Podcasts about tourism industry

Barcelona has become a flashpoint in the global debate around over-tourism. With more than 15 million annual visitors, nearly ten times its population, the city is grappling with rising rents, resident displacement, and growing public anger. David Frost, CEO of the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA), joins Crystal Orderson to unpack what’s happening in Spain and what this could predict for tourism hotspots like Cape Town. Presenter John Maytham is an actor and author-turned-talk radio veteran and seasoned journalist. His show serves a round-up of local and international news coupled with the latest in business, sport, traffic and weather. The host’s eclectic interests mean the program often surprises the audience with intriguing book reviews and inspiring interviews profiling artists. A daily highlight is Rapid Fire, just after 5:30pm. CapeTalk fans call in, to stump the presenter with their general knowledge questions. Another firm favourite is the humorous Thursday crossing with award-winning journalist Rebecca Davis, called “Plan B”. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Afternoon Drive with John Maytham Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 15:00 and 18:00 (SA Time) to Afternoon Drive with John Maytham broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/BSFy4Cn or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/n8nWt4x Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5 Follow us on social media: CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Efren Perez, the new BTIA president, shares how Belize's tourism association is tackling infrastructure gaps, regional imbalances, and policy hurdles. From advocacy to border issues and youth leadership, we unpack what it'll take to build a stronger, more inclusive tourism future. Belize Tourism Futures S2E1 | Presented by BELTRAIDE

LA's brilliant plan for the Olympics? Force hotels to raise wages by 48% and watch businesses collapse. In this episode, we dive into the city council's recent vote mandating tourism industry wages skyrocket to $30/hour by 2028—just as Los Angeles prepares to host the world. As usual, politicians who've never run a business are dictating terms without considering whether companies can actually survive these costs. Will we see mass closures and layoffs as hotels and restaurants simply can't afford to operate? Is anyone surprised California is doubling down after thousands of fast food workers already lost jobs from previous wage hikes? Share your predictions in the comments on how many businesses will shutter before the Olympic torch even arrives in LA. Subscribe and hit the notification bell to catch our next breakdown of government brilliance destroying livelihoods in the name of virtue signaling.

Today on AirTalk, Los Angeles’ city council voted 12-3 on Wednesday to approve a $30 minimum wage for certain workers in the tourism industry; how AI is affecting dating culture and the way we communicate with potential romantic partners; British icons 'The Zombies' reflect on their path from teenage friends to Rock and Roll Hall of Famers; Governor Newsom unveils revised budget amid 12 billion dollar deficit; Questlove on SNL musical talent and TV Talk. Today on AirTalk LA city council votes on $30 minimum wage for tourism industry (0:15) AI in dating apps (17:01) 'The Zombies' documentary (34:04) Gov. Newsom unveils revised budget (51:24) Questlove on SNL musical talent (1:13:09) TV Talk (1:31:52)

Is Canada's sports tourism industry starting to strike out? Guest: Tim Macdonell, Owner of Elite Sports Tours Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Angelo CarotenutoFounder and Co-OwnerLivToursAngelo Carotenuto, founder of LivTours, has been transforming travel since 2009 by creating intimate, unforgettable experiences across Europe. Starting as a tour guide and performer in his hometown of Rome, Angelo saw the demand for authentic, small-group and private tours and launched LivTours (formerly LivItaly Tours). A hands-on leader, he forges partnerships, trains expert guides, and supports a global team dedicated to delivering top-rated, hand-crafted travel moments.summaryIn this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, Jason Elkins interviews Angelo Carotenuto, founder & Co-owner of LivTours. They discuss the vision behind LivTours, which aims to provide unique and memorable travel experiences in Italy and throughout Europe. Angelo shares his journey into the tourism industry, the art of tour guiding, and the connection between performance and guiding. They also touch on hiring practices in the tourism industry, memorable tour experiences, common tourist questions, sustainability in tourism, and advice for aspiring tour guides. The conversation highlights the importance of understanding oneself in the tourism industry and the challenges of mass tourism.takeawaysLivTours aims to exceed travelers' expectations.Angelo's background in performing arts enhances his guiding skills.Tour guiding is similar to performing arts in connecting with audiences.Hiring in tourism values experience in performance and problem-solving.Sustainability is crucial in the tourism industry.Mass tourism presents both challenges and opportunities.Local businesses must adapt to tourism influx for sustainability.Understanding client expectations is key to successful tours.Technology proficiency is essential for modern tour guides.The tourism industry is driven by people and their stories. Learn more about Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Marketing and join our private community to get episode updates, special access to our guests, and exclusive adventure travel offers on our website.

This week's Village Tour takes us to Ballin in North Tipp live from the Lakeside Hotel! We found out about the village and it's incredible growth, it's importance to the Tourism Industry. We also found out more about the local sport, drama and musical scene, its rich history and those involved in active retirement. Find out more about Ballina here: https://discoverloughderg.ie/project/ballina/ Find out more about river cruises here: https://www.killaloerivercruises.com/ Find out more about the Lakeside Hotel here: https://www.lakesidehotel.ie/

China says it is increasing tariffs from 84% to 125% on U.S. goods starting Saturday. President Trump this week had increased tariffs on China to 145%, escalating the trade war. CBS News' Weijia Jiang has the latest. CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger joins "CBS Mornings" to break down the trade relationship and economic impact of China's increase in tariffs on U.S. goods, plus what to expect in the financial markets. Erik and Lyle Menendez will learn Friday if they still have a chance to get out of prison after more than three decades. The brothers were convicted of murdering their parents and want their resentencing hearings to go forward as planned next week. However, the new L.A. district attorney is trying to stop them, saying he believes the brothers haven't earned a second chance. Reggie Reed says his life "flipped upside down" when his mom disappeared on Aug. 22, 1987, and was later found dead, when he was 6 years old. Decades later, his dad, Reginald Reed Sr., was arrested for her murder. CBS News' Vladimir Duthiers delved into the story for "48 Hours." Technology has made it possible for people without much training to travel to space. Two companies — Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic — will rocket people to the edge of space and back. Nearly 120 people have launched with the companies so far. CBS News' Mark Strassman explores what's next for this era of space travel. Live from the Blue Origin launch site, Vladimir Duthiers gives a behind-the-scenes look at the mood surrounding Gayle King's upcoming flight with an all-female space crew. With the countdown on, Gayle King shares her hopes, nerves, and the message she wants her journey to send to viewers of all ages. "Hacks" co-creator Paul W. Downs, who stars as talent manager Jimmy, joins "CBS Mornings " to discuss balancing egos and ambition in the show's fourth season. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Visitor numbers have dropped 30% compared to February last year, according to the CSO.This follows on from a 25% drop year-on-year last month. It begs the question: is the tourism industry in danger in Ireland?Joining Kieran to discuss the drop in American tourists specifically is Larry Donnelly, Law Lecturer at the University of Galway and Columnist with the Journal.

On this West Virginia Morning, research from the state suggests more than 21,000 jobs in the tourism and hospitality sector will open annually over the next five years. The post A Growing Tourism Industry And Analyzing The State Budget, This West Virginia Morning appeared first on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Chinese President Xi Jinping stresses that the cultural and tourism industry should follow a path of sustainable and healthy development (30:58).The Ukrainian president says a halt to strikes on energy infrastructure in its conflict with Russia could be done quickly (01:01). China is levying reciprocal tariffs on several categories of Canadian goods entering the country (18:22).

There's a view that if businesses aren't on social media, they aren't being seen. Tataki Auckland Unlimited has spent $103,000 on influencer created-content in recent years, while ChristchurchNZ's dispensed $27,000. Neither DunedinNZ nor WellingtonNZ have jumped on the bandwagon, but won't rule out doing so if the right opportunity arose. Tourism Industry Aotearoa Chief Executive Rebecca Ingram told Mike Hosking use of influencers is important. She says it's important for the sector to operate in this space as it relies on people seeing and feeling what there is to offer, which social media provides. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Maytham is joined by Dr. Nicole Cocolas, Lecturer in Transport Management at The University of Surrey, to explore the challenges and opportunities in making travel more sustainable. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa is excited about the Government's new growth agenda. Minister-in-charge Nicola Willis is considering visa changes, hoping to pull in more tourists. Just over 321,000 people entered the country from overseas in November - 86 percent of pre-pandemic figures. CEO Rebecca Ingram says there's lots of room to build on that. "So as an industry, we're delighted to see such a strong focus on economic growth from the Government with the new portfolio for Minister Willis." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With over a decade of experience in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry, Eslyn started her journey at the tender age of 17 as a trainee in the Entertainment Department at one of the World's Leading Hotel Chains in the Caribbean, Sandals Resorts. Eslyn's dynamic personality, whit and charm was quickly noticed by many including the management, staff and returning customers to the resort hence earning her the youngest to win the coveted title of Ultimate Prestige Team Member. She migrated to the United States at 27 years old and started her entrepreneurial career. This change thrust her into the world of Personal Development. Eslyn is a member of Toastmasters International and has served on the board for her local chapter as Vice President of Membership and Club President. She led the Brandon Toastmasters Club in accomplishing the President's Distinguished Club award/ She  currently serves as Area 33 Director for District 48. This fiery Caribbean Native believes that servant leadership is the catalyst to impact anyone to lead  an organization. She continues to be a student first always learning, sharpening her skills to continue being of service and making a positive  impact where ever she can and goes.

