Check-in Podcast by TMR

Expedia Cruises President Matthew Eichhorst shares a history with so many people within travel—his road into the industry came because he saw the passion that the people within the industry shared, passion that helped them succeed both pre-COVID and through the pandemic.  Prior to joining Expedia Cruises, Matthew spent 20 years as an entrepreneur before a chance introduction led to him joining the...

Tauck’s longtime president Jennifer Tombaugh just recently celebrated the two-decade mark with the U.S.-based tour operator. Being in charge of a portfolio of products as wide ranging as Tauck isn’t an easy task, but Jennifer’s experience has helped her along the way. In this episode, Jennifer talks to TMR about that experience, including her time living in Singapore, and also talks about the bigg...

For African Travel’s Sherwin Banda, the travel and hospitality industries found him, not the other way around. The industries provided an escape for Banda, a way out to a different life out of the regular constraints he faced growing up.   In this episode, Banda shares his story, from his humble beginnings in apartheid-era South Africa to now overseeing one of the leading Africa-focused tour opera...

With almost four decades in the industry, Royal Caribbean’s Vicki Freed is a cruise industry icon, but getting into the travel industry wasn’t always the plan for Royal’s senior vice president of sales and trade support and service. In this episode, Vicki talks to TMR’s Dan McCarthy about how hearing a conference keynote by Carnival’s Bob Dickinson changed the course of her career and changed her...

Uniworld CEO Ellen Bettridge shares a start in travel to so many successful people in travel—her first job in travel was as a frontline, retail advisor. In this episode, Ellen talks to TMR’s Dan McCarthy about that start and about the confidence she brought with her from that original position to other stops throughout her career from Amex to Silversea to Azamara, and now to Uniworld. 

While there are so many factors that go into being able to keep consistent success in the travel industry, one of the ones that may be overlooked is anticipating change. In this episode, Michelle Fee of Cruise Planners speaks about how, as a frontline travel agent in the 1990s, she saw where the travel trade was trending and bet on those instincts, creating Cruise Planners, one of the industry's m...

Jenn Lee, the vice president of sales and marketing at Travel Planners International, is one of the most vocal and vibrant personalities in the travel trade, but her road to success has not been a straight line.  Lee, who now lives just a short distance from the Florida hometown she grew up in, speaks about her history in the travel industry during this episode of TMR’s Check-In. Lee recounts her...

AmaWaterways' Kristin Karst has come a long way, both physically and metaphorically, since her humble beginnings in Dresden, Germany.  In this episode, Kristin joins TMR to talk about her childhood, including growing up in Eastern Germany prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and how she ended up working in hospitality. She also talks about growing AmaWaterways into the river cruise powerh...

What makes someone successful in dealing with the changes in roles, and locations, that a long career in the travel industry can bring?  In this episode, TMR editor Daniel McCarthy talks  Chris Austin, the current chief sales officer at Explora Journeys, the new luxury cruise brand from the MSC Group. Austin’s 30-plus-year career in travel spans segments, from hotels (Austin spent almost two decad...

Being comfortable taking risks has long been part of the formula for success for so many entrepreneurs and for GTN’s Vanessa McGovern, it was no different.  Vanessa joined TMR’s Dan McCarthy for Check-In episode 7 to talk about her career in travel and how being comfortable taking risks, including leaving her home country of Canada, has helped her go from a youth counselor aboard a Celebrity Cruis...

Marriott is the largest hotel company in the world, a massive public company that has a bigger international presence than almost every other travel company. But, at its heart, it remains very much a family business.    In this episode, TMR editor Dan McCarthy talks with Brian King, the current president of Marriott's Caribbean and Latin America divisions. King has spent his entire career at Marri...

How does someone go from dreaming about being the first female Secretary of State to a 30-plus year career in travel? For Betsy O'Rourke, the Chief Marketing Officer at Xanterra, that's exactly what happened. In this episode, Betsy talks about her career in travel and her time with companies such as Hilton, Wyndham, Royal Caribbean, and more, including what she loves most about the industry. She a...

More than 12 months after COVID-19 came to North America, TMR’s Dan McCarthy sits down for a short chat with MMGY Co-Founder Peter Yesawich. In April 2020, during the onset of the pandemic, Peter spoke to TMR about COVID-19 and gave four predictions on how the crisis would impact travel and how the industry would ultimately recovery. Now, in the midst of that recovery, Peter and Dan revisit those...

Perhaps no other city in the United States had been as adversely affected by COVID-19 as New York City. A New York post headline from the summer of 2020 said that “New York City is Dead Forever” because what the pandemic had done to the city. But that’s something that New York has heard before, and something that the city will, no doubt hear again.  On this episode, TMR’s Dan McCarthy checks-in wi...

How can you put a global pandemic in perspective? It’s not an easy thing to do, but it’s something that became the task for Scott Koepf in March 2020. A week prior to COVID hitting North America, Scott, a senior vice president at Cruise Planners, underwent brain surgery, something that he expected to be his “big” event for his 2020. Little did he, or the rest of the world, know what kind of impact...

When you and your family have built careers, and a major luxury agency, in the travel industry, how do you react when the world is shut down and borders are closed seemingly overnight? In this conversation, Jennifer-Wilson Buttigieg, the co-president and owner of Valerie Wilson Travel in New York City, talks about her experience over the last 12 months and whether or not she ever felt the urge to...

In 2019, at the height of the industry’s surge pre-COVID,  the travel industry accounted for $8.9 trillion in contribution to the world’s GDP annually (more than 10% of the global GDP), along with 330 million jobs, or 1 in 10 jobs around the world. Its impact touched all corners of the global economy, connecting people from all corners of the world with friends, family, colleagues, cities, and cou...