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How do you sell an entire country to the world? On this episode, Jeremy Nichols and Dr. Peter Ricci sit down with Chris Heywood, Senior Vice President, Public Relations and Chief Communications Officer for Brand USA, to talk about what it takes to position the United States as a global travel destination.

Chris oversees Brand USA’s global communications and a network of international offices in 14 markets serving more than 20 regions across five continents. Before Brand USA, he led global communications for the country’s two largest destination marketing organizations. In New York City, he helped drive a decade of continuous tourism growth and led communications through the city’s COVID-19 recovery. In Los Angeles, he built a new global PR network after the pandemic, promoted the Hollywood Sign’s 100th anniversary, and helped host IPW 2024.

We cover:

* How Brand USA markets the U.S. to international travelers
* What destination marketing looks like at the city level versus the national level
* Leading tourism communications through crisis and recovery
* How global media relations drives visitation

*Chris’s path from FIU and The Culinary Institute of America to the top of destination marketing
*What this means for hotels, restaurants, and operators who depend on inbound travel

Connect with Chris Heywood on LinkedIn: / christopherheywood

Checkin’ In is hosted by Jeremy Nichols of Gecko Hospitality and Dr. Peter Ricci, Director of the Hospitality and Tourism Management program at Florida Atlantic University. We have real conversations about hospitality leadership, operations, talent, and the trends shaping the industry.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe for new episodes.

#Hospitality #Tourism #DestinationMarketing #BrandUSA #TravelIndustry #HospitalityLeadership #CheckinIn

You can follow Peter Ricci at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterriccihospitality/

You can follow Jeremy Nichols at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremycnichols/

https://www.youtube.com/@JeremyNichols

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The AI Concierge Is Already Here. What Happens to Your Team?

Nearly half of travelers now use AI to plan trips, and hotels are starting to put that capability directly on their own websites. Guests arrive with golf, spa, and dining already booked. Concierge load goes down. Spend per stay goes up. So what does that mean for the people who used to do that work?

On Episode 12 of the Checkin' In, Jessica Platts and Dr. Peter Ricci sit down with Kim Bennett, Founder and CEO of AtlasGuru, a B2B AI itinerary platform that embeds into travel brands' websites and turns their own destination content into personalized, white-labeled itineraries and an AI chat agent that answers traveler questions instantly. AtlasGuru is built for hotels, DMOs, DMCs, travel publishers, and advisors.

Before founding AtlasGuru, Kim spent more than 15 years in senior marketing and digital leadership roles at Condé Nast, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Amazon, and Nordstrom. In 2023 she was named a Game Changer by Women Leading Travel & Hospitality for disrupting travel and hospitality.

We get into:

Why guests now treat AI as the starting point for travel planning, and what it costs a hotel to not be in that conversation
What actually changes for concierge, front desk, and guest services teams when planning moves online
Pre-arrival revenue and why the booking window for ancillaries is shifting earlier
What Kim learned building digital experiences at Amazon and Condé Nast that hotel operators still get wrong
The skills hospitality leaders should be hiring for as AI absorbs the transactional work

Real questions, no hype. Bring yours to the live chat.

Connect with Kim: / kimbennett
Learn more about AtlasGuru: https://atlasguru.ai/

Checkin' In: The Hospitality & Tourism Podcast is hosted by Jeremy Nichols, Gecko Hospitality, and Dr. Peter Ricci, Director of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Florida Atlantic University. New episodes stream live on LinkedIn and YouTube, then land on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

You can follow Peter Ricci at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterriccihospitality/

You can follow Jeremy Nichols at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremycnichols/

https://www.youtube.com/@JeremyNichols

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Culture isn't a poster on the break room wall. It's what happens when a guest walks in and can feel, without anyone saying a word, that the team actually wants them there.

On the next Checkin' In, Jeremy Nichols and Dr. Peter Ricci sit down with two of hospitality's sharpest voices on culture and guest experience: Christine Trippi and Ryan Minton.

Christine Trippi is the founder of The Wise Pineapple and host of The YES Show. She's a TEDx speaker, author of Yes Is the Answer, and the creator of the YES Framework™, built around a simple idea: great service isn't about saying yes to everything; it's about making people feel heard. She's been named General Manager of the Year, led a Marriott International Hotel of the Year, and been recognized by the International Hospitality Institute as one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Hospitality.

Ryan Minton spent over 20 years leading world-class hospitality brands, including a run as senior vice president at Hilton and Marriott, driving record revenues and engagement through operational excellence and team development. He's a 2x best-selling author, a member of the Forbes Business Council, a Newsweek expert panelist, and was named one of the World's Best Speakers in Hospitality and Customer Experience by Global Gurus.

In this conversation: what culture actually looks like on the floor, why frontline empowerment beats top-down mandates, how leaders turn service moments into loyalty, and what operators get wrong when they try to manufacture culture instead of building it.

Watch live on LinkedIn and YouTube, or catch the full episode after on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

You can find our guests at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8D%8Dchristine-trippi-56105311/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanmintonspeaks/

You can follow Peter Ricci at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterriccihospitality/

You can follow Jeremy Nichols at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremycnichols/

https://www.youtube.com/@JeremyNichols