Last week the UK introduced an Electronic Travel Authorisation for visitors from non-European countries. There is significant concern on the impact this could have on the Northern Irish tourism industry. We hear from Joanne Stuart, CEO of the Northern Ireland Tourism Alliance.

The chief executive officer of the Victorian Tourism Industry Council has criticised the controversial short-stay levy for being confusing.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the holiday season fast, approaching many people will be preparing to pack up and head out on holidays. - Menjelang musim liburan, banyak orang yang mempersiapkan diri untuk liburan

With the holiday season fast, approaching many people will be preparing to pack up and head out on holidays. But researchers are calling on people to consider the sustainability of their trips with carbon emissions from the tourism industry on the increase. A study published in Nature Communications indicates that greenhouse gas emissions from tourism are growing more than two times faster than those from the rest of the global economy.

With the holiday season fast approaching, many people will be preparing to pack up and head out on holidays. But researchers are calling on people to consider the sustainability of their trips with carbon emissions from the tourism industry on the increase.

In today's episode, the Vice President at ICF Foundation Coura Badiane explores the transformative power of coaching in tourism, showing how it fosters social impact, drives growth, and empowers individuals and organizations.

Tourism operators are reaping the benefits of a boost in international visitor spending, but believe there's more work to do. International visitor spending has risen by 30% in the year to September. It's grown to just under $11 billion. Tourism Holdings Chief Executive Grant Webster told Mike Hosking it's around 85% of pre-Covid levels, and they have to focus on growth. He says that there have been some barriers put in place with increases in the visitor levy, but 2026 is where they're going to get their market share back. Webster says they can manage it more effectively, with more digital capability and companies doing more. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gen Z and Millennials are addicted to the unwind. More travelers are saying that they enjoy a chill day on vacation with no plans- aka more sleep. So how did this Sleep Tourism trend become a $70B industry and how can you cash in? We got ideas. Plus: Macy's pares down its shoe offerings and Tesla is back to $1T. Join our hosts Jon Weigell and Cyan Zhong as they take you through our most interesting stories of the day. Follow us on social media: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thehustle.co Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehustledaily/ Thank You For Listening to The Hustle Daily Show. Don't forget to hit Subscribe or Follow us on Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode! If you want this news delivered to your inbox, join millions of others and sign up for The Hustle Daily newsletter, here: https://thehustle.co/email/  Plus! Your engagement matters to us. If you are a fan of the show, be sure to leave us a 5-Star Review on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hustle-daily-show/id1606449047 (and share your favorite episodes with your friends, clients, and colleagues).

The tourism industry is being urged to embrace technology and prepare for more digital natives to be arriving at their doors. A new industry report suggests the visitor experience will be quite different in just five years time. Industry leaders met in Auckland today to discussed the future of their sector at Tourism Summit Aotearoa today, Tourism reporter Tess Brunton has more.

The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation is seeking the next government to double spending to help grow and support the sector, according to the general election manifesto published by the group today.Chief Executive of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, Eoghan O'Mara Walsh, joins Kieran to discuss.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Kristi Gole, EVP of Strategy at Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), about the importance of collaboration and how the alliance helps these hotels compete against the world's largest brands. Kristi shares examples of brand partnerships that GHA's loyalty program has allowed them to start with complimentary luxury brands, and she gives us a great formula for evaluating partnership opportunities. What You Will Learn in This Episode: How GHA became the largest alliance of independent hotel brands and the benefits this provides to its members. Why the GHA Discovery loyalty program was transformed into “Discovery Dollars” and how this new approach is more rewarding for members. What strategies Kristi Gole used to attract high-net-worth customers and enhance customer engagement. How the collaborative environment within GHA helps independent hotel brands compete globally, share best practices, and grow. Why Kristi values deep relationships over standard partnerships and how aligning with like-minded partners can lead to successful collaborations. What key technological and operational challenges GHA faced, and how ensuring tech compatibility is crucial for a seamless customer experience. A Collective Strength in Hospitality Formed in 2004, GHA's mission was to aid independent hotels in competing globally against large hotel chains. Today, it's the largest alliance of independent hotel brands, comprising 40 brands and 800 hotels across 100 countries. This alliance offers a collaborative platform for these brands to share resources, best practices, and cross-promote services. The alliance provides tools and platforms for independent hotels to remain authentic while benefiting from a larger network. This unique value proposition has enabled GHA member hotels to retain their independence and character while being part of a valuable global support system. How Strategic Partnerships Elevate the Customer Experience A core aspect of GHA's strategy is building deep, strategic partnerships that enhance customer offerings. The collaboration with Regent Seven Seas Cruises, for example, attracted high-net-worth customers by offering Discovery Dollars usable at hotels. Launched publicly in 2010, the GHA Discovery loyalty program was designed to provide customer value, encourage cross-promotion, and increase bookings through profitable channels. In 2021, GHA revamped the loyalty program into “Discovery 2.0,” transitioning from a points-based system to a cash-back model called “Discovery Dollars.” This shift aimed to make rewards more accessible and appealing to a broader audience. Scaling and Innovating for the Future GHA plans to continue expanding and iterating on the Discovery Dollar currency. With a goal of reaching 100 million members, the focus remains on signing new brands and growing their partnership network. Kristi emphasized the importance of aligning with partners with a similar mindset and targeting the same luxury segment. She shares why GHA looks for partners who are agile, entrepreneurial, and approachable. Resources: Website: globalhotelalliance.com LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristi-gole-7687893/ LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-hotel-alliance/ Facebook Business: https://www.facebook.com/GHADISCOVERY/ Instagram Business: https://www.instagram.com/ghadiscovery/ Q&A: How Global Hotel Alliance Has Empowered Independent Hotel Brands for 20 Years: https://skift.com/2024/08/12/qa-how-global-hotel-alliance-has-empowered-independent-hotel-brands-for-20-years/ We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more o​f. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes!

Revitalizing KZN's Tourism industry for a bumper summer season - FEDHASA East Coast by Radio Islam

For budget day, Kieran is joined by a panel of experts to break down the most important aspects of Budget 2025, particularly, how the tourism industry has seemingly been ignored.He's joined by Catherine Flanagan, IITIC Director and CEO of the Visitor Attraction Sector, Conor Skehan, Columnist with the Sunday Independent and Danny McCoy, CEO of IBEC to discuss.

It's the second largest landmass in the world, famous for its lakes and spectacular forests, yet Canada's travel industry has faced challenges since the Covid pandemic hit in 2020. International visitor numbers still haven't recovered, and extreme weather events like wildfires have destroyed some of its best-known resorts. Plus difficult diplomatic relations have meant a reduction in tourists from a key market - China.But Canada's government says it has a plan for the sector which is worth $38bn CAD to Canada's GDP.We'll hear about it from the country's tourism minister and from business owners and tourists too.Presented and produced by Megan Lawton(Image: Jack Rivers is an indigenous cultural guide on Manitoulin Island, he runs tours around the Wiikwemkoong Reserve. Before the pandemic, indigenous tourism was the fastest growing sector of Canadian tourism, with significant gains in job creation and contributions to Canada's GDP)

