SHIFT: Recent Episodes
A Travel Local Collective Podcast
Welcome to SHIFT, a new Travel Local podcast series. Tune in as we explore the trends shaping travel, but more than that, we hope to provide our listeners with actions to help their travel, tourism or hospitality business recover and reinvent itself. SHIFT provides a balance of thought provoking ideas, what really works on the ground, and how tourism businesses and other travel destinations can shift things into gear. Time to ride.
“If we don’t use our intelligence to take care of the land, we can no longer consider ourselves beautiful,” reminds Your syilx Sisters, the Indigenous content creators and cultural trainers who are Travel Local’s guests on this episode of the SHIFT Podcast. We kickoff Season 3 with how Indigenous values teach little brother to walk gently on the land, and are proving to be a more positive way to nudge people to behave. You’ll want to listen-in and hear the Sisters talk about how they’ve been working with Travel Local to deepen tourism’s approach to place-making and regenerative travel through what they call: “the Medicine of Place.”
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Is North America stopping short on building a truly interconnected, intermodal transportation network? Tourism destinations certainly hope not if international overnight arrivals are going to recover as hoped by 2026. Transportation is the lifeblood of tourism. There is no travel industry without it. President and CEO Solomon Wong of InterVistas is on the show. In this Episode 5, the world’s top transportation consultancy firm is talking about the future of air passenger travel, smart aviation, AI, service solutions, the electric skyway, and jealousy over Europe’s increasingly seamless journey by air and rail. Listen-in as we count the steps on the last mile Canada still needs to travel towards a future destination that’s more sustainable.
www.travellocalmarketing.ca
Is land certainty up in the air for tourism? Dave Butler, Director of Sustainability for CMH Heliskiing and Summer Adventures is on the show to talk about an aspect of tourism that we often take for granted, land use management. Like any other resource-based industry, tourism needs secure commercial access if operators are going to make the longterm investments the industry needs to be sustainable. A sustainability pioneer himself, Dave and nearly twenty (yep, 20) other important tourism sectors have formed an Adventure Tourism Coalition that’s calling for more modern policies. And given the central role they play in stewardship, employment and tax revenue, they want the provincial government policy levers and land management professionals all under one roof so they can keep delivering on Super, Natural BC’s brand promise.
www.travellocalmarketing.ca
Rising inequality is a choice. Economic policy makers and captains of industry label it the pain we have to go through if we want to come out the other end stronger and richer. Please. There’s ‘no proof’ say experts who are currently seeing a fundamental reframing of global poverty as a national issue of redistribution. In this episode, social enterprise innovator J Kevin Barlow talks about how a vibrant local business community is helping their portion of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) regenerate one of Canada’s most poverty stricken neighbourhoods. An Indigenous leader from the Mi’kmaw and Executive Director of the Hastings Crossing BIA that operates in the area, Kevin explains how ‘poverty’ never even used to exist within Indigenous communities, but now, its growing shadow is requiring communities and local businesses to work together in entirely new ways.
www.travellocalmarketing.ca
Gen Z stand out for climate change activism, and they’re doing something about it while others are still stuck on the couch. But it’s taking a toll on their mental health. So how do we help this League of Climate Heroes feel healthier, stronger and empowered? Making sure they have access to the right post-secondary education is a great place to start. Dennis Innes, Dean of the School of Hospitality, Food Studies and Applied Business at Vancouver Community College is on the show to talk about how educators are unleashing the full potential of Gen Z and building the leaders of tomorrow.
www.travellocalmarketing.ca
Face it. Our society is growth addicted. Even if the global economy sprouts by a modest 3% every year, by 2050 we’re going to need the equivalent of three planet earths to meet our daily needs. Industry, society, and the economy need an overhaul. In this episode, we lean-on thinking from renegade economist Kate Raworth who believes this redesign process isn’t going to come from textbook theories [or your LinkedIn feed] but from the innovative experiments of those who are focused on helping us all make the change we need to survive. Sustainable travel leader, innovator, author and professor Dr. Rachel Dodds is on the show and kicks off this Season 2 of our podcast series dedicated entirely to the triple bottom line. Yeah it’s complex, but even kids say that sometimes it’s as easy as remembering not to swim with the dolphins.
www.travellocalmarketing.ca
The world of influencer marketing is changing. We’re heading into the wilds of social media in our season finale of the SHIFT Podcast (woohoo, made it a year). Global social media content creators and founders of MOBL Media @meghanorourkee and @brendinkelly give us an insider's look at the world of paid influencer marketing. They’re also part of a movement of media personalities that follow the Leave No Trace principle and are actively helping destinations avoid over-tourism.
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Until the Metaverse fully takes over, video is still QUEEN. Award winning and cause-driven documentary filmmakers Black Rhino Creative bring us behind the lens to talk about the bumps and bruises of getting the shot, the importance of insider access and better production planning, and how strong emotional themes build better brand stories. If you want to stretch your marketing dollars further while telling stronger stories that turn heads and make the sale, this episode lays out all the insider tricks you need to know right now.
“The places you visit…can’t be the places you bomb.” Always highly quotable, globally respected tourism expert Greg Klassen from Twenty31.org is on the show. Better values are the theme as we explore what’s up ahead for tourism globally as more travellers let their conscience take the wheel. Wanderlust, values powered tourism, the end to competitive navel gazing, and the rise of authentic leadership, are just a few of the topics we explore before pulling into the Ukraine conflict, and why tourism needs to care. We all know the Ukraine needs our help. Please donate to the icrc.org and join us in helping ease the suffering.
Better digital marketing is too often a chaotic sprint to optimize individual channels. Our latest episode covers the winning long game that starts with asking better questions, answering with better insights, and then, linking your digital channels together to prove your case. Award-winning North American digital advertising agency War Room is in the house to talk about how their commitment to asking the right questions first, always delivers better results second.
READY PLAYER ONE. Our latest Travel Local Shift Podcast covers the Digital Thumb War reshaping your battle for market share. Award Winning travel journalist and food writer Adrian Brijbassi talks about getting caught short in South America’s foodie paradise, local travel gems we need to experience, and his latest venture into gamified apps that’s earning travel destinations high scores in new digital arenas.
Cue the bell. School is back in session. We’re going from the general to the specific in this new episode. Simon Fraser University Director of Community Economic Development Jeremy Stone is back on the mic to talk about the ABCDs of generating strong local economy solutions for tourism. It’s not an easy A, but destinations who do the work head to the front of the class. Missed part one of this interview? Listen to Episode 1 on this podcast channel.
It's not like it is in the movies. Running a successful hotel is just as much about great operations as it is about bookings. Global brand hotel expert Kathryn Millar talks about how accommodation providers can invest in thread count and people so that more flows to the bottom line. A close ally of Indigenous communities everywhere, Kathryn also talks about how Indigenous entrepreneurs are looking to cash in when hotel players are looking to cash out.
Remember the handshake? It's back baby. Business events and meetings are coming back strong. Listen to our 2nd episode (Woohoo!) for a deep discussion with global meetings expert Cassandra Zerebeski from Meet Local on how to win-over meeting planners in a post-vaccine world and even steal market share from your competitors (if you don't....they will).
Welcome to SHIFT, a Travel Local Collective podcast series. Our first episode is going full Mad Max. Jeremy Stone, Director of Simon Fraser University's world-respected community economic development program takes listeners beyond the 'Thunderdome' to look at the local economy tourism solutions that will power the future of destination development.