All right, welcome back to Hostel Road Trip podcast.
Super excited to be here with the World Packers founders, Eric Ferria and Ricardo Lima, legends
of the industry and so much to talk about with how the awesome story of how they got
started and what they got going on and how they got there.
It's really a cool story, soon to be a documentary, I'm sure.
But I wanted to just start it off with, you know, one of the touching elements of your
company is having been able to watch it from a creation.
Work exchange and management at our first hostel in Lillie San Diego and seeing you
guys conceptualize the idea and take it from the ground up and build it into something
so fast or so inspiring.
And we still have the same picnic table that you guys hatched the scheme at underneath
the avocado tree.
It's folklore, legend, and stage as well.
And such a cool story that I always tell anyone that wants to hear.
But one thing I wanted to touch on and ask, Eric, I remember early on you coming with
the thought that this work exchange is such a profound experience that people should know
about as it can be so life changing and beneficial in so many ways.
We know from the language barrier of helping people learn languages, it's fantastic.
You're a great example of that itself.
And also just the fact that it's a great way to meet people and travel and it's such a
cool experience that I was always inspired and looked at it in that way.
Participating at a hostel, doing a work exchange, so much of what you're receiving is that experience
and how cool it is and how life changing it is.
And sometimes as Americans, I find, especially with the younger Americans or Americans of
all age, they have a hard time putting evaluation on that experience.
And that's something that's so pivotal.
If you don't understand that as being such a high value to the experience, and a lot
of people can often feel shortchanged or taken advantage of or think that it's not a fair
exchange.
From your perspective and World Packers, how do you deal with that element of really getting
them to value the experience?
Nice.
Can you hear me well?
Yeah.
Yep.
James was breaking up a little bit for me.
I don't know if it's for me.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, no, I was just highlighting the experience based stuff like the work exchange, like the
value of the experience is so important to the work exchange program, which you facilitate.
How do you highlight that?
Or do you see that as a challenge with the younger people now?
Or with that American demographic?
I was just curious on how you deal with that internally over at your side of the world.
Yeah, nice, nice.
It's always a challenge for us to promote the exchange, right?
It's such a deep transformation that we can have in this experience that it's very hard
to put in words for anyone that's outside a hostile environment.
But what we do a lot at World Packers now, we're doing a lot of training videos, a lot
of certificate videos.
So travelers, when they are getting on board, on World Packers, they can watch some certification
videos so they can get prepared for what's coming for the experience.
Because they are new if they're first time travelers.
Nice.
Do you find that from culture to culture, just by your numbers, do certain cultures
or nationalities really thrive more or connect more with that experience based exchange than
others?
How do you see it from your side of the platform?
Is it like, oh, wow, the Australians really get this exchange, they value it, they want
to do it, they're happy about it, they feel fulfilled by it.
Do you have any one nationality that stands out more than the other?
I can't say about one nationality, but I can definitely say about a continent.
And that's Europe.
Europeans love travel.
It's part of their culture.
The hostile industry itself was born in Europe.
So I think Europe, a lot of places like the United States, Brazil, Latin America, Southeast
Asia, they are picking up the culture, the traveling culture, the traveling benefits
of this experience.
So they are understanding more now.
But it takes time.
It takes maybe, I don't know, a generation to really change a culture, right?
But in Europe, they know how to travel.
Travel is cheap for them.
Their passport is well accepted.
Their parents have traveled before.
So that's what we see at WAPAC.
But the European ones, they are more upfront when it comes to hostile environment, traveling
abroad, going to a country that speaks a different language.
They are definitely ahead of all of us.
Okay.
Now, last question for either you or Rick.
The last question on the nationality part of it.
How would you describe the American demographic nationality with the exchange?
How would you describe their reaction to your platform, the experience that they have?
What are they like?
Well, so first, very honored to be here.
James, Bobby, and you spoke before about the power of the experience and being at ITH,
being close to you guys.
I learned a lot and inspired me a lot to understand the power of the experience, the transformation
that an experience can bring.
So the connection and the magic of traveling and meeting people and encounter with people
from all over the world.
So I learned a lot with you guys about that.
