A short episode this week on the quite unique, very sad U.S. government approach to tourism and park spaces. How much money are the parks losing, how much are the towns around the parks losing? And what's going on with international visitors, Brand USA, and U.S. passports. We are fired up!

What specific AI-related things are good hotel commercial leaders actually doing today? Great question! It's already everywhere, so we got deep and practical for this episode. We talk about: How Al agents are starting to handle everything from customer service queries to qualifying sales leads, reshaping the whole workforceHow AI is elevating guest experience through customer data, CRM, and audience managementWhere AI is getting all its hotel dataThe coming drop in search engine volumeTools y...

AI's true impact on travel remains deeply speculative, with companies scrambling to stake claims while few concrete applications deliver true transformation. But everyday uses like dynamic pricing, translation tools, chatbots, and trip planning assistants like ChatGPT show AI is already here. We talk about the staggering potential of agentic AI to automatically rebook flights, arrange rides, or sign up for the best rewards programs. AI will directly challenge Online Travel Agents, whose domin...

How has Tiffany Cooper been so successful for so long? By bringing mind, soul, and spirit to the hotel industry. She's Head of Development, Americas for Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, which for 5 decades has been owner and operator of some of the world's most luxurious hotels, resorts and residences. We talk about MO's ambitious global expansion plans, how the brand sets itself apart in the ultra-luxury category, the increasing importance of branded residences, wellness and spas as amenities ...

As founder and creative director of the boutique interior design firm AIDT Designs, Tonya is changing the way we think about boutique hotel, resort, and lifestyle design. Whether design property in the Keys or reimagining a resort brand from the ground up, her work is layered, luxe, and never, ever forgettable. We talk about her early career working under Las Vegas visionaries Steve Wynn & Roger Thomas, what most designers get wrong about hotel rooms, collaborating on Margaritaville, sour...

Lyon Porter is one of the most talked-about hoteliers of our time. Alongside co-founder and partner Jersey Banks, he transformed a five-room Brooklyn townhouse into the first Urban Cowboy. The industry, and the media, pay close attention to the brand, which now spokes into hotel properties in the Catskills, Nashville, and the newest location, a Gilded Age Denver mansion, which opened within the last year. We talk about the origins of Urban Cowboy, catching cities and regions at the righ...

There are dream jobs, and then there are jobs like Ben Hill's. Ben's Baseball Traveler newsletter is part culinary adventure, part architecture column on stadiums new and old, part biography series on characters of the game, part observer of the wild and wacky situations that occur nightly in cities coast to coast, part troubadour of the joys and heartbreaks inherent in Minor League Baseball. But where does he go, what does he see, what stories does he tell, where does he stay, how did he get...

From New Delhi to the Yucatan Jungle, from the Indian Ocean to the Caribbean, Rocco Bova has crisscrossed the world, defining what luxury hotels are and can be. The My Humble House founder talks about building a profit-sharing hospitality company, creating change in a change-averse industry, working within nature, finding the right investors, and offbeat destinations in Italy and Mexico. https://www.instagram.com/rocco.bova/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/my-humble-house/

Jeff and Matt speak with Heather Heverling, President and Managing Director of Audley Travel, about the stratospheric rise of bespoke travel, the purchasing power of solo female travelers, the growing desire for unique in-country experiences, the need for local connections, the trip that totally subverted her expectations, and what makes Audley Travel different in the travel market. https://www.audleytravel.com/ https://www.instagram.com/audleytravel/

Glenn Haussman's podcast No Vacancy is essential listening for anyone in the business, featuring notable names in the industry, coverage of major events, and reportage on ideas and economics. He joins us to talk luxury, labor costs, practicing the art of optimism in 2025, sustainability, and, of course, Phish. https://novacancynews.com/ https://www.instagram.com/travelingglenn/

Questions like: What's the secret number hotel people really care about? Is the hotel market oversaturated in the U.S.? Are there any markets that really are oversaturated though? What's an underserved luxury market? Who are the hotel winners in 2025? Who's making lemonade? And is the hotel concierge truly dead?

Fear, money, and restrictions are a combustible mixture in any business sector, but in travel it can be a death knell for some businesses. The tariff situation is changing daily, and while the emphasis has been on physical goods, there is a growing shadow on tourism. Aran Ryan, Director of Industry Studies at Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics Company, talks about how trade wars negatively affect US travel, how tourism is already taking a hit, and what we can do to ride this out.

Regenerative tourism focuses on leaving places better than you found them, supporting local economies, preserving culture, and protecting the environment. How does that translate to street-level tourism? Does the term "regenerative" suffer from the same thing that plagues "sustainability"—where rhetoric is strong and the action remains weak? Travelers regularly rate sustainability as a top five criteria in making travel decisions, but their buying behavior tells a very different story. Then a...

Flying through a perfect storm of staff shortages, archaic technology, DOGE crosshairs, and mounting safety concerns, America's air traffic control system stands at a critical crossroads. So, how can we fix all this? Master of the Air Greg Aretakis returns to guide us to the runway, providing a 101 course on how air traffic control works.

Overtourism is one of those sprawling topics that everybody in the travel business has opinions on. Solutions are a bit more complicated, but let's dig in with tourism taxes, diversionary tactics, bans on cruise ships, the rise of "de-marketing," tax credits for better business practices, caps on hotel construction, and other tools that make our lives and our travel plans a bit less frantic.

On a stunningly regular basis, Pulitzer Prize winner Carley Thornell delivers insightful stories about sustainability, design, adventure, health, and travel. We talk space tourism, secret hotels, how people think about luxury, what Trump 2.0 means for tourism, the tax on families when they travel, and lots, lots more. https://muckrack.com/carley-d-thornell/articles

When people say that someone needs no introduction, we think they're talking about View From The Wing's Gary Leff. He is one of the world's foremost experts in miles, points, and frequent business travel. Gary talks with us about the math behind airline loyalty programs, how he comes across the strangest stories in travel, the differences between airlines and hotels when they start co-branding with partners, how airlines define their "best customers" and way, way more. https://viewfromt...

The hardest working man in hotel research talks with us about the state of hotel brand acquisitions, optimism among investors about urban markets and luxury assets, and how hotels can learn from Taylor Swift (can't we all?). Plus: What's the most overrated statistic in hotel research? What's one piece of unvarnished advice he'd give to a new investment group? Why are partnerships on the rise in Vegas and Orlando?https://www.us.jll.com/en/people/zachariah-demuthhttps://www.hotelmanagement.net/...

Rejoice America, Jeff and Matt answer critical questions from fake listeners. If we could change one thing about the travel industry, what would it be? What are some of the best travel and travel business articles we've read this year? What's the next hot destination? What's the biggest trend coming for the industry in 2025? Whatever happened to Yakov Smirnoff?Articles we mention:The Branson PilgrimAirbnb's idea to hold gladiator battles in Rome's Colosseum isn't going down well with some loc...

CBRE's Rachel Rothman and Christine Bang understand hotel brand performance and equity analysis like very few others in this business. We talk about the overall health grade they'd give to hotel loyalty programs, what we mean when we talk about luxury, hospitality partnerships aiming to reach new audiences, how loyalty programs can grow, and way, way more. https://www.cbre.com/insights/reports/hotel-brand-performance-2024 https://www.cbre.com/insights/articles/hotel-loyalty-programs-betting-...