Episode 201 Details Hunting Survival, Colorado Wolf Debate, & Global Travel Fee Hikes: Key Updates Latest News: Hunting, Outdoors, Travel & Western Living ALASKA: HUNTER SURVIVES BEAR ATTACK & GUNSHOT WOUND Tyler Johnson, a 32-year-old hunter from Sterling, Alaska, survived a brutal brown bear attack and a self-inflicted gunshot wound while hunting on the Kenai Peninsula. Johnson was hunting black bears with his father, Chris, a former US Federal Wildlife Service officer, when they accidentally startled a sleeping brown bear in the dense grass. The bear charged Tyler, who struggled to draw his sidearm before being knocked down. Despite sustaining severe injuries from the bear's claws and a gunshot wound to his leg, Tyler managed to fire seven rounds into the brown bear, eventually incapacitating the animal. His father, Chris, helped finish off the bear and immediately began treating Tyler's injuries which included an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound to Tyler's leg. Tyler Johnson always carries a trauma kit hunting that has QuikClot and a slingshot band which the men used on the gunshot wound. The two men worked quickly, applying a tourniquet and calling for help using a Garmin InReach. It took search and rescue over an hour to get to the hunters, Chris made his son tell him hunting stories in order to help keep him awake and mind off the pain. Tyler was airlifted to Alaska Medical Center, treated, and released the same evening. This incident marks the third bear attack in the U.S. this year. Essentials: Hunting & Hiking Trauma Kit Before hitting the trails during hunting season or out for a fall hike; carrying a trauma kit is absolutely necessary. The backcountry is treacherous, and must be taken seriously. First rule - Always notify someone of your hunting, hiking or camping plans, destination, and time expected to be gone. Second rule - Always fully understand how to use any of the items in your trauma kit. The field is for reaction, home is for learning, understanding and practice. Trauma Kit Must Haves Tourniquet, Elastic Bandage, Gauze, Trauma Dressing & Trauma Sheers. QuikClot / Blood Stopper Emergency Heat Blanket, Headlamp, Fire Starter, Battery Pack. GPS Satellite Communicator: Garmin InReach or AtlasTrax for example. Duct Tape, Paracord, Moleskin, Tweezers. Benadryl (antihistamine), Tylenol, Ibuprofen. Reference: https://www.outdoorlife.com/survival/kenai-brown-bear-attack/ https://quikclot.com/ https://www.garmin.com/en-US/c/outdoor-recreation/satellite-communicators/ https://usa.atlastrax.com/ Impact of Wolf Relocation on Colorado's Livestock Industry Colorado's plan to relocate the Copper Creek wolf pack, responsible for most livestock depredations in the state, has sparked controversy among ranchers. The pack, introduced from Oregon, has been linked to the deaths of cattle and sheep in Grand County, Colorado. Despite repeated requests from ranchers for lethal removal, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) opted for relocation, stating that this decision does not set a precedent for future wolf-livestock conflicts. The relocation decision aims to balance the state's wolf restoration goals with the needs of affected ranchers. This action follows the denial of permits for lethal control, despite rising livestock losses. The Cattlemen's Association criticized CPW for prioritizing wolves over ranchers' rights, highlighting the significant impact of the wolves on local livestock. The agency's strategy faces scrutiny as it walks a fine line between wolf conservation and livestock protection, with the future location of the relocated wolves still uncertain. Reference: https://cpw.state.co.us/news/08282024/media-statement-colorado-parks-and-wildlife-begins-operation-capture-wolves-copper https://www.skyhinews.com/news/colorado-parks-and-wildlife-to-relocate-depredating-wolves-from-grand-county/ https://www.summitdaily.com/news/can-colorados-producers-and-wolves-find-a-way-to-coexist/ https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/colorado-depredating-wolves-relocated/ Beware of Tourism Taxes & Price Hikes New Zealand Raises Tourism Fees: What Travelers Need to Know According to CNN, starting October 1, New Zealand will increase its International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL) from NZ$35 ($22 USD) to NZ$100 ($62 USD), making it more expensive to explore the country's lakes, mountains, and wineries. This fee, originally introduced in 2019, helps cover the environmental and infrastructure costs associated with international tourism, which brought in over $11 billion from March 2023 to March 2024. However, the Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) criticizes the hike, warning it could hurt New Zealand's global competitiveness as tourists may choose more affordable destinations like Canada or the UK. In addition to the IVL, tourist visa fees will also rise on October 1, from $131USD to $211USD, potentially leading to longer processing times. Despite concerns, similar "tourist taxes" are common in around 60 destinations globally, such as Venice and Bhutan, and studies suggest these fees don't deter tourists. Reference: https://www.cnn.com/travel/new-zealand-tripling-its-tourist-tax-intl-hnk/index.html https://www.cnn.com/travel/tourist-taxes-do-they-work/index.html https://www.doc.govt.nz/news/media-releases/2024-media-releases/ivl-increase-to-ensure-visitors-contribute-more-to-new-zealand/ https://www.tia.org.nz/assets/Uploads/20240903-MR-Tourism-Industry-says-increased-border-taxes-wont-close-gaps.pdf   FIELD REPORTS & COMMENTS Call or Text your questions, or comments to 305-900-BEND or 305-900-2363 Or email BendRadioShow@gmail.com FOLLOW Facebook/Instagram: @thebendshow https://www.facebook.com/thebendshow SUBSCRIBE to The Bend YouTube Channel. Website: TheBendShow.com https://thebendshow.com/ #catchBECifyoucan #tiggerandbec #outdoors #travel #cowboys The Outdoors, Rural America, And Wildlife Conservation are Center-Stage. AND how is that? Because Tigger & BEC… Live This Lifestyle. Learn more about Jeff ‘Tigger' Erhardt & Rebecca Wanner aka BEC here: TiggerandBEC.com https://tiggerandbec.com/   WESTERN LIFESTYLE & THE OUTDOORS Jeff 'Tigger' Erhardt & Rebecca 'BEC' Wanner are News Broadcasters that represent the Working Ranch world, Rodeo, and the Western Way of Life as well as advocate for the Outdoors and Wildlife Conservation. Outdoorsmen themselves, this duo strives to provide the hunter, adventurer, cowboy, cowgirl, rancher and/or successful farmer, and anyone interested in agriculture with the knowledge, education, and tools needed to bring high-quality beef and the wild game harvested to your table for dinner. They understand the importance in sharing meals with family, cooking the fruits of our labor and fish from our adventures, and learning to understand the importance of making memories in the outdoors. Appreciate God's Country. United together, this duo offers a glimpse into and speaks about what life truly is like at the end of dirt roads and off the beaten path. Tigger & BEC look forward to hearing from you, answering your questions and sharing in the journey of making your life a success story. Adventure Awaits Around The Bend.

Andrew Lewin discusses a controversial incident in Australia involving a humpback whale and a swimmer. The incident has raised concerns about the impact of swim-with-whale tourism on humpback whale behavior. Join Andrew as he delves into the story and explores potential actions that could be taken, possibly starting with government intervention. Tune in to learn more about protecting our oceans and how you can make a difference. Links: Contact the Queensland Department of Environment, Science, and Innovation: https://www.desi.qld.gov.au/contactus Queensland Rules around whale watching: https://environment.desi.qld.gov.au/wildlife/animals/living-with/watching-marine-mammals/rules Stephanie Stack's TikTok Video: https://www.tiktok.com/@whalescientist/video/7409906978316930350 Follow a career in conservation: https://www.conservation-careers.com/online-training/ Use the code SUFB to get 33% off courses and the careers program.   Do you want to join my Ocean Community? Sign Up for Updates on the process: www.speakupforblue.com/oceanapp   Sign up for our Newsletter: http://www.speakupforblue.com/newsletter   Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3NmYvsI Connect with Speak Up For Blue: Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube Regulations and enforcement in the swim-with-whale tourism industry are crucial for protecting humpback whales and ensuring tourist safety. The incident discussed in the podcast episode highlighted the potential dangers of close interactions between humans and humpback whales during swim tours. The humpback whale carrying a person out of the water demonstrated the unpredictability of these interactions and the need for stricter regulations. The episode emphasized the importance of establishing clear guidelines and rules for swim-with-whale activities to prevent disturbances to humpback whales. Research conducted by ecologists, including Stephanie Stack, indicated that the behavior of humpback whales was significantly altered during swim tours, leading to disruptions in their resting patterns and overall behavior. These disturbances could have negative implications for the well-being of the whale population and the sustainability of marine tourism. To address these concerns, it was suggested that the Queensland government should implement stronger regulations and enforcement measures for swim-with-whale tours. Currently, there appears to be a lack of specific laws governing these activities, leaving room for operators to potentially overlook important safety and conservation protocols. Strengthening regulations would not only protect humpback whales from potential harm but also ensure the safety of tourists participating in these immersive experiences. Furthermore, the episode highlighted the need for collaboration between whale-watching companies, scientific researchers, and conservationists to develop comprehensive codes of conduct for swim-with-whale tours. By establishing industry-wide standards and promoting adherence to these guidelines, operators can minimize disruptions to humpback whales and create a safer environment for both the animals and tourists. In conclusion, the podcast episode underscored the urgency of enhancing regulations and enforcement in the swim-with-whale tourism industry to safeguard humpback whales and promote responsible marine tourism practices. By prioritizing the well-being of these majestic creatures and implementing stringent guidelines, stakeholders can work towards creating a sustainable and ethical environment for human-wildlife interactions in the marine realm. Humpback whales can be disturbed by human interactions, impacting their behavior and potentially affecting their population recovery. The episode highlights an incident in Australia where a humpback whale carried a person out of the water during a swim-with-whale tourism activity. This interaction, although seemingly harmless as the person was unharmed, can have significant consequences for the whales. Research conducted by ecologists, including Stephanie Stack, has shown that commercial swimming with whale tours can lead to disturbances in humpback whale behavior. The study found that the whales made direct changes when swimmers were in the water, and the whales did not resume undisturbed behavior even after the swimmers exited the water. This disruption can have negative implications for the whales, especially since humpback whales are capital breeders with limited energy reserves. Furthermore, the study revealed a 50% reduction in the proportion of time that whales spent resting during swim tours compared to whale watch tours. This reduction in resting time can impact the overall health and well-being of the humpback whale population. It is crucial to minimize disturbances to humpback whales to ensure their continued population recovery and the sustainability of the marine tourism industry. The episode emphasizes the need for robust education, enforcement programs, and continued monitoring of humpback whale populations to mitigate the impacts of human interactions. Regulations and enforcement of these rules are essential to protect humpback whales from disturbances caused by swim-with-whale activities. By understanding and addressing the potential negative effects of human interactions on humpback whales, we can work towards ensuring the conservation and recovery of this species. Collaboration between operators, scientists, and government officials is crucial for the development and implementation of effective regulations for swim-with-whale tours. In the podcast episode, it was highlighted that the incident involving a humpback whale carrying a person out of the water raised concerns about the impact of swim-with-whale tourism on humpback whale behavior. Stephanie Stack, a researcher studying whale tourism impacts, emphasized the need for robust education, enforcement programs, and continued monitoring of population dynamics through scientific research to minimize negative impacts on humpback whales. She conducted a study in Hervey Bay where the whale-watching fleet developed their own code of conduct for swim tours, indicating a proactive approach by operators in response to research findings. The episode also mentioned the importance of strengthening and enforcing existing regulations to ensure the safety of both humans and whales during these interactions. It was noted that while regulations exist, there is a need for additional rules to address specific scenarios, such as maintaining adequate distances and respecting whale resting times. By fostering collaboration among operators, scientists, and government officials, a comprehensive set of regulations can be developed that considers the well-being of humpback whales and the safety of tourists. Operators can benefit from scientific insights to enhance their practices, while government officials can ensure that regulations are effectively enforced to protect marine wildlife. Overall, the episode underscores the significance of multi-stakeholder collaboration in creating sustainable and responsible swim-with-whale tours. By working together, these parties can address the challenges posed by such activities and strive towards a harmonious coexistence between humans and humpback whales in their natural habitat.  

