Travel Trends with Dan Christian

• Event Spotlight: Phocuswright 2025

  Send us a textWe’re wrapping up our 2025 events spotlights with our biggest event episode ever, a 5+ hour special recorded live at Phocuswright San Diego. This landmark episode features 25 exclusive interviews with industry leaders shaping the future of travel, technology, distribution, and the in-destination experience.This year’s Phocuswright was a standout event for Travel Trends, and we’re grateful to the entire Phocuswright team — especially Pete Comeau and Eugene Ko — for their partnership and support in making this recording possible so we can share these valuable insights with our global audience.If you’d like to jump straight to the voices that matter most to you, scroll down — we’ve included timestamps for every amazing guest that Dan had the chance to sit down with.Highlights & Timestamps 6m - Lorraine Sileo, Travel Insights, Research & Analysis, Phocuswright31m46s - Jessie Fisher, Founder & CEO, GuestOS42m59s - Marius Nigond, CEO iWander.io 51m39s - Ben Sann, CEO, TourOptima1hr6m - Stephen Joyce, Global Strategy Lead - Travel & Tours, Protect Group1hr23m - Lourdes Losada Frances, Director & Site Lead Americas, Skyscanner1hr47m - Jo Lai, SVP AI Solutions & Customer Experience, Hopper2hr - Dylan Conroy - Host of The Ad Podcast2hr11m - Lauren Atlass - VP, Partnerships - Americas, HBX Group2hr26m - Tim Qin, CEO, Roame2hr31m - Charlotte Lamp Davies, Founder & CEO, A Bright Approach & Markus Stumpe, Founder & CEO, Alyza2hr42m - Grant Palmer - Head of Enterprise Travel, Azira2hr59m - Heather C. Dahl, Co-founder & CEO, Indicio3hr17m - Elad Schaffer, Co-founder & CEO, Faye3hr32m -  Benjamin Manzi, COO, Maya AI3hr47m - Rohit Khanna, Chief AI & Innovation Officer, ITbyus3hr57m - Jen Barnwell, President, Curator Hotel & Resort Collection 4hr8m - Paul Lipson, CEO & Founder, Triprecos 4hr25m - Francesco Deledda, CEO, Yanolja Go Global4hr36m - Layton Han, Co-founder & CEO, Bonafide4hr54m - Mike Petrakis, Founder & CEO, Batch5hr - Evan Tzeng, Founder, Hospitalities.AI5hr12min - Noam Toister, CEO & Founder, Travelier5hr22m - Jelani Millard, Head of Growth - North America, Maya AIWe hope you benefit from these valuable insights as you start 2026!The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/

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• TourRadar’s Social Playbook: How to Turn Followers into Bookings with Travis Pittman, CEO

  Send us a textThe way travelers discover and book multi-day adventures is shifting fast, and TourRadar is leaning all the way in. In this episode, TourRadar co-founder and CEO Travis Pittman breaks down how a $200B category is rewriting its playbook around creators, mobile, and practical AI to turn social inspiration into real, bookable demand. From a new social commerce layer that links traveler reels directly to itineraries, to a mobile app already driving meaningful high-ticket transactions, Travis shares what’s working now and what’s still just hype.We start with the hardest challenge in travel today: customer acquisition. With AI overviews reshaping search and SEO volatility hitting nearly every brand, the old playbook simply doesn’t hold. Travis explains how TourRadar diversified demand by investing in micro- and nano-creators, building an ambassador program that pays on value, and focusing on content that feels native to the trip. The hook isn’t a hotel shot—it’s the Serengeti moment, the river crossing, the sunrise market—and it’s now just one tap away from a bookable tour.Behind the scenes, AI is doing real, measurable work. TourRadar’s chatbot resolves 80% of inbound chats thanks to clear guardrails and training data drawn from millions of past conversations. That backbone powers better FAQs, itinerary recommendations based on traveler patterns, and the infrastructure that agentic systems need: structured content, live availability, and payments that make LLM-driven planning truly actionable. We also explore why mobile matters for high-consideration trips, how B2B agents fit into the omnichannel model, and what it means to optimize for LLMs the way we once optimized for search engines.If you’re interested in the future of multi-day travel, social commerce, or AI that actually drives performance, this episode offers a roadmap from creator partnerships to algorithmic distribution to the booking rails that tie it all together.For more information, visit TourRadar.com.👉 Listen to TourRadar’s Social Playbook: How to Turn Followers into Bookings Now🔥 Special Thanks to our Season 6 Title Sponsors for their Support: Holafly, Propellic, PayCompass, Kaptio, Civitatis and WeRoadThe #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/

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• Travelzoo Best Bets: Where to Go in 2026 with Jonathan Jones, Head of Publishing, Travelzoo