I've lived in New York, Utah, San Diego, and Santa Cruz.
So different parts of US.
And I love them all.
They're very different in every aspect.
But what I found, the pioneer is the idea of discovering of connection of globalization.
I think it's in there.
So as Eric mentioned, Europeans are doing that for a long time.
The hostile culture started in Europe, right?
So when you see what's happening in Europe, I think it's a great inspiration for what
we can do in the whole American continent.
Beautiful.
Tell us a little bit about when you guys came up with the idea.
Take us back to that moment when you guys were sitting across from each other and said,
we might have something here.
Tell us about that story and how that conversation went and those first couple moments when you're
dreaming up the concept.
Nice.
Yeah.
So as James was saying, I did exchange at USA Hostels where you guys were, where we
first met.
That's how I learned the language.
Back then at ITH, it was very clear for all of us, the value of the exchange, right?
Not just for language learners, just as myself, but for any kind of skill, for self-development
as well.
So I did the exchange with you guys when you guys were working for USA Hostels.
That was very special.
It changed my life.
When we were running ITH and I could host people and be on the other side of the exchange,
that was very valuable.
And that's when I think I saw the power in the whole world, right?
How about if anyone could travel and gather skills, learn the language, get self-knowledge
and learn about the world?
The world would definitely be a different place, right?
And Rick and I, we are friends from a long time, from Brazil.
He was traveling.
I quit my job to travel and he quit his job to travel as well.
He was traveling for three years and he saw the exchange at ITH.
He got interested.
He contacted me.
For us, ITH was very positive for us to have Rick with all of his experience coming to
the hostel.
But when Rick got to the hostel, he was transformed from his travel experiences, right?
And he was very impacted by what we were doing at ITH.
I had mentioned to James the value of the exchange and when I mentioned to Rick, Rick
actually asked to go to a coffee shop in Little Italy.
And he was saying, hey, you know, I've been traveling a lot.
I've been seeing some opportunities.
I want to do more than just travel.
I want to do something with purpose.
And he was in the exchange.
He was seeing all the value, all the transformation that can have in everyone's life.
And at that time, we were exchanging experiences and it was obvious for both of us that this
exchange had the potential to change the world, just as it was changing ourselves.
And that's why the vision at Workpackers is travel changes people, people change the world,
right?
Through the exchange, we can make more people travel and having more people travel will
definitely connect more to the world.
We'll learn more about ourselves, about the world, we'll develop new skills and we'll
come up very different from the exchange.
And that's how I describe my story.
But I want to definitely hear Rick's story as well.
The crossroads are in the NIH, as you mentioned, but my background is in investment banking.
I used to do IPOs of Latin American companies.
So I quit my job when I was in New York.
I first met you guys at USA Hostel.
It was amazing there.
I spent one week vacation at that time.
At that time, we had big bags, no backpack.
Then I quit my job and spent the next three years traveling from Asia to Africa, Europe.
And then I was seeing Eric's experiences at USA Hostel and then ITH online.
And I was, wow, what I'm doing is so cool, like traveling the world.
But what he's doing there, it's so meaningful, so deep, the connections and the people that
you meet and the possibilities that it opened to you in an experience like that.
So I was very curious to be part of that.
So I was in Peru, Lima when I got my flight to San Diego.
I just left, I just had a breakup.
You met my ex-girlfriend there.
So it was a very interesting time in my life.
I learned a lot in banking.
I learned languages while traveling.
I had so many experiences, but I didn't kind of fit myself.
I didn't want to just go to apply for a job.
I didn't want to initially.
My idea was to do surfing, Eric surfs so well, you guys know.
And I want to learn from him surfing.
So my idea was if we did video classes of surfing and then people could learn from like
professors and et cetera.
But he had a better idea.
And here we are.
Nice.
Do you ever tell people about the van that you both had parked behind the hostel or is
that omitted from your history?
That's one of the best parts of the history.
Awesome.
And then what did you guys learn 10 years later now, right?
World Packers is it the right there?
What have you guys learned over the 10 years that in this travel industry, what has it
taught you?
Man we had in mind at ITH that travel changes people, right?
That's how we were perceiving it, right?
That's what we were experiencing.