There are concerns the international visitor levy could be raised too high.  The Government's being warned $273 million dollars of visitor spending is on the line.  Consultation is open on whether the $35 fee should be raised to $50, $70 or $100.  Tourism Industry Aotearoa CEO Rebecca Ingram told Mike Hosking visa fees have recently gone up, and they don't want to see tourists being scared off by additional costs.  She says someone who requires a visa and the visitor levy would be paying $500 before entering New Zealand.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tap into innovation at IAAPA Expo, the biggest industry event of the year. Join us and other AttractionsPros in Orlando, FL, Nov. 18-22 to engage with the global community. Learn from the experts, leave with new ideas, and turn your passion for the industry into new possibilities. Register now to save up to 30%. Samantha Palmer is the Director of Brand Experience for Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL. With over 20 years of experience at the college, plus time as a student, Samantha has played a pivotal role in developing and overseeing the historic tours and retail operations at Flagler. Her work focuses on enhancing the brand experience for both students and visitors, leveraging the college's rich history and iconic architecture. In this interview, Samantha talks about historic tours, St. Augustine's tourism industry, and taking chances on people.   Historic tours   "You get to experience the brand not only through what their script is... but you also get to experience a student who is here working on their four-year education."   Samantha discusses how Flagler College's historic tours are a unique blend of education and tourism, allowing students to gain invaluable public speaking and storytelling skills. The tours are not just about showcasing the beautiful and historic campus; they also serve as a crucial recruitment tool for the college. By involving students as tour guides, the program offers a dual benefit—visitors get a glimpse of the college's rich history, and students gain hands-on experience that enhances their academic journey and prepares them for future careers.   St. Augustine's tourism industry   "We have always been members of the St. Augustine Attractions Association... we're kind of lucky that this area is so concentrated with attractions, but we're also willing to talk to each other."   Samantha highlights the collaborative spirit within St. Augustine's tourism industry, emphasizing the unique position Flagler College holds within this historic city. As a major attraction in St. Augustine, Flagler College contributes to and benefits from the city's vibrant tourism sector. The college's involvement in local attractions associations and partnerships with other sites, such as the St. Augustine Lighthouse and the Pirate Museum, ensures a cohesive and enriched experience for visitors. Samantha also notes how the college's location and history make it an essential stop for those exploring the oldest city in the U.S.   Taking chances on people   "I like to take chances on people. Let's see. What's the worst that happens?"   In her role at Flagler College, Samantha has learned the importance of taking chances on people, particularly students who may not initially seem like the perfect fit for a role. She shares stories of students who, despite their initial reservations or lack of experience, have thrived in positions like tour guides. These experiences often lead to surprising and rewarding outcomes, with students gaining confidence and discovering new career paths, such as in public speaking, theater, or law. Samantha's belief in giving people opportunities reflects her broader philosophy of mentorship and development, helping to foster a supportive and growth-oriented environment at Flagler College. If you'd like to learn more about Flagler College or get in touch with Samantha Palmer, you can visit Flagler College's website or reach out to her directly via email at SPalmer@flagler.edu. The historic tours at Flagler College, currently on hiatus for renovation, will resume in September 2024, offering visitors a unique glimpse into the college's rich history and architecture.   This podcast wouldn't be possible without the incredible work of our faaaaaantastic team:   Scheduling and correspondence by Kristen Karaliunas   To connect with AttractionPros: AttractionPros.com AttractionPros@gmail.com AttractionPros on Facebook AttractionPros on LinkedIn AttractionPros on Instagram AttractionPros on Twitter (X)

In the 19th century, Kentucky's Mammoth Cave launched an entire, very competitive cave tourism industry in the area, In 1925, Floyd Collins was trapped in the cave system, which was the beginning of the end of the cave wars. Research: Algeo, Katie. "Mammoth Cave and the making of place." Southeastern Geographer, vol. 44, no. 1, May 2004, pp. 27+. Gale In Context: Science, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A119615129/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=f1adfa5b. Accessed 29 July 2024. Bullitt, Alexander Clark. “Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, During the Year 1944, By a Visitor.” Louisville, KY. Morton & Griswold. 1945. Butler, Telia. “Throwback Thursday – The Kentucky Cave Wars.” WNKY News 40. 3/25/2201. https://www.wnky.com/throwback-thursday-the-kentucky-cave-wars/ Courier-Journal. “Cave Company is Cited by Dawson.” The Courier-Journal. 7/24/1927. https://www.newspapers.com/image/107046993/ Lanzendorfer, Joy. “Enslaved Tour Guide Stephen Bishop Made Mammoth Cave the Must-See Destination It Is Today.” Smithsonian. 2/6/2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/enslaved-tour-guide-stephen-bishop-made-mammoth-cave-must-see-destination-it-today-180971424/ McGraw, Eliza. “How the Kentucky Cave Wars Reshaped the State's Tourism Industry.” Smithsonian. 7/25/2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-kentucky-cave-wars-reshaped-the-states-tourism-industry-180982585/ Meloy, Harold. “Short Legal History of Mammoth Cave.” National Parks Service. https://npshistory.com/brochures/maca/short-legal-history.pdf "Mammoth Cave National Park." Britannica Library, Encyclopædia Britannica, 4 Sep. 2015. libraries.state.ma.us/login?eburl=https%3A%2F%2Flibrary.eb.com&ebtarget=%2Flevels%2Freferencecenter%2Farticle%2FMammoth-Cave-National-Park%2F50412&ebboatid=9265652. Accessed 29 Jul. 2024. National Park Service. “Early Native Americans.” Mammoth Cave. https://www.nps.gov/maca/learn/historyculture/native-americans.htm National Park Service. “Floyd Collins.” Mammoth Cave National Park. https://www.nps.gov/people/floyd-collins.htm National Park Service. “George Morrison.” Mammoth Cave National Park. https://www.nps.gov/people/george-morrison.htm National Park Service. “Prehistoric Cave Discoveries.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/prehistoric-cave-discoveries.htm National Park Service. “Stephen Bishop.” Mammoth Cave National Park. https://www.nps.gov/people/stephen-bishop.htm National Park Service. “The Kentucky Cave Wars.” Mammoth Cave National Park. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-kentucky-cave-wars.htm National Park Service. “Tragedy at Sand Cave.” Mammoth Cave National Park. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/tragedy-at-sand-cave.htm Ohlson, Kristin. “The Bransfords of Mammoth Cave.” American Legacy. Spring 2006. https://www.kristinohlson.com/files/mammoth_cave-2.pdf Schmitzer, Jeanne Cannella. “CCC Camp 510: Black Participation in the Creation of Mammoth Cave National Park.” The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society , Autumn 1995, Vol. 93, No. 4 (Autumn 1995). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23383772 Sides, Stanley D. and Harold Meloy. “The Pursuit of Health in the Mammoth Cave.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine , JULY-AUGUST 1971, Vol. 45, No. 4 (JULY AUGUST 1971). https://www.jstor.org/stable/44450082 Tabler, Dave. “The Kentucky Cave Wars.” Appalachian History. 4/19/2017. https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2017/04/kentucky-cave-wars.html Trowbridge, John. “The Kentucky National Guard and the William Floyd Collins Tragedy at Sand Cave.” 2/10/2021. Kentucky National Guard. https://ky.ng.mil/News/Article/2648067/the-kentucky-national-guard-and-the-william-floyd-collins-tragedy-at-sand-cave/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The state posted its biggest year ever for visitor spending, but some travel habits have shifted since 2020.

Sports tourism is a recession-proof, $14 billion industry that's attracting significant private equity and capital investment. Jason Clement breaks down the various revenue streams, from player registration and retail to lodging and food & beverage, that make youth and amateur sports complexes so lucrative for municipalities and private developers alike.

