The Future of Tourism

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 wide-ranging discussion of destination marketing today and how the industry is being reshaped by unprecedented compressions and accelerations resulting from the pandemic.

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 shift this new name represents and what it means to reimagine travel and tourism for the triple bottom line of not just financial benefit but also positive social and environmental outcomes.

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, aka Zeitgeist Consulting, and host of the Destination Marketing Organization University (DMOU) podcast. Prior to forming Zeitgeist, he served as president/CEO of the Greater Madison Convention & Visitors Bureau and has served as president of the Wisconsin Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus and vice-chair of the Wisconsin Governor's Council on Tourism. Gamble is founder of Tourism Diversity Matters and co-founder of SearchWide Global, a full service executive search firm. Prior to TDM and SearchWide Global, Mike was senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau, held various leadership roles with Marriott International and has served on the foundation boards of Destinations International, PCMA and MPI.

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 Gen Z and other generations to create more empathy and effectiveness and has surveyed 15,000+ Gen Z-ers about the future of work in addition to facilitating hundreds of focus groups with many, many more across the US.

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 inclusive, what is authentic destination development and marketing for LGBTQ visitors? These are the questions explored this week on the Future of Tourism, as David is joined by LoAnn Halden, Communications Director for the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association, and Greg DeShields, Executive Director of PHL Diversity with Discover Philadelphia and Executive Director of Tourism Diversity Matters

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 Responsible Tourism Award and Accessible Tourism Joint Award. Ljubljana also carries the honor of being the only city in the world named six times to the Top 100 Sustainable Destinations list from Green Destinations.