As founder of Skift, Rafat Ali has spent over a decade decoding how travel and culture shape one another. In conversation with Anant Sharma, he challenges the idea that globalisation made everything the same. The world may look uniform, but beneath the surface, centuries-old habits still shape what global brands mean. McDonald’s might exist everywhere—yet it means something entirely different in Morocco than in Mumbai.
For Rafat, the real draw of travel isn’t the scenery—it’s the human context: the small variations in how we live, eat, pray, and connect.
Hear the full conversation on What The Luxe—from media’s evolution and YouTube’s dominance to what AI will actually change in travel, and the future of independent hotels.
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