provider, which simply means we're white label, we sit behind some of the largest financial brands around the world. So it could be a a large credit card company where consumers are coming on in their spending and and the card providers are looking to provide a service. It could be wealth management companies where they have assets under management. It could be in the travel space, hospitality. It could be a large hotel brand or, an automobile manufacturer. And we actually provide our services, our concierge services also in the employer market. So as employees have started, written returning to office, were able to provide concierge services that helped create savings of time for them. Got it. You were the, one of the first people that I thought of because I really wanted to get in. I've been super fascinated by how travels evolved. And I know that you are you guys are very involved with world's best restaurants and all that stuff not only, you know, nationwide, but globally. And it seems like obviously coming COVID, things have really shifted, and there's been this real big push towards what I call experiential tourism and especially culinary tourism. I think, research and markets has it at, like, eight hundred and six billion dollars and and coming on there. And with what you guys do over, you'd be the first per the best person to talk about that. Todd was a little bit about what you're seeing, you know, what your clients are looking for. How they're looking at travel around dining and those kinds of, those kinds of experiences rather than you know, building an itinerary and then going and finding dining reservations. Sure. Love to take you through that. And if if you just go back a few years during COVID, Restaurants were were basically closed in many large cities. People weren't traveling. They were staying home. You had food delivery coming. People were their spending habits were very different. They were spending on, you know, gym equipment in the house. You know, subscriptions to the house, purchasing assets. Once COVID ended, you saw this, and the number you you you gave us exactly the number we have spend is is tremendous, and there's been this sharp increase in travel spend. And you're seeing because dining people were eating at home, there's been a, an acceleration of people that wanna go out and create experience as well to travel. And so what's interesting is in the past people would typically put their airfare first Then they'd book their hotel. And then they'd had their dates, and they'd call us up, and they'd say, hey, I'm gonna be in Miami for four days. And I'd love to, I'd I'd like to get some restaurant reservations. What we're seeing now in many cases is, as a consumer that books the restaurant first. So they wanna get into one of the a highly touted restaurants in Saint Paris. And they once they get that restaurant reservation, they're now going and booking the airline and the hotel second. So consumers are really looking for an overall immersive experience. So when you look at global culinary experiences, you're looking at you know, hand selected local host, private homes, exclusive venues where people can go eat. I recently did cooking class in Barcelona. I failed miserably at, making my payeea, but Yeah. There's a lot of fun things. And so when you talk about that immersive experience, it's different for everybody. I mean, it could be as little as, you know, creating a, a taco tasting in in a city and going to some of the local restaurants or a little Havana, you know, you know, going and checking out some of the coffee. What that what's in common though is, you know, our hosts have a passion for bringing people together, and that's bringing together through food. Yeah. It's interesting. I think, at least for me, I used to think about the those guided tours is a little bit of, had a a little bit hokey, a little bit, you know, not not super authentic, and it seems like is it was normally something that if you wanted a really good one would be on the real high end. It would cost a lot of money. But it seems like not only the the the tours themselves as walking tours of the cities and things like that, but it also seems that people are more open to the the group tours where people aren't literally looking as private as it was, or was it just some, you know, it was something you usually would just get on TripAdvisor or or something like that. But, Is that what you guys are seeing that people are more open to not only the experiences of the food itself, but also with being comfortable being around other people? Yes. It's it's, again, it's part of that group experience. I whether you're sitting with strangers at a at an exclusive venue where They bring two of the top fifty chefs in and do a a wine tasting, or that example I gave you at Barcelona with the paella. The first thing we did as a group is we went to a local market and bought the fresh foods, then brought it back to Cook. So it wasn't just you go in and all the ingredients are there. We actually went We picked out the ingredients along the walk. You know, as they're giving us a tour of the city, you're you're talking to everybody in the group. So it's really become a passionate group among people who have similar interests. Yeah. At you give me all the fields inside. I studied abroad in Barcelona back in, in college. It's my favorite city. In the world. I think it's