Travel Trends with Dan Christian

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Staying connected has become an essential part of modern travel. Whether you're finding your hotel, booking a ride, navigating a new city, or simply letting family know you've arrived safely, reliable mobile data can make the difference between a smooth arrival and a stressful one.
In this Company Spotlight, Dan sits down with Jo Juliana Turnbull, Senior Growth Marketing Manager at Holafly, to explore why eSIMs are quickly becoming a travel essential. Jo explains how eSIMs work in simple, practical terms, from checking if your phone is compatible and knowing when to activate your plan to answering common questions about keeping your existing phone number and how easy the setup process really is.
The conversation also explores what travelers are really looking for when they purchase an eSIM: confidence. From instant connectivity on arrival and unlimited data options to coverage in more than 200 destinations and 24/7 customer support, Jo shares how Holafly is helping remove one of the biggest pain points of international travel.
Beyond the traveler experience, Dan and Jo dive into the business behind one of travel's fastest-growing categories. They discuss how Holafly has built a globally recognized brand through creator-led marketing, why authentic content consistently outperforms traditional advertising, and what changing traveler behavior reveals about our growing reliance on staying connected. They also explore the rise of digital nomads, longer-term travel, and why eSIMs are increasingly being bundled into trips through travel advisors, tour operators, and other travel partners, much like travel insurance has become today.
Learn more at holafly.com.
The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. 
https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/

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A lot of conversations about travel stay focused on the booking process, but the real opportunity begins once travelers arrive. What experiences do they choose? How do they discover them? And how is technology changing the way those bookings happen?
In the second episode of our In-Destination Experiences Series, Dan sits down with Aaron Fessler, Founder and CEO of TripWorks. Drawing on his background in enterprise technology and as the founder of the popular Las Vegas attraction Speed Vegas, Aaron shares a unique perspective on where the tours, activities, and attractions industry is headed.
Together, they explore the consumer trends shaping travel in 2026, from the growing demand for personalized experiences and flexible booking options to why more travelers are planning their activities before they even leave home. Aaron explains why operators need to think beyond simply managing bookings and instead focus on growing revenue through better customer journeys, smarter marketing, and direct bookings.
The conversation also takes a deep dive into distribution, the evolving role of OTAs, and why striking the right balance between third-party channels and direct sales has never been more important. Looking ahead, Dan and Aaron discuss how AI-powered discovery, chat-based trip planning, and agentic commerce could fundamentally reshape how travelers find, book, and experience activities in the years ahead.
Thanks to Pernod Ricard for sponsoring this series!
👉 Listen to How the Best Experience Operators Are Winning More Bookings Now
🔥 Special Thanks to our Season 7 Title Sponsors for their Support: Bokun, Civitatis, Intrepid, Kaptio, Propellic and Protect Group
The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. 
https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/

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We were invited back to Miami for our second year as the Official Podcast Partner of Aviation Festival Americas and this one is special: it's our largest Event Spotlight episode to date, featuring 20+ interviews and over 5 hours of conversations with the incredible speakers, industry leaders and key attendees that came together to discuss the latest trends shaping aviation and airports.

Our host Dan Christian was joined by his son Oliver, who is currently training to become a pilot and was mentioned several times on last year's episode. He had the chance to meet many of those amazing people and some of the most influential leaders in the airline industry while helping manage the recording schedule. A huge thank you to him and everyone who joined us at the booth and made this episode possible.

Across these conversations, you'll get a remarkably complete picture of where the industry is headed. We start off with how global alliances are rethinking the digital experience so travelers can move seamlessly across carriers and why modern airline retailing and NDC are finally reshaping how flights are sold and distributed. You'll hear how airlines are navigating fleet capacity, fuel price pressure, alongside a candid look at what it takes to grow a premium transatlantic brand in the Americas. Our guests also discuss the parts of the journey that still break down in real life - baggage, disruption, interline connections, and multimodal ground links and they share the innovations designed to fix them, from off-airport bag check to AI-powered door-to-door itineraries.

Accessibility emerges as one of the strongest themes of the episode, with leaders explaining why inclusive design at kiosks, websites, and airports isn't just the right thing to do, it's a massive underserved market. And throughout, founders and operators share what they're seeing on the front lines of agentic AI: conversational interfaces and AI concierges, trust and guardrails, the science of passenger wellbeing like jet lag management, sustainability and emissions tracking, and the coming moment when travelers finally let AI handle bookings end to end.

