Check-in Podcast by TMR

Episode 7: Checking-In with Vanessa McGovern

Being comfortable taking risks has long been part of the formula for success for so many entrepreneurs and for GTN’s Vanessa McGovern, it was no different. 

Vanessa joined TMR’s Dan McCarthy for Check-In episode 7 to talk about her career in travel and how being comfortable taking risks, including leaving her home country of Canada, has helped her go from a youth counselor aboard a Celebrity Cruise ship to one of the industry’s leading entrepreneurs.

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Episode 6: Checking-In with Brian King

Marriott is the largest hotel company in the world, a massive public company that has a bigger international presence than almost every other travel company. But, at its heart, it remains very much a family business. 
 
In this episode, TMR editor Dan McCarthy talks with Brian King, the current president of Marriott's Caribbean and Latin America divisions. King has spent his entire career at Marriott, from his humble beginning at a Marriott-owned, and now-defunct, theme park near Chicago, to now helping Marriott expand into an all-inclusive powerhouse in the Caribbean. 
 
King talks about how it feels to work for a company like Marriott, what makes Marriott different, and the legacy of Arne Sorenson. 

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Episode 5: Checking in with Betsy O'Rouke

How does someone go from dreaming about being the first female Secretary of State to a 30-plus year career in travel? For Betsy O'Rourke, the Chief Marketing Officer at Xanterra, that's exactly what happened. In this episode, Betsy talks about her career in travel and her time with companies such as Hilton, Wyndham, Royal Caribbean, and more, including what she loves most about the industry. She also touches on her favorite National Parks and how, when she was part of US Travel Assocation, her and her team helped lift the industry back up after 9/11. 

Episode 4: Checking-in With Peter Yesawich and Travel’s Recovery

More than 12 months after COVID-19 came to North America, TMR’s Dan McCarthy sits down for a short chat with MMGY Co-Founder Peter Yesawich. In April 2020, during the onset of the pandemic, Peter spoke to TMR about COVID-19 and gave four predictions on how the crisis would impact travel and how the industry would ultimately recovery. Now, in the midst of that recovery, Peter and Dan revisit those predictions and talk about Peter’s career in travel. Aside from founding MMGY, Peter has appeared as a commentator on travel trends in publications including the New York Times, wall Street Journal, CNN, CNBC, BBC, and more. 

Episode 3: Checking-in with Reginald Charlot and NYC

Perhaps no other city in the United States had been as adversely affected by COVID-19 as New York City. A New York post headline from the summer of 2020 said that “New York City is Dead Forever” because what the pandemic had done to the city. But that’s something that New York has heard before, and something that the city will, no doubt hear again. 

On this episode, TMR’s Dan McCarthy checks-in with Reginald Charlot, the managing director tourism market development with NYC & Company, the city’s tourism arm that is going to be tasked with helping bring tourists back to New York City, something that is going to be crucial to its return. 

Reginald speaks about how NYC tourism has changed throughout the pandemic and what the future looks like for the Big Apple. 

Episode 2: Checking-in with Scott Koepf

How can you put a global pandemic in perspective? It’s not an easy thing to do, but it’s something that became the task for Scott Koepf in March 2020. A week prior to COVID hitting North America, Scott, a senior vice president at Cruise Planners, underwent brain surgery, something that he expected to be his “big” event for his 2020. Little did he, or the rest of the world, know what kind of impact COVID would have.

In this conversation, Scott reflects on his career in travel and how a backpacking trip he took with his friends in his early 20’s led him to a 40-year career in the industry. He speaks about how he has dealt with the impact of COVID, both professionally and personally, and how he cannot wait to get back on the road.

Episode 1: Checking-in with Jennifer Wilson-Buttigieg

When you and your family have built careers, and a major luxury agency, in the travel industry, how do you react when the world is shut down and borders are closed seemingly overnight?

In this conversation, Jennifer-Wilson Buttigieg, the co-president and owner of Valerie Wilson Travel in New York City, talks about her experience over the last 12 months and whether or not she ever felt the urge to get out of the industry, especially as business went down more than 90% during last year.

Jennifer talks about how her family went from Iowa to London and then to New York City, all the while been driven by “the travel bug” that has drawn so many into the industry.

Introducing Check-In Podcast

In 2019, at the height of the industry’s surge pre-COVID,  the travel industry accounted for $8.9 trillion in contribution to the world’s GDP annually (more than 10% of the global GDP), along with 330 million jobs, or 1 in 10 jobs around the world. Its impact touched all corners of the global economy, connecting people from all corners of the world with friends, family, colleagues, cities, and countries that they would otherwise have no connection to. 

While the industry could lose more than 100 million of those jobs because of COVID, it is important now, more than ever, to remember the faces and names behind those numbers, the ones who worked to build, and will now have to work to rebuild, the industry. Those individuals are the subject of TMR’s new Check-In Podcast, an informal look into the lives of the people making travel dreams come true, the ones working inside and outside of the travel trade to move things forward for those 300 million people or so working inside the industry. 

Episodes, released every two weeks, are available on all major streaming platforms.