Darren Dunn: [00:00:01] The velocity is there so that they can actually act on it and turn the ship and stay nimble and be able to pivot towards opportunity. Everybody wants to look brilliant at their job. And hopefully, we're providing a software platform where they can really be brilliant at their job with the least amount of work.
Adam Stoker: [00:00:17] Hello, everyone and welcome to another episode of the Destination Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Adam Stoker. We have a fun and unique show for you today. It's something that we tried to put together last year. It kind of fell apart at the last minute and we've been working to try to get the group back together. So we call it the Utah Tourism Collective. And that's a group of Utah organizations that were founded here in Utah but focus on the destination marketing industry. And I'm really, really excited to have -- I've got Jason Linder from Ripe. Jason, thanks for joining us.
Jason Linder: [00:00:52] Thanks Adam and thanks for having us.
Adam Stoker: [00:00:53] Absolutely. Darren Dunn from Zartico.
Darren Dunn: [00:00:56] Happy holidays. Thanks for having us.
Adam Stoker: [00:00:58] Absolutely. And yeah, we're still coaching Darren on speaking directly into the mic here and then Lauren Neeleman from Spontigo.
Lauren Neeleman: [00:01:06] I'm honored to be here.
Adam Stoker: [00:01:08] We're excited to have you and we're going to dive in a little bit to your company. I know it's fairly new to the DMO world and it'll be fun to talk about you a little bit. But unfortunately, we're also a little bummed that a couple of our key group members couldn't be here. Mo from Bandwango is usually a part of this group when we get together. AJ Brau from Wander is definitely somebody that we like to have on board. And then Riley from Don Day, unfortunately, couldn't make it as well. It's difficult to wrangle all these people that have their own individual businesses and focuses and things like that. So we're really happy to have the group we have and Mo especially we wish him well since he's not feeling very well. So, yeah. How are you all doing well?
Jason Linder: [00:01:48] Doing well. I think I'm just -- when you hear talking about the folks that are missing this time of year, the holidays, but I don't know about you guys, but with annual planning, budgeting, it's just so busy. It's a great time of year, family holidays. But it's also, it's a tough one, it's busy.
Adam Stoker: [00:02:06] Yeah, it's hard to get all the schedules to line up.
Darren Dunn: [00:02:08] It's certainly a sprint this time of year between you're right. Doing budgets and marketing plans for next year on top of the fact that it's the fourth quarter. And if you're a SAS company, you've got three more weeks to make it happen and I sweat every single one of those days. So it's scary. It's scary.
Lauren Neeleman: [00:02:30] I'm excited to be out of the office. I've been behind a screen for weeks and weeks on end. So I'm excited for some human contact. Maybe a little lunch after this. I'm feeling great.
Adam Stoker: [00:02:40] Nice. Well, good. We've got a good setup for you here, Lauren. I'm in the same boat. We had our company Christmas party last night. So up late last night and we did a casino night in Provo, Utah, which was some of you will get the irony of that. It was really fun. I want to start though with Lauren. You're fairly new to the group. I'd love to have you maybe tell us about the organization that you've started, what your journey's been like so far. What led you to this point? And then, what do DMOs need to know about you?
Lauren Neeleman: [00:03:10] All right. Well, I have a business called Spontigo and we've been around for the majority of 2023, so we're very new. And before this, I actually got my start in hospitality. I've been working in hospitality for the last decade and kind of been towing the line of tourism and hospitality because my family owns a resort called Zion Ponderosa in Zion National Park. So I've been doing everything under the sun to help them become a viable business. And along the way, I figured out some problems, some inefficiencies in the industry and I'm scratching my own itch. So, whatever I built, I tested with my property and my destination first and now I'm bringing it to the world. So it's been a really, really fun and challenging season of life and I'm excited to keep going.
Adam Stoker: [00:03:54] Great and tell us a little bit more kind of nuts and bolts what you do so that those that are listening can know if it's something they want to check out further.
