Field Notes

Advance Travel and Tourism
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Places & Travel
  • Updated Biweekly

The travel industry is evolving fast—how are you keeping up? Field Notes: Insights and Strategies for the Travel Marketer is your go-to podcast for expert insights, real-world strategies, and candid conversations with the people shaping the future of travel marketing. What You’ll Discover 🚀 Actionable Strategies – Learn from top industry experts, marketing leaders, and travel professionals as they share what’s working now. 🌍 Industry Trends – Stay ahead of emerging trends in digital marketing, destination branding, customer engagement, and more. 🎙️ Exclusive Interviews – Hear the voices behind successful campaigns, innovative tourism strategies, and game-changing marketing approaches. 📈 Real-World Insights – Get firsthand experiences, case studies, and behind-the-scenes knowledge from those who know the travel marketing landscape best.

  1. 1d ago

    The Five Stages of Travel Are Getting Weird

    Dreaming. Planning. Booking. Experiencing. Sharing. Clean boxes. Useful shorthand. Increasingly fictional. Sarah watched her own honeymoon research blow right past the model — talking to ChatGPT about vibes before she'd picked a continent, picturing herself in Greek restaurants before Greece was even on the list. Discovery and consideration weren't sequential. They were the same moment. That's the shift worth paying attention to: travelers are arriving at destination websites already half-decided, shaped by creators, Reddit threads, AI conversations, and TikTok saves that marketers had no hand in and often no visibility into. The website didn't start the journey. It entered one already in progress. The five stages aren't wrong exactly — they just describe how marketers think about the journey, not how travelers actually move through it. And that gap is where a lot of travel marketing budget quietly disappears. The real question isn't how to get someone to your site. It's how to show up in the moments that are doing the actual deciding.

    4 min

  2. 2d ago

    The Copernicus Moment for Tourism Marketing

    What happens when a traveler chooses your destination without ever visiting your website? In this keynote, Eric Hultgren explores how AI is fundamentally changing destination discovery and why traditional measures of digital success are becoming less reliable. From ChatGPT-generated itineraries to Google's AI-powered search experience, travelers are increasingly getting answers before they ever click. Eric breaks down the rise of zero-click travel planning, the growing importance of AI visibility, and what destination marketers need to do today to remain discoverable in an AI-mediated world. Along the way, he shares practical frameworks for evaluating destination content, building AI-ready campaigns, creating organizational AI policies, and identifying the questions your destination should "own" before someone else does. Key Topics: • Why website traffic may no longer be the most important metric • The rise of zero-click search and AI-generated travel planning • How Google, ChatGPT, and Claude decide which destinations to trust • Why YouTube has become a critical AI visibility channel • The difference between AI dabblers, producers, and AI-native organizations • Building content for retrieval, not just publication • How to identify the traveler questions your destination should own • Creating scalable AI workflows for campaign development • Why clarity beats cleverness in the age of AI discovery • Practical ways to audit your destination's digital presence today Memorable Quote: "The influence begins before the click. AI is just one more tool travelers are using to decide where to visit." Key Takeaway: The question is no longer whether travelers can find your website. The question is whether AI can find, understand, and trust your destination before the traveler ever arrives. About the Speaker: Eric Hultgren is National Director of Content for Advance Travel & Tourism and a leading voice on the intersection of AI, search, storytelling, and destination marketing. His work focuses on how emerging technology is reshaping traveler behavior and what marketers must do to remain visible, trusted, and relevant

    19 min

  3. 3d ago

    AI, Search & the New Competitive Advantage

    In this episode of Field Notes: Insights and Observations for the Travel Marketer, Eric Hultgren reads a piece from strategist Ryan Winfield and Sara Dyer is back to explore two of the biggest questions facing destination marketers right now: How is AI reshaping search behavior, and what does it really mean when 90% of marketers say they're using AI? Ryan Winfield shared his findings on Linkedin from a review of 24 destination marketing organizations' analytics accounts, comparing 12 months of performance against the previous year. While organic search traffic declined by 14%, referral traffic from ChatGPT increased by an astonishing 446%. The conversation explores why "zero-click" search experiences and AI-generated answers are changing traveler behavior, what this means for SEO strategies, and why organizations should focus on creating unique, authoritative content that AI systems can't easily replicate. Sara Dyer tackles another widely cited statistic: nearly 90% of marketers now use AI. Rather than focusing on adoption alone, she argues that AI is rapidly becoming infrastructure—more like email or collaboration software than a standalone marketing tactic. As AI becomes commonplace, the competitive advantage shifts away from access to technology and toward human judgment, original thinking, proprietary data, and the ability to ask better questions. Together, the discussion offers a practical look at how travel marketers should think about visibility, authority, and differentiation in a world increasingly shaped by AI-powered discovery. Key Takeaways • Organic search traffic may be declining, but AI-driven referral traffic is growing rapidly. • ChatGPT visitors often convert at higher rates because they arrive with stronger intent. • SEO still matters, but the focus is shifting toward authority, expertise, and answer ownership. • AI adoption is no longer a differentiator—it's becoming an expected part of modern marketing. • The real advantage comes from human insight, unique perspectives, and proprietary knowledge. • Travel brands should identify the questions they are uniquely qualified to answer and ensure they own those conversations.

