Listen to today’s podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-travellers-daily/id1842920062
True Travellers Society Podcast: October 15, 2025
Welcome back, travellers and trend-watchers. Today’s podcast episode was created from the following stories: an evidence-packed look at rural tourism’s power to transform communities, fresh insights into hospitality and customer behavior, big-picture shifts in pensions and markets, and the latest in travel culture, branding, and gear. Here’s what stood out and why it matters.
Spatiotemporal coupling and coordinated development of rural revitalization and rural tourism in Jiangsu
By Meiqin Ding, Hui Liu — 2025-10-14
Using entropy weighting and coupling coordination models, this study shows rural revitalization and tourism in Jiangsu have grown in tandem, with southern Jiangsu 26.4% more coordinated than the north. Resource density mattered less than policy and urban–rural linkages, challenging traditional resource-dependence assumptions. The authors urge talent attraction and culture–tourism integration in the north, and mechanisms that enable two-way urban–rural flows in the south.
Customer tolerance in homestays: The influence of interpersonal interaction and motivation attribution
By Huiling Zhou, Longfang Huang, Yu Guo, Yajun Jiang, Ke Wu — 2025-10-14
Interpersonal interaction boosts guests’ tolerance for service hiccups by nudging them to see hosts’ motives as altruistic rather than self-interested. Longer stays strengthen the direct interaction–tolerance link, but don’t significantly alter early motive attributions. For operators, training teams to signal genuine care and encouraging slightly longer stays can build service resilience.
Aging in rural communities: Engagement in indoor leisure activities and older adult health
By Pei-Yi Weng, Dongying Li, Man-Li Liao, Yen-Cheng Chiang — 2025-10-14
In rural Taiwan, four-week horticultural and handicraft programs significantly improved older adults’ daily living skills and reduced depression; baking improved mood and social engagement but not functional independence. Structured indoor activities proved valuable during periods of restricted outdoor access. Policymakers should prioritize engaging, novel programs that blend creativity with social connection.
How to adapt our pension schemes to longer life expectancy
By François L’Italien — 2025-10-14
As life expectancy rises and defined benefit coverage declines, retirees relying on defined contribution savings face longevity and payout risks. Proposed fixes include lifetime income options within DC plans, pooled public vehicles akin to the UK’s NEST to lower fees, and more generous indexation (e.g., wage-linked or the UK-style Triple Lock). The goal: stable, inflation-resilient retirement income that lasts.
Harvest luxury: plan an olive oil escape in Italy
By Catherine Sabino — 2025-10-14
Olive oil tourism is surging, with travelers seeking hands-on harvests, mill tours, and DOP tastings from Garda to Sicily. Festivals like Umbria’s Frantoi Aperti and curated hotel experiences in Tuscany, Puglia, and beyond turn culinary curiosity into immersive travel. The movement extends year-round, blending landscape, heritage, and craft into meaningful food journeys.
PL Capital ups Nifty target to 28,781 despite tariff threats, FII outflows and trade uncertainty
By Madhu Balaji — 2025-10-14
PL Capital lifts its 12-month Nifty target to 28,781, arguing domestic demand and a solid monsoon offset tariff headwinds and FII outflows. It sees domestically oriented sectors—banks, autos, staples, defense, metals—outperforming, with robust Q2FY26 earnings in commodities, telecom, AMC, and EMS. The call favors a homegrown growth tilt amid global uncertainty.
Why OOH is one of today’s most progressive media spaces
By Lily Robertson-Ward — 2025-10-14
Out-of-home has reinvented itself: programmatic buying, dynamic creative, and stronger attribution are making OOH both accessible and accountable. Brands can tailor messages by weather, time, and location, and tie exposure to site traffic, footfall, and sales. It’s becoming a rare channel that bridges brand-building and performance at scale.
Influence Society releases fourth edition of Societies Quarterly, showcasing the new language of exceptional hospitality
By Sébastien Felix — 2025-10-14
Societies Quarterly Q4 spotlights how leading hoteliers blend subtle tech, cultural nuance, and editorial restraint to stand out. From Dubai and Abu Dhabi’s quiet eVTOL ambitions to integrated retail hotels and design-led audio gear, the report maps a creative, future-facing hospitality playbook. It’s a practical inspiration deck for design and brand leaders.
The Away Aluminum Edge Collection reinvents iconic cases
By Tom Payne — 2025-10-14
Away’s new Aluminum Edge line pairs an aluminum frame with a textured polycarbonate shell, reinforced corners, and zipperless TSA latches. Across four sizes and four colorways, the standout Bigger Carry-On offers 43L capacity at 4.8 kg with the brand’s compression system. It’s a durable, premium refresh for frequent travelers who prize form and function.
‘Not too targeted, not too broad’: how First Bus is balancing brand appeal across generations
By Grace Gollasch — 2025-10-14
First Bus’s ‘Moving the Everyday’ platform reframes buses as a desirable, everyday service with social and environmental value. Targeted work like ‘Life Starts at Bus Pass’ (60+) and ‘LFG’ (under-23s) is backed by a unified national team and smart OOH, but success hinges on consistently reliable service. The ambition: drive real modal shift by aligning brand, product, and operations.
From rural revitalization and homestay psychology to hospitality design, olive oil travel, and better gear, today’s stories trace how we move, age, and experience the world—and how brands and policymakers are reshaping those journeys. Whether you’re optimizing a media mix, planning retirement income, or plotting your next escape, the throughline is the same: thoughtful design and smart coordination turn good ideas into everyday improvements.