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your hosts are Paul Marden and Oz Austwick.Fill in the Rubber Cheese 2024 Visitor Attraction Website Survey - the annual benchmark statistics for the attractions sector.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcast.Competition ends on 21st August 2024. The winner will be contacted via Twitter. Show references: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenpriestnall/https://linktr.ee/oomphincStephen Priestnall founded oomph, now an accredited B Corp, in 2005, acquired Decision Juice in 2009 and is globally recognised as a specialist in CX driven transformation projects and digital innovation. He has advised at a senior level across public and private sector organisations in the UK, Americas, Asia and the Middle East and is an instigator of international research studies into behaviour change. He is a Board Trustee with Aneurin Leisure Trust, advising on CX and communications strategy and a founding Director at Wellbeing Economy Cymru, part of the global Wellbeing Economy Alliance, advocating for a new approach to economic sustainability for people and planet. Transcription:  Paul Marden: Welcome to Skip the Queue, a podcast for people working in and working with Mister attractions. I'm your host, Paul Marden. On today's episode, I speak to Stephen Priestnall, the CEO of oomph, a CX focused agency based in the UK and UAE who help clients to understand people and design better experiences. We're going to go back to first principles and understand what customer experience is all about and understand what attractions can do better to serve the needs of their customers. Paul Marden: Hello, Oz. Oz Austwick: Hi, Paul. So this is the last episode of Season 5, right? Paul Marden: Yes, that is right. Can you believe after we took the reigns from. From young Ms. Molson not too long ago, that we would actually make it to the end of the season? Oz Austwick: Do you know, it's crazy, isn't it? I mean, five seasons of a podcast. Most podcasts don't get through to the end of one season. And I can remember listening to this podcast years ago and actually sending people links as an example of what a good podcast is. And now here we are, you and I, at the end of Season 5. It's crazy.. Paul Marden: Yay. Guardians of this little baby. Oz Austwick: Yeah. Yeah, no pressure. So today's quite an interesting one, right? Paul Marden: Yeah. I've got a guest who has been a friend of mine for some time, Stephen Priestnall of Oomph agency. And we're going to talk a little bit about customer experience. So nice little chat between Stephen and I, and then you and I will come together in a little while and talk a little bit about. Let's reminisce about season five and talk a little bit about what might happen in Season 6. Oz Austwick: Awesome. Great. I'm looking forward to it. Paul Marden: Let's get on with it then. Welcome to podcast, Stephen. Stephen Priestnall: Nice to be here, Paul. Thanks for inviting me. Paul Marden: Good to have you on. Longtime listeners will know that we always start the podcast with some icebreaker questions, which hopefully not too challenging, but we get to know you a little bit better before we start talking about work. So both of my icebreakers are all about visiting attractions this time. So how organised are you in advance? If you go to an attraction, do you take a picnic with you, or are you always partaking of a cup of tea and a slice of cake in the coffee shop? Stephen Priestnall: I think it would have to be a particularly kind of informal attraction for me to have thought about taking a picnic beforehand. So normally it's just the anticipation of going to the place, and then I'll utilise the services in the place. Paul Marden: I love a good slice of cake in the coffee shop afterwards. Scone, cream, tea and scone that would be me. Stephen Priestnall: No way. Maybe a bit of our breath or fruitcake. It's probably more me. Paul Marden: Oh, lovely. I was at the Roman Baths yesterday with my little girl and we had a lovely wander around and they had a brilliant self guided tour. So if you've got a choice, do you go for a self guided tour? Do you wander around and follow your nose? Or would you rather have a guide take you around and tell you the stories? Stephen Priestnall: I almost never have a guide to take me around. And then sometimes I even find the self guided tours a little bit invasive. If I'm in a different country where there is kind of a language barrier, a filter, then I might use it then. But you know what? I kind of like that the ability just to bump from one bit to another. Paul Marden: Yeah. Stephen Priestnall: And experience the experience through my own kind of filter. So that's what I would normally do. I haven't been able to wander around with the headphones on, almost never with a guy. Paul Marden: Yeah, they had a lovely one at the Roman Baths yesterday. So it had both adult interpretation and kids interpretation, and I found myself switching to the kids one so that I was experiencing what Millie was experiencing, because I was saying to her, “Oh, did they tell you what that was?” “Oh, no, that wasn't in the kids version.” So I swapped the kids one and it brought it to life. It was really. It became much more shared experience for us. Stephen Priestnall: Yeah, well, that's like that's like the horrible history stuff. Yeah. But actually, it's brilliant. Rattles that was what they were on about in the tudor period, then. I didn't get it until now. Paul Marden: Yeah, look, listeners, Stephen and I have known each other for quite some time. We've been working together a lot on different projects, and his agency, Oomph, does a lot of work in customer experience. And so today's episode is going to be a little bit more about a primer on what do we mean by customer experience? And really, what I'd like to get to the bottom of today is what can attractioners do better to serve the needs of their customers. Yeah. So, really, Stephen, what I want to do is pick your brains. Let's introduce this whole subject of CX and customer experience and help people to better understand a little bit about what does that mean and how can they bring that into their day to day work in running attractions and meeting customers. Paul Marden: So, before we start that, why don't you tell us a little bit more about you and a little bit more about Oomph. So that listeners can better understand the context. Stephen Priestnall: Yeah, thanks, Paul. We've positioned ourselves around the concept of customer experience for about ten years now, and customer experience ten years ago was a bit of an oddball place to be. It kind of grew out of the user experience, the UX world, with a little bit of event management thrown into it and a little bit of actually, you need to think about people in the middle of all of this. And we come from a background of combining digital and data quite successfully to kind of help devise communications campaigns, kind of brand engagements, that kind of thing. And what we could see was if you brought all these things together as data was getting more sophisticated, with digital interactions on the rise, that you could get yourself much more informed about the way in which people's customers were actually behaving. Stephen Priestnall: And not so much what they were actually how they were behaving, but also what their needs were that drove the behaviours. And so we have, we've grounded our work and customer experience around a very clear desire to understand the needs of our clients' customers, and then to hold that mirror up for our clients and say, “Look, I know you have these products and services to sell and to engage with, but what we're going to do is a job of letting you know at the point of engagement they're hitting your customers needs in this way. And if you then flip the lens around from the customer need first rather than the product or service first, you might determine a different way of building that service or designing that interaction, or maybe even changing the way in which you invite customers into a journey with you.”Stephen Priestnall: So a lot of data and digital inside are our space port that inform CX. And then in the last couple of years, AI has been another transformative technology that we've started to utilise. And we know we treat it as good AI. We know there's bad AI out there, but the good AI is really helpful. Paul Marden: That's really interesting. We know from the Rubber Cheese Survey this year that most attractions have dabbled. They've played with ChatGPT, or something like that. But there's still a large portion of attractions that have done nothing with AI. And then there's a couple that I would consider at the leading edge. So they're doing things beyond GPT. They're looking at AI enabled CRM or AI enabled workforce management solutions.Paul Marden:  So there's some interest in here, but it's definitely, there's a conversation that we've had on the podcast just recently with Oz and I talking about the idea that we can't quite figure out if we're in a bubble because a lot of people that we talk to talk a lot of good game about AI, but when we're talking to the businesses, the clients, they're only just getting into this in the most shallow way. Agencies like yours and ours are kind of. We're leading the conversation on this, I think. Stephen Priestnall: Well, I think it's really interesting you frame it like that, because one of the things that has informed our approach to CX is the idea of understanding behaviour change, which is a science in itself. So if any listeners are familiar with behaviour change, you'll know how long the tail of kind of investigation evaluation that is. We launched a study in 2020 which ended up over three years and three waves, 10,000 respondents looking at the impact of Covid-19 on people's behaviour and their interaction with organisations. That is part of our research centre which we call tide of events, which is now about to launch another study which is going to be looking at the impact of AI. Paul Marden: Oh really? Stephen Priestnall: As employees, as citizens, as customers, as service users, as members, as supporters. I'm expecting some very interesting things to come out of that study as well. Paul Marden: Yeah, very interesting. So there's this idea of kind of CX thinking and embedding that, embedding it the heart of your agency, but you then helping your clients to embed it into the business. So how can CX thinking help an attraction to improve its offering? And I think if we can look at that in two directions, because obviously most visitor attractions are an in person experience, there's lots of thinking around their interaction and the experience that they feel when they're in the attraction itself. But there's a lot of us looking at either side of that interaction. How do we use marketing to get more people to want to do stuff? And then how do we make sure that they got the best experience after they did and reengage with us. How can CX thinking offline and online help an attraction? Stephen Priestnall: The principles of customer experience thinking, certainly from our perspective, is to deal with the reality of that there are people involved. And I think you and I both know, Paul, in the digital world it's kind of quite easy to forget as a person we spend a lot of time in front of technology, trying to get technology to do stuff that we think is helpful. And then it's easy to lose sight of the goal, which is to help a person achieve a task or do something which they have, they enjoy doing. I think in the world of attractions, destinations, then when you're in a kind of physical world, that you're sat in that environment designing something, and you're a physical person yourself. Stephen Priestnall: And as a designer, looking in that environment, feeling that, okay, well, if I walk from here to here, it's going to feel like that. If I put this in the wrong place, if my member of staff is trained in the wrong way and uses the wrong language, that's going to have a direct impact. So you kind of get brought back to the people side of it quite a lot when you're in it in person. So I would say that the world of CX thinking is about bringing the importance of the human into the overall experience. So you don't treat the digital experience with kind of it in a different frame set than you treat the in real life, in person experience. Stephen Priestnall: And that's quite hard to do, because sometimes you're trying to drive the digital experiences as a kind of conversion funnel to get people to do something and buy something or consume some content. And you can kind of get hung up on the word optimisation and funnel management, and you then get drawn into, how can we push people through to the next phase? And push people through to the next phase? And imagine if you're in an attraction, and yeah, you might make certain parts, physical areas, a place where you would want people to go to, but you wouldn't have somebody walking up and nudging them in the back, pushing them down the aisle and stopping them from turning around and staying in one place. Paul Marden: Yeah. Stephen Priestnall: And yet, that's often what happens in the digital world. It becomes an optimisation process to kind of channel a particular behavior that we think is optimal for the organisation. So the world of CX stands back from that, identifies the needs that were satisfying, and looks at Paul and Stephen as two individuals who are unique as individuals, and can be defined by a set of age, gender, sociological, economic characteristics. But actually, Paul and I might have five or six relevant needs for the attraction of which two are consistent. And, you know, two or three are completely different. So we can't treat Paul as Paul and Stephen as Stephen. We have to understand the relationship between the needs that we have as individuals and the thing that we're doing, or the point of the point on the journey we're on. Stephen Priestnall: And I think that's tricky to kind of link the digital and the in real life worlds together. But that's the trick I like to think the kind of CX approach would bring. Paul Marden: Yeah. Just as you're saying that it can be hard to think about the person. But also many of the attractions that we work with have very different offerings. And so consequently they have very different audiences that have very different needs. And, you know, are you trying to serve online an audience that's never going to attend? How do you serve those people's needs? If you've got an educational remit, how do you serve those people's needs whilst at the same time serving the needs of the people that you want to bring in and spend money on site with you? If you're a historic house that also has a golf course and it has a hotel and it has some sort of kids attraction associated with it, there's so many different audiences. Paul Marden: So that kind of CX thinking can help you to step back. Stephen Priestnall: Absolutely. And actually just maybe think of a great triangulation process between three different clients that we've been working with recently that show that kind of breadth of differences. So we work with the saudi arabian government on a new, one of their giga projects on a new destination out in the desert near Rhea called Duria. And that is an amazing set of destination components. Golf courses, equestrian centres, hotels, business centres. And that's creating a destination for a country which has never had any tourism in it before. So with a whole bunch of high net worth individuals that you've got to think about, then also a challenge to get people who live in Saudi to not spend the $90 billion a year that they do going to visit the rest of the world and to actually visit somewhere in Saudi. Stephen Priestnall: So we've had a set of kind of challenges around how do you drive a customer journey, a visitor journey for that. And we've been working with an organisation called Marketing Manchester, helping them devise a new segmentation so they can, I'm going to use the term, attract the right kind of visitors to go to Manchester to hook in with their sustainability strategy. They don't just want people in the shopping malls and going to the football, sports events or shows, albeit they would like that. They also want to understand the community engagement, the cultural engagement and the environmental footprint that they leave behind. And then we're just in conversations with North York Moore's National Park. And then there's a whole different set of conversations about engagement with the local community, communities, a little bit arms folded about tourists. How do you make that come together? Stephen Priestnall: And all of this is about people and it's about understanding people's relationship with people and things. Paul Marden: Brilliant. So let's have a little think about given that those are the ideas behind CX thinking. If you were starting out down this road, what are the simple things that people can do to start to bed the customer at the heart of their thinking as they're planning their services? And I'm thinking in terms of, we've got very different types of attractions in this country, very small, up to, you know, big international attractions. Let's pick the small guys. Yeah. Imagine you're running a small town museum and, you know, you've got a handful of people working in the team. How can you start to embed the customer into your thinking to improve the service? Stephen Priestnall: So I think, I don't think the principles change with scale. I think that the executional methods will change with scale, but the principles. And you can have, you know, if you've got a small team of three or four people, you can have these three or four people working together in a room. You can support a research or not, if you can afford the research that great. If you can't, then you use. So we use a term called foundational intelligence. So before we start any research with a client which might go and look at their customers or prospective customers or visitors.Stephen Priestnall: We say, “Right, let's go all of the information in your organisation on the surface, first, because there's however many people around the room's years of experience, which is not necessarily formed in a cx way, but if we get that on the table, we've probably got a 60, 70, 80% starting point for what we're going to need to know in the end. I think that's the first thing I would say, is take confidence in the fact you've got some foundational intelligence about customer experience. But there might be a clever way of bringing that out through a little workshop. So you ask the right questions of each other. And one of the ways which I think is useful to do and quite practical is to think about three different ways of looking at people as individuals. Stephen Priestnall: So think about themselves as a, you know, a standard attribute based, if you like, cohort or segments, you know, age, demography, all those things that we talked about, but then move those to one side and then ask a relatively straightforward question, what needs are being satisfied by your services? So it's kind of, what's the point of what you do? Yeah, well, harsh question. Paul Marden: Yeah. Stephen Priestnall: But it's devoid from, if you like, knowing your customers at that point, devoid from any transaction based evaluation or business case to say, what's the point of what we do? Why do people turn up and then be quite hard about answering those questions. And when you get the first answer in your head, which is based on what you've always thought you've always done, just go right. Is that really why people turn up? Paul Marden: Is that right? Stephen Priestnall: Really why people walk through the door? Is that really why people tell their friends about us? Paul Marden: There's a little bit of lean thinking there, isn't there? You've got five whys, haven't you? You could go, but why? But why? But why? Just to keep pushing yourself to think that hard thought. Stephen Priestnall: Exactly. Whatever, you know, whatever little mental games you want to play with it, that's the kind of point. What's the point? And then the next lens to look at it is the journey your visitors are on in order to not just get to your destination, but get out of your destination and be reflecting on it to their I, peers, friends, colleagues, family. And that journey doesn't mean I book a ticket, I turn up, I walk around the attraction and then I go home. It means what are the component parts of that journey when they're in planning more just you asked me earlier on about whether I plan a picnic. What are they planning? How likely are they to plan? Do they not want to plan? Do they just want to turn up? Stephen Priestnall: You know, when they're getting to, when they're coming, when they're traveling to the destination, how are they traveling? What's their preferred method of travel? And then what are the different ways in which people engage with the attraction itself? And then what happens afterwards when they walk out? Do they walk out and go for a beer? Forget about it. Did they do that thing you do in a golf club where you spend the next 3 hours talking about what you did for the last 3 hours? And what's the version of that could be done in social media afterwards? And again, do that. Do that without necessarily worrying too much about who does what. So you end up these kind of journey components. Stephen Priestnall: Now all these things can be really heavily researched if you've got resources and the time to do that, but you can do it in a room with three or four people in 