#1 – CNN Anchor Richard Quest

Quest means business – and Quest means travel. This week on Leaders of Travel, we speak to CNN Anchor, Richard Quest.

Welcome to the first ever episode of Leaders of Travel. This is a brand new podcast for you, the traveller.

I get to have lots of cool experiences on my travels but one of the things that always interests me is the travel industry itself. Because there are people working in this business who have a big effect on your travels, even if you don’t realise it.

They choose how much legroom you get on a plane, how comfortable your hotel bed should be, whether tourists should pay extra taxes, how easy it should be to get between places and what parts of a destination are going to be promoted.

So this new podcast will feature interviews with these decision makers and really delve into what it’s like to run an airline, manage a country’s tourism, or try to create new experiences for visitors. You don’t normally get to hear about this side of things but it all makes a big difference.

I wanted to start the series, though, by looking at the big picture and who better to do that with than Richard Quest. If you spend time in hotel rooms you probably know Richard because he seems to be on the television every time you turn it on! He’s a regular fixture on CNN International – his show Quest Means Business is on every weekday and he also hosts the show CNN Business Traveller each month.

Richard Quest is also one of the world’s experts on aviation. Unfortunately there have been a lot of high profile air disasters recently and, personally, I’ve always been really impressed with his coverage of these events and I think he brings a really interesting insight and a detailed understanding of planes and airlines.

But I want to talk to Richard more about what’s happening in the travel industry at the moment and where the big changes are occurring. So, to find out more about all of these insights – and hear a little more about Richard as a traveller himself – I’ve invited him to smash the bottle of champagne over this new podcast series and launch it in style as my first guest.

I hope you enjoy the episode. Please tune in again next week when I’ll have another great interview.

I’ll be speaking with the Richard Branson of Iceland. His name is Skuli Mogensen and he is a billionaire who decided to start a new airline – Wow Air – that is now offering super cheap flights between the US and Europe. He’s a really interesting character and he thinks he knows how you want to fly!