Why I Love the Advisory Side of Travel Trends
The insights behind the interviews.
If you have followed our Travel Trends Podcast for a while, you know the media side of what we do. What you may not know as much about is the other half of my working life: Travel Trends Advisory, where I get to roll up my sleeves and work directly inside travel businesses that are trying to scale. I want to change that, starting with this post.
A bit of background..
Before we started our Travel Trends Podcast existed, I spent 20-plus years in corporate leadership positions at The Travel Corporation, G Adventures and Lonely Planet. Those roles gave me a front row seat to what it actually takes to grow a travel brand: building new markets from scratch, launching new products, fixing broken positioning, and making the difficult decisions that determine whether a growth plan survives contact with reality. Our Advisory work lets me stay close to that.
It is hands-on, it is specific and the results are visible in a way that is hard to replicate anywhere else. Every engagement is different but the pattern is usually the same: a founder or leadership team with real ambition, a market opportunity in front of them, and a need for someone who has actually done this before to help them get there faster. That usually means one of a few things. Sometimes it is a brand that has grown fast but never built the systems or positioning to grow further. Sometimes it is a leadership team entering a new market and trying to avoid the expensive mistakes that come with doing it blind. And sometimes it is simply a founder who needs a sounding board with real operating experience, someone who has sat in the seat and made the calls before. Whether it’s supporting strategy, marketing, technology, distribution or partnerships.
For me, there's something beautiful in the symbiotic relationship between the podcast and the advisory business. The podcast keeps me talking to the smartest operators in the industry. The advisory work keeps me inside the businesses actually doing it. I would not want to give up either side.
The best part is that they are both global in scope which is what I’ve always loved about my executive roles. Being able to see growth and opportunity from a global perspective and across clients is what drives much of our partners success.
WHAT OUR ADVISORY PRACTICE PROVIDES
Our engagements are built around ongoing, hands-on support rather than a one-off ‘consulting strategy’ deck. Most partners work with us on a monthly retainer basis which keeps us embedded in the business long enough to see decisions through rather than just recommend them. Areas of support typically focus on:
Marketing strategy and positioning, including how a brand shows up in a new market or against new competition
Technology decisions, from platform selection to the systems needed to support growth
Vendor and partner management, so relationships scale alongside the business
Expansion into new regions, with the market knowledge to avoid the expensive mistakes that come with doing it blind
Launching new brands or products, from initial positioning through go-to-market
Building out teams and internal capabilities, so the business is not permanently dependent on outside support
A FEW OF HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR
ADVISORY PRACTICE
🞧 WeRoad
WeRoad has been one of the most exciting engagements. This incredible brand grew from $10M USD to $100M USD in revenue in three years, expanded into the UK and US and recently closed a $58M million series C round. WeRoad is on track to become the fastest multi-day travel brand ever to reach 1 billion in sales, and I could not be prouder to have supported that journey.
"Dan has been an incredible advisor to WeRoad as we've expanded into new markets. He pushed us to rethink our positioning, our marketing, and even parts of our model, and it made all the difference in setting us up for success. And honestly, every call with Dan feels like listening to a great podcast. You come away smarter and energized."
—Andrea D'Amico, CEO, WeRoad (Italy)
🞧 Pernod Ricard
Working with the world's second largest spirits company on their Brand Homes has been very rewarding, helping them understand the North American traveler and position their brand experiences accordingly.
"Working with Dan has been a truly rewarding experience. He led our North American travel market project which resulted in a deep understanding of what motivates US travelers. His strategic guidance has begun shaping how we attract more American visitors to our domestic and international brand homes. What I appreciate most is Dan's collaborative spirit, he's thoughtful, genuine, and a joy to work with."
—Laura Sileo Pavat, Managing Director, Pernod Ricard (France)
🞧 Additional long-standing partners
"Over the past few years, Dan Christian and the Travel Trends Advisory team have been instrumental in helping us transform from a regional Colombian tour operator into a globally recognized travel brand. Beyond their invaluable advice, they have consistently provided exposure to key partners, markets, and opportunities that accelerated our international growth."
Rodrigo Atuesta, Founder, Impulse Travel (Colombia)
"What I value most about working with Dan was how quickly he got to the heart of our challenges. His suggestions were practical, insightful, and made a real difference in how we approached our strategy, brand and marketing. Dan helped us see our business from a new perspective."
Richard Campbell, CEO, 10Adventures (Canada)
"Dan has been instrumental to Blacksford's growth. His work optimizing our website and marketing, combined with his ability to open new distribution channels, from affiliate marketing to trade partnerships, has made a real, measurable difference. He brings deep industry relationships and genuine strategic thinking to everything he does. We're grateful to have him on our team and genuinely enjoy working with him."
-Becky Goodell, CEO, Blacksford (USA)
"We came to Dan with big ambitions and a long list of questions, and every session with him has moved us forward. Dan doesn't just give advice, he opens his network. For any travel company serious about growth, working with Dan is one of the highest-leverage decisions you can make."
Jani Pravdič, CEO, World Discovery (Slovenia)
“Dan combined strategic advisory with hands-on execution. He set up our Toronto office from the ground up, handling everything from leases to contracts, and gave us the local expertise and credibility we needed to expand to the US & Canada.”
Campbell Harris, CEO, Global Journeys (Australia)
🞧 Branding & Growth Highlights
A few highlights of this work include, leading the rebrand of Curated Planet into TourOptima (New York) and helping them crack the multi-day tour market, creating the Northern Soul brand with Landsby, a new Canadian travel magazine (Toronto), and repositioning Miru Adventures with a strong growth plan to match. (Seattle)
🞧 Startup Success
I especially enjoy the energy working with early stage startups that are still finding their footing, including GuestOS (San Francisco), iWander (UK) and The Travel Coach Network (Milwaukee) to help set up them up for long-term success.
🞧 Tour Operators & New Partners
Two of our newest partners, Overland Ireland (Dublin) and American Classic Tours (Chicago) have huge growth ahead of them. From entering new markets, building our new distribution channels and increasing their marketing activity, we are already seeing excitings results of our collaboration. More to follow!
Plans to Expand & What’s Next
We have started bringing more of our Travel Trends team into supporting the advisory practice, as this his become a natural extension of what we already do well as a media team: listening closely to travel brands and translating that into practical guidance. We recently brought in Marius Nigond (CEO, iWander) to assist in strategy, project management and important partner deliverables, as we’ve worked together very effectively on his start-up.
We plan to keep growing our Travel Trends Advisory practice with a focus on partners we genuinely want to work with and where we can make a difference. You will be seeing more updates from us on the advisory activity going forward to share most best practices . You follow those updates on our LinkedIn Page.
We also recently updated the Advisory section of our website to reflect how we approach each type of partnership, from startups to established brands, enterprise clients and VC and private equity backed businesses.
If you are interested in collaborating with us, feel free to reach out directly dan@traveltrendspodcast.com