Wedding related travel, including honeymoons, is now an estimated $75 billion piece of the travel industry. Brennen sits down with Sara Margulis, co-founder and CEO of Honeyfund, to talk about how wedding spend is moving away from the big day and into travel: micro weddings are up, destination weddings are up, and couples are funding honeymoons and even babymoons instead of registering for household goods.

Sara also breaks down how Honeyfund built a fee-free model into a genuine growth engine, why paid acquisition still matters even with a built-in viral loop, since every year brings a brand new set of couples, and how Honeyfund is already showing up in ChatGPT and Google AI Overview before couples run a traditional search.

In this episode, Victor, CTO of Kampaoh, joins the podcast to reveal how aligning your technology leader with your marketing team can skyrocket your travel brand's revenue. Kampaoh has rapidly scaled to over 90 campsites across Europe by turning "easy camping" into a highly personalized, data-driven customer journey.

Discover why they decided to build a custom Customer 360 platform from scratch, how they leverage WhatsApp for pre-arrival communication, and their brilliant strategy of using OTAs like Booking.com as paid advertising rather than a primary sales channel. Whether you are a CMO, CTO, or founder in the hospitality space, this conversation is packed with actionable insights on building a seamless tech stack that drives true customer loyalty.

From one region to the whole world: how Vaya Adventures built a $30M travel business on bottom-of-funnel search.

Jim Lutz didn't plan on travel. He planned on law. A year abroad before law school, plus a trip to Morocco, rerouted the entire flight plan.
In this episode, Brennen sits down with Jim Lutz, founder of Vaya Adventures, to trace how a former lawyer built a 35-person, $30M+ adventure travel company that's grown 25 to 35% a year for the last five years.

The center of the story is the decision that reshaped the business: going from a South America specialist to selling the entire world, and why that one move did more for repeat and referral than any single campaign could.

Jim is refreshingly candid about the parts most founders skip. Shrinking from 13 people to 6 during COVID. The discipline of fishing at the bottom of the funnel when booking.com and Expedia are spending billions on the same intent. Why the wrong lead is worse than no lead at all. And the years he spent resisting the word "luxury" before he understood what it was quietly doing for his pipeline.

It's a conversation about building a proper business: the slow handoff from founder-led marketing to an in-house team, where AI earns its keep, and where the human on the other end of the trip stays irreplaceable.

In this episode, we sit down with Rami Nuseir, Head of Marketing at Stay22 and a self-described "Story Sage." Rami is a master at taking complex, "incomprehensible" technology and turning it into narratives that anyone can understand.

We dive into how Stay22 achieved a staggering 187% growth in 2025 by empowering travel creators with AI-powered affiliate tools. Rami shares his "funny outsells serious" marketing philosophy, the importance of rigorous A/B testing, and why he recently declared the latest Google updates as the "last straw" for the creator community.

Discover how Katalina Mayorga built El Camino Travel into a powerhouse for the "bold woman traveler" without spending a dime on traditional ads. In this episode, Katalina shares her journey from international development to creating a brand that prioritizes deep cultural immersion and local economic impact. You'll learn how she utilizes high-end photography and "scroll-stopping" content to drive a massive word-of-mouth engine.

Katalina also reveals the business strategy behind her thriving digital community, which boasts an incredible 40% repeat booking rate. Explore how niche specialization and radical brand trust can cut through the noise of the modern travel industry. Whether you're an entrepreneur or a travel enthusiast, this masterclass in community-building offers essential insights into making travelers feel seen, safe, and inspired.

Mike Petrakis, Co-founder & CEO of Batch, joins the podcast to discuss how they became the top app for planning group celebrations like Bachelorette parties. He dives deep into Batch's evolution from a commission-based Online Travel Agency (OTA) model to a "digital billboard" marketing engine for small businesses.

In this episode, we cover the secrets to their B2C acquisition, how they leverage virality (K-Factor) , and their strategy for building a strong, well-positioned brand.

Tune in to hear why Mike believes owning the customer is key in the age of AI and how Batch is building the "celebration economy".

In this episode of "Trailblazing Tactics," hear from Barbara, Global Director of Marketing and CRM at Summit One Vanderbilt, as she reveals the strategies that have driven success for world-class attractions. Discover how to balance innovative tactics with data-driven results, and why looking "behind the curtain" of your analytics is crucial.

Key topics include:

• A Winning Campaign: Learn how a lead generation campaign for Legoland New York achieved an incredible 26 cents per lead and sold out its "first to play" tickets.
• Learning from Data: Hear the story of a "failed" campaign that was actually a success hidden by a data tracking error, highlighting the importance of data integrity.
• Top Marketing Channels: Discover the surprising mix of top-performing channels, where organic search provides the most growth and Connected TV performs nearly as well as search ads.
• Brand-Powered Performance: Understand how a strong brand is essential for boosting performance marketing and creating a deeper connection with your audience.
• Advanced CRM & Tech: Get insights into segmenting your audience with unique categories like "sleepers" and the importance of adopting new technologies like AI to stay ahead.

In this episode, Brennen Bliss sits down with Savvas Georgiou, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Welcome Pickups, to unpack how the company scaled from a scrappy marketplace for local tours into a global leader in airport transfers across 100+ destinations. They dive into performance-driven marketing, short booking windows, the value of bottom-funnel acquisition, and how Welcome approaches attribution and app strategy. Savvas also shares insights into their B2B evolution—shifting from boutique hotels to OTAs and long-tail travel agents—and why focusing on “essential trip steps” has been key to their success.