2 or 3 hours. And what you'll end up with is a set of right. The people who visit us look a bit like this. Typically, here's five or six types of people, here's a pool type, here's a Steven type, here's a whoever else type of. We've got ten or eleven needs. Well, who knew we had ten or eleven needs? That were satisfying. Paul Marden: Yeah. Stephen Priestnall: So you write those down. Oh, look, we got a journey which looks like planning, engagement, reflection. And I use those three terms because we use them all the time because they're nice and easy to get your head around. Planning, engagement, reflection, and within engagement here are all the different bits that are happening in engagement here. At the different bits that, all right, we might have a dozen, maybe even two dozen components underneath those kind of three big things. And you've then got a bit of a jigsaw. And it's also objective at that point as well. You've then got this objective jigsaw to say, which of those five or six groups of people have which of those needs do we think you might end up with that funny place where. Stephen Priestnall: Oh, actually that cohort doesn't have any of those needs, so we think they really like coming to us, but we're not doing anything to satisfy their needs or this other group that we don't get many of. Look how many needs we're satisfying in that group. Maybe we should be targeting that group. Paul Marden: Yeah. Stephen Priestnall: So whether you're. Whether you go outwards and change your segmentation, your targeting, or whether you come in with and change your service design, you've already got some things to think about. And then when you map the journey on top of that, and again, you know, nice. It could be a done on paper, it could be done. There's loads of tools online you can do this without getting too scientific. You've then got the points at which, all right, so if that need is being satisfied for those people at that point, we now have a design intervention to work out. So we now have, essentially, we have a brief, we have a specification now that might be a piece of digital interaction, it might be a piece of communications design, it might be a piece of signage in the attraction, it might be a follow up social media nudge. Stephen Priestnall: You're then not inventing what you think it is that you need to do for your attraction. We use a phrase which I think clients are pretty comfortable with in the end because it. It's a real reflection. It's completely normal for organisations to kind of end up with an inside and view of the world. Everything is all about the product and the service because that's where the investment goes, that's where the thinking goes. And what we try and do is just to persuade people to take an outside in view. So actually look at this from the point of view of the customer. And I think what the exercise I've just described does is help you take that outside in view. Paul Marden: I'm smiling for those listening. I'm smiling because I just, it reminds me of so many times where I can, you know, I can see observing in the projects that we do or just, you know, interacting with the outside world, where you can tell that people often take a very parochial internal view and they'll communicate with the outside world in their own internal language. They will try and, you know, influence people to do things rather than thinking, how does this appear outside? Stephen Priestnall: Yeah, and it's, it, but it's also, it's not a critique. It's normalised behaviour. If you just think about how organisations grow, you end up with an idea, you know, where often it is about the customers. You've got this entrepreneurial, innovative spark that kicks the idea off, satisfying the needs. And then you build up a bunch of teams who, by definition, have broken out into departments with different roles and responsibilities. And then, and then the sense of self of the people in those teams is derived from the departmental responsibility. Paul Marden: Yes. Stephen Priestnall: But as a consequence, you then are trained, naturally trained to be inside out. Paul Marden: Yeah. Stephen Priestnall: And so, it's normal. And then when that, then when the salesperson comes back and says, “Why did you build it like that?” You know, the designer, the product person says, “Well, because that's the best way of doing this thing.” And the salesperson says, “I can't sell that.” And that actually, and I don't know how much. In your podcast, Paul, you talked about agile, but this is when the concept of squads really can work. I think that you have to take real care with squads because they can end up creating rooms of people who don't understand each other. I think unless there's one other thing I would say about the human part of CX, you have to take this into the culture of the organisation as well. So you asked me earlier, how do you present a CX focus for an organisation? Stephen Priestnall: Well, you can't just drop the results of that little workshop on top of everybody, because it's the going through the process of looking at those three lenses that puts you in a different mindset. If you then just end up telling the product people or telling the sales people or telling the ops people, can you do it like this now? They'll just add that onto their list of things to do. It won't be a change. Paul Marden: But when you bring those people into the conversation, I think it brings a different perspective, doesn't it? And I think that's the one thing I've learned from you in the few years that we've known one another is that when you boil it down, everything is a CX project. And I don't think I ever really thought about that. That there can be something which to me seems so navel gazing, internally focused as a technical project to deliver in the business. But actually, when you think, when you apply the rigor of thinking about the client, the customer, then you find that it is a CX driven project, even if it is completely internally facing. It can be about the communication between two teams, but in the end, because they don't have good communication, it's resulting in this poor customer experience over here. Paul Marden: So when you think about it hard, then these projects have a CX focus, even when they are very kind of internally facing.Stephen Priestnall: And it's sometimes difficult. I mean, I think that's a really good articulation of it. It sometimes can be a challenge to make that process seem worthwhile, because what you end up doing is spending more time challenging what you think is right at the beginning of the process. And there's always a desire from somewhere to move things on. I think that there's a little value based model that I always apply in my head, which if we treat this kind of CX phase as the planning phase, and then you go through a design phase, then you go through a build phase. For every extra hour you spend in planning, without spending that, you would spend ten more hours in design and a hundred more hours in production. So if you leave that hour aside, you're going to have a tenfold in design phase. Stephen Priestnall: And if you don't deal with it in design phase, you'll have it 100 fold, then build phase. But choosing to do that extra hour, which is tension filled, it might be a bit of conflict, there might be a bit of defensiveness. It needs to be carefully managed and kind of cajoled, but the value of it is meant. Paul Marden: Yeah. So you've described this kind of approach to take, identifying who the customers are, trying to use a little bit of intuition to be all science if you've got the budget to go and do the research, but to understand those customers in more detail and what their needs are, and then driving down and finding out where, you know, the journey maps onto that and where the gaps are and starting to look to fill those gaps. Is there room in the world for a dirty bottom up approach where you can see a problem already and you want to address that problem? Can you attack this from both angles or do you need to start from a top down approach? Stephen Priestnall: I'm an arch pragmatist and if we know there's a problem to solve and it's screaming for a solution, then that's going to solve the problem. I would only cancel that try and stand back and look at the unintended consequences through a very objective lens. You don't need to spend long doing that. But I think the magnetism of solving a problem that's been a longstanding problem can also act as a set of blinkers. So that's the only thing I would say. Paul Marden: Yeah, you can be distracted by the screaming problem that turns out not to be the real root cause. If you take the bigger picture of you. Stephen Priestnall: If we got this horrendous problem just before checkout, whether that's a digital or at the attraction itself and queuing up going on, you know, there's a need to solve that through a piece of technology or extra stuff on the tills. But actually, it turns out that there's a funneling process going on in the start of the process that's causing everybody to end up at the checker at the same time. And that can be solved by a different distribution of products in the attraction itself, or bringing in some different content to inform people in the digital journey. That means they don't have to do task X and Y because they now know about it. You know, we've all had that before, which it looks like people can't get through this bit of the funnel. Let's try and make this bit of the funnel easier. Stephen Priestnall: Let's try and do more things. More buttons, more. Let's just try and make it easier. But actually, it turns out, if only we'd given that visitor to the digital journey more time to consume content and not push them through the first stage of the transaction process so quickly, they would have entered the second stage much better informed and relaxed about completing the overall thing. Paul Marden: It's just such a challenge, isn't it? Because I can just feel me even now with our fictitious scenario, all I want to do is squeeze them down the funnel. But you have to focus at the end about getting the right outcome, don't you? Stephen Priestnall:  There's another great metaphor I like to use, and we do this all the time because we talk about something called sustainable customer experience. And sustainable customer experience strategy isn't about a green CX strategy. It's about saying, if you get your CX strategy right, you will have to spend less money on acquiring new customers, so it's more economically sustainable and there's a really interesting kind of just different way of looking at it. So normally if you look at the typical retail conversion process, if you get 100 people on the top of a digital funnel, you might get five out the end as a conversion there's usually really simple numbers, five. So everybody works on how do we make five six? That's the big thing because that's like 20% improvement. If you get five to six, we've just put 20% on the bottom line. Stephen Priestnall: Meanwhile there's 95 people. Do you care? Are you interested? I came here for a reason and you don't like me anymore, so. Well, goodbye then. So what we do is we say, right, we want to put as much effort into understanding the 94. It's not wasted effort. I'm a pragmatist, as we do making the five six, because if out of that 94 we can get another 20 over the next twelve months to do the same thing. We've not spent any money on customer acquisition. We've built and engaged in a relationship. We've had opportunities to talk and engage them, which probably means they're going and talking to other people and checking about the experience. So they're probably doing some recruitment for us anyway, which we can also nudge behaviour. Stephen Priestnall: And then what that does, it changes the mentality inside the organisation to not just think about, we've got six out the other end. Yes. Celebrate. And actually think about. Because imagine if you did that physically. Imagine if physically you could see the hundred people in a queue and everybody went off celebrating the 6th that went through. And then you look back and you looked at these 94 people just milling around having a chat with each other and what just happened. Paul Marden: Yeah, that would feel pretty uncomfortable, wouldn't it? Stephen Priestnall: It will. Especially for an attraction. Paul Marden: Yeah, for sure. Look, this has been brilliant. It's nice. I think sometimes to take a step back and look at that kind of the 101 class, the intro to the subject. And I think this is a subject that we will come back to again and again. We've talked about taking it back to its first principles a little bit today, but this is embedded within the attraction sector. They know and understand the people that come through the door. This is something that they take really seriously, obviously. But I think there are ways in which we can take what we've learned today and use that as a springboard into some more deeper conversations. Paul Marden: Maybe in Season 6, which is coming up where we can talk a little bit more about, you know, your conversations about AI, the direction that you take these things in. How does AI help you in a world where you want to be cx centric? What does AI do for you? So thank you ever so much. This has been brilliant. Thank you. Stephen Priestnall: Really enjoyed it. Paul Marden: One last ask of you, though. We always ask our interviewees to come up with a book recommendation. And it can be fiction, it can be factual, it can be about the subject. But we will give this book away to the first person that retweets the show advert and says, I want Stephen's book. So what is the book that you'd like to share with the world? Stephen Priestnall: Well, so I'd love to say it was. It was a book I wrote in 1986 on expert systems in context. I was doing AI back in the 80's. That one is out of print. You definitely will get hold of it. Instead, it's a book that I think challenges, whatever your persuasions about understanding of the environment and climate, challenges your way of thinking about. It's a book by an activist called George Monbiot, and it's called Feral. And it's to do with the rewilding of Britain, the potential for rewilding Britain. And again, whether you're minded to think that's a good thing or not, it's a great book to just think, okay, that's my perceptions challenge. I hadn't thought of things like that. Paul Marden: Excellent. So, listeners, if you'd like to get a copy of Stephen's book, then head over to X, find the show tweet that we put out and say, I want Stephen's book. And the first person to do that will get a copy. Stephen, this has been wonderful. Thank you all so much. And hopefully we will talk more about this in Season 6. Stephen Priestnall: Thank you very much, Paul. Oz Austwick: He's a really interesting guy, isn't he? Paul Marden: He is indeed. I said to Stephen afterwards, it was such a nice conversation because we've been working together for years, and today I got to ask the questions I've been too embarrassed to ask for the last few years because I really should, at this point, know the answers to them. But today I was able to take the place of the listener and ask those questions without fear of embarrassment. Oz Austwick: Yeah, there does come a point where you kind of feel that you probably shouldn't be asking this question anymore. You should already know this. Yeah, I love that. I thought, it's really interesting. I love this concept of nudging that he talked about, and it's something I've been aware of online for years, but the kind of putting it in the context of happening in the real world, I thought was really interesting. It gives you a bit of insight into how weird it is that we try and force people into certain pathways online. When you'd never dream of doing that in the real world, just having somebody outside a room just pushing you into it. Yeah, you wouldn't do that. Paul Marden: You're in a queue for the log flume and you get poked in the back to say, “Do you want to buy your photo? Do you want to buy your photo? You really do want to buy the photo, don't you?”Oz Austwick: Well, I mean, that does kind of happen, doesn't it? It's usually my children that are doing it, if I'm being honest. But, yeah, really interesting stuff. Paul Marden: A nice way to round out some amazing interviews and fireside chats that we've had over Season 5 and look forward to Season 6. Oz Austwick: Yeah, I'm really excited about Season 6. Paul Marden: Yeah, we want to do something a little bit different, don't we? Oz Austwick: Yeah, well, I mean, firstly, I'll get to start the season of the podcast. Because I wasn't here at the start of Season 5. I've kind of just weaseled my way in halfway through the season and gone, “Yes, mine now.” Paul Marden: Tell listeners, what is it that we want to do differently? Oz Austwick: Well, it feels a bit weird to me that we're creating a podcast all about the visitor attraction sector, which is designed to get people out of their houses to a place and actually experience it in the real world. And yet you're sitting in exactly the same room, and I'm sitting in exactly the same room. And as we pointed out not long ago, I'm wearing the same t shirt as I seem. This appears to be my podcast t shirt. And yet, you know, we're not getting out. So we're gonna get out. We're gonna get in a car and go to a place and record a podcast in an attraction with a person. And I think that's amazing. Paul Marden: Yeah, I just can't wait. We've got a couple lined up. One's crazy, one's going to be a big event. It could be really fun, but we love listeners with attractions who would like two blokes and some cameras to turn up to invite us along. We would love to come and visit your venue. We would love to talk about whatever subject it is that you think our listeners would like to discuss, and we'll come along and we'll record it in real life at your place and see how amazing your venue is and talk more about the stuff that everybody's interested in. Oz Austwick: Absolutely. But it's not just that we're going to do a little bit differently, is it? We're kind of focusing a little bit more on different groups. Paul Marden: Yeah. There was some lovely feedback for those, for listeners that listened to Kelly's final episode, her swan song. When Ross from Drayton Manor came on and talked about his experience of being on the podcast and how influential it was for him to have his 15 minutes of fame for Skip the Queue, and how important that was to him in his stage, in his career, that prompted us to think about, can we use this platform now that so many people before us built to help to shine a light on new and emerging talent in the sector? So if you are in early stages of your career and you are doing something interesting in the attraction space, could be digital, it could be something customer focused in real life. Paul Marden: There's so many different ways where we could have an interesting conversation about what it is that you do and why other people would find it interesting. You know, invite us in. We would love to have that conversation with people. If you know someone, if there's someone in your team who, you know, you can see is doing amazing things and could grow in their career with the spotlight shone on them, and there's lots of people like that, then point them in our direction. Point us in their direction. We can definitely do something to help them to share their story and hopefully to benefit from that springboard, that stepping outside and talking to the outside world about what you do can really have on a career. Oz Austwick: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's lovely that hopefully now, after five seasons, the podcasts kind of mature enough that we don't need to lean on those famous, influential people in the industry quite as much. And hopefully that maybe we've got enough loyal listeners and enough of us standing as a podcast that we can tell stories just because they're interesting. Yeah, you already know the name of the person we're talking to, so, yeah, that's going to be really exciting. Paul Marden: But, you know, there are stories to be told that we don't know about yet that I'm sure will be going on inside listeners minds and, you know, hit us up, send us an email, send us a tweet, an X. I don't know what. I don't know. That's another story, isn't it? But send us a message by carrier Pigeon, if you can, that tells us what you think we should be talking about, the people we should be meeting and the stories that should be told. We would love to hear from you. Oz Austwick: Yeah, and in the meantime, enjoy your two or three weeks without Skip the Queue. Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. Hopefully you're all busy working in your attractions, being absolutely swamped. If the attractions I've been to are anything to go by, it is a rip roaring success of a summer. We've had some pretty good weather and yeah, we'll be looking back at this September October time thinking what an amazing summer it was after a disappointing start to the year. Oz Austwick: So yeah, well, fingers crossed. Absolutely. Paul Marden: Thank you, Oz. It's been delightful. I've enjoyed every minute of it. Oz Austwick: Yeah, me too. Here's to Season 6. Paul Marden: Yeah, see you on the other side. Paul Marden: Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip The Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, SkiptheQueue.fm. The 2024 Visitor Attraction Website Survey is now LIVE! Help the entire sector:Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsFill in your data now (opens in new tab)

