The Destination Marketing Podcast is built for tourism marketers across the country who are overworked and understaffed. Our goal is to help these people prioritize the activities that are proven to be most effective in marketing a destination and stay up to date on the latest technologies and trends in the industry. This isn’t a feel-good, motivational podcast. We’re diving deep into what to do and how to do it. Subscribe today if you’re a tourism marketer and want to perfect your craft.
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Collin Norman sat through 4 interviews, a Zoom panel with more than 20 people, a request for his start date and a tour of the budget — then got rejected by email, with no call and no feedback. Today he's the Executive Director of Visit Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and he's building a hiring process that looks nothing like it. Collin joins Adam Stoker to break down why DMO hiring is broken, why…
In a solo episode, Adam Stoker unpacks a shift he can't stop thinking about since the latest CMO Jam: the agency-of-record model in destination marketing is about to change — whether agencies drive it or clients do. Adam walks through the forces quietly reshaping the relationship — media commissions shrinking, AI erasing the knowledge gap that once justified agency premiums, and DMO teams pulling…
Travel Nevada CMO Keelie Cox joins the show to break down "Get a Little Out There," the destination's five-episode series with free solo climber Alex Honnold — from the initial pitch and contracting logistics to the numbers behind it: 1.75 billion earned media impressions and over four million hours watched. Keelie shares why owning the content rights mattered, how the project got approved on a…
Tori Davis, President & CEO of Experience Ruston, Louisiana, joins Adam Stoker to talk about her path from marketing intern to DMO CEO, and the "three I's" framework she's using to guide the destination — Impact, Investment, and Identity. She and Adam also dig into how Ruston is preparing for Louisiana's first Buc-ee's, using it as a gateway rather than a distraction from the rest of what the…
Adam sits down with Lance Fite, VP of Sports at Visit Mesa, to unpack how sports tourism became Mesa's biggest tourism driver, booking 60,000–80,000 room nights a year. Lance shares his path from pro basketball to DMO leadership, the story behind Arizona Athletic Grounds (a 280-acre sports complex years in the making), and why youth sports keep the lights on between marquee events. Adam opens with…
Adam Stoker talks with Will Wright, managing partner of UK-based Destination Core, about the content-centric, owned-media-first website platform they've quietly built together. They dig into why traditional destination websites function as glorified directories, how their first joint client, Play Golf Myrtle Beach, put the concept to the test, and why the best DMOs now win by answering travelers'…
Visit Voss, a Norwegian village of 15,000, is showing up in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews without a big ad budget. Host Adam Stoker breaks down why attention + trust = action, then Visit Voss's Crister Aalberg Naess explains how reviews, Reddit, and a signature extreme sports festival built the trust that AI search now rewards. Subscribe to our newsletter! The Destination Marketing…
Katie Conner, Director of Destination Development at Virginia Tourism Corporation, joins Adam to talk about how a team of six supports 133 localities across the state. They dig into what communities actually need from a state tourism office, why proactive outreach matters, and how authentic local assets — from trail towns to sunflower festivals — become the foundation for sustainable destination…
In this episode, Adam Stoker sits down with Allison Brown of Discover Long Island to explore how a destination with 126 unique communities shifted from outbound tourism marketing to community-first advocacy. Allison shares the strategy behind Lily, their mobile activation truck, their award-winning Long Island Tea Podcast, and how they're using owned media to connect with residents just as…
Adam Geller manages tourism for Page, Arizona — a city where Horseshoe Bend and Lake Powell are globally iconic but most visitors don't even make it up the hill to town. In this episode, he shares how he turned that challenge into a strategy: building an interactive Grand Circle map that made Page the authoritative center of one of the world's most famous road trip circuits, launching gamified…