one of the most unique, and I loved it. I had, I figured it was gonna be a PAet thing. We did that in, you know, we did it in Tokyo, my wife and I went. We did a sushi making class, things like that. It's interesting you mentioned going to the market. Is that something you guys have seen as a it seems like that's more of a part of it, whereas that's just people that just want the end product? Like, they want the full on experience of of creating it. Is that something that's newer? Have you guys been seeing that for a while now? It's something we've just seen new. And I think part of it started again, during COVID, you had some of the top restaurants in the world were actually, having orders to go. They and and some of the top chefs were and and we were doing this through our our concierge services, top chefs would send the food actually to your house. And so it wasn't a group experience, but it was an individual experience with a group of people coming in through a Zoom call, like, you know, like you and I are doing today. Yeah. And the ingredients are there and everybody, you know, sets the the ingredients on the table and and they cook at the same time so that experience of of really doing everything from the beginning, you know, and and you're seeing that with hyper local seats too with restaurants is is really taking hold And people just enjoy the experience, not just sitting at a table. In fact, to some tables, they'll actually cook the meal right in front of you. It's part of the whole experience. Yeah. It is good. Obviously, the rise of, you know, not only the the food network, but also now that all these streaming services put together these really, really impressive shows. No. Netflix has been a big one on that, and and they're phenomenal of reduction value is incredible, but they're they're really cool bringing all these people together. So there's a lot more awareness there. I think in the past, a lot of people that may when they think about culinary tours or things like that, we'll think about, you know, French laundry for instance in the US. Are you guys seeing any of the are those still the dominant, you know, those national names, the the well known or international names? Are those still dominating what people are looking for? Are people starting to say, hey, you know, we've heard about the Frenchology. We've heard about, you know, these these restaurants that are the the three Michelin Star restaurants. But we'd like to get something that's a little more off the beaten path. What are you guys seeing for that? That that's a great question because you got two extremes, right, the two ends of the barbell. You have you know, restaurants that you can go on a local table and book on your own. Then on the very high end, you have things like eleven Madison, Nom, French laundry, really high end restaurants that you really do need, you know, help from a concierge to help get into the the restaurant. And then what you're seeing is people are traveling is They're calling us and they're saying they're looking for those hidden gems. They're looking for something that you wouldn't normally see it. And part of, you know, if you look at all the YouTube and is you have a lot of people in these local communities that are also out there giving recommendations. So one of the things we do with, you know, we're we have a team of about nine hundred, frontline concierge that are specialists in dining. We speak thirty languages, not be individual, I speak one and a half, but you know, whether if you're traveling to I'll use Japan an example. You're traveling from New York to Tokyo, and you wanna get into den, which is one of the top ten restaurants, it's really hard if you're calling from the US and you and you're trying to get into, you know, a restaurant with twelve tables. But if you're able to reach out. We have an office right there in Tokyo, and and we can reach out. They're one of our top, you know, one of the top fifty restaurants as part of the world's fifty best. And that helps because you have the local language and the knowledge, and and you can figure out how to to get the best chance to to get that person, you know, an exclusive invite into that restaurant. Yeah. You mentioned that barbell and those extremes, dieting nowadays. It's it my wife and I considered it's our It's our sport. It's it's basically our only hobby. It's what we love doing, but it's incredible that now it's it's becoming so expensive. In almost every city. Whereas, you know, a lot of times I think in the past, we would think, hey, we'll go splurge when we travel But nowadays, you know, I live in Dallas here. It's pretty much almost impossible to go out for for two people and spend less than a hundred bucks. And so the thought of if if we're doing that all the time, there was traditionally, you know, a bill that you would save for a travel event or something like that. It's a little more difficult when you're spending the money to travel and also spend four, five, six hundred dollars, or up to a thousand. Like, a lot of these tasting mini type restaurant were. What are you guys seeing from spending habits from clients? Are they still looking for that really high experience when they travel? Or are they starting to say, hey, I want something good, but would like it to be a little more budget side because the cost of the trip is so high. Yeah. We we have also, our customers