Romey, at the time of our talk, is the Partner, Head of Communications at ELMNTL, President at TravelUnity, and Forbes 30 under 30 Finalist in Marketing in 2016. Based in New York, I spoke to Romey about his passion for travel and why it is so important to him to bring inclusivity within the travel sector.

Romey and I discussed his upbringing. His initial love for travel came to him whilst growing up in Huntsville, Alabama. One thing he did tell me, growing up, being the only Asian in school left him questioning his heritage, which led him to use whitening cream to make his skin paler. We discussed why he got to that stage and whether he regrets what he did.

When it comes to his work, we spoke about certain scenarios when working with brands, and sometimes he is on a losing battlefield in terms of what he is after. However, he did tell me it doesn't stop him from trying to get diversity within the sector.

He also spoke to me about when it comes to working with influencers; the biggest thing he wants out of them is to get them to tell their story and journey rather than going back to him with superficial photos.

I also spoke to Romey about some of his favourite destinations. In particular, Romey does like to try out different cuisines when he is travelling and, in his own words, will have an itinerary of restaurants he wants to go to or specific food he wants to try out.

All in all, I really enjoyed my talk, and it was a pleasure getting to know Romey. There is good inside of him. His mindset and goals for wanting an inclusive society are there for you to see in our talk. I shall be keeping an eye out on all of his future endeavours and wish Romey the best of luck.

You can also watch the episode on my YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/giVF933OogU). For people with hearing impairment, subtitles are available on YouTube.

#travelpodcast #podcast #diversetravel

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Chapters

• Intro
• Welcome Romey; how is he, and how is New York, BLM
• Love of travel, Difficulties & finding his Identity 
• Early travel life moulding his career 
• How hard is it to make the travel industry diverse 
• Issues with content creators taking up the space 
• TravelUnity is working on diversity, experiencing issues ourselves 
• Being Asian and gay, breaking down barriers 
• Marketing the business in certain places 
• Memorable places, Food & travel 
• Travelling alone? Transformative experience 
• Summary & Outro 

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Stay connected with Romey
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/wheresromey/
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Stay connected with me
Website
https://shebsthewanderer.com/
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/shebsthewanderer/
Twitter
https://twitter.com/ShebsAlom
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/shebsthewanderer/
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Romey started off the introduction.
TravelUnity discussion
https://youtu.be/84afWmgrlpk