Whether you're an airline executive, a travel tech founder, an investor, or simply trying to understand where the opportunities lie in the next chapter of aviation, these conversations offer a clear signal through the noise: the winners will be the teams who modernize legacy systems, earn traveler trust, and remove friction without losing the human touch.

With so many valuable insights packed into one episode, we've time-stamped every conversation below so you can jump straight to the people and topics you want to hear most. 
Highlights & Timestamps
0m54s – Guido van Til, Vice President, Digital, oneworld 
20m0s – Mickey Beyer-Clausen, Co-Founder & CEO, Timeshifter
37m23s – Tedd Evers, Global Partner Leader, Travel & Hospitality, AWS 
52m15s – Roberto Held, Head of Business Development – Americas, Avion Express 
1hr11m39s – David Hodges, Vice President, Americas, Virgin Atlantic 
1hr27m49s – Emilie Gazeau, CEO & Founder, alltheway 
1hr49m39s – Dr. Yvette Pegues, Co-Founder & CEO, Your Invisible Disability Group (Accessibility Leader) 
2hr11m5s – Ryan Jones, SVP, Global Accessibility Strategy and Advocacy, Vispero
2hr35m38s – Christopher Brown, CEO & Founder, Bonafide 
2hr55m9s – Samar Khan, Founder & Chief Sustainability Officer, TripAI Technologies 
3hr5m56s – Matthew Wade, Co-Founder, Toggle Travel
3hr21m34s – Charles Studt, CMO, delight.ai
3hr42m24s – Chris Russo, Associate Director, Publicis Sapient
4hr1m53s – Judy McMurtry, Founder and CEO, JM Excel Consultant LLC 
4hr14m8s – Chloe Dyett, T7 International Group 
4hr31m56s – Oscar Mejia, Sales Director, North America, JR Technologies 
4hr44m55s – Kaleb Neal, Transportation Systems Analyst, AeroLink Systems & Gregg Langston, CTO, AeroLink Systems 
4hr57m44s – David Pfister, Strategic Alliances Manager, ZS and Judy Pitchford, Worldwide Head of Travel, AWS Travel and Hospitality
The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. 
https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/

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Tour operators aren't just competing on the experiences they sell, they're competing on the experience they deliver behind the scenes. From the moment a traveler books to the moment they leave a review, every interaction matters.
In this Company Spotlight, Dan sits down with Benjamin Sann, Founder & CEO of TourOptima, and Josh Halpern, Chief Commercial Officer, to explore how technology is helping tour operators simplify operations and deliver a better guest experience. They discuss the everyday challenges operators face, from flight delays and last-minute schedule changes to managing guest communications across emails, text messages, OTAs, and multiple internal systems.
Ben and Josh explain how TourOptima brings these moving parts together into a single platform, helping office teams, guides, drivers, and coordinators stay connected while giving travelers timely, personalized communication. They also share how operators are using data and automation to reduce no-shows, improve customer satisfaction, and make day-to-day operations more efficient.
The conversation also explores the growing role of AI in tour operations from smarter customer support and multilingual communication to sentiment analysis and operational insights. Along the way, Ben and Josh explain why the best technology doesn't replace people, it gives them the tools to deliver exceptional service when it matters most.
Learn more at touroptima.com.
The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. 
https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/

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Today's travelers aren't just choosing where to go, they're choosing what they'll experience once they get there. From immersive exhibitions and live music to unique cultural events, in-destination experiences have become one of the biggest drivers of how people choose, remember, and share their travels.
In the first episode of our In-Destination Experiences Series, Dan sits down with Rocío Trujillo, Regional General Manager for Southern Europe at Fever, one of the world's leading platforms for discovering live experiences. Rocío shares how Fever has grown by combining technology, data, and local market expertise to help people discover everything from intimate Candlelight concerts to immersive exhibitions and one-of-a-kind events.
The conversation explores how Fever identifies emerging demand, scales successful experiences around the world while adapting them to local audiences, and uses its Secret Media network to inspire millions of people to discover what's happening in their own cities. Rocío also shares her perspective on the future of experience discovery, including how AI is making recommendations more personalized and how emerging technologies could soon help travelers build complete itineraries in real time.
Whether you work in travel, tourism, or hospitality, this episode offers a fascinating look at why experiences have become one of the industry's most powerful competitive advantages and why they're increasingly the reason people choose a destination in the first place.
Thanks to Pernod Ricard for sponsoring this series!
👉 Listen to How Fever Is Changing the Way We Experience Destinations Now
🔥 Special Thanks to our Season 7 Title Sponsors for their Support: Bokun, Civitatis, Intrepid, Kaptio, Propellic and Protect Group

The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. 
https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/