Travel Trends with Dan Christian

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35+ voices. Seven hours. One extraordinary adventure travel community.
There’s something special about a gathering where old friends greet you with a hug, new connections quickly become friendships, and people genuinely want to help each other succeed. That’s the spirit of the Adventure Travel World Summit, and Quebec City gave us an unforgettable setting for its biggest and best edition yet.
As the official podcast partner, Travel Trends was proud to return for our third ATWS Event Spotlight, recorded September 14–17, 2026. This one breaks a major record for our Event Spotlights: seven hours of conversations featuring more than 35 speakers from across the global adventure travel community, in mostly 15-minute segments you can explore at your own pace.
We kick things off with ATTA CEO Shannon Stowell and Board Chairman Erik Blachford, setting the scene for a remarkable few days. Marie-Hélène Hudon from Bonjour Québec shares the host destination’s perspective, while keynote speakers Leigh Barnes from Intrepid Travel and Aizaz Sheikh bring insights on the industry’s direction.
From there, we meet some of adventure travel’s fastest-growing tour operators, exceptional cycling companies, writers, destination leaders, and the technology and marketing teams helping these businesses thrive. These conversations bring together people building businesses, creating meaningful experiences and working through the challenges facing our industry. They share the trends they’re watching, lessons from their own journeys, and ideas to help you prepare for success in 2027.
Along the way, we reflect on what made Quebec so magical. From the Pre-Summit Adventures to the Day of Adventure, the shared experiences gave people a chance to connect long before they sat down for a meeting. That generosity, curiosity and love of adventure carried through the entire Summit. It’s what makes the ATTA community so special, and why so many of us keep coming back.
We close with ATTA President Gustavo Timo looking ahead to 2027, followed by Magí Castelltort Claramunt of Turespaña announcing next year’s host destination: Almería in Andalucía, Spain.
A heartfelt thank you to the ATTA team, our hosts in Quebec, and everyone who sat down with us and shared their time, stories and ideas. We hope these conversations bring a little of the Summit’s energy to wherever you’re listening, spark something useful for your business, and inspire you to join this incredible community next year.
Choose a conversation, discover someone new, and come along for the adventure. We’d love to see you in Spain!
Timestamps:
0m0s - Shannon Stowell, CEO, Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) & Erik Blachford, Independent Director & Board Chairman | ex-CEO Expedia/IAC Travel 
18m48s - Marie-Helene Hudon, Director of Business Development, Trade & PR, Alliance de l'industrie touristique du Québec (Bonjour Quebec)
28m42s - Kimberly Daley, Chief Operating Officer, Transcend Cruises
40m47s - Rodrigo Atuesta, Chief Impact Officer, Impulse Travel Colombia
52m33s - Nina Kokotas Hahn, Chief Strategist, VP of Marketing & Director of Content Strategy, Red Thread Strategy & Storytelling
1hr6m - Aizaz Sheikh, Marketing Leader, Aizaz Ventures Inc
1hr16m - Marcelo Meneses, Owner/CEO, Neotropic Expeditions
1hr32m - Jessica Canelo, Marketing Director, Chile Tourism Board
1hr44m - Rob Holmes, Founder and Chief Strategist, GLP Films
2hr1m - Matthew Newton, CEO, Leatherback Travel
2hr10m - Kay Allen, Manager Regional Marketing & Communications, Japan National Tourism Organization 
2hr27m - Leigh Barnes, President North America, Intrepid
2hr55m - Christian Wolters, President for Canada and GM of Marketing for North America, Intrepid 
3hr09m - Jessica Haire, Founder Grande Prairie Regional Tourism Association 
3hr21m - Stacey Funt, Founder, LH Adventure Travel 
3hr32m - Isabel Hofman, Founder, Bike Odyssey
3hr44m - Carlos Pizarro Figueroa, Local Guide, ChiliTrip Tours
3hr52m - Marc Giraud, General Manager, Vanuatu Tourism Office 
4hr4m - Josh Halpern, Chief Commercial Officer, TourOptima
4hr17m - Todd Smith, Founder & President, and Lis Larson, Senior Content & Marketing Strategist, AdventureSmith Explorations
4hr26m - Maria Elena Price and Monica Price, BikesPlus and ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours
4hr39m - Nic Shaw, Director, South African Tourism Services
4hr54m - Eric Segalstad, VP & Partner, Gondwana Ecotour
5hr04m - Marc Ruffet, Partner & Head of Growth, Go Beyond
5hr13m - Cari Gray, CEO & Founder, Gray & Co 
5hr22m - Jared Alster, Chief Strategy Officer & Co-founder, Dune7
5hr38m - Al Check, Co-founder, Odyssey
5hr49m - Dale Schober, Founder & CEO, Radventures 
6hr01m -  Julie Thorner, President & Founder, LiquidSpark
6hr15m - Raffaele Di Biase, Co-founder, BirdsChile
6hr24m - Paloma Zapata, CEO, Sustainable Travel International
6hr35m - Gustavo Timo, President, Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA)
6hr44m - Magí Castelltort Claramunt, Director, Turespaña
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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Wellness travel is having a moment, but at its core, the idea is simple: travellers want to come home feeling better than when they left.
In this episode, Dan sits down with Robin Ruiz, Founder & CEO of WITT (Wellness in Travel & Tourism); Lauren Pronger, Founder & CEO of Well Inspired Travels; and David T. Stevens, WITT-AP, Co-Founder and Wellness Architect, to explore what wellness travel really means and how the industry can separate meaningful experiences from clever marketing.
