Greg Oates

Macau is an example of an emerging meetings destination that will see U.S. market growth on the backs of its U.S. hotel partners like Sheraton and St. Regis, but the challenges are significant due to the region's reputation as the "Las Vegas of the East."

Amtrak is collecting content from both professional "Amtrak Residency" writers and its customers to create a large enough inventory of stories and visuals to show the scale of the rail line's national network.

Luxury travel is evolving beyond its traditional parameters, and luxe travel brands are meeting these needs by developing more nuanced options for immersive destination experiences so consumers can customize their entire travel journey.

Destination DC's marketing campaign pivoted the city's identity toward a more diverse destination with cool places to go beyond museums, monuments and memorials.

Since Meetings Mean Business launched in January 2014 with industry-wide representation (except for the airlines), the coalition has become a valuable resource for industry research. The next phase includes getting non-industry CEOs to advocate for the value of meetings, finally ending the millennial conversation, and partnering with new tech and sharing companies.

Tourism bureaus like Visit Seattle have an opportunity to attract a new user base with episodic video-content campaigns and video testimonials. Deciding that is the easy part. Funding is a little more challenging. The hardest part is correct place branding and then muzzling the marketers so the real content people can do their thing.

There's a big opportunity for hotel organizations to both learn lessons from guest management as practiced by the new coworking spaces as well as use their own expertise and resources to create connections with a new breed of customer.

Selling luxury travel today is all about options. Luxury travel brands are delivering more immersive, personalized travel experiences targeting a broader consumer base by age, source markets, and evolving traveler psychographics.

By creating these raw documentary-style videos, the LVCVA is placing a greater emphasis on the convention attendees versus the convention center.

A lot has to change before Americans start vacationing as much they did pre-2000, including a shift in corporate culture that encourages and supports employees taking better care of themselves and their loved ones.