  Send us a textWe’re kicking off a 10-part Travelzoo Best Bets Series to explore how smarter and more meaningful travel is taking center stage and how to book it at real value. Dan and Travelzoo’s Senior Editor and co-host Gabe Saglie are joined by Jonathan Jones, Travelzoo’s Head of Publishing, who leads the team behind the brand’s most trusted deals, including the iconic Top 20. A champion of price transparency and member-first storytelling, Jonathan shapes the editorial voice that reaches millions each week and helps maintain Travelzoo’s reputation as the trusted guide for its global community of travel enthusiasts.In today's episode, we trace the personal and professional roots of this partnership, then go inside Travelzoo’s selection process. Editors around the world nominate destinations with genuine relevance, from major anniversaries and cultural moments to sustainability breakthroughs or new flight access that turns a “maybe” into a must. Jonathan explains why Best Bets isn’t about chasing trends for clicks; it’s about spotlighting places with meaningful stories, strong timing, and real value. Expect a tease of a 2026 U.S. city known for its blues scene and recently crowned the country’s best, along with surprising picks across continents.Along the way, we explore the shift toward lifestyle travel, including Michelin-recommended dining, spa experiences, and immersive events, and why those local moments matter between major trips. We also dig into three forces shaping the year ahead: the rise of quiet travel, the pairing of generative AI with human editorial judgment, and the move toward intentional journeys that feel purposeful and restorative. If you want fewer tabs and more truth, this series is for you.Stay tuned for next week’s episode featuring Andrew Young, Senior Producer & Tourism Board Lead who will walk us through the full Travelzoo Best Bets list for 2026. Become a member at travelzoo.com to access exclusive offers. The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/

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• Company Spotlight: How Agentic AI Is Transforming the Traveler Journey with Dan Flores, Satisfi Labs

  Send us a textWhat happens when your customers stop “visiting” your website because their AI agents visit for them? That’s the future we explore with Dan Flores of Satisfi Labs, who went from helping grow Maverick Helicopters into a tourism powerhouse to pioneering agent-first customer experiences that sell tickets, qualify MICE leads, and streamline service for destinations, attractions, and tours.We trace Satisfi’s origins in sports starting with the New York Mets and how fan-centric thinking now powers travel use cases. Dan breaks down the shift from simple FAQ chatbots to specialized AI agents with goals, context, and the ability to take action: a theme park agent that finds the closest chicken nuggets and orders ahead, or a destination agent that captures group details, routes leads by territory, and hands sales teams qualified briefs. We also dig into pricing models, build versus buy considerations, and how bespoke solutions graduate into platform-wide features that benefit the entire industry.Then we zoom out to the larger disruption reshaping digital behavior: travelers using large language models instead of search. Dan explains why Satisfi rebuilt its website for LLM-friendly indexing and conversational discovery and what an agent-to-agent future looks like, where your personal agent sets preferences, the venue’s agent negotiates options, and a booking confirmation simply appears. We look ahead to voice interfaces, global expansion across Europe and Australia, and how MCP-style gateways could bring structure, attribution, and trust to data access.You’ll walk away with a clear playbook for getting started: choose one high-value workflow, make your content readable by agents, define OKRs for your AI teammate, and budget for rapid experimentation. This isn’t theory; these are the systems already driving conversions and improving guest experience today.Watch Dan’s AI Summit demo on our YouTube channel at Travel Trends Podcast. For more information, visit satisfilabs.com. The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/

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• The Power of True Guest Loyalty in Scaling a Global Boutique Hotel Brand with Lennert De Jong, CEO, another star (former citizenM)

  Send us a textIn the final episode of our Loyalty Series, we sit down with citizenM’s former CEO and now another star CEO Lennert De Jong to unpack how a boutique hotel brand reinvented loyalty as a product rather than a points program. The result was a paid subscription model, guaranteed room availability, and a bold brand IP sale to Marriott, all of which reshaped citizenM’s growth, distribution strategy, and guest experience without diluting its identity.Lennert takes us back to the company’s early stance against traditional loyalty models and the forces that pushed a rethink: OTA pressure, the strength of U.S. direct-booking behavior, and the need for scale to protect rate integrity. Out of that emerged mycitizenM+, a simple paid membership that delivers immediate, tangible perks most notably guaranteed rooms when travelers need them most. The psychology mirrors Amazon Prime: when guests pay to join, they default to the brand and return more often. We explore how citizenM measured success through customer lifetime value, switching behavior, and how benefits like coworking access and F&B discounts aligned perfectly with the brand’s living-room-centric design.We also break down the strategic decision to sell the citizenM brand IP to Marriott, unlocking the demand engine of Bonvoy while allowing citizenM to remain its largest owner-operator. The partnership grants mycitizenM+ members instant Bonvoy Gold, an example of how smart alliances can outperform homegrown loyalty programs. Lennert offers clear advice for smaller hotel groups: skip building your own points-based system and align with a platform that can already move demand at scale.The conversation then widens into the future of loyalty as a lifestyle platform where rewards expand beyond hotels into concerts, F1 races, and cultural moments and how AI is quietly transforming hotel operations. From bots processing virtual cards to automated OTA message handling, and the coming wave of agentic AI that anticipates guest needs, Lennert outlines a future where automation elevates hospitality rather than replaces it.For more information about citizenM, please visit https://www.marriott.com/brands/citizenm.  👉 Listen to The Power of True Guest Loyalty in Scaling a Global Boutique Hotel Brand Now🔥 Special Thanks to our Season 6 Title Sponsors for their Support: Holafly, Propellic, PayCompass, Kaptio, Civitatis and WeRoadThe #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/

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