Episode #25
Go While Your Knees Still Work: Katrina Barry on Travel Wealth
What do a no fee credit card, a no contract gym and a Gen Z reinvention of Contiki have in common? One playbook for breaking big, tired industries. In this episode of Always Business Class, hosts Steve Hui and Steve Pirie-Nally sit down with Katrina Barry, one of the sharpest brand builders in the country. Her career runs from McKinsey to seven years inside Richard Branson's Virgin Group, cofounding Virgin Active, then Managing Director of Contiki and Trafalgar, Global CEO of me&u, and most recently Group CEO and Managing Director of Webjet. Today she sits on boards including PetSure. Katrina shares the Virgin innovation framework she calls "design to the opposite," what Branson is really like away from the cameras, and the piece of gym market research so good it became a company mission: it is harder to get out of a gym contract than a marriage. She also unpacks her mission to turn Queenstown into the Silicon Valley of down under, why she believes travel creates better humans, and how the shift from SEO to AEO is about to reshape who wins in travel. If you have been telling yourself you will travel "when things settle down," this one is your nudge to go now, while your knees still work. Presented with thanks to Accor Plus Explorer. In This Episode Building a career across McKinsey, Virgin, Contiki and Webjet The "design to the opposite" framework she learned at Virgi What it was really like working with Richard Branson. Why "divorce is easier than cancelling your gym" launched Virgin Active Turning Queenstown into a tech and innovation hub Why travel creates better humans Travel wealth, travel longevity and going while you can The shift from SEO to AEO and getting found by AI agents Why trust, not technology, decides the winners in travel Raising kids in the age of ChatGPT Time blocking, thinking time and working on the business not in it The tired Australian brand she would love to transform
