Prince Harry had barely started his speech before he decided the crowd needed a gentle telling-off.
The Duke of Sussex made a surprise appearance as keynote speaker at the 25th Wanderlust Reader Travel Awards, held in the grand Painted Hall of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London, on Wednesday, Nov. 4. But as he looked out over roughly 500 travel-industry guests, he paused his opening remarks, gestured toward the audience and delivered a deadpan observation.
“All I can see is phones,” Harry said, prompting laughter across the room, according to a clip shared on social media and reported by Page Six.
Standing with one hand on his hip, the 42-year-old kept smiling as he pointed out that the speaker before him had apparently just raised the very same issue. “You guys, literally he just talked about it,” he quipped, before diving back into his prepared remarks.
It is not the first time Harry has playfully scolded fans over their cameras. In 2024, as he left the Invictus Games Foundation’s 10th-anniversary service at St Paul’s Cathedral, he teased a woman who was holding up two phones to snap him at once. “You’ve got two cameras? How did you end up with two cameras?” he asked, gently nudging her arms back behind the barrier.
Once the phones were (mostly) lowered, Harry turned to the real reason he was there: Travalyst, the sustainable-travel coalition he founded in 2019. The not-for-profit brings together major travel and technology companies to put clearer sustainability information in front of everyday travelers.
“I believe that an industry built on extraordinary places of our world has both a responsibility and a business imperative to protect it,” Harry told the room. He also framed the mission in simple terms: “I started Travalyst because I believe deeply in travel as a force for good. But if tourism stops working for the people who call these destinations home, eventually it stops working for everyone.”
During the speech, Harry announced that Wanderlust magazine has joined Travalyst’s Affiliate Network. He later joined Travalyst CEO Julie Cheetham on stage to present the award for Most Desirable Country for Sustainability to Germany. Elsewhere on the night, Wanderlust readers — who cast a record number of votes this year — named Costa Rica the most desirable country in the world and Spain the top pick in Europe, with Tokyo and Athens winning the city categories.
The London appearance came on the heels of a solo trip to New York, where Harry was spotted at the Lotte New York Palace hotel earlier in the week. A spokesperson said the duke held “a number of meetings” focused on new business opportunities and partnerships, with more details to be shared “in due course.”
Next up is a rare joint outing. Harry and Meghan Markle are due in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday for the opening of the Lost Screen Memorial, where the couple will deliver a keynote speech. It will be their first overseas trip together since the family — including Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5 — relocated to England in August. Harry is also set to take part in a panel titled “Beyond Promises: Building a Digital Future That Works for Children.”
If his Greenwich speech is anything to go by, the audience in Brussels may want to keep their phones in their pockets.
Source: Page Six