Ang guest natin ngayong gabi ay nagtrabaho sa Tourism Industry at maraming kwento mula Baguio hanggang Mindanao.Salamat uli sa mga kwento at tips Ninong at salamat rin sa pag share nung nakwento mong personal na experience sa aswang.  Sana makatulong rin ito sa ibang naka experience ng kagaya nito.  Kung gusto mong marinig yung episode na na-insert ko sa portion ng kwento ni Ninong, mahahanap ito sa link sa baba:Episode 25: Time Slip, Tikbalang, Atbp - https://open.spotify.com/episode/6isPAfvkHFgEJqDRFbH9uV?si=f63e5cbaa25644b3Ninong waiting nalang kami sa Tour Guide natin ah hehehehe.Kung merong kang mga Tour Experiences na kakaiba sa Pilipinas o kahit sa ibang bansa, baka gusto mo kwento yan, email mo lang sa paranormalsph@gmail.comKung ito ang unang episode na napakinggan mo at nagustuhan mo ang ganitong kwentuhan, baka gusto mo simulan sa:Episode 1 - https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Rqvr9n8ji5XaTpyG7YnQ0?si=6d489e06bb4545d4pwede natin tuloy ang kwentuhan sa  Discord Server ng Par Normal Podcast, click mo lang ang invite link sa babahttps://discord.gg/YWF4BpS4gQ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =   Do you want to support the podcast? You can help keep us going by giving us a cup of joe! ko-fi.com/paranormalpodcast You can also support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/paranormalpodcast We have different tiers for supporters, from the general support to early access, to joining us on the calls way in advance. No pressure, just additional help for us :) The Para Normal Podcast. Engineered and Produced by f90 Productions Rate and Review our show on Spotify, Pocket Casts, and Apple PodcastsEnjoy.

