Jacqueline Gifford, editor in chief of Travel + Leisure, talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report about last week’s Travel + Leisure World’s Best Summit and the trends and news it produced. Gifford tells us about her on stage conversation with her boss, Barry Diller, chairman of People Inc.; what she got out of the rest of the conference and more. She also gives us an update on what’s new at Travel + Leisure, including a second Summit scheduled for London in October and a brand-new Substack newsletter called The Fast Track. For more information, visit www.travelandleisure.com.<br><br>All our Insider Travel Report video interviews are archived and available on our Youtube channel (youtube.com/insidertravelreport), and as podcasts with the same title on: Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Listen Notes, Podchaser, TuneIn + Alexa, Podbean, iHeartRadio, Google, Amazon Music/Audible, Deezer, Podcast Addict, and iTunes Apple Podcasts, which supports Overcast, Pocket Cast, Castro and Castbox.

What Happened at the Second Annual Travel + Leisure World’s Best Summit

The Insider Travel Report Podcast

Hi, I'm James Schillinglaw for Insider Travel Report and I'm here at the Travel and Leisure Worlds Best Summit for 2026 and it's a two-day conference. It's really a great networking area and I'm here with the Editor-in-Chief of Travel and Leisure, Jackie Gifford. And we're going to talk to Jackie about this particular event. It's been a wonderful event so far. It's been amazing. We've got another one coming up and we want to talk to her also about what's going on at Travel and Leisure.

And you're going to find out about all that and more on Insider Travel Report. Jackie, first of all, thank you very much for inviting me. It's been a great conference, a lot of great ideas. I'm meeting a lot of great people, including you. We've known each other for a while, but I have met so many great people here at this conference. But talk a little bit about your feedback so far. What has come out of this event?

We launched this event two years ago. Now, this is the third. And honestly, I had felt like the travel industry needed a community experience for some time, led by the editorial team where we could have real conversations about where the travel industry was going. Turns out I was right and people really have responded well to the summit. We sold out this year. We sold out last year. And now what you're seeing, honestly, is debate, dialogue. We are so laser focused on curating great speakers.

And then the networking, which you referenced, honestly, it's like people just want to chat and they want to bounce ideas off of one another. You and I, we can't walk down a hallway here without somebody stopping and chatting.

What Happened at the Second Annual Travel + Leisure World’s Best Summit

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

What Happened at the Second Annual Travel + Leisure World’s Best Summit

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.