Lauren Neeleman: [00:04:01] Okay, will do. Thanks for the plug. So at Spontigo, we create a delightful booking experience specifically regarding experiences. So all of the cool things to do in your local area, be they food tours or jeep tours or canyoneering experiences or stargazing or whatever your local destination has to offer, we gather that all up, we create a booking widget out of it and put it directly on DMO websites.
So super simple to understand and it makes booking delightful and simple, easy to use user-friendly with the end result, obviously for increased spending, increased duration of trips, and then also delightful postable experiences that people have with your destination so they come back again and again.
Darren Dunn: [00:04:47] Spoken like a true founder.
Adam Stoker: [00:04:49] Yeah. Exactly. No, I actually really like that because one of the things that stakeholders are always looking for from a DMO is what have you done for me lately? Right? And when you can provide that direct booking experience to the stakeholder that's obviously going to turn some heads in the destination. So I think you're on to something and really excited to see where this goes.
Lauren Neeleman: [00:05:09] Thank you.
Adam Stoker: [00:05:10] What's it been like Lauren for you to kind of join this Utah Tourism Collective and get to know some of the other entrepreneurs that are in this group?
Lauren Neeleman: [00:05:16] Well, like I said, I'm just honored to be here and I heard once said that mentors are overrated, but peers are underrated. And that when you have peers that are in the trenches with you that are actually like also doing the thing, the hard thing and growing a business is really hard and it can be really lonely, it's invaluable. So I'm just grateful to be here. I'm grateful for the interactions I've had with each of you so far. I'm grateful for the things I've learned. I feel like I'm just a sponge and like I said, I'm new to this specific part of the industry. And so I love learning from all of you and I'm really grateful for you all.
Adam Stoker: [00:05:50] Well, we're glad you're here.
Jason Linder: [00:05:51] I'll just add, it's impressive what you're doing. You're taking a very fragmented market. So Lauren and I met and I was really impressed with how to do ecommerce around such a fragmented space of activities and that's tough to do. And so I think with what travelers are looking for with more streamlined experiences and with the way the industry is going, I think it's a great product.
Lauren Neeleman: [00:06:12] Thank you.
Darren Dunn: [00:06:13] To Jason's point, it is extremely fragmented and it's very hard and it's really only been a segment that's been growing and growing like wildfire honestly this segment because it has been so hard that nobody's really tried to tackle it in a meaningful way to create a great experience from booking to going on a Jeep tour. So glad to have you here.
Lauren Neeleman: [00:06:38] Thank you.
Adam Stoker: [00:06:39] One of the things that stood out to me with AJ Brau when she kind of made her way into this industry with Wander is her passion made it very clear that she was going to make an impact that she was going to be able to have success in this industry. I see a lot of the same with you. Your passion is a really fun part of meeting you and getting to know you. It's clear that as you're working to find product market fit that you're going to find it because of your passion for getting through that. So really excited to see you continue to grow.
Lauren Neeleman: [00:07:07] Thank you. I appreciate it.
Adam Stoker: [00:07:09] Awesome. Well, and Darren and Jason, let's get an update on your organizations. Those that are listening that may be new to the show or new to the industry maybe they haven't heard you guys talk about your organizations, let's give a brief overview and then maybe an update on what's the newest and latest thing with your organization. Let's start with Jason.
Jason Linder: [00:07:26] Yeah, great. So, Ripe, we provide lodging booking solutions for our destination clients to provide a better traveler experience that's very locally focused and oriented and in the process drive economic impact at no cost to their lodging partners. So typically in the form of commission-free bookings. So that's the general of what we do.
Adam Stoker: [00:07:48] Great and maybe the latest that's going on with your organization?