We get practical about what hotels can do to better support travelers, and it doesn’t always require an expensive spa or the latest biohacking technology. Blackout curtains, better sleep environments, healthier food options and opportunities for movement can all make a difference. Robin explains why standards and certification matter as more hotels position themselves around wellness, while Lauren shares what clients are looking for, from burnout recovery to performance-focused travel.
Then we take wellness beyond leisure travel. David makes the business case for bringing it into meetings, conferences and business travel, where better sleep, nutrition and more thoughtfully designed schedules can improve the experience for everyone.
Finally, we get into wearables, AI and wellness technology, and why technology can be useful without replacing the fundamentals.
As wellness becomes a bigger part of travel, the question is no longer whether travellers care about it. It’s how the industry can deliver it in a way that feels genuine, useful and accessible.
👉 Listen to What Wellness Travelers Really Want Now
🔥 Special Thanks to our Season 8 Title Sponsors for their Support: Quark Expeditions,  Intrepid, Kaptio, Propellic, Repayd, and Holafly. 
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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You can feel a shift happening in multi-day travel. Travellers want the ease of an organized trip without giving up individuality, while tour operators are looking for ways to reach more customers without losing what makes their product unique.
In the second episode of our three part Multi-Day Commerce Series with TourRadar, Dan sits down with Brendan Roberts, Chief Commercial Officer at TourRadar, to explore the distribution side of the business and how the right trip ultimately reaches the right traveller.
Brendan takes us behind the scenes of the TourRadar marketplace, from how the company evaluates new operator partners to what it takes to get tours live. We talk about API integrations, reservation systems and manual onboarding, as well as why structured content matters when travellers are comparing their options.
We also get into what drives conversion. Brendan explains how TourRadar looks at quality across content, service and trust, and why strong reviews, detailed itineraries and clear accommodation information can make a real difference.
Then we look beyond direct-to-consumer sales and how TourRadar is connecting multi-day inventory with travel advisors, host agencies, consortia and retail partners through white label solutions and APIs.
Finally, we explore what AI and social commerce could mean for the category, from helping travellers understand what makes one tour different from another to the growing role of authentic traveller content and hosted trips.
For operators, advisors and anyone interested in the future of travel distribution, this episode offers a practical look at what it takes to get the right multi-day experience in front of the right traveler.
Join us next Tuesday for the third and final episode in our Multi-Day Commerce Series with TourRadar. Listen to the first episode with Travis Pittman, CEO, TourRadar here.
Learn more at tourradar.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 trip doesn’t usually become complicated when it’s booked. The real challenges come later, when flights change, strikes are announced, wildfires disrupt plans, hotels overbook or border delays throw an itinerary off course. Suddenly, operations teams are dealing with hundreds of small tasks that take up time, slow down response and eat into margins.
In this Company Spotlight episode, Dan sits down with Manuel Hilty, CEO and Co-founder of Nezasa, the travel technology company behind TripBuilder, to explore how AI could help travel companies manage that complexity.
Manuel shares the story behind Nezasa, from his background as a PhD computer scientist who initially thought travel planning would be relatively straightforward to discovering just how complicated travel distribution, integrations and operations really are. What began with early tour operator clients has grown into a platform used by companies including TUI, supporting everything from complex tailor-made itineraries to dynamic packaging and collaborative planning between travelers and travel professionals.
Then we get into what Nezasa is building next with Tai, its new AI platform designed specifically for travel operations. Manuel explains why simply adding a chatbot isn’t enough and how Tai is being built to work across different AI models while allowing travel companies to create their own no-code agents. The goal is to take on many of the repetitive tasks that consume an operations team’s day, from pre-departure checks and rate sheets to reporting and other routine workflows.
We also look ahead to Tai Guard, which is designed to monitor itineraries from beginning to end, identify potential disruptions early and eventually help teams determine the best response before a small issue turns into a much bigger problem.
For travel companies trying to understand what agentic AI could actually look like in practice, this conversation offers a look at how it could become part of the day-to-day work happening behind every trip.
Learn more at nezasa.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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Food has always been part of travel, but increasingly, it’s becoming a reason to travel in the first place. Instead of simply asking what there is to see, travelers are thinking about what they want to eat, where they want to eat it and the people and stories they can discover along the way. That shift is helping fuel the growth of culinary travel and changing what travelers expect from a great trip.
In this episode, Dan sits down with three people who have built their businesses around food and local connection: Annie Sim, Chief Eating Officer of The Table Less Traveled; Daniel Cerda, Founder and CEO of Eating With Carmen; and Kenny Dunn, Managing Director of Eating Europe. 
Together, they unpack what makes a great food experience, from choosing the right neighborhoods and balancing iconic dishes with unexpected finds to the role storytelling plays in connecting travelers with the people and culture behind the food. They also explore why smaller groups can create more meaningful experiences and how culinary tourism can put tourism dollars directly into the hands of family-run restaurants, local producers and communities.
We also look at how social media and AI are changing the way travelers discover food. A viral recommendation can introduce people to somewhere they may never have found otherwise, but it can also create the next tourist trap. And when AI can produce a restaurant list in seconds, the value of a great guide, personal connection and access to places travelers wouldn’t find on their own becomes even more important.
Finally, we look at where culinary travel is heading next and ask our guests a deceptively difficult question: if you could travel anywhere in the world for one unforgettable meal, where would you go?
👉 Listen to How Food Is Changing the Way We Travel Now
🔥 Special Thanks to our Season 8 Title Sponsors for their Support: Quark Expeditions,  Intrepid, Kaptio, Propellic, Repayd, and Holafly. 
The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. 
https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/