Destination On The Left

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...

Why are people interested in traveling to your destination? Finding out the "why" makes marketing more precise and leads to more visitors and ergo, more revenue. Finding out the "why" gets beyond lumping people into demographic categories. It helps us understand what motivates them and what could potentially motivate them to choose us. Our guest this episode of Destination on the Left is Susan Bai...

Today's podcast is a little different from our regular episodes. We are talking to one of the Break the Ice Media team members on another team-cast episode, Rhonda Vaccaro. We are going to dive into a topic that is a favorite of Rhonda's- creating successful FIT itineraries. Rhonda is a Vice President and Senior Consultant at Break the Ice Media. She brings more than 20 years of sales and new busi...

Destination tourism often has a larger story to tell beyond just one institution, even one as iconic as the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Even if you don't pay close attention to baseball, you know it as "America's National Pastime." Part of the joy of this industry is finding the story to tell that brings people to a region and to your specific tourism destination. Cooperstown has a b...

As tastes and sensibilities change, your organization needs to change with them, or else deal with a shrinking market share. If your organization has history, another challenge is perceptions that change more slowly than your brand message. That's what was happening at Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, NY. The zoo was growing as a leader in wildlife conservation from upstate New York all around the wo...

The field of travel and tourism is ever changing. Adaptation and collaboration are a part of the territory to stay relevant and to stay in business. Group touring has been a segment of the industry where adaptation has been especially necessary. Finding new alliances, experimenting and learning from both successes and flops – it's all part of the job. On this episode, Nicole speaks with guest Nick...

In any competitive landscape, keeping a legacy cultural institution relevant is a challenge. Keeping it relevant while retaining the original vision is an even greater challenge. For many in the travel and tourism industry, we're always looking to strike a balance between differentiation and collaboration. We really need both to thrive. In New England, where you can't walk ten feet without bumping...

What do you do when a destination is perceived as being geared toward a certain age group or other segments of the population? That has been one challenge for  the Strong Museum of Play  in Rochester, New York. In a market like Rochester, with plenty to keep children and adults occupied, capturing attention even with the idea of play can be a challenge. On this episode, we explore the study and cu...

As businesses, we live or die on data. Understanding the market, understanding who is coming to our destination, who is interested but doesn't know enough to make a decision – these pieces of information are vital to our ability to thrive in travel and tourism. But gathering and interpreting this data is a challenge for everyone. Our guest on this episode of Destination on the Left is an expert in...

Can a small niche destination become a regional anchor destination? That's an apt description of the Corning Museum of Glass. Promoting any destination takes creativity and hard work. Our guest in this episode brings both to her work, and examples of both for us to learn from. In this episode, we talk with Beth Duane of the Corning Museum of Glass. Throughout our conversation, she explores how the...

Digital and social presence are a necessary part of an effective marketing plan, and they can be a great deal of fun as well. Working with partners in a region and harnessing the power of influencers who love your destination are avenues to explore and exploit as you promote your region. In this episode of Destination on the Left, Nicole talks with Anna Pakman, VP of Digital Marketing for Empire S...

Art has the power to build bridges between cultures. Our guest in this episode understands that more deeply than most. What if art could even assist in the process of new language learning? On this episode, we explore the way of the possible with guest Patricia Lannes. Patricia has over 30 years of experience in the cultural field, especially in museum education and visual literacy. She envisions,...

Being part of an established cultural institution is exhilarating and challenging all at the same time. You know you have so much to offer, but staying relevant and communicating your value is a job that never stops. In this episode, we explore one such place, the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York. Eastman was a larger than life figure who left a lasting legacy especially in the world o...