Jason Linder: [00:07:52] Yeah, it's been an exciting year for us for sure. It's a lot of growth and transition but a few things jump out. We launched into the emergency housing services arena this year working with offering basically for crisis management and pretty much any crisis that's out there. And unfortunately, there's more and more happening with like floods and fires, et cetera. You often have displaced individuals and you have empty hotel rooms. So then, so that's where we can come in and help a little bit.
So for example, we've been working with New York City and the Hotel Association of New York City since this summer on the migrant and refugee crisis that's been going on there. So we came in working with them in the hotels in order to provide a platform to place all of these individuals to give them a roof over their heads, these families with children that need somewhere to go, and while New York is they're overwhelmed with the intake that's happened, the volume of people coming in, so we've come in and help them with that to help relieve some of that pressure.
So since this summer, we've booked over 60,000 room nights for refugees in the market. And so that's a really exciting to be a part of and to help. For first off, I'd like, that's, we're honored to be part of that process and to also to relieve some pressure on the city. So, and then just that's a new vertical for us also to look at so that's been exciting. We've also launched our affiliate program this year, which is basically these like super hyper-local focused engines that the DMO can provide to their event and attraction partners. So it could be festivals, sports tournaments, pretty much anyone that drives overnight visitation, we can spin up these engines that are custom-tailored. So if it's a marathon, we can spin up this booking engine that's just for the marathon that has just the relevant inventory, provide a better travel experience and then attribution back to the DMO.
That's really where we were born in the event market. So it's exciting for us to be offering this service to back into the market and that's been great. So just as one example, we're working with Syracuse this winter on like 20, 25 sports tournaments where we're doing like a traditional group housing services with these affiliate engines and able to book and do you know group blocks, et cetera? So it's both \this affiliate arena really gives us an opportunity to expand within the market. And then with now with group housing services to do more traditional block management, et cetera.
So those are a couple of different new lanes that we're in. That's really exciting and I think provides a lot of value to our DMOs.
Adam Stoker: [00:10:35] Yeah, I can tell those are big opportunities or avenues for you guys if the rebrand that you went through isn't even like in the top two that you would mention, right? Because that's how busy the year's been, right?
Jason Linder: [00:10:48] Yeah, it's been a big year too for sure. But when I look back at the year of all the successes and transitions for sure, the rebrand. So if we were known as at the beginning of this year, we were RootRez and now we're Ripe. We worked with Adam's team at Relic on this whole rebrand process and a lot of thought went into that, of course. And so that's an additional exciting element for our year for sure.
Adam Stoker: [00:11:10] Yeah, absolutely. And, and Darren, let's move to you. I forgot to mention that we are in your office space now recording this and it's kiln here at the gateway in downtown Salt Lake and this is an incredible office space. Thank you for your hospitality and having us in here to record. Tell us a little bit about Zartico and the update from you because I know you've got a few exciting things going on.
Darren Dunn: [00:11:35] Yeah, we do. It's been quite a year for us. If I had to categorize the year, I would call it a rebuilding year. We've really rebuilt the technology as well as many of the teams from the ground up, which is painful. All I want to do is run, run, run, run, run so taking a breath and rebuilding and making sure that we're not just running, but we're getting things right. It's been a year when it comes to that and I think anybody in this room probably knows. Jason, I have to, first of all, I want to applaud you for just being nimble and being able to pivot towards all these different types of opportunities. I mean, you are truly, truly a start-up being able to pivot and go another direction, find the opportunity and find how to really exploit all the all the tools that you built. So, congratulations on that. I'm super excited to hear about it along with the rebrand.
Jason Linder: [00:12:33] Thank you.
Adam Stoker: [00:12:33] Thank you Darren.
Jason Linder: [00:12:35] It is running like you said, you're just, it's nonstop. We've been around for a while, but I sure feel like it starts up with you're just constantly pivoting and running trying to keep up.
