The Future of Tourism

David Peacock is joined by Anthony Everett, CEO of 4VI, to discuss Vancouver Island’s bold experiment in sustainable tourism. Discover how 4VI has redefined itself as a social enterprise, with a mandate to serve 800,000 residents and ensure that tourism is a resilient force for good on the island.

David Peacock talks with Jack Johnson and Adam Burke about changes needed as DMOs look inward at stakeholders and residents as part of the new social license for tourism, engagement, and alignment.

On this Future of Tourism, David Peacock talks with Eliza Voss and David Holder about the model they’re designing to address visitor pressure and enhance the Aspen, Colorado, experience while preserving its small-town character.

Voss is vice president of destination marketing at the Aspen Chamber Resort Association. David Holder is the CEO at Clarity of Place. David Peacock is senior advisor of the Future Tourism Group at Simpleview.

Listen in as David Peacock explores how DMOs and other companies should confront the changing expectations surrounding work. How do you cut through the clutter regarding recruitment and retention? Or create a strong corporate culture in a predominantly remote workforce?

David’s guests are Mike Gamble and Ryan Bolton. Gamble is the CEO of SearchWide Global, an executive search firm primarily for the travel, tourism, and venue management industries. Bolton is the vice president of product at Simpleview.

Listen in as David Peacock talks with Jessica Vandy and Alexis Kurelek, sustainability vanguards who work globally on a host of projects. The topic is how to get the traction needed to create enduring value with sustainability projects and move toward regenerative tourism.

On this episode of Future of Tourism, David Peacock interviews Kristin Dunne about the challenges that come with aiming for regeneratie tourism and the magic that happens when it starts to come together. Dunne is the former chief executive of Tourism Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.

Listen in as Simpleview’s David Peacock talks with Ben Switzer and Ed Tomasi about ways to combine digital development and legacy value creation in this modern era of destination marketing. Switzer is the chief growth officer of EXAR Studios. Tomasi is the co-founder and managing director of Subnation, the esports powerhouse.

On this episode of Future of Tourism, David Peacock interviews Rob Holmes and Casey Canevari of GLP Films about how they help destinations achieve sustainability goals through film and storytelling. GLP clients include Visit Portland, Visit Sedona, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Listen in as David Peacock talks with Greg Takehara, CEO of Tourism Cares, about the evolution of the ‘meaningful map’ that spotlights social enterprises in destinations. Tourism Cares has a strong history of bringing players from across industries together to collaborate and drive development and innovation.

Featuring Tristin Vogel, project manager at Regional Tourism Organization 4 (RTO4) in Ontario, and Peter Smith, a renowned Canadian actor, director, and playwright. This episode delves into the power of stakeholder engagement in developing the Grand River in Southern Ontario. Hosted by David Peacock, senior advisor to the Future Tourism Group.

Featuring Petra Stušek, president at ECM and CEO of Ljubljana tourism, and Flavie de Bueil-Baudot, chief operating officer at City Destination Alliance, this episode of the Future of Tourism reflects on the powerful role that tourism can play to fix the world and how DMOs can be a catalyst for change. Hosted by David Peacock, senior advisor to the Future Tourism Group.

Featuring Chris Brown, director of marketing Liverpool, and Richard Veal, managing director at Simpleview Europe, this episode of the Future of Tourism covers the situation that Liverpool, England, faced after becoming a European Capital of Culture (ECOC) in 2008. Cultural heritage — is it a catalytic force for authentic destination development or a double-edged sword that must be wielded with skill and attention? Let’s discuss.

Learn how Frontiers North has sparked destination development in Churchill, Manitoba, with its world-renowned Tundra Buggy Adventures and is helping lead the charge in the region’s regenerative tourism. David Peacock interviews John Gunter, CEO of Frontiers North, about the role local businesses can play in destination development in this episode of the Future of Tourism.

This edition of the Future of Tourism looks back to the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Highlighting 13 interviews, five themes emerged then that hold true today.

Destination transformation doesn’t happen overnight. Hear about the decades-long journey Liverpool went through in this Future of Tourism episode featuring Richard Veal, managing director of Simpleview Europe.