And after 10 years, I can tell you for sure that travel changed people for sure.
And we have many different stories that we can talk about.
But also, it's not easy.
I mean, you've been doing a big brand in the US for a decade as well.
And so you know all the challenges.
But I've learned that once you get a small group of people very committed in a shared
purpose, amazing things can happen.
It happened with me when I was with you guys at USA Hostels, at ITH, and it happened at
World Packers with Rick and all the team as well.
So I don't know how Rick would be describing it.
I would bring two words that I definitely learned with you guys as well.
Resilience and passion.
So resilience, it's a long journey.
It's tough.
There's a lot of way more lows than ups.
And then it was like, what was that for us?
So resilience and passion, like the passion for what you do.
I remember Jimmy making barbecue there.
I was sure that he had a lot of stuff to do and to work on.
That was in the early stage.
You guys were still didn't have the other host as well.
But it's still very engaged and enjoying doing barbecue for us.
So the passion and the resilience for me, it's like without this two, like to be an
entrepreneur in the world and to survive so long with a company.
And I think we both share that resilience and passion.
Wow, I agree.
Well said.
How about when you guys, before you created the company, you were living the experience.
Is there an experience that you guys recall that comes to your mind when you were like,
wow, this is a magical moment?
Or like, what is the biggest, yeah, what is it an experience that comes to mind when you
guys were world packing before it even got started?
Your best experience?
Before, I remember a USA hostels, something that just came to my mind.
I was at reception and everyone was out partying and stuff.
And one guy, one Canadian guy, he didn't go out.
And I asked him, it's like, hey, why don't you go out with people?
Like, you've been so busy the whole week and you're like, man, I just invented this machine
that you will not swipe your card anymore.
You just touch the credit card machine and you make the payment go through.
I was like, what?
And that's how we pay stuff right now.
I'm like, wow, I met the guy when I was traveling.
That's the one that comes to my mind.
And also like when I met James and you, I didn't speak English.
And I clearly remember some situations, some circumstances I was with you guys, like at
your house, for example.
I didn't understand what people were saying.
But as I was in the exchange, as I was talking more to people, being exposed in the house
environment, I remember myself improving my English skills as we were talking, as we were
developing our friendship.
And for me, it was very special.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Travel changes people, right?
You learned English by living that experience.
How about you, Rick?
What's a memory that comes to mind or story from your time?
Yeah, it came to memories, if I can say two.
When I was in France, I was in a kind of a campground called Aubert de Jonès.
It's like a young, a youth hostel, but usually they have camping as well there.
So I spent almost three months there.
And at some point I wanted to learn French.
So the receptionist of that place, she was Scottish and she was volunteering there.
So I was having classes, afternoon classes with her, drinking wine, French wine, and
I learned French with her, so she was volunteering there, but she was making some pocket money,
helping me and learning French there.
So for me, that moment of me, I was in a campground, so I had a lot of privacy and I had all the
time in the world.
So I was there for three months, I had time to learn and I was just, that's amazing what
has happened.
That just happened because she was volunteering, it was good for her to teach French as well.
And another one, when I was in India, I spent almost six months in India.
And when I remember the ashram that I stayed there, it's everyone helps in the place.
So people cook, people clean, and there is a community, there is some powerful vibes
on that.
And that's what I saw at ITH, like the vibes that you guys fostered.
So people were very happy and very, there was self-learning, there was community, there
was everything.
So the experience for someone, especially young people, but all the ages, young in the
heart, to that specific experience, I found that is one of the things that most can transform
the world today.
In a world that there is so much loneliness, so much addiction to screens, so much fear.
So the experience really changes everything.
That's amazing.
Yeah, Bob.
Another good one for me was at ITH when we started doing dinner, because we had about
like nine travelers or something like that.
And then we decided, okay, so we're gonna buy like basic food, and we're gonna teach
people how to cook.
And if all of us cook one day per week, and we clean up all the mess, we'll all have six
days of week with three restaurants.
Like collaboration, you know, like it's collaboration working in our favor.
So the dinner time was very special, and you are a very good chef, right?
And I got inspired by you.