Darren Dunn: [00:12:44] So Zartico, we are the world's first destination operating system. What does that mean? In its simplest form, we provide analytics and intelligence to destinations. We do that through a number of methods, some of it using our destination’s data. But for the most part, we have 3 macro sets of data where we're seeing all of North America; so Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico and that would be with our geolocation data which is the world's largest commercially available data set along with our event data. Again, largest available event data set.
So in that event data really covers everything from a small concert to a group meeting at the Marriott on up to citywide conventions, sporting events, even weather, and crime. You name it. If something's going on that's going to affect visitation, it's listed and it's listed on the day, the time, the expected attendance at that event and even the expected spend on the event. Then of course, our credit card data which allows us to see not only what events are happening but how did that affect spending behavior, why are people here? What are they spending on? How does the destination potentially find the right visitor? More of the right visitors to create both a brilliant resident and visitor experience. And if you don't have that balance, somebody's going to be yelling at you. It's either the visitors or the residents. Probably better that it's the visitors a little bit I should say.
And then finally, actually just announced minutes ago, we are adding a fourth leg to the stool, a fourth super macro data set. Again, the world's largest commercially available set of lodging data. We're really looking at adding a whole new component to our operating system, which is lodging intelligence. The sources on that came through a deal that includes both key data. So we're looking at all home rental information as well as Amadeus, which is a huge global GDS system.
That's really going to unlock intelligence for our destinations because we're going to be able to see lodging data at least six months forward. And we're able to see everything from advanced purchase cycles to average daily rate to total occupancy. So it's really going to help understand where the peaks and valleys are in terms of both marketing and sales for destinations. And then we will be laying over things like event data, looking forward again, 6 to 12 months. So that you can not only see if you're seeing high occupancy, you can see why or if you're seeing low occupancy, you can see why. You can begin to understand if concerts are driving higher visitation than sporting events and really begin to and see that in relatively real time. So you have time to act on it. This isn't something you're going to collect information on a month later, 45 days later. No, you know what's happening all of last week and what is causing that effect and then likewise being able to look forward.
And so analytics in general have always it's whether it's destinations or a lot of organizations, actually. They're actually driving looking in the rearview mirror. And now for the first time, we're allowing them to look out the windshield to see where they're going. So it's really exciting times here. So it's nice after a year of rolling up the sleeves and getting a little oil all over yourself rebuilding this thing to have this big exciting thing that we're going to pair with our other data sets. It's not about just bringing in data and putting reports, it's about really creating intelligence and that's a whole different thing that's taking everything and everything you're looking at is saying, what do we do? It really allows the destinations to operate in a much different way. And I think it's going to have wider applications than just destinations as Jason's pointing out.
So exciting times here, looking forward to, as I said, hopefully, my sales team knock on wood will deliver the number this quarter. I can have a nice Christmas and then we can all get ready to start Groundhog Day again in January with the conferences and so forth.
Adam Stoker: [00:17:26] You know as the advertiser in the room, I've got to ask a follow-up question here. You talk about the ability to make decisions based on what's going to happen. Whereas we've always made decisions based on what's happened in the past. I think about an advertising use case here is if I can start to see that occupancy over a 30-day period is filling up quickly, in theory, that would mean that I can actually slow down my advertising spending at least for direct response tactics as a DMO because I don't need bookings during those specific months. And then I can save that budget for the valleys that come later in the year. Is that a correct use case?
Darren Dunn: [00:18:04] That is correct. So we have one of our modules within the operating system is a media planning module. So it really allows media planners to be able to look six months forward, a month forward to understand, okay, here's where we're going to need some help. Again, sales departments at the DMOs, the same type of thing. Your citywide are being booked 2, 3 years out. But your group meetings, that's something you can affect probably in the next six months and make some board rooms available and get some overnight.