range. And, you know, we go from the ultra high net worth to to mask off poor where you know, people are looking for savings, and they really want a unique experience. So they want the local tasting, but not at a, you know, over the top price. And then you also have people that they'll spend their money. They'd rather save on the airfare. They make light coach because when they get to Europe, they wanna go and have that experience. And and you're absolutely right. The the prices that some of the the really high end restaurants, continue to go up. And it's I I I liken it to the the Taylor Swift recent tour. Right? People were willing to spend two, three thousand dollars. Yeah. For a a ticket to to see her concert because it was an experience that they'll remember forever. And I think the same thing is applying here to some of these dining experiences and and even wellness trips where people are saying, you know, I'm gonna spend money because I've been sitting home for two years and And I'm gonna splurge on myself or splurge on my family. We're seeing a lot of multi general trips where families weren't even getting together for period of time. And now they're they're going with their grandparents and their kids, you know, and and they're building it out around this experience with which dining is a piece of it. So, and I think if you were to ask of credit card companies, they'd say that their spend is still pretty strong even though there's, you know, a little bit of a recession that that potentially could hit this year. The spend on on some of these experience and probably same thing with certain assets, luxury goods, as you're seeing a lot of spend. So I think that'll continue to evolve this year. And I think the restaurants still in a in a really good position. You mentioned while this trick, which is another thing that I really wanted to hit on that's definitely seen a big emergence that because historically, when we think about travel and and trips, especially big ones, a lot of it was around eating and drinking, And now it seems like we're starting to see a shift, especially in the the high end premium space where people are looking for these wilder strips where it's not you know, let's go and and rage and, you know, and and and do wide tastings and all that kind of stuff. It's, hey, I wanna go detox. I wanna get rid of, you know, get away from the drinking and stuff. And emergence of healthy lifestyle trips, things like that. Is that something that you guys are seeing all over? The world, or is that something you're exclusively seeing more of the US? What does that look like? So I think it's two pronged. One is you're seeing people that specifically will plan a trip around wellness. They'll go to a spa for a week that focuses on on yoga and massage and and certain, nutritional aspects. And so it's it's a full week that's that's set for that. And then you're also seeing people who are traveling. And while they're going to their best their favorite restaurants and and going on some some of the high end tours, They also wanna, you know, do a spa day. You know, I I think there's a lot of people are looking to, you know, live longer and they wanna live healthier I think these wellness people are willing to to spend on that. And so it it's a trend that we've seen, and we believe that that that spend on the on the credit card, and as people's budgets, they'll continue to allot money to, to the wellness area. Yeah. We've, we just came off of a trip for My mom's birthday went down to Lake Austin Spot Resort, which is great. It's all a health wellness focused. It's classes. It's exercise. It's right there on the lake. It's a lot easier to come back feeling refreshed. The people probably don't feel that. Like, I gotta come back and need a vacation from the vacation kinda thing. What do you go back to to the food? Because it's it's always interesting seeing how those trends go. It was, you know, obviously Paris was is kind of the mecca for a while on food. It seems like from looking at the rankings, there's been a big shift towards that some of the nordic countries. And so what are you guys seeing, for food in in that culinary travel focus? Are you guys seeing patterns shift in where people are going, or is it still, hey. I'm going on a trip. I'm still going to the traditional powers. So we are seeing, other cities start to tickle. One of the things at a buyer lifestyles we use. We're one of the sponsors for the world's fifty best restaurants. This past year, the it was at Valencia It'll actually be in the US for the first time in many years. It'll be in in Las Vegas this this coming June. So maybe you can make it out to the Las Vegas, and it's like the Academy Awards for restaurants and then they'll count down from the top hundred and then then they go through the top fifty. You have seen some cities, you know, Copenhagen to your to your question. Paris was it was a traditional hotspot and it still is, but there's other cities. And and and I would say Copenhagen is certainly one of them in Europe. Lisbon, a lot of people are are increasing their travel into, into your going into Portugal. When you look at South America, Mexico City, and San Paulo, typically been powerhouse cities for for dining. And but the top restaurant in the world is central and, in Lima Peru. Salima Peru has become quite a hotspot. You go over to Asia. You know, Tokyo has