This week on Travel Signals, Disney is building around a creator’s established appeal. Google is making sources more visible inside AI answers. And Apple Maps is helping visitors find their way through one of Austin’s biggest weekends.

Several Advance Travel & Tourism clients earned recognition at the Mississippi Tourism Association’s 2026 Tourism Awards Program, with honors spanning destination leadership, research, partnership and industry service.

This week, brands are borrowing from nightlife to earn a place in people’s calendars. Facebook and Instagram are testing feeds that put video first. And consumers are continuing to spend despite their frustration with the economy.

A recent honeymoon in Greece gave Marketing Manager Sara Dyer a firsthand look at a familiar tension in destination marketing: the push to discover somewhere different, even when the iconic experience is exactly what a traveler wants.

Travel Signals: Search Gets Competitive, Disruption Becomes Content and Gen Z Goes Offline Travel marketing is becoming more digital at the exact moment travelers are craving something more real. This week, TikTok put a price tag on the top of its search results. A communications failure disrupted thousands of flights across the Northeast. And new research suggests Gen Z is increasingly [...]

An economic impact report should be more than an annual announcement. It can become a year-round source of stories that shows residents, elected officials and industry partners how tourism moves through a community.

AI is reshaping travel marketing, from traveler discovery and non-commodity content to better prompts, paid AI advertising and emerging ChatGPT traffic.

Travel Signals looks beyond the travel industry for shifts that could reshape how people discover, choose and experience places. This week, the clearest signals are coming from fast food, wellness and social media. Across all three, consumers are reconsidering the role technology and optimization should play in their lives.

At a recent series of concerts, Fred again.. asked fans to cover their phone cameras with stickers and stay in the moment. Afterward, he gave them access to a Dropbox filled with professional photos and videos from the shows. It was a smart exchange: give the experience your full attention now, and you can keep the memory later.