So I think there's opportunities for both. But as a marketer, yes, we're looking at we're bringing in all their marketing data as well and that's getting overlaid and so you're able to look back at that and it's going to be nice when we're able to look forward and say, that's truly what's coming by the end of the year is to be able to run simulations based upon actions whether it's in sales or marketing. But saying, okay, based upon history, if we spend here in this valley, can we raise it? Can we keep the rates at an acceptable level so that these hotels can actually staff and take care of themselves?
Likewise that's one of the amazing things about this data set is that the DMO is able to share it with whoever they want, so they can inform local businesses that they might need to staff up or put a little few more French fries in the freezer depending on what the conferences come into town. So it's really powering the possibilities of place. It extends beyond the DMO, but it extends in a way that other businesses can benefit from it.
Adam Stoker: [00:19:42] It allows the DMO to actually be the leader in the room as opposed to, hey, hotel, what's it looking like in the future? Instead, the DMO can actually see the data in action accordingly.
Darren Dunn: [00:19:52] Right. I mean, God love hotels but they do tend to exaggerate a little bit.
Adam Stoker: [00:19:57] Awesome. Any follow-up questions or comments from you guys for Darren?
Jason Linder: [00:20:02] I'll just add, I just think that forward-looking is so impactful. I think I used to be a hotelier and run hotels and you're always in working with the local DMO, you're always trying to use historic data to make future projections. And so I think that's so powerful to be thinking about the windshield versus behind you. That's just really cool and we like in our little microenvironment, we really try to focus on that as well with our partners of seeing like what's happening right now forward-looking and seeing live like what are people searching for? What's popular? And so now you're doing that on a like a grander scale where they can really compare it to other destinations. And that's really cool.
Darren Dunn: [00:20:43] I should add another thing where this is going to enable us to really do true benchmarking for destinations. So if you're Park City, you can actually see exactly how Vale and Big Sky and Jackson and people in your comp set, how are they doing? What's their occupancy? How's their rates holding out? How are you doing in comparison to them? Because it's a bit of game gamification, everybody wants to be doing better and say, hey, we're doing better than Big Sky and Vale and all of our efforts are actually working or that goal might be sustainability as well and having a better kind of visitor to resident ratio and making a better experience for the visitors.
Adam Stoker: [00:21:27] So this might bleed into our state of the industry.
Darren Dunn: [00:21:30] And thank you, Jason I appreciate that. And I should note with like, right? He's right. One of the big things we can't see is search. And so to understand where people are searching and to be able to get that intelligence out fast enough to the agencies or your marketing person saying, hey, they're searching for ski vacations at these certain resorts and it's not Park City. Might be a good time for Park City to get something in front of them and say, hey, there's better reasons to come here.
Adam Stoker: [00:22:00] Yeah.
Lauren Neeleman: [00:22:01] So a little validation for the idea and the investment you've spent which I know you don't need it, you're solid here. But one thing we've worked on in the last year at Zion Ponderosa is we have this grid of month by month and we have red versus green. Is it ahead of pace based on where we were at this time booking for last year or is it behind pace? And my leadership team refreshes this like five times a day and they're looking at it constantly because if it's red, they're going to do whatever they need to do, they're going up their marketing budget, they're going to get their group sales person giving out discounts, whatever they need to do, they're going to get red to green and keep green.
So I'll show you this after, but it's been influential for them and then they can share that with all of their referral partners and everything else.
Darren Dunn: [00:22:43] Do you know what software they're using?
Lauren Neeleman: [00:22:45] Yeah, we built it in-house.
Darren Dunn: [00:22:47] Oh, well, good on you.
Lauren Neeleman: [00:22:51] I have a brilliant husband.
Darren Dunn: [00:22:54] Do you have a patent?
Lauren Neeleman: [00:22:56] I’ll show you after.