always been a it's been a great destination for dining, but you know, now you're seeing, you know, Singapore is is really picking up. So I'd say that a lot of cities are are growing and that even you know, if you look at the local, you know, the the farm to table scene here in the US, some smaller cities, I'll bring up, like, at Des Moines, Iowa, up a Portland, Maine, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Salt Lake City. Right? As you look at this hyper local dining, we're we're really, you know, providing fresh product and and really looking at the purveyors around the restaurant. You're starting to see some of those cities pick up as well. So it's really an interesting trend that that we've seen over the last few years. Yeah. It the other thing I've always been keeping an eye on, you know, there's a limited Dallas that Michelin doesn't come to Texas. And it seems like a lot of, you know, Nashville saw, which I know you're you're in there. Huge growth there. Charleston, It lay it, a lot of those cities. And they all seem to have that same barbed to table, real focus. They're a lot of similar kinda dieting there. What are you guys seeing from a trend standpoint, if anything, from the types of of restaurants that are emerging in that fifty best. I guess I know there's there's trends from traditional French techniques, but now things look like it seems like a little more approachable food. That in the past, what it was reserve for the real, you know, white table cloth kind of things, what what does that look like for for your customer I I think it's just there's there's a tremendous breadth of food offerings, combinations, you know, a combination of of peruvian and Asian. Right? That, you know, that combination is become very popular. When you look at sustenance and and, restaurants really grow in the food around the area, sometimes they control the whole supply chain. So everything from the beer to the to the salad. Everything is produced right there. So sometimes it's not that, you know, the the the the white cloth table with the the high end service. It could be, you know, local ingredients in a community really fresh food. It could be a a really simple meal. But you so you're starting to see the palate and the taste for people really change because they're looking for those different experiences. And some are looking for a a three hour sit down, eight course. Some people are. Others just wanna go into a local community. It could be in, you know, Bobita, Columbia, right, restaurant layout, the the chef there's the top female chef in the world. You know, the prod of the produce, everything that's cooked comes from the local community. So I think we'll continue to see a divergence where where people when as we talked earlier about the experiential piece of it, is they're looking for different types of of dining experiences. That makes sense. All this also leaves me with wondering where does this leave hotels? Brad, obviously hotel is a big part of what they bank on is getting the on-site dining, not only for the guests that are there, but also people in the community. I think a lot of times people don't wanna go to a restaurant that's in a hotel for whatever reason that they not gonna be as good or it's a little tourist trap, whatever it is. Like, what do you guys what does it look like for hotels? Is there are they able to keep up? Are people still open to dining in the hotels, where does that leave hotels? Yeah. That's a that's a great question. I mean, if you, I mean, if you look at Las Vegas, right, part of the restaurant scene, most of those high end, restaurants are actually sitting in the hotels, but, I think the hotels have really done an excellent job of offering experiences when you're staying in, and I agree with you, AJ. When I used to travel a lot more than I do now, it would be you'd go to the hotel, you check your bag, and you'd get in a or you rent a car, get a rental car now as an Uber and you go to the restaurant outside the hotel. You're seeing a lot more choices both from a spot, which we talked about earlier, the restaurant scene has really, has really accelerated. An example I'll give you is, we're working with waldorf astoria and Cabo, around, they're bringing in some of the top chefs. They do a dining series where they actually bring the chefs to the hotel. They do cooking classes. They'll have I I think coming in April, they'll have the top chef Brometo is gonna be, coming in. And so those things have really brought people to the hotels because they're creating a weekend and, again, an experience around dining and capturing that when you're staying at the hotel. So I think the hotels have realized that that's the trend. You'll see caughtier services at a lot of the hotels in the big cities, have relationships with some of the restaurants. So they're able to support areas that that maybe aspire doesn't do before a trip And when you're staying at the hotel, if you need to make changes or reach out to the to a a local restaurant, those hotels are are much better than they were let's say, five, ten years ago. They really are acclimated with with the trends that are going on. I've I've always wondered that how when you reach out and ask for the the concierge to get you hooked up at a reservation at a at a restaurant, how actual how much suede does that really have? It's good to hear. It's it's it's definitely