Seeking experiences is the currency of today’s travelers. Learn about experiential tourism development in today’s travel landscape and what it means for tomorrow’s in this Future of Tourism episode. Simpleview’s David Peacock interviews Joe Veneto, chief experience officer at Veneto Collaboratory; Ben Switzer, chief growth officer at EXAR Studios in London, Canada; and Andreas Weissenborn, vice president of research and advocacy at Destinations International.

Join Simpleview’s David Peacock as he interviews Paul Nursey, CEO of Destination Greater Victoria, about the destination’s commitment to regenerative tourism, the importance of locally-owned businesses in maintaining destinations’ efforts to deliberately and jointly plan the future, and the IMPACT Sustainability Travel & Tourism 2022 conference.

Join David Peacock as he interviews Jeff Katz, the Founding CEO of Orbitz Worldwide, CEO of Swissair, and an executive at both Sabre and American Airlines. He’s now the CEO of Journera, a travel technology company that works to connect the traveler and his data on all parts of his journey.

In this episode of the Future of Tourism,David Peacock interviews Sophia Hyder Hock, chief diversity officer at Destinations International, about her new role. Tune in to hear her thoughts on the intersection between tourism and equity, diversity, and inclusion.

As destinations and tour operators are realizing that the future of tourism must be a sustainable balance of people, planet, and profit, they’re seeking insight and perspectives. Join David Peacock as he interviews Anne de Jong of the Good Tourism Institute about how the pandemic accelerated this imperative.

In this Future of Tourism podcast, David Peacock talks with Allister Scorgie, Director of Sport Hosting at Explore Waterloo Region, and Ed Tomasi, Cofounder and Managing Partner of Subnation Media, about how Waterloo Region expanded its focus to include esports in the midst of the pandemic.

Hear how one young entrepreneur works for change in the restorative tourism space and uses 30 percent of his company’s profits for legacy improvements in Uganda. In this week’s Future of Tourism, David Peacock interviews Keneth Hafasha.

Hear how Panama is flipping the sustainability script in its new master tourism plan. In this week’s Future of Tourism, David Peacock interviews Woodrow Oldford, chief marketing officer for Promtur Panama.

What do we need to know about cannabis tourism? Find out in this crash-course interview as David Peacocks speaks with Brian Applegarth, founder of Cultivar Brands, a destination solutions provider for the cannabis-related travel trend, and The Cannabis Trail, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and celebrating the cannabis heritage of northern California. He also founded the Cannabis Travel Association, an international nonprofit organization focused on advocacy, education and networking.

This week’s Future of Tourism features David Noack Pérez, director of the Madrid Convention Bureau. Tune in and hear how Noack Pérez and his team are creating legacy value projects as one of the world’s leading meetings & conference destinations. Hosted by David Peacock, Senior Advisor, Future Tourism Group.

Is there anyone who still thinks that global warming and climate change are a hoax? Well, then, assuredly, this episode of the Future of Tourism podcast is not for you. But for the rest of us …

This episode features Guy Bigwood, managing director at Global Destination Sustainability Movement, a platform to promote and develop the regenerative thinking and practices that will support destinations of the future. Tune in and explore the questions at hand: why is the DMO the right organization to tackle sustainability at the local level, and how can it do so?

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 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.

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.

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 recommendations on how to enjoy Long Island's tourism attractions and outdoor experiences.

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 radical approach to marketing his hotel's media and property assets.

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 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 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.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Charlotte Moore, Digital Project Manager at RTO4, and Hannah Hintz, Account Director at Miles Partnership. The trio talks about the radically disrupted consumer buyer decision process, and the tools and opportunities destinations can access to meet the consumer where (and how) they shop.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Tina Valdecanas and David Holder, founding partners of The Clarity of Place Consulting Group. They discuss why it’s important for destination organizations to speak the language of their community in order to deliver tangible benefits to residents. 

This week on The Future of Tourism, my guest is Kristen Jarnagin, CEO of Discover Long Island. Kristin joins me to discuss how destinations can embrace change in the wake of COVID-19 and align their values to meet the needs of their community.

This week on The Future of Tourism, David is joined by Simpleview’s Alton Wells to discuss the importance of digital influence and reputation management, and share some of the innovative tools Simpleview has developed for destination organizations to help their members and stakeholders drive business during this difficult period of recovery and beyond.

To commence season two of the Future of Tourism podcast, David is once again joined by Amir Eylon, CEO of Longwoods International. Tune in to learn how DMOs can measure and harness resident sentiment to move forward after COVID-19.

