Greater Miami, including Miami Beach, is one of the most exciting destinations in the world. It is also changing what meetings, incentives, and events travel can look like.

In this episode of The Conscious Check-In, Amy Wald talks with Marianne Schmidhofer of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau and Tanja Morariu, director of marketing and head of sustainability at The Palms Hotel & Spa. Marianne shares what the destination has built for meeting and event planners, including a convention center that was the first venue to earn Green Key certification. Tanja shows what that commitment looks like inside a working hotel.

In this episode, you will hear:

• Why more meeting planners now ask about sustainability in their requests for proposal (RFPs), and how Greater Miami answers them.
• How a destination and a hotel work together to give planners real proof.
• Why every meeting attendee is also a future leisure traveler.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

02:09 How Greater Miami has grown as a meetings destination

04:53 What meeting planners now expect

14:14 How a hotel and a destination work together

17:01 Creating unforgettable incentive travel

23:37 Meaningful gifts and thoughtful details

35:25 The convention center and the future of meetings

This episode is brought to you in partnership with Jupiter and Co. Jupiter’s Key Gift turns a hotel room key into a keepsake that guests can personalize and take home. It gives hotels, destinations, and event organizers a memorable way to engage guests while reducing plastic waste. Learn more: [Jupiter and Co. link]

Watch the full video on YouTube: [YouTube link]

This episode is part of Conscious Destinations, a Greenluxe Media series about conservation, nature-based travel, and the business value of sustainable tourism.

Would you like your destination or hotel featured? Visit https://www.greenluxeinc.com/

How does an 80-year-old guest ranch keep raising the guest experience without changing what families love? Leah of Alisal Ranch shares how the team keeps leveling up, and why they chose Feelgoodz slippers for every guest room.

Alisal Ranch in Solvang, California has welcomed families for 80 years, and about half of its guests come back year after year. Amy Wald sits down with Leah, Alisal's Executive Director of Marketing and Communications, to talk about repeat guests, a staff that has been there for decades, and the small in-room details that guests notice.

This episode was created in partnership with Feelgoodz.

Explore Feelgoodz slippers for hotels and resorts: https://www.feelgoodzhospitality.com/

CHAPTERS

0:00 How do you upgrade a guest experience without disrupting history?

0:31 What makes a working ranch different

2:55 How Alisal keeps leveling up the guest experience

5:17 Why Alisal chose Feelgoodz slippers

7:38 Why sustainability shaped the decision

FEATURED

Alisal Ranch: https://www.alisalranch.com/

Feelgoodz: https://www.feelgoodzhospitality.com/

Hosted by Amy Wald, Greenluxe Media: https://www.greenluxeinc.com/

ABOUT GREENLUXE STORIES Greenluxe Stories shows how hotels and the sustainable brands they partner with raise the guest experience while reducing their impact on the planet. To learn more or to be featured, visit https://www.greenluxeinc.com/

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Hotels aren’t simply selling rooms. They’re selling access to nature, culture, well-being, and a meaningful sense of place. So why has hospitality enthusiastically embraced wellness while continuing to shy away from sustainability?

In this first episode of The Conscious Check-In: On the Road, recorded at The Palms Hotel & Spa in Miami Beach, Amy Wald sits down with globally recognized travel and conservation expert Costas Christ and Tanja Morariu, Director of Marketing and Head of Sustainability at The Palms Hotel and Spa, to explore what hospitality leaders may be missing about the future of travel.

00:00:00 — Why is the future of travel inseparable from nature and culture?

00:02:21 — Who is Costas Christ, and why has he spent decades defending the soul of travel?

00:08:25 — What does greenwashing look like in hospitality today?

00:10:08 — Why does the Serengeti matter to the future of responsible tourism?

00:11:01 — What do travelers actually want from sustainable luxury travel?

00:15:30 — Can marketing and sustainability work together in a hotel strategy?

00:19:01 — Should sustainability sit inside marketing, operations, or its own department?

00:23:34 — How do hotels build staff buy-in for sustainable practices?

00:46:15 – About CleanCore

Sponsored by

CleanCore helps hospitality teams clean and disinfect using aqueous ozone produced on-site—reducing reliance on conventional chemicals, recurring product orders, plastic packaging, and transportation emissions.

Learn more about CleanCore’s hospitality pilot

Costas Christ is a globally recognized travel conservation expert, writer, and longtime advocate for responsible tourism. He has spent decades helping shape a more responsible future for the industry at the intersection of conservation, destination stewardship, and traveler education.

His work demonstrates how exceptional travel experiences can help protect the people, cultures, and natural places that make travel meaningful.

Connect with Costas Christ on LinkedIn

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About Greenluxe

1:1 with Amy

The Conscious Check-In is a Greenluxe podcast exploring the future of luxury hospitality, travel, and tourism through the lens of conservation, responsibility, and exceptional guest experiences.

Hosted by Amy Wald, founder of Greenluxe, the show brings together hoteliers, travel leaders, conservation experts, and brand innovators to explore how better hospitality can build guest desire, brand trust, operational value, and measurable impact.

Wherever you’re headed next—travel deeper, stay inspired.