Adam Stoker: [00:22:58] You guys may hear the first industry acquisition on air, on the Destination Marketing Podcast. Darren, I want to just -- this is going to bleed a little bit into our state of the industry discussion that's coming in a few minutes. But one of the downsides for DMOs, and by the way, I don't mean to make it sound like your announcement is going to be a downside. But the downside for DMOs here is that those who are complacent but have been taking credit for industry-level success are now going to be able to look at their competitors and say, uh-oh, we're up, but all of our competitors are up higher. It's actually going to expose those that aren't forward-thinking, that aren't taking the steps to be innovative. And I know we'll talk about that a little bit more. But that is something that I think destinations need to be aware of for 2024.
Darren Dunn: [00:23:47] Yeah, it's a great point. For years, I've been trying to work towards really true benchmarking. I love this industry, been in it 22 years. But if a destination is marketing, for instance, with their brilliant agency and they're up 20%, they're going to take all the credit for that 20% and say, oh my God, we had these influencers and they got people to come visit. But the question is, are your competitors also up 20%? Is the industry up 20%So did you really spend your money in the right area?
So this is going to be really allow people to spend and actually be able to show where the spend is going hitting these valleys or maybe it's just keeping rate for your hotel so they can afford to staff. So, yeah, it is going to expose things a little bit. But I think it's going to make everybody including both agencies and marketers alike as well as a sales team, it's going to make everybody just a little bit more accountable. And I think as all of, you know who are in this industry, a lot of people go into this job because there hasn't been any accountability. There's been a survey at the end of the year and somehow they always come out looking good when you pay somebody to take surveys for you.
So yeah, and it's real-time, the velocity is there so that they can actually act on it and turn the ship and stay nimble like Jason's organization and be able to pivot towards opportunity. That's probably been the problem in the past. I know folks like both DI and US Travel, they've all tried to come up with the industry set of standards for benchmarking and nobody's been able to actually agree or execute. Again how much truth there would be to the answers because it'd all be self-reported. So everybody wants to look brilliant at their job and hopefully, we're providing a software platform where they can really be brilliant at their job with the least amount of work because none of us like to work hard. We just like to look brilliant.
Adam Stoker: [00:26:01] Congrats. What an exciting update.
Darren Dunn: [00:26:03] Thank you. I did that literally just came out minutes ago.
Jason Linder: [00:26:06] Thanks for sharing that. It’s exciting.
Darren Dunn: [00:26:09] I was running around here trying to see if I had permission.
Adam Stoker: [00:26:11] Well, I'm glad you did.
Darren Dunn: [00:26:13] Thank you.
Adam Stoker: [00:26:14] So I figure, my audience listens to me on a weekly basis, but usually I'm featuring someone else's story, right? And so it's actually rare that I give an update on my organization.
Darren Dunn: [00:26:23] Please do.
Adam Stoker: [00:26:24] So yeah, I'll take a moment and update on kind of where we're at as an organization. You know we're an advertising agency, we grew up as an advertising agency. Several years ago and a lot of people in the industry are aware of this. We decided to start helping destinations start podcasts based on the success that we had with the Destination Marketing Podcast. What that has evolved into is a real passion for me with this concept of building audiences that you own through owned media content creation. That's where my passion has gone. And I'll talk a little bit of when we get to the state of the industry about why I feel like it's so important for destinations to do that.
I'll briefly say that if your goal is to compete with another destination with a larger budget, using the same tactics that that destination is using, you will never win, you're guaranteed to lose. So you have to do something different. Then at the macro level, there's also the fact that people with audiences that they have influence over are winning over legacy brands. That's happening outside the tourism industry. It's time to bring it into the destination marketing industry.
So we've started this process of positioning ourselves as an agency as the resource in the destination marketing industry for owned media to build audiences that you can actually influence. And what that started out as is, hey, we want to be your only agency and we want to focus on owned media. We've tested this year working alongside other agencies that are doing major more traditional style campaigns with destinations and we're handling just the owned media portion. And what we're finding is a real niche for us to be able to help destinations build audiences as a component of their overall marketing plan, work in tandem alongside another really talented agency, and there's been a couple of agencies we've been able to work alongside of and have some real success.