Back in the fall, we told you about an accessibility project at Dalhousie's MacEachen Institute. It was to explore how the tourism industry could better support people with disabilities. Principal investigator Kevin Quigley and participant Tara Niekamp tell us what they've learned. 

 Vietnam's tourism industry is making positive strides, but are the current resources enough for it to reach the heights of Thailand's tourism?

The tourism industry is grappling with the cost of living, with bills rising across the board. Tourism reporter Tess Brunton has more.

San Francisco's tourist industry is a pillar of our economy. With 30,000 hotel rooms, world class cultural activities, and one of America's leading airports, visitors are coming back. The state earned $150 billion in 2023 from tourism. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/james-herlihy/message

"We have to do more things with younger people to make sure they know what a cool industry we are and that there are so many different job opportunities that aren't just front line."  Key Moments 04:35 Tourism Synergy and Collaboration 08:37 Empowering Youth to Make a Positive Impact  14:50 Revitalizing Urban Parks and Workforce Development. 19:03 Building Partnerships for Environmental Conservation 20:26 Historic Site Preservation 23:50 Community Support in the Tourism Industry 28:06 Promoting Career Diversity to Youth Resources www.parkleaders.com https://parkleaders.com/about/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/theparkleaders/ Volunteer Projects to Enhance Tourism The dedication of park professionals is undeniable, espeically when they are all together in one place. At the annual in-service for Michigan State Park, I had the opportunity to meet a number of people doing amazing things, including Patty Janes, a professor and founder of Michigan Cares For Tourism. Her organization brings together tourism experts to revitalize Michigan's historic and cultural park attractions. The more we talk the more clear is becomes that impact of volunteer work on local tourism provides a blueprint for successful community involvement. Volunteerism is a tourism booster. Patty has championed this cause through Michigan Cares For Tourism by organizing volunteer events that tackle the maintenance backlog in state parks. These events, such as an adopt-a-forest program, are vital for park conservation. They also enhance the visitor experience by improving facilities and creating a cleaner environment. The impressive result of these efforts is an estimated $1.2 million in labor and supplies saved for the state. She knew the profound economic impact of volunteer-driven tourism projects, and it is most certainly paying off. Collaboration is the linchpin of success in these community projects. The synergy between Michigan Cares For Tourism and a diverse set of organizations such as Pure Michigan and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has been a key force. These partnerships facilitate initiatives such as the transportation of volunteers via donated motor coaches and the structuring of professional communication. This approach underlines the potential of joint efforts to get sustainable results. All while creating a more vibrant tourism industry. Educating and involving the younger generation in tourism is a must. Patty continuously works with high schoolers and early professionals to bring awareness to career opportunities within the tourism sector. This helps highlight the field's career potential while insprining future stewards of Michigan's natural gems. It also encourages the fresh flow of ideas and innovation, ensuring the longevity of the industry. Make sure to listen to this episode for more of Patty Janes' insights and opportunities.  Whether you're a business professional with an eye for community impact or simply a lover of parks, this episode is full of ideas on the intersection of volunteerism and tourism.   

A majority of people traveling abroad alone these days are women, and demand for women-led tour groups is rising. Stephanie Sy takes a closer look at the reasons why women are drawn to solo travel and how the hospitality industry is taking notice. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Click here to join the member exclusive portion of my show: https://utm.io/ueSEm Today on the Matt Walsh Show, death tourism is a growing industry in the United States. It's as horrifying as it sounds. Also, Biden stumbled and fumbles his way through his State of the Union Address. Much of the speech was difficult to translate from whatever language he was speaking, the rest was full of lies. And Trump accuses DeSantis of being a groomer. All of the Trump's attacks on DeSantis have failed. Will this one be any different? Plus Joy Reid on MSNBC says the Left has achieved total victory in the culture war. Is she right? And if so, does that mean she'll finally stop playing the victim card?- - - DailyWire+:Become a DailyWire+ member for 40% off: https://bit.ly/3JR6n6d Represent the Sweet Baby Gang by shopping my merch here: https://bit.ly/3EbNwyj  - - - Today's Sponsors:PureTalk - Get 50% OFF your first month!Enter promo code: WALSH at http://puretalk.comGenucel - Use code "WALSH" at checkout for additional savings on your entire purchase! https://genucel.com/walsh- - -Socials:Follow on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3Rv1VeF Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3KZC3oA Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3eBKjiA Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RQp4rs  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices