The Future of Tourism

This week’s Future of Tourism features Dave Herrell, president and CEO of Visit Quad Cities. Listen in as he and David Peacock discuss placemaking and the unique interconnection between making a place vibrant for its residents and visitors alike.

Listen up! The younger generation of tourism industry leaders brings forth an avalanche of new ideas. Ignore at your peril. Tune in for this week’s episode of the Future of Tourism in which David Peacock talks with Patrick Delaney, managing partner at the SoolNua strategy and marketing agency, about the need to listen to urgent new voices.

This week’s Future of Tourism features Ben Switzer of EXAR Studios, a technology company bringing tourism into the future with augmented reality. Immersive virtual reality (VR) is accessible, relatively inexpensive, and creates legacy value assets that are always on for the destination. In these challenging times, it’s an excellent way to forge new and enduring local partnerships and connections.

This week’s Future of Tourism features five guests David Peacock has welcomed over the last year. Each brings an important message and — long before the pandemic — pushed the envelope of what we do as destination organizations. Hear what Michael Nagy, Petra Stušek, Castro Ambiyo, Greg DeShields, and Elke Dens have to say.

This week on the Future of Tourism, hear what Andy McNeill, the CEO of American Meetings, Inc., has to say in discussion with David about the incredible pace of technological change coming in the meetings and events industry. The big question — are you ready?

This week on the Future of Tourism, David Peacock is joined by Elizabeth Tovar, president of Turenlaces del Caribe, SRL, in the Dominican Republic and also president of the Federation of Congress Organizing Entities of Latin America (COCAL). Tune in for a conversation around Tovar’s perspective on the Latin American meetings industry and how to build back better.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David Peacock is joined by Kristin Dunne, CEO at Tourism Bay of Plenty, and Frank Cuypers, senior strategist at Destination Think. Listen in as they talk about regenerative tourism and how it’s about ensuring destinations are loved by visitors — but not loved to death.  

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Barbara Jamison Woods, Head of Business Development at London & Partners, exploring what lessons — what new models of business, new partnerships and new technologies, tempered with a keen awareness of longstanding values — might help address pandemic impact in destinations around the world. 

Don Welsh, CEO of Destinations International, has spent more than 35 years in travel and tourism, including a five-year stint as president and CEO of Choose Chicago where he and his team broke records for visitation, tourism spending, hotel tax revenue and jobs. In this week of DI's Annual Convention, presented this year in Baltimore with the theme of "Embrace Disruption," Don joins David in a wid...

What does it take to break out of a longstanding pattern and perspective? To not only see the world and your world in a different way, but then also reorganize around that new understanding? In short: What drives a paradigm shift? This week, David is joined by Royce Chwin, President and CEO of the newly renamed Destination Vancouver (formerly Tourism Vancouver) about the values, goals and paradigm...

In 2020, Bill Geist and Mike Gamble jointly pennd a white paper for Destinations International on the pressing need for greater board diversity . In this episode of the Future of Tourism, they join David to talk about the events and impact of the last 18 months: locally, globally and on the social justice front, offering advice on diversity, equity and inclusion. Geist is the founder of DMOProz, a...

This week on the Future of Tourism, David explores new work realities, as many organizations embrace remote work not as a pandemic necessity but as a way to recruit and retain top talent. He's joined by Pranam Lapinski, co-founder of Door of Clubs, an online platform that connects employers to Gen Z talent through college campus clubs. Pranam is passionate about bridging understanding gaps between...

Skift and the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association have both posited that LGBTQ travelers will likely be significant "early adopters" in the return to domestic and international travel. How should destinations prepare to make new "first impressions" with these "first-wave" travelers? And in a time when so much of the world is grappling with what it means to be diverse, equitable and...

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Petra Stušek, Managing Director at Visit Ljubljana and President of the Board at the European Cities Marketing Association. Aside from being the capital of Slovenia, the city of Ljubljana is distinguished by a number of awards honoring its commitment to progressive and sustainable tourism, including most recently the World Travel Market Respon...

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by CEO of Discover Long Island Kristen Jarnagin, along with that DMO's Official Health & Wellness Ambassador Dr. Michele C. Reed, D.O. Reed is the first to hold the newly created position, charged with advising the region's tourism industry leaders on health and safety-related protocols, providing safe-travel tips to visitors and sharing reco...

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Michael Nagy, Director of Marketing & Sales at the Fairmont RJ Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro. As creative as he is passionate, Michael shares some of the innovative responses he and his team took to keep his hotel alive and well in the hearts and minds of world travelers, including thousands of phone calls, creative live concerts and a radi...

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Julian Guerrero-Orozco, the Colombian Vice Minister Of Commerce, Industry & Tourism. Julian shares his ideas on how destinations can see things differently and start making intentional connections with the rest of the world.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Brad Dean, CEO of Discover Puerto Rico, to learn how the organization has embraced stakeholder engagement to recover quicker from the challenges posed by the Zika Virus, Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and now COVID-19.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Rodrigo Esponda, Managing Director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board. David shares how Los Cabos is preparing for their second “reopening” of tourism in the last year, including what they learned from the first time and how they’ve adjusted their strategy to meet more stringent safety guidelines.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by two guests who have previously penned guest blogs sharing their perspective on the rise of virtual destinations. Andreas Weissenborn is the Vice President of Research & Advocacy at Destinations International and Ed Tomasi is the Co-Founder of Subnation and Co-Chair at the Greater Raleigh Esports Local Organizing Committee. Read Andreas’ Bl...

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Castro Ambiyo, founder and CEO of Place Brand Africa, to talk about the evolution of the tourism industry in Africa.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Marc Crothall, CEO of the Scottish Tourism Alliance. Marc shares insights into Scotland's tourism strategy, “Scotland Outlook 2030,” including how the collaboration between the public sector and industry partners got started and the challenges and opportunities presented along the way.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Meagan McGuire, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Seattle's Southside Tourism Authority. A tourism professional with a passion for anthropology, Meagan launched anthropologicaltourism.com to help destination management professionals gain a more complete perspective on travel and tourism as an economic driver, social dynamic, and transfo...

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Riikka Lahdensuo, Project Head of Brand Building at the City of Helsinki, Finland. As a passionate advocate for destination organizations to embrace their role as brand builders and community stewards, Riikka joins us to share her thoughts on how to engage with your stakeholders in a meaningful and effective manner.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Eric Reguly, European Bureau Chief for The Globe and Mail, based in Rome, Italy. As an award-winning global journalist, Eric offers an outside perspective on the future of cities, sharing both the challenges and opportunities that he has observed in his line of work.