    8 min

  4. 4d ago

    Once You See, You Can't Unsee: The Travel Marketer's Guide to Reading Culture

    What separates the travel marketers who see what's coming from the ones who are always reacting to it? It's not more data. It's a different way of looking. In this keynote, Eric Hultgren makes the case for trading the archeologist's mindset — reconstructing what was — for the anthropologist's — understanding what's becoming. The difference shows up in your content, your campaigns, and whether you're leading your audience or chasing them. Along the way, he walks through a jaguar tracker in the Amazon, a peanut butter sandwich that became an NFL licensing story, a shoe store in Brooklyn that turned a Tuesday into a purchase, a black box at a Michigan electronics company, and a fudge shop employee who didn't bother to put down her salad. What connects them: wonder dies from overexposure. The longer you've been in a space, the harder it is to see it. And the harder it is to see it, the harder it is to tell a story that makes someone move. This isn't a session about AI tools or content calendars. It's about the skill underneath all of it — curiosity as a competitive advantage, play as a professional practice, and the compass over the map as a strategic posture. If you work in travel marketing, DMO strategy, hospitality, or destination storytelling, this one's for you. Topics covered: Why data without story is just noise The archeological vs. anthropological view of your audience Culture doesn't reverse — and why 2019 is still haunting too many planning conversations What Harriet the shoe store associate can teach you about ethnographic hospitality How to rebuild curiosity when expertise has made you cynical Play vs. fun — and why the distinction matters for your team

    28 min

  5. 5d ago

    Do Travelers Actually Care About Marketing?

    No guest today. Just a question that won't let go. Sara Dyer traces her own honeymoon research—bouncing between ChatGPT, TikTok, Instagram, friends, comment sections, and back again—and arrives at something uncomfortable: she can't remember most of what influenced her. She remembers the feeling. She remembers Greece rising to the top. She doesn't remember the campaign. That might not be a problem. It might be the point. This episode makes the case that travelers don't experience marketing—they experience an ecosystem. And the best marketing might be the kind that's completely invisible by the time someone books: no single video that closed the deal, no campaign they can cite, just a slow accumulation of signals that moved them from uncertain to confident. Worth sitting with if you spend your days measuring impressions and wondering whether any of it lands.

    6 min

  6. 6d ago

    40 First Dates on TikTok (how to book a honeymoon)

    ChatGPT narrowed the destination. TikTok sealed the deal. This episode, Sara Dyer joins Eric Hultgren to break down her actual honeymoon research process—and what it reveals about the real job travel content needs to do in 2025. They open with two news items worth paying attention to: OpenAI reportedly wants to abandon the chatbot format entirely in favor of a context-aware super app, and what that pivot could mean for Gemini's dominance. Then Eric unpacks Obsession—the horror film with a $750K budget that's made $152M and keeps gaining audience each weekend—as a case study in the kind of experience that only works when you're trapped in it. The parallel to travel marketing is not subtle. The bulk of the episode is Sara walking through how she and her fiancé Max actually chose Greece: ChatGPT for the shortlist, TikTok for the conviction. She watched 30–40 videos. She can't name a single creator. And that's the point. What you'll hear: Why authentic "day in the life" content beats polished brand storytelling for destination decisions The moment a destination becomes real vs. just recommended Why the wart in the video might be the most valuable frame in your content library How DMOs should think about volume, format, and the AI-to-social research loop

    16 min

  7. May 5

    How to Make Data Actionable for your destination

    Most destinations aren’t short on data—they’re short on decisions. In this episode of Field Notes, Eric Hultgren sits down with three operators who live at the intersection of data, strategy, and real-world application: Frida Bahja, Ktimene Axtell, and Josh Gibson. The conversation cuts through the noise around “more data” and gets to the harder question: How do you actually turn it into action that changes outcomes? You’ll hear: Why most DMOs don’t have a data problem—they have a translation problem The gap between what data vendors promise and what teams can actually use How to move from dashboards to decisions (and why most teams stall in between) What “verified behavior” really means—and why intent signals are shifting fast How Tennessee used data to drive growth in underperforming counties—and what that reveals about scalable strategy Why speed matters more than precision in modern data environments The emerging tension between AI, sustainability, and tourism growth And then it pivots. Eric reframes the entire conversation through the lens of zero-click search and AI decision-making, where travelers don’t visit your website, but still make decisions about your destination. That shift changes everything: What data matters What content gets surfaced And what “visibility” actually means now This isn’t a conversation about tools. It’s about how to think differently when the system itself has changed. If you're responsible for growth, storytelling, or strategy in travel—this is the episode that forces a reset.