The final guest on Season 1 of the Future of Tourism podcast is Leonard Hoops, President & CEO at Visit Indy, who joins David to share his proprietary model for sustainable business success: the “3-4-5 model.”

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Maura Gast, Executive Director at Irving Convention & Visitors Bureau. Not only is Maura the brilliant mind behind The Destination Management Cycle, but she was also one of the driving forces behind the innovative Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas, which averages almost 300 events per year. Tune in to hear her thoughts on strategic vision and destination development.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Marsha Walden, President and Chief Executive Officer of Destination British Columbia. Together, the duo discuss how COVID-19 has changed the tourism industry forever, and how destination organizations will need to adapt to meet those changes.

This week on The Future of Tourism, David is joined by Mike Gamble, President and CEO of SearchWide Global, to talk about the effects on COVID-19 on employment within the tourism industry. It’s no secret that the pandemic has affected the travel and hospitality sectors particularly hard, and some of the industry's best talent have had their livelihoods and careers paused or interrupted. On this episode, Mike Gamble stops by to talk about what’s next for tourism from a hiring standpoint, and how we can continue to support those who have been let go (and encourage them to come back one day).

This week on The Future of Tourism, David is joined by Flavie Baudot, the Head of European Cities Marketing (ECM). Together, the pair discuss what’s next for big cities and popular tourist destinations as they begin to enter the first recovery phase from COVID-19. Flavie emphasizes the importance of leaving behind the “growth at all costs” mindset, and encourages DMOs to consider both sustainability and the impact of tourism on their local communities as they move forward.

This week on The Future of Tourism, David is joined by Greg Klassen, former CEO of the Canadian Tourism Commission, and current and a partner and principal at Twenty31 Consulting. Tune in to hear Greg’s thoughts on how destination organizations will need to shift their perspectives in order to propel themselves into the future of tourism, and how to embrace the tools and technologies that will get us there faster.

This week on The Future of Tourism, David is joined by Loren Gold, Executive Vice President at Greater Raleigh CVB. Tune in to learn how the team at Visit Raleigh has created an environment that enables seamless collaboration between internal and external stakeholders, and how other destinations can do the same.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Jack Johnson, Chief Advocacy Officer at Destinations International. Together, they discuss the importance of taking a community-focused approach to destination marketing, and Jack explains the process behind the creation of Destination International’s new Tourism Lexicon.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Bill Geist, the Chief Instigator at DMOproz. Together, they discuss three key attributes that will play a dominant role in the success of global tourism: stakeholder engagement, digital excellence programs and the creation of community-shared values around tourism activities and outcomes.  

As destinations around the world begin to recover from the impacts of COVID-19, one thing is certain: they’ll need to clearly and effectively communicate with their local communities. Residents may be hesitant to promote tourism to their region, and destination organizations may encounter challenges similar to those faced by destinations that are grappling with over tourism.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Amir Eylon, President & CEO of Longwoods International, to discuss how consumer intent to travel has changed, how suppliers can support the industry, and collective the need for collaborative programs across interest, stakeholder and supplier groups.

This week on the Future of Tourism, Chris Hughes, Director and Master Experience Crafter of BCHuges Consulting, talks about his experiences navigating the troubled waters of past crises and how product development plays an essential role in recovery.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Dan Holowack, CEO of Crowdriff. The duo discusses how tourism marketing may change as we adjust to the new normal of travel, and how user-generated content will fulfill travelers' cravings for authentic marketing experiences.

This week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Christine “Shimo'' Shimasaki and Terri Roberts of 2Synergize LLC, a Simpleview company. The trio talks about how this crisis gives CVBs the opportunity to emerge as leaders and help rebuild the industry through data-driven insights and stakeholder engagement.

The week on the Future of Tourism, David is joined by Rodney Payne, CEO of DestinationThink, to talk about the "reset" coming out of the COVID-19 crisis and how it is both a massive challenge and an opportunity for the tourism industry.

This week on The Future of Tourism, David is joined by Greg Oates, SVP of innovation at MMGY NextFactor and former senior editor and brand strategist at Skift, to talk about the evolving role of the destination marketing and management organizations in the time of COVID-19 and how leaders are reshaping their organizations in terms of stakeholder engagement.