And then I was like, okay, if I'm gonna cook every week, one day a week, I'm gonna choose
a specific meal so I can specialize.
I can get very good at it.
And I chose vegan Japanese food.
Those are big nights at the hostel.
Big nights, big nights.
Sushi with tarts.
I knew it.
Nice.
All right, fast forward to today.
What's on the forecast for World Packers in 2024?
And what's the next chapter, the next vision?
Where do you guys want to go?
And where do you see it going?
Go, go, go.
No, go, go, go.
So it's always surviving and growing, right?
I think for all the interpreters in the world, when I connect to like interpreters, creating
things, building things, connecting lots of expansion.
So there's so many people that don't know about the experience that it can be done.
Like so many people are not used to that, right?
So there's a lot of people to be impacted all over the world.
There is the new products to be launched.
So we've been focusing a lot the last few years in more social environmental impact.
So there is a lot more to be done in that, in the current world.
And other products where the experience can be easier or more convenient to the people.
So I would say products that are there to serve the people that are in the community,
expand the community, new features, improve.
So it's a constant at some point.
In the beginning, there is this magic of the beginnings and the new.
And then at some point, and I'm curious to know how it is for you guys, but as an entrepreneur
is really dealing with the conditions of the marketing, creating and launch.
Building the community, always building the community and growing and delighting the guests
or your customers with a great experience.
Yeah, Eric, how about you?
And I love to hear also if you how you like, what kind of travel are you seeing trending
right now from people maybe applying to be world packers like in the upcoming year?
What's popular right now?
Yeah, I mean, we just in 2000, last year, 2023, we launched the review process.
Hostess now can say what sustainable goals they help.
And exchange can can help.
So travelers now can see, oh, OK, so I want to make an impact on like local community.
I want to be in an international environment so they can they can filter opportunities
that were backers based on that.
We've been running beach cleanups in Brazil for the last three years and being very successful
so far.
We've got have a young sponsoring it ways from Google Bank of America, a lot of different
big companies joining us as well, because I think we all understand now the impact we
are having in the planet and we are we're doing our best to adjust the product, the
community to end those those kind of goals.
That's beautiful.
We were chatting the other day, we're excited to collaborate on some beach cleanups and
try to get it kicked off in Mexico.
We think it's a beautiful destination for backpackers and it definitely would be great
to give back there and help the community of so.
Yeah, because you were asking about the what's the trend.
And that's what we've been seeing running the beach cleanups and implementing all those
sustainable goals for our community.
The young generation, they are like, OK, so I just got here.
It's my time to enjoy Earth.
But now everything is destroyed.
So we are seeing a different type of travel that they they are prioritizing environmental
impact.
Sure.
Looking more into that.
You know, and we've been we've been adjusting the experiences we've been going after more
experience from NGOs, from environmental hosts to to make sure we support.
It's beautiful because, you know, like we all we all understand the climate situation
we are having right now.
This is something that you brought all always brought to me, you know, about permaculture
and all of that.
And I think now young generation are very interested because that's how we saw like
people would be first time travelers going to a hostel.
Right.
Just like myself, they learn a new language, meet international people, have the time of
their life.
Right.
They will be discovering about themselves.
But then after they do like a couple of different experiences, they understand the impact that
they can have and the hostess have.
And that's when they decided to go more into like, OK, so now I'm going to make like an
environmental impact.
Now I'm going to make a social impact.
So they will after they they goes to like the first experience, they open up more for
like, OK, what kind of impact I want to have in the world?
I just I don't want to have just fun.
I want to make sure I do good.
That's the that's the trend.
That's awesome.
All right.
We got a couple of minutes left.
James, you want to bring it home?
Any final questions?
I'm super excited to work with world packers and continue to collaborate with world packers
and I.T.H.
It's got such a cool story passed with each other.
And I think that with these beach cleanups and hooking up more in Mexico, it's super
for Eric to come down on holiday with waves and good weather.
So I'm happy that we've succeeded in doing that.
So you lead to.
Beautiful.
I was a little choppy there, but he was just saying how excited we are to be partnering
on these cleanups and continue to collaborate in twenty twenty four.
So yeah.
Well, thank you guys so much for joining us today.
We wish you all the best.