View From Afar

About View From Afar

View From Afar is the travel industry podcast made by the travel industry, for the travel industry. Hosted by the editors of Afar, the show sits down with the CEOs, tourism experts, hoteliers, and destination leaders shaping how the world moves. These are travel industry interviews with the people actually making the decisions, from national tourism boards to the newest hotel brands, often recorded in the room where it happens, including live from major travel industry events like IPW. Every episode is a real conversation, not a press release. Afar editors talk with travel changemakers about what the next era of travel will be built on: the rise of sustainable tourism, smarter destination management, the travel innovation reshaping the guest experience, and the travel industry challenges no one wants to say out loud. Expect tourism experts interviews that move from travel marketing strategies and travel consumer insights to local tourism initiatives, destination highlights, and the future of travel and tourism development. Past guests have led the tourism efforts of entire states and cities, run major transit and hospitality brands, and steered destinations through record years and hard pivots alike. If your work touches travel, think of this as your briefing. As a travel podcast built for professionals, View From Afar delivers the travel industry news and travel industry insights that help destination marketers, hospitality industry leaders, tour operators, and travel professionals stay ahead of travel trends 2026 and beyond. It is travel storytelling with a purpose: honest, curious, and grounded in the real experiences of the people building the business of travel. Afar has spent more than a decade telling travelers where to go and why it matters. View From Afar turns that same lens on the industry itself, giving you a front-row seat to the ideas, the debates, and the travel experiences defining what comes next. New episodes bring new voices and new destinations to the table. Follow View From Afar wherever you listen, and join the conversation shaping the future of travel.

Publisher

Afar

Category

business · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

30 Apr 2025

Latest episode

17 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

48 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 Sept 2026

   Crystal Vinisse Thomas Wants to Uncover the People Behind Hospitality's Biggest Brands

   Crystal Vinisse Thomas has spent her career building some of hospitality's most recognizable brands—W Hotels at Starwood, Hyatt's lifestyle and luxury portfolio—and she's spent the last year deliberately stepping back from all of it. And now she joins View From Afar as our guest host: Every month, she'll sit down with hospitality leaders to uncover "the people behind the process." In this first episode, Afar senior deputy editor Jennifer Flowers turns the questions on her. The two longtime friends trace Crystal's path from Starwood to Apple's Beats by Dre and back to Hyatt, unpack why she walked away for a year-long sabbatical at the height of her career, and share a preview of the questions she'll be asking once the mic turns to her guests instead. This week's guest and host Crystal Vinisse Thomas is a brand-builder and one of the more original travel changemakers to join a microphone this year, with a résumé spanning hospitality, consumer tech, and sport: luxury and lifestyle brands at Starwood (including W Hotels) and Hyatt, where she built what's now Caption by Hyatt, plus a run at Apple working on Beats by Dre. Her travel industry insights come from nearly five years leading Hyatt's lifestyle and luxury portfolio before she took a full year away from the business entirely, returning as View From Afar's newest host. Find her at crystalvinisse.com and on LinkedIn. Jennifer Flowers is Afar's senior deputy editor, overseeing the magazine's hotel coverage, and a regular contributor to View From Afar. In this episode Crystal's path from Starwood and W Hotels to Apple's Beats by Dre and back to Hyatt, where she spent nearly five years building the brand now known as Caption by Hyatt Why she stepped away from hospitality entirely for a year-long sabbatical, including signing off LinkedIn and asking her network not to reach out with job opportunities Her definition of luxury, shaped by a consumer study she led at Hyatt: not a hotel, a product, or a price point, but time Where she thinks AI genuinely helps travelers (discovery) and where it still falls short (taste and judgment, like recommending a coffee shop that closed months ago) The origin of "Friday Fellowship," the standing gathering she started during the pandemic, and how it shaped her approach to interviewing travel's leaders on View From Afar Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction 00:03:00 A Career Built on Brands 00:06:00 Why She Stepped Away 00:17:00 Redefining Luxury as Time 00:20:00 Where AI Falls Short 00:25:00 Friday Fellowship Links & resources Crystal Vinisse Thomas's website Crystal on LinkedIn Watch this episode on YouTube [TK: link] More from View From Afar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2. 

   10 Jun 2026

   Live From IPW: Ron Price on the Phoenix People Don't Know

   Visit Phoenix President and CEO Ron Price and Afar Deputy Editor Michelle Baran explore Phoenix's surprising reinvention and hidden attractions.

3. 

   9 Jun 2026

   Live From IPW: Tom Noonan on Austin's Next Era

   Visit Austin president and CEO Tom Noonan and Afar editorial director Billie Cohen discuss Austin's ambitious reinvention and its strategy for growth during convention center renovations.

Who has been a guest on View From Afar

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Ron Price
• Tom Noonan
• Timothy Wolfe
• Doug Bourgeois
• Jorge Perez

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

2,286,237

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.7 / 5

14 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 68 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

88

Social presence

0

YouTube

86

Engagement

32

Contact View From Afar

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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