If you're in London for WTM, keep Wednesday 4 November free.
WTM London is the one week of the year when the whole industry is in the same city. The show sets the agenda, and with everyone in town, the conversations it sparks carry on across London well into the evening. Some of the week's best gatherings grow up around WTM, and this year Trip Planners is adding one to the calendar.
It's called Sharbat, and Travel Trends Podcast Founder & Host Dan Christian will be leading a fireside chat on where travel is heading. Around 150 hand-picked guests from across the industry, then food, drinks and live music into the night.
Why This Conversation,
Why Now
AI can now produce a complete itinerary in seconds. That shift has been one of the defining stories in travel this year, and one we've explored across the podcast and at the Travel Trends Summit.
But speed was never the hard part of planning a trip. The hard part is judgement: which restaurant is worth the detour, which guide actually shows up, which neighbourhood suits the traveller in front of you. And above all, knowing what you don't know.
Trip Planners is betting that this is exactly where the human layer becomes more valuable, not less. Its tagline puts it plainly: travel like you've got a guy there. As the generic parts of travel get automated, the edge may belong to whoever can still offer someone who knows the place, gets the traveller, and is personally accountable when plans change. That tension between automation and human connection is the thread Dan will be pulling on in the fireside chat.
Meet
Trip Planners
Trip Planners matches travellers with a planner who lives in the destination. The planner builds the trip around the traveller, books what is hard to book, and stays reachable for the whole stay.
The model is deliberately simple. Travellers pay a flat daily rate, and there are no commissions or paid placements, so the advice is only ever on the traveller's side. Planners are destination specialists rather than generalists, and the relationship works more like a personal travel stylist than a questionnaire: down to which neighbourhood to stay in, which dish to order, or tracking down a specific supermarket product for a child mid-trip.
Today the company covers 28 destinations across Egypt, Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Austria.
From Travellers To Travel Businesses
The more interesting story for our audience is where Trip Planners is going next. The same local planners now work for the businesses that serve travellers, effectively turning on-the-ground destination expertise into something other brands can plug in.
Hotels and hosts: an in-house trip planner, built into the stay and delivered under the hotel's own brand. A concierge layer that deepens the guest relationship and opens new revenue.
Travel agents: a destination and taste curator. The planner knows which vendors deliver and which only have a good website, and the agent gets that judgement without the years it takes to earn it.
Luxury travel designers: an insurance policy for entering a new destination. Hotels, guides and operators are checked in person before the designer recommends any of them to a client.
Anyone who moves groups: from retreat leaders and community hosts to MICE teams and wedding planners, a coordinator on the ground. One person accountable for every vendor, every confirmation and every change of plan.
Content creators: a way to turn travel knowledge and personal taste into something bigger, whether by licensing that expertise or building group trips around a community.
Different business models, one foundation: trusted destination specialists and real people making travel work.
❁ THE NIGHT ITSELF
In Egypt, sharbat is the sweet red drink poured when there's good news, a new beginning or something worth celebrating. Trip Planners is bringing that tradition to London.
The evening opens with a welcome glass of sharbat. At 7:30pm, Dan sits down for the fireside chat. After that, its conversation over food and drinks, with live music to close the night.
What you won't find: forced introductions or awkward networking exercises. The idea is a room full of interesting people with strong opinions, distinct tastes and real experience, and the freedom to see where the night takes them.
Sharbat is built for the people shaping how travel gets designed and delivered: content creators, hoteliers, luxury travel designers, special-interest travel agents, MICE and events professionals, and community leaders.
Date:
Wednesday 4 November 2026
Time:
6pm until late (fireside chat at 7:30pm)
Venue:
DoubleTree by Hilton London,
Tower of London, 7 Pepys Street
Admission:
Free. Places are limited and confirmed by the host
▶ REQUEST YOUR PLACE
Want to catch Dan earlier in the week? On Tuesday 3 November, 10:50 to 11:10, he's moderating The Business of Trends: Identifying a Fad, or the Future? on the WTM Trends Stage. See the session details.
About
Trip Planners
Trip Planners matches travellers with a planner who lives in the destination, on a flat daily rate with no commissions, across 28 destinations in Egypt, Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Austria. The same local planners now work for the businesses that serve travellers: a hotel's in-house trip planner, a travel agent's destination and taste curator, a luxury travel designer's safety net in a destination they haven't sold before, and the coordinator on the ground for anyone running group travel.