Destination On The Left

Bob Provost, president, and CEO of  New York Tourism and Industry Association  (NSYSTIA) has been pretty much everywhere in New York State, from Long Island to the Thousand Islands. He currently resides on a small farm in northern Rensselaer County. When Bob joined NYSTIA as a member in early 2017 he had no idea he would be joining the staff as president and CEO in September of 2018. He felt that...

Jennifer Barbee is a serial entrepreneur, professional speaker, and all-around boss. Jennifer and her partner Kristen created the agency  Destination Innovate  in 2017, in addition to running to successful digital branding agencies. She has been named  Stevie® Female Entrepreneur  of 2013, 2014 in Advertising/Media/PR (U.S. and Europe), ranked #17 in  StartUp Nation's ® Top 100 Moms in Business an...

Colleen Onuffer is a consultant at  Break the Ice Media  and vital part of the team. She uses her passion for writing and storytelling in her role here to make a big impact for her clients. Since her start in 2016, Colleen has helped her clients find their essential stories and develop targeted messages. Colleen enjoys making new travel media contacts by participating in travel shows, like Discove...

Sally Berry is a tourism industry expert who helps Destination Marketing Organizations prepare their destinations to be more competitive and attractions bring in more visitors. Sally has worked at a small family-owned attraction, a regional DMO and at the  Corning Museum of Glass , a world-class museum in New York. She has spent time as a tour operator and also an adjunct college professor at  Pau...

Connie Stopher serves as Executive Director of the  Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization . In this role, she oversees the business and talent recruitment for a seven-county region. Since taking on the role of executive director in 2017, the southern Idaho region has experienced nearly $500 million in business expansions and nearly thousands of new jobs created. Previously, Connie serve...

Robin Boehler is a co-founder of international management consulting firm,  Mercer Island Group . Mercer Island group is a prominent global marketing management consulting firm helping clients and agencies solve a broad range of business problems from building business and tough competitive markets, to creating strategic roadmaps, and matching the right clients and agencies for productive relation...

Bill Geist is the Chief Instigator at  DMOproZ , a firm specializing in strategic planning, governance, marketing, and legislative issues for convention and visitor bureaus, tourism-focused chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, and communities. Prior to forming DMOproZ, Bill served as the President/CEO of the  Greater Madison (WI) Convention & Visitors Bureau . Bill is the auth...

Cassandra Harrington has served as the director of Destination Marketing Corporation for  Otsego County  for over a year. Prior to that, she was the director of the  Cayuga Lake Wine Trail  and she started her marketing career as the membership development manager at the Seneca County Chamber of Commerce. In her own words she is "learning the inner workings of the group travel industry as well as...

Richard Arnold is the Director of Fun at  Atlantic Travel and Tours . He is a graduate of Acadia University and has been with Atlantic since 1987.  He is also a member of the board of  Travel Alliance Partners , where he serves as treasurer. After working as an employee for many years, Richard took the plunge and purchased  Atlantic Travel and Tours.  He is a busy man- but he'll be the first to te...

Dr. Kirsten Ellenbogen brings more than 25 years of experience to her role as the third president of  Great Lakes Science Center  in Cleveland, Ohio. Kirsten's energetic leadership during the last two decades has advanced informal STEM education. Her leadership activities at Great Lakes Science Center have included the launch of a new strategic initiative, Cleveland Creates, developed in collabora...

Tiffany Gallagher is eastern USA branch manager for  Civitas , where she helps clients form and manage Tourism Improvement Districts. Throughout her career, she has shown a strong commitment to the tourism and business communities. Most recently she served as the President of the  Greater Syracuse Hospitality and Tourism Association  and currently serves on the  New York State Hospitality and Tour...

Fred Bonn of  New York State Park, Finger Lakes Region , and his management team, oversee 29 facilities across 10 counties. In 2018, Finger Lakes Parks has welcomed over 3. 8 million patrons who enjoyed hiking, swimming, boating, golf, and camping. Prior to joining New York State Parks, Fred served as the director of the  Ithaca-Tompkins County Convention and Visitors Bureau . Currently, he serves...

Sam Filler serves as the executive director of the  New York Wine and Grape Foundation , the main trade association responsible for statewide investments in research and promotion on behalf of the New York wine and grape industry. He previously served as director of industry development at Empire State Development. In that role, Sam worked closely with the alcoholic beverage industry and policymak...

Tami Brown currently serves as the General Manager for the  Greater Cleveland Aquarium , the only independent aquarium in Ohio. Tami promotes the tenets of "servant leadership", and her fascinating career path has wound between the arts and culture industry and the travel and tourism industry, giving her unique insights into both. Tami has spent her career working with attractions in northeast Ohi...

Beth Erickson has served as the President and CEO of  Visit Loudoun  since 2014. Visit Loudoun is in Loudoun County, Virginia and in 2016 alone, they generated almost $1.69 billion in travel spending and supported more than 17,000 jobs in the travel industry and adjacent businesses. Prior to her current position with Visit Loudoun, Beth served as the Vice President of the  Journey Through Hallowed...

Putting a marketing plan together may seem like a daunting task, competing with your daily must-do list and everything else vying for your attention. But without a plan, you are just wandering in the desert and hoping for outcomes you haven't clearly defined. Planning is a necessity in order to grow and sustain your business. This episode of Destination on the Left is a solocast all about developi...

Nancy Marshall has been doing PR since the early 1980s. She founded her agency,  Marshall Communications , in 1991 serving tourism and especially outdoor recreation clients. Since then, her agency has grown significantly and now her and her team handle the state of  Maine Office of Tourism  and state of  Maine Department of Agriculture , as well as the  Orvis Company . Nancy's passion is around pe...

Caroline Boland and Gary Curran together run the  Dingle Peninsula Tourism Alliance , located on the southern coast of Ireland. Gary serves as chairperson of the alliance, and Caroline is a marketing consultant for DPTA. Gary grew up on the peninsula and now runs Greenmount House, a 4-star rated bed and breakfast in Dingle. Caroline visited some years ago and knew this beautiful place was where sh...

Cory Lee is a travel blogger and advocate accessibility to accommodate disabilities of all kinds. At a young age, Cory was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, but that certainly did not diminish his desire to travel. He has visited destinations on six of seven continents (Antarctica is still on the to-visit list!) Since starting his blog,  curbfreewithcorylee.com  in 2013, he has gained more t...

Jay has been in the travel industry since 1974, beginning his career operating camping programs for students throughout North America. Jay moved to Massachusetts in 1987 with his family and shortly after started up  Sports Travel and Tours . The business first began with group trips primarily for baseball and expanded quickly to include most other major sports. The business has a specific niche, t...

David Huether currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Research at the  U.S. Travel Association . In this role, David manages the association's economic, tourism marketing and advocacy research programs. The U.S. Travel Association is a national non-profit travel advocacy organization working within all aspects of the travel and tourism industry, generating $2.4 trillion in economic output...

Nicole Mahoney is the host for the Destination on the Left podcast. She is also the CEO of Break The Ice Media, the travel and tourism marketing agency she founded in 2009. Break The Ice Media specializes in working for clients in the travel and tourism industries, through the strategic use of public relations, social media, digital advertising, tourism marketing campaigns, influencer marketing, a...

The travel industry is changing all the time. But some things are timeless. The challenge is to meet the evolving needs of clients, but retain all of the standards of good customer experience that are indeed timeless. On this episode of Destination on the Left, we talk with a true practitioner of this art. Justin Osbon talks with us about his experience with a truly legendary European tour operato...

In a region with a lot of tourism opportunity, sibling rivalry is just part of the dynamic of working together. Even more so with metropolitan areas in close proximity: like the two Kansas Cities, or Dallas/Fort Worth, or my guest's hometown of St. Paul and Minneapolis. On this episode of Destination on the Left, Adam Johnson of  Visit Saint Paul  talks with us about the fun you can have with this...

Getting influencers and travel writers to pay attention is a great way to showcase what you are offering to the travel and tourism public. Bringing them onsite and having them write about your organization can be a big public relations win. But how do you make the connection? Email and phone calls are hit-or-miss at best, if you haven't got an established relationship already. That's why a tactic...