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Field Notes

Field Notes

Written by: Advance Travel and Tourism
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The travel industry is evolving fast—how are you keeping up? Field Notes: Insights and Strategies for the Travel Marketer is your go-to podcast for expert insights, real-world strategies, and candid conversations with the people shaping the future of travel marketing. What You’ll Discover 🚀 Actionable Strategies – Learn from top industry experts, marketing leaders, and travel professionals as they share what’s working now. 🌍 Industry Trends – Stay ahead of emerging trends in digital marketing, destination branding, customer engagement, and more. 🎙️ Exclusive Interviews – Hear the voices behind successful campaigns, innovative tourism strategies, and game-changing marketing approaches. 📈 Real-World Insights – Get firsthand experiences, case studies, and behind-the-scenes knowledge from those who know the travel marketing landscape best.Copyright 2025 All rights reserved. Economics Marketing Marketing & Sales Social Sciences Travel Writing & Commentary
Episodes
  • How to Make Data Actionable for your destination

    How to Make Data Actionable for your destination
    May 5 2026

    Most destinations aren’t short on data—they’re short on decisions.

    In this episode of Field Notes, Eric Hultgren sits down with three operators who live at the intersection of data, strategy, and real-world application: Frida Bahja, Ktimene Axtell, and Josh Gibson.

    The conversation cuts through the noise around “more data” and gets to the harder question: How do you actually turn it into action that changes outcomes?

    You’ll hear:

    • Why most DMOs don’t have a data problem—they have a translation problem
    • The gap between what data vendors promise and what teams can actually use
    • How to move from dashboards to decisions (and why most teams stall in between)
    • What “verified behavior” really means—and why intent signals are shifting fast
    • How Tennessee used data to drive growth in underperforming counties—and what that reveals about scalable strategy
    • Why speed matters more than precision in modern data environments
    • The emerging tension between AI, sustainability, and tourism growth

    And then it pivots.

    Eric reframes the entire conversation through the lens of zero-click search and AI decision-making, where travelers don’t visit your website, but still make decisions about your destination.

    That shift changes everything:

    • What data matters
    • What content gets surfaced
    • And what “visibility” actually means now

    This isn’t a conversation about tools. It’s about how to think differently when the system itself has changed.

    If you're responsible for growth, storytelling, or strategy in travel—this is the episode that forces a reset.
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    54 mins
  • Community First or Nothing Lasts: Nate Wyeth on Regenerative Tourism and Playing the Long Game

    Community First or Nothing Lasts: Nate Wyeth on Regenerative Tourism and Playing the Long Game
    Apr 3 2026
    What if the job of a DMO isn’t to grow tourism… …but to protect the place that makes tourism possible? In this episode, Eric sits down with Nate Wyeth, Chief of Staff at Visit Bend, to unpack a deceptively simple idea: If the community doesn’t benefit, the destination eventually breaks. This is a conversation about regenerative tourism—not as a buzzword, but as an operating system. One that forces harder questions, longer timelines, and better decisions. And it starts with a North Star Nate has been chasing for two decades: How do we grow in a way that actually benefits the people and places we serve? 🧠 The Big Idea Tourism isn’t just an economic engine. It’s a relationship: between visitor and placebetween growth and preservationbetween today and the next 30 years Break that relationship… and you don’t have a destination anymore. 🔑 What You’ll Learn 1. Community isn’t a stakeholder—it’s the starting point Nate’s model is simple: Community firstEverything else follows Because: residents feel the impact firstinfrastructure absorbs the strainecosystems don’t get a vote If you ignore that… you’re borrowing time. 2. The real definition of sustainability It’s not branding. It’s not messaging. It’s literally in the word: Sustain = make it last. That forces a shift from: short-term wins → long-term viability 3. The balancing act every DMO avoids (but shouldn’t) Tourism creates: revenuejobsenergy But also: straincosttension The job isn’t to eliminate one side. It’s to hold both at the same time. 4. The smartest resource allocation analogy you’ll hear Most DMOs: Walk into a casino and drop everything on the first slot machine. Better approach: invest intentionallysplit resources between growth and preservationbuild systems, not spikes 5. Why some communities “get it” faster than others It’s not geography. It’s people. Places like Oregon work because: people show upthey’re willing to have hard conversationsthey choose collaboration over control That’s the unlock. 6. How to build buy-in (even in skeptical markets) You don’t start with: “We need sustainability.” You start with: near-term winsvisible benefitsshared outcomes Then expand the aperture. 7. The “toddler on a sugar high” economy metaphor Right now, tourism feels like: fastreactiveoverstimulated The real question: What happens when the sugar crash hits? Smart DMOs are already planning for that moment. 8. The most underrated discipline: postmortems The industry bias: launch → move on What’s missing: reflectionlearningiteration Nate’s take: If you don’t learn from failure, you’re just repeating it faster. 9. Collaboration isn’t optional—it’s structural Visitors don’t respect boundaries: city → region → state So DMOs can’t either. The Bend model: regional partnerstribal partnersland managersfirst responders Everyone at the table. Because impact doesn’t stay in one place. 💬 Best Lines “If we don’t put our community first, we have no destination worth promoting.”“Sustainability is about what lasts.”“We don’t put shock collars on visitors—they move across regions.” 🎯 Why This Episode Matters If your AI talk is about being found, this conversation is about being worth finding. Most destinations are still optimizing for: trafficbookingsshort-term lift This is about: longevitytrustshared value 🧠 Strategic Takeaway There are really two futures for DMOs: Extractive → maximize visits now → deal with consequences laterRegenerative → balance growth with care → build something that lasts Nate is clearly building the second. 🔧 Immediate Actions If this hits, here’s where to start: Define your “community-first” lensAudit where tourism creates strain (not just revenue)Build one initiative that benefits both visitor and residentBring one new partner to the table you don’t usually include 🔗 Listen & Follow Catch more episodes of Field Notes for grounded conversations with people shaping the future of travel marketing.
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    11 mins
  • AI, Zero-Click, and the New Rules of Travel Discovery

    AI, Zero-Click, and the New Rules of Travel Discovery
    Mar 30 2026

    Fresh off a keynote in Massachusetts, this episode is a live drop of Eric Hultgren’s latest thinking on AI for Travel 2.0

    It starts with a simple story: a traveler who books a trip, adjusts her schedule, and plans her entire experience…without saying a word.

    That’s not the future. That’s now.

    And it leads to a harder question:

    If a traveler never visits your website…did you actually lose?

    🧠 The Big Idea

    We’ve entered a Copernicus moment for marketing.

    Your website is no longer the center of the universe. It’s infrastructure.

    Less important to humans. More important to machines.
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    45 mins
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