better off. And I've noticed that too. A lot of times, I'm gonna either go to stay at a hotel, you know, or have a trip up coming, I'll see that they've got a chef series coming in or a visiting chef or whatever it may be. And Those are always in it's it's interest because I was wonder well, you know, I don't necessarily know that person. And so is that gonna change my experience of what I would get in that specific space. But, that's probably me needing to do a better job of, of of doing the research there on it. But I know. Yeah. Vegas is obviously it's synonymous with, you know, hotel and, and restaurants alike. What should, you know, I wanted to think about how these hotels, restaurants, how they're actually engaging the clients and getting people there. How should hospitality businesses be looking at at leveraging this, you know, this trend, this emergence of this culinary experiential tourism. So it's a good question. I I hate the, you know, the digital platforms are accelerating. Right? So whether your your seven rooms or your your open table or your resi or your talk. You have these similar types of companies through in in Asia as well. You don't wanna lose that personal touch. Like, you know, I always enjoy if I'm calling a restaurant. You know, the experience starts with the the time the person picks up the phone. Yeah. Right? So there are times where I prefer having a digital experience where I can go in and book it. There's other times where I may have one of my daughters may have you know, a nutrition, you know, a restriction that that I need to make sure that they're aware of. And I, you know, the rest have to be careful just like they'll tell us. We don't wanna lose that immersive experience by by becoming too impersonal. So you know, it's great if they can, you know, get a digital booking, but they also need to make themselves available. And that's where at Aspire, we try to be kind of a go between because we can actually reach out to the restaurant. We can start that kind of experience with the card member that's looking to to go to the restaurant. You know, but that it's really important, you know, because, you know, if I need to make changes to a reservation, if I'm changing the number of people, if I'm late to the restaurant and change. Sometimes you're like, oh, where's that email from that digital supplier. Right? And then you're, you know, you feel like you're Yeah. You're out of touch, and and you're not gonna get your your reservation. So, I think it's important that we still keep the human element on on this whole thing. And I brought up the dietary one before we had a card member that called up, and the, the lady wanted to speak with each chef at the restaurant to make sure that the food being delivered, to her her child was, you know, had all the precautions in it. And even take the answer for the rest of needed to talk to a chef, and the chef was happy to get on. Wow. So it's, it's important with the whole culinary experience that we don't lose that that touch right from the beginning when that that call is made. And, you know, when they arrive at the restaurant, everybody's part of that whole experience from the time they they walk into the restaurants at five, they said if if it's a chef tour in the kitchen or they're bringing the food out to the table. Right? In a way, they're all actors in a play and and trying to made a a great experience for every button. Yeah. I could I'm glad you brought that up. I don't know if you watched the the bear. On Hulu, but it was an incredible real kind of peek behind the curtain on how those restaurants, those true, true, true top of the line restaurants really pay attention to every single little thing whether it's doing research on the clients, before they show up. That might have also paid it a little bit of an unrealistic expectation for people going there, but, It it does seem like I think a lot of the perception is those restaurants are really stuffy. And you are they they almost treat you like you're lucky to be there versus the other way around. But it sounds like that's not the case in a lot of those real high end ones. Is that what you've seen as well? Yes. I it's those those experience still exists where I I walk in and, I feel like I'm lucky to have been able to walk through the front door I'd say for the most part, they're I find most of the top chefs are very humble. They really support each other. When we're at this world's fifty best, They all know each other. They're hugging on space. They're bringing up their country flag because they're proud of, you know, what they're doing. And I find they they they're excited when somebody comes in and is partaking in in what they're doing. To the point, you know, when we talk about trends going out at restaurants, Nowadays, it's becoming like hotels and airlines where you have to, in some parts, you have to pay, prepay for the dining reservation, because it may be a restaurant that only has eight tables. And more important than the the the restaurant actually getting the money is If if one couple or foursome doesn't show up at that restaurant and there's only seven, well, that restaurant went out and bought food for eight tables, And part of the, you know, the great experience of sitting there is that there are eight tables that everybody's there at the same time. And if you have one or two tables missing, it it's a distraction, for the restaurant. And so I find most of the restaurants go out of their way to really you know, get as many people in. I mean, you know, one of the struggles with restaurants is if you look at airlines, you could add more planes on a route from New York to LA if travel was picking up If you're looking at, you know, a restaurant in Manhattan and it has twenty tables, maybe they're able to add a few tables outside, but it's really hard to go from twenty tables forty tables. So you tend to have more people now searching for that same number of tables or a slightly incremental one. So companies like ourselves really have to work harder restaurants have to work harder not to frustrate people when they're trying to get into a a restaurant that they've been trying to get into for six months. And so I think, you know, as we look six months or years, we'll continue to find better ways to make sure that, we're able to spread these reservations out, you know, across the gamut. That's such a huge piece. And I wanted to hit all that because you mentioned Talk and Open Table and and Resi and all these different platforms. For us, I think than already the business that don't understand this stuff, where it seems like it's all the same to us. I know restaurants go back and forth, but there's two things I wanted to hit on. One is you know, what the difference is. I assume there's sub cost on the restaurant side, but the spreading out of the reservations, it almost becomes, like, southwest where you try to, you know, you sit there with your finger on the button with the alarm, whatever my wife and I have friends coming to town, Hey, we know two weeks out, all the dot at ten AM. We gotta hit this to be able to get into that sushi restaurant. And so It becomes almost a badge of Otter. When you say, hey, I got that reservation. Right? It's a hot one. Could you tell us a little about what the difference differences really are on these reservation platforms? You know, they're they're a little bit of nuance some will may maybe gather more spending data. So if you're and I won't I won't go into each one of what they do. But some will be able to say, you know, Wayne likes to travel, and he likes, an old fashioned when he sits down. Right? And this is the type or this is the type of Bakie likes or he's he enjoys, you know, Italian food. Right? So as you go out and you eat more through some of the platforms, they get to get a little more understanding of you, There's also, you know, it's been shown that certain tables drive more money. If you're sitting with a window view and you're a couple leading there, you're more likely to get slightly nicer bottle of wine. You know, so some of these these companies and platforms are able to drive a lot more data, which they can then feed back to the whether it's a restaurant or a hotel at night club in Las Vegas, they can tell you for those private venues, you know, what tables are driving, you know, a lot of the the income that's coming in. So there there have been some changes with these companies. We work with all of them. I mean, it's sometimes consumer has a hard time between all the different sites, especially if you're having to prepay for it. And so we try to, you know, give them different choices you know, and then, you know, keep up to date, maybe send them an email a couple days before they're traveling to let them know, hey, you have a restaurant reservation, eight o'clock in Chicago. Is that timing still good? And the and the platforms have actually done a good job as well, letting you know, you know, hit one or nine if you're yes or why if you're able to make the reservation tomorrow because the good news is if it's no, you can then get out and they can, you know, get that secure that table with somebody else. Yeah. I've noticed that over the last couple of years, especially And it's been huge because a lot of times with the way, especially here in Dallas and and suburb magazines and websites have written articles about the that's there's, like, arms race for reservations, and they're so difficult. It's a It is. I might need your southwest analogy. I don't wanna let that one go because you know, when you try to get an a seating with twenty four hours to go, if you don't go on, if you don't set it up twenty four hours, the a seats go. Right? And so then you're you're c sixty. Yeah. Yeah. You're not gonna get a bag in the overhead. You're gonna be in middle of rope. It's similar with some of these restaurants when they open up their reservations for sixty days out. Well, midnight at that time period, everybody's online. They they wake up, they set their alarms at home, and they wake up, and they get their reservation to get that it's like Willie Walker and the gold ticket. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's one of the things we also do at Aspire is if we're working through a a credit card company, and a member calls up on the back of the credit card, run a restaurant reservation, and they say, I I wanna go to, I'll use French laundry since you brought that up earlier, and their books open up sixty days in advance. We actually have it was worth twenty four seven somebody's actually calling on behalf of that card member to call the restaurant reservation. So it's it really helps with people's times to to in planning that that we can do that form. Yeah. It's, it's difficult. It it would wind up. I I wind up. If I myself wind up, I make reservations on spec that I just say, hey. I've got I know we're gonna be doing something. We've got friends that that way. I gotta go ahead and grab this one just in case I don't get another one. And then, like you mentioned, that that one, you know, one died Texas has been huge because a lot of times I forget. I got four different platforms. I'm juggling, and I'm not showing up somewhere that I don't have a reservation. So it's a it's it's great all around us. I know it helps the the restaurants too because I always feel bad if I have a couple and I forget to cancel it a week out or something like that. It's a it's a it's a a real tough world here. It is. What, before I let you go, what they I always like doing is is a little Mount Rushmore segment. And for you, I wanted to to talk about the four greatest food cities for your Mount Rush. I won't make you choose any specific restaurants. In there because, I know you guys wanna be, maintained your your neutrality for for the rankings and everything. But, for the listeners, at nobody better than you, who is on your Mount Rushmore for food cities? So you are asking me for my personal standpoint, not from bookings that I see within the company. This is a You're versatile. This is all you. So well, I'll say from a a a booking, you know, I'll start with Europe. Europe Paris is still the probably the best dining destination, most bookings that we see coming from people. And this is from people traveling from the US going to Europe. Me personally, I and you talked about it earlier. I love Barcelona. I love the, you know, just the the atmosphere there, the restaurants that are there. The number two restaurant on the World Estrotar is there. So it's a tremendous place. And even as you go up the coast of Spain, you you just there's so many choices for for foodies and and restaurants that that's a great area. In the US, I'm from the New York area, even though I live in Nashville now, I I think, you know, it's it's tough competition between New York City, Miami, New Orleans are all great restaurants that we're seeing, you know, exponential growth. A lot of restaurants opening up. If I was going away for a weekend of just, of dining, I can get into different restaurants in New York would would probably be my first choice. Mexico City, if going south, between San Paulo and Mexico City, I'd probably choose Mexico City. They probably have four restaurants in the in the top fifty right now. And then in in Asia, you know, I've I've been to Tokyo a lot and and love the the restaurant scene in Tokyo. Those would be my four choices. I'll sit with those. I'll go Barcelona, New York, Mexico City, and Tokyo. All good. All pretty safe. Yeah. I know Mexico City has been on fire. Seems like everybody's been going there and it's it's been in the news a lot. And a at a hot travel destination, which is great. It's always fun seeing different cities emerge and and different types of food take center stage. This has been awesome. I love I could keep you here for hours and hours and hours, but, but I will we'll have you all to get down the road whenever something new comes out or summer, maybe after Vegas to break down everything that happened there, the fifty best. But where can people find you? Get your get your plugs in. If people wanna get in touch with you. So we actually were we're opening up, a B2C shortly. Right now, it would be mostly through your credit card company. So, you know, Wayne dot conti at aspire lifestyles dot com. People can certainly reach out to me. Fact, AJ, if you're traveling to Europe, I know you got young ones, but, when you're ready to travel again, we're we're ready to to to help you out. Oh, yeah. But, yeah, it broke mostly through your most people on that are listening to this podcast now are probably using our services calling the back of the credit card. So my recommendation would be to reach out to your local bank. If they're not using Aspire lifestyles, they should say, well, you should reach out to Spire and and talk to them about setting up a program because we are, you know, again, we're we're doing about three million restaurant reservations and and bookings for hotels and airlines. And so we're connected with most of the restaurants around the world through our through our staff. And so we're happy to help people as they're planning their travel and and getting to where they wanna go and getting to the restaurants of their choice. But I just wanna say thank you. I've I've listened to your podcast. I've asked you, congrats on this and best of luck with what you're doing. You're you're providing some great information out there for people and love being a part of your show today. It's a lot of fun. Like I said, we'll we'll definitely have you on periodically for sure because this is something that everybody talking about. Everybody loves hearing about. Everybody loves the inner workings of it. We'll take guys a after the fifty best, I'd I'd love to do a deep dive on everything that actually goes into that. And, and, and on how that all comes together and and talk through, you know, what the the emerging trends are gonna be for the rest of this year and into the future. So Thank you so much for coming on. Appreciate it. Everybody's gonna love this, and I think it's safe to say now that Crodo's experiential travel. Thanks, man. Take care. Thank you.