Destination Marketing Podcast

Becky Large, the Executive Director of the Champion Autism Network and the CEO of the Autism Travel Club, joins Adam on today’s episode to share her insights on autism-friendly travel and the strides she has made in making destinations more inclusive for autistic travelers. She showcases the initiatives she’s led for Visit Myrtle Beach, including the TV show "Traveling the Spectrum" and the destin...

The satirical mockumentary "Borat" was released in 2006 to worldwide critical acclaim but in Kazakhstan, where the titular character hailed from, the film was more controversial. For the Borat sequel in 2020, Kairat Sadvakassov from Kazakh Tourism wanted to do things differently, so he capitalized on the character to increase awareness of Kazakhstan as a tourism destination, even co-opting Borat's...

The popular mid-80s sitcom "The Golden Girls" taught its viewers many lessons about friendship and relationships but according to Kaitlyn Johnson, the Marketing and CRM Coordinator of the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, the show also provided advice on having a great social media presence. Kaitlyn joins Adam on today’s episode to go over what each of the four Golden Girls can teach you about soc...

Métis Crossing is Alberta’s first major Métis cultural destination, offering visitors an immersive experience into Métis heritage, traditions, and ways of life. In this episode, Adam sits down with Juanita Marois, CEO of Métis Crossing, to discuss her journey in building this unique destination from the ground up. Juanita shares insights into the importance of Indigenous tourism, how it fosters cu...

In today’s episode of The Destination Marketing Podcast, we continue last week’s conversation with The Utah Tourism Collective. Adam, Mo, Jason, AJ, and Sarah return to discuss some of the hottest topics in tourism as we head into 2025. With tightening budgets and increased scrutiny on DMO spending, it's up to us as marketers to demonstrate the value tourism brings to communities. Our guests also...

Today's episode of The Destination Marketing Podcast brings together some of Utah's brightest minds in the destination marketing space: AJ Brau, the CEO of Wander, Mo Parikh, the CEO of Bandwango, Jason Linder, the CEO of Ripe, Sarah Lehman, the CEO of Zartico and of course, our host Adam Stoker, the CEO of Brand Revolt. Each leader reflects on what 2024 brought for their respective organizations...

A few years ago, Adam Stoker and Laurie Jo Miller Farr hosted the Travel Vertical Podcast, a biweekly look at news, trends and jobs in the destination marketing industry. While that podcast isn't releasing new episodes anymore, its spirit lives on within TourismIQ. Laurie is now the Editorial Director for TourismIQ, and she joins Adam on today's episode to discuss her background in the tourism ind...

South Carolina played a large role in the American Revolution and with some big historical anniversaries coming on the horizon in the next few years, the state is putting together an exciting project to commemorate its history while driving tourism and economic development in the process. Molly Fortune, the Executive Director of SC250, the organization in charge of this initiative, joins Adam on t...

Kentucky is famous for its bourbon and on today's episode, Adam sits down with Mike Mangeot at the Kentucky Travel Industry Annual Conference to discuss how Kentucky is using bourbon tourism to grow its international market. As the Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Tourism, Mike touches on the continued growth he's seen in Kentucky tourism and his upcoming initiatives. Later in the episod...

Today's episode of The Destination Marketing Podcast continues our yearly tradition of setting resolutions for the New Year. From ditching the reliance on paid media to preparing for the Department of Government Efficiency and more, these are crucial insights that destination marketers need to know heading into 2025. Aside from the resolutions themselves, one of the biggest reveals of the episode...

The Destination Marketing Podcast is off for Christmas Eve, so instead of a new episode, we have a special holiday message from Adam! The Destination Marketing Podcast will return on Wednesday, January 1st with its 2025 New Year’s Resolutions episode and then go back to its regular Tuesday release schedule starting Tuesday, January 7th. If you’re enjoying the show, please leave us a rating and rev...

Today's episode of The Destination Marketing Podcast has Adam sit down with Julie Kirkpatrick, the President and CEO of meetNKY, the host DMO of the Kentucky Travel Industry Annual Conference. They discuss the interesting dynamic of Julie's DMO in Covington, Kentucky bordering Cincinnati, Ohio and how she's been able to work together with her counterparts at Visit Cincy. Julie underscores the impo...