    54 min

  8. Apr 3

    Community First or Nothing Lasts: Nate Wyeth on Regenerative Tourism and Playing the Long Game

    What if the job of a DMO isn’t to grow tourism… …but to protect the place that makes tourism possible? In this episode, Eric sits down with Nate Wyeth, Chief of Staff at Visit Bend, to unpack a deceptively simple idea: If the community doesn’t benefit, the destination eventually breaks. This is a conversation about regenerative tourism—not as a buzzword, but as an operating system. One that forces harder questions, longer timelines, and better decisions. And it starts with a North Star Nate has been chasing for two decades: How do we grow in a way that actually benefits the people and places we serve? 🧠 The Big Idea Tourism isn’t just an economic engine. It’s a relationship: between visitor and place between growth and preservation between today and the next 30 years Break that relationship… and you don’t have a destination anymore. 🔑 What You’ll Learn 1. Community isn’t a stakeholder—it’s the starting point Nate’s model is simple: Community first Everything else follows Because: residents feel the impact first infrastructure absorbs the strain ecosystems don’t get a vote If you ignore that… you’re borrowing time. 2. The real definition of sustainability It’s not branding. It’s not messaging. It’s literally in the word: Sustain = make it last. That forces a shift from: short-term wins → long-term viability 3. The balancing act every DMO avoids (but shouldn’t) Tourism creates: revenue jobs energy But also: strain cost tension The job isn’t to eliminate one side. It’s to hold both at the same time. 4. The smartest resource allocation analogy you’ll hear Most DMOs: Walk into a casino and drop everything on the first slot machine. Better approach: invest intentionally split resources between growth and preservation build systems, not spikes 5. Why some communities “get it” faster than others It’s not geography. It’s people. Places like Oregon work because: people show up they’re willing to have hard conversations they choose collaboration over control That’s the unlock. 6. How to build buy-in (even in skeptical markets) You don’t start with: “We need sustainability.” You start with: near-term wins visible benefits shared outcomes Then expand the aperture. 7. The “toddler on a sugar high” economy metaphor Right now, tourism feels like: fast reactive overstimulated The real question: What happens when the sugar crash hits? Smart DMOs are already planning for that moment. 8. The most underrated discipline: postmortems The industry bias: launch → move on What’s missing: reflection learning iteration Nate’s take: If you don’t learn from failure, you’re just repeating it faster. 9. Collaboration isn’t optional—it’s structural Visitors don’t respect boundaries: city → region → state So DMOs can’t either. The Bend model: regional partners tribal partners land managers first responders Everyone at the table. Because impact doesn’t stay in one place. 💬 Best Lines “If we don’t put our community first, we have no destination worth promoting.” “Sustainability is about what lasts.” “We don’t put shock collars on visitors—they move across regions.” 🎯 Why This Episode Matters If your AI talk is about being found, this conversation is about being worth finding. Most destinations are still optimizing for: traffic bookings short-term lift This is about: longevity trust shared value 🧠 Strategic Takeaway There are really two futures for DMOs: Extractive → maximize visits now → deal with consequences later Regenerative → balance growth with care → build something that lasts Nate is clearly building the second. 🔧 Immediate Actions If this hits, here’s where to start: Define your “community-first” lens Audit where tourism creates strain (not just revenue) Build one initiative that benefits both visitor and resident Bring one new partner to the table you don’t usually include 🔗 Listen & Follow Catch more episodes of Field Notes for grounded conversations with people shaping the future of travel marketing.

    11 min
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About

The travel industry is evolving fast—how are you keeping up? Field Notes: Insights and Strategies for the Travel Marketer is your go-to podcast for expert insights, real-world strategies, and candid conversations with the people shaping the future of travel marketing. What You’ll Discover 🚀 Actionable Strategies – Learn from top industry experts, marketing leaders, and travel professionals as they share what’s working now. 🌍 Industry Trends – Stay ahead of emerging trends in digital marketing, destination branding, customer engagement, and more. 🎙️ Exclusive Interviews – Hear the voices behind successful campaigns, innovative tourism strategies, and game-changing marketing approaches. 📈 Real-World Insights – Get firsthand experiences, case studies, and behind-the-scenes knowledge from those who know the travel marketing landscape best.

Information

  • Creator
    Advance Travel and Tourism
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    45
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Field Notes