When you walk into the Mayflower Hotel, it feels like a film set, the ideal visual representation of what a hotel should be. It is one of the most important venues in the shaping of America, hotel or otherwise. The conversations, the deals, the A-list encounters, the scandals that shook politics. It was a place that knew how to keep a secret. Until it didn't. It survived depressions, wars, setbacks, inaugurations, ownership changes, and J. Edgar Hoover. This year marks its centennial, and we ...
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When you walk into the Mayflower Hotel, it feels like a film set, the ideal visual representation of what a hotel should be. It is one of the most important venues in the shaping of America, hotel or otherwise. The conversations, the deals, the A-list encounters, the scandals that shook politics. It was a place that knew how to keep a secret. Until it didn't. It survived depressions, wars, setbacks, inaugurations, ownership changes, and J. Edgar Hoover. This year marks its centennial, and we ...
When you walk into the Mayflower Hotel, it feels like a film set, the ideal visual representation of what a hotel should be. It is one of the most important venues in the shaping of America, hotel or otherwise. The conversations, the deals, the A-list encounters, the scandals that shook politics. It was a place that knew how to keep a secret. Until it didn't. It survived depressions, wars, setbacks, inaugurations, ownership changes, and J. Edgar Hoover. This year marks its centennial, and we ...
Nobody knows the ebbs and flows, ins and outs, weather patterns and trail ratings of Canadian tourism like Travel Alberta's CEO David Goldstein. In a candid and free-flowing conversation, we talk about how and why tourism traffic and spend is (way) up in Alberta, as well as the province's approach to Indigenous tourism partnerships, balancing big-ticket destinations like Banff with worthwhile places off the beaten path, deciding which global markets to focus marketing on, Alberta's evolving...
Tariffs, shutdowns, "integrity" fees, H2-B visa caps, FAA staffing and hardware issues, airport restrictions ... it all begs the question: Does the U.S. government hate its own travel industry? International travel is predicted to drop by 6.3% from 72.4 million in 2024 to 67.9 million in 2025, according to U.S. Travel Association. This year we are poised to be the only country in the WORLD where inbound tourism decreased. Travel and tourism accounts for approximately 2.5-3% of the U.S. GDP, s...
AI was, predictably, everywhere, all at once, in every session at this year's conference, but there was a distinctly humanist air to it all as well. Trust, connection, authenticity, reality, face-to-face communication were thematic touchstones throughout. We still want recommendations from real live honest-to-goodness human beings, and AI can help facilitate that. (Right?)
No Show is at the 2025 Phocuswright Conference this week talking to a variety of exhibitors, innovators, and speakers and taking their temperature on the present and future of travel technology. We found out that: Levee founder Al Lagunas is done with the 3 pm check-inRon Glickman from Innovation Launch People’s Choice Award Winner Acai Travel is ready for boundaries to be pushedTaylor Palmer from SiriusXM Connect is putting safety at your fingertipsEtraveli Group's Peny Rizou has a prophecy ...
Mitra Sorrells, Senior Vice President, Content for Phocuswright, joins us on the eve of the conference to talk about the big themes, keeping hype in check, new trends around data and customer journeys, getting good answers from panelists, the shift of power between traditional travel brands and tech startups, and the risks of playing a drinking game based on how many times AI will be uttered on stage (please pace yourself accordingly).
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.
When you walk into the Mayflower Hotel, it feels like a film set, the ideal visual representation of what a hotel should be. It is one of the most important venues in the shaping of America, hotel or otherwise. The conversations, the deals, the A-list encounters, the scandals that shook politics. It was a place that knew how to keep a secret. Until it didn't. It survived depressions, wars, setbacks, inaugurations, ownership changes, and J. Edgar Hoover. This year marks its centennial, and we ...