On today's episode of The Destination Marketing Podcast, Adam is still on-location at the Kentucky Travel Industry Annual Conference. Joy Brown, the executive director of Morehead-Rowan County Tourism in Kentucky, joins the show to discuss Morehead's appeal as a destination and a few ongoing tourism and economic development initiatives in the destination. She highlights how Morehead utilized its l...

Today's episode of The Destination Marketing Podcast is a full-length look at Adam's keynote presentation at the Kentucky Travel Industry Annual Conference. In this keynote, Adam explores the media strategies of both candidates from this past presidential election and how Donald Trump was able to capitalize on podcast appearances during his campaign. The presentation then moves into the shifting l...

For today's episode of The Destination Marketing Podcast, Adam is on the road at the Kentucky Travel Industry Annual Conference. Hank Phillips, the President and CEO of the Kentucky Travel Industry Association, sits down with Adam to discuss the ways that this conference will reinforce foundational aspects of tourism and benefit destination marketers with any experience level. Adam and Hank also t...

Video game competitions, or esports, are a growing industry that allows DMOs to grow their visitation and increase travel by inviting the esports community into their destinations. Ed Tomasi, an esports consultant for DMOs, Allister Scorgie, the Director of Sport Hosting at Explore Waterloo Region and Loren Gold, the Executive Vice President of the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau, j...

Today’s episode of The Destination Marketing Podcast is the final episode of our collaboration with Destination Discourse, a podcast recently launched by Adam along with Stuart Butler, the CMO of Visit Myrtle Beach. Will Seccombe, the president of Revolution Strategy and a recurring guest on The Destination Marketing Podcast, joins Adam and Stuart on Destination Discourse to discuss the merits of...

Today's episode of The Destination Marketing Podcast is a conversation with James Tsismanakis, the Executive Director of Discover DeKalb. After discussing his background in tourism, James highlights how DeKalb has been using podcasting as a marketing tool for his destination to promote economic development, arts, culture and festivals. He tells the story of how a former student got him hooked on p...

Today’s episode of The Destination Marketing Podcast continues our collaboration with Destination Discourse, a podcast recently launched by Adam along with Stuart Butler, the CMO of Visit Myrtle Beach. The second episode of Destination Discourse is a deep dive into branded entertainment. They emphasize the need for DMOs to adapt to the changing advertising landscape, especially with the rising cos...

On today's episode of The Destination Marketing Podcast, Adam sits down with Scott Oklin, the new CMO of Visit Anaheim. Scott talks about how he found his way into this role after working at Travelzoo and how he's looking to use that prior experience in his new role. He also touches on his goal to make Visit Anaheim into a lifestyle brand and capitalize on the destination's incredible events and a...

Today’s episode of The Destination Marketing Podcast is a collaboration with Destination Discourse, a podcast recently launched by Adam along with Stuart Butler, the CMO of Visit Myrtle Beach. Starting today and over the next few weeks, we’ll be releasing the first three episodes of Destination Discourse as bonus episodes of The Destination Marketing Podcast. In the first episode of Destination D...

Neil MacKenzie, the CEO of Yarmouth and Acadian Shores Tourism in Nova Scotia, joins Adam on today's episode to discuss the tactics and strategies that have helped his small destination stand out in larger markets like the Northeastern U.S. He also goes into his background and how the time that he and his wife spent in Japan teaching English became a part of how he got into travel. Later in the ep...

In this episode, Adam is joined live in the studio by AJ Brau, co-founder and CEO of Wander. She discusses the recent upgrades Wander has made to their technology and explains why it’s crucial for destinations to collaborate with vendors to drive industry innovation forward. Listen and learn how to own your visitor attribution using tools that capture valuable data directly from the source. Also d...

Brandon Schexnayder, the founder of Southern Gothic Media, joins Adam on today's episode to talk about his podcast, which tells the ghost stories of various communities in the Southern United States. He details his background in the music industry, how he found his way into the podcasting space and what the initial stages were like in creating his podcast. He also discusses some of the most intere...

On today's episode of The Destination Marketing Podcast, Adam sits down with Thomas Salley, the director of Great State of Wilkes, Tourism in North Carolina. Thomas joins the podcast in the wake of the impact of Hurricane Helene and he discusses his experiences with the storm and what role DMOs play when this kind of natural disaster takes place. He also provides important takeaways for other DMOs...