And so what we're seeing is our opportunity for 2024 is our intention is not to uproot for a lot of these destinations the existing agency relationship, but instead work in tandem alongside the agency that's been doing such a great job with the more traditional tactics, but help destinations start to build those audiences that they can have influence over long term. We're really excited for that. We're seeing some really unique opportunities come up as a result and some exciting announcements that are coming in in Q1 of next year that we’re excited about.
Darren Dunn: [00:28:54] I was going to ask if you had any exciting things to tell people about. More to come in ’24, I guess.
Adam Stoker: [00:29:01] Yeah, more to come. Can't disclose it. I can say that our most successful pilot of this has been with Myrtle Beach. Working alongside of MMGY, Crossover Marketing, there's a couple of other agencies in the mix that off the top of my head I'm not thinking of right now. But all these agencies working together with the goal of promoting Myrtle Beach, but within the different categories that make the most sense for that agency relationship, I'm actually really, really amazed with each agency we're working with and also Visit Myrtle Beach for their ability to kind of hurt all these agencies and having them push forward in the same direction.
Darren Dunn: [00:29:36] Wow.
Adam Stoker: [00:29:37] Yeah. Really fun.
Jason Linder: [00:29:39] That’s nice. That's impressive. Yeah. And as we think of 2024 and maybe we'll get to that and talk about things. But as things change and we talk maybe about AI, what you're talking about seems to really resonate where you own media and you own more influence, so I think that's very important as we look at strategies and like in an evolving environment.
Adam Stoker: [00:30:00] Yeah, I think we all look at these legacy brands like a Target, a Burger King, a Domino's and we're like, oh, well, they use paid media and that's how they've built their brand where they are today. Well, they also started running paid media back when you could get so much more attention through paid media. It was so much less fragmented. And so we're attempting to use their strategy from the ‘80s to get to where they are today and it's just not going to happen. So what we have to do is tailor our marketing plan to what's happening today in the marketing industry and using an antiquated tactic as our sole method of generating new opportunities. We're not going to build a brand that way and we're definitely not going to outspend our bigger competitors that way. And so we're trying to get destinations to think a little differently.
Lauren Neeleman: [00:30:44] One thing you said that I really loved is that you're empowering the small Destinations to compete head to head with the big destinations, not on a spend level, but rather on a putting a face to the name level, and I love that. You're empowering David to fight against Goliath here, and that's what the world wants. I mean, we're all about shopping small and going to local coffee shops and we want to lean into those face-to-face experiences. And so you put people behind the mic and letting them know from a local cousin of this area that I've grown up loving and I've grown up frequenting, here's what you got to do, here's a perfect itinerary, here are the best restaurants and that's what shines. That's what shines through and it'll differentiate your clients from everyone else.
Adam Stoker: [00:31:27] Yeah. Couldn't have said it better myself.
Darren Dunn: [00:31:29] So, when you talk about that cousin, it also makes me think certainly AI has gone from zero last December to it's all you read about, it's becoming every part of our lives. What effect or what use cases and I can see it actually being that cousin that's making those recommendations based upon the behaviors of umpteen thousand travelers that seem like you. But anybody have opinions on how AI might get integrated into this antiquated industry?
Adam Stoker: [00:32:02] Darren, I cannot think of a better tease to lead us into the second half of this episode. So we're going to go ahead and wrap up the episode for the first half and that'll be what's releasing this week. Then those of you that have enjoyed this episode, make sure that you tune in next week. We're going to have part 2 where we're going to talk about the state of the industry. We're going to talk about AI, we're going to talk about innovation and technology adoption. We're going to continue this really interesting conversation. So thanks everybody for listening. Thanks to you guys for being here and we're going to press pause, release this episode and continue talking in just a moment.
Darren Dunn: [00:32:35] Right on.
Jason Linder: [00:32:36] Let's do it.
[End of transcript]
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