When you sit down to record a podcast, you usually think you know what the conversation is going to be about.

AI.
Social media.
Destination marketing tactics.
Campaign strategy.

But after recording a series of interviews during the Oregon Governor’s Conference on Tourism for my podcast Field Notes: Insights and Observations for the Travel Marketer, a different theme started to emerge.

Not technology.
Not marketing channels.

Trust.

It came up again and again, across completely different conversations with tourism leaders, destination marketers, and travel innovators. And the more I thought about it, the more it started to feel like the real story behind where travel marketing is heading next.

Marketing Is Becoming an Exercise in Trust

One of the interesting things about modern marketing is how much of it now happens outside the places we control.

People don’t start their travel planning on destination websites anymore. Increasingly they begin with Google, ChatGPT, TikTok, Reddit, Google Maps, or recommendations from friends.

Which means destinations aren’t just competing for attention.

They’re competing for credibility.

In one conversation with Carol Skeeters Stevens, CMO of Travel Medford, we talked about how third-party recognition, like Medford being named one of the best small towns in the West by Sunset Magazine, can reshape how people think about a destination.

Awards don’t instantly translate into bookings.

But they do something arguably more important: they validate the story a destination has been telling about itself all along.

That outside voice builds trust.

And trust opens the door to curiosity.

Accessibility Is a Trust Problem, Not a Technology Problem

Another conversation that really drove this home was with Arturo Gaona and Sofia Bravo from Wheel the World, a company working to make travel more accessible for people with disabilities.

Their insight was striking.

The problem with accessible travel isn’t that booking systems don’t exist. It’s that travelers often don’t trust the information they’re given.

Think about the typical hotel listing that simply says “accessible room available.”

Accessible how?

Door width?
Bed height?
Bathroom configuration?

For travelers with accessibility needs, those details aren’t minor conveniences—they determine whether a trip is even possible.

Wheel the World has built a system that collects more than 200 accessibility data points about hotels, attractions, and destinations so travelers can make informed decisions before they arrive.

And here’s the surprising part.

They’ve discovered that transparency matters more than perfection.

Even if a place isn’t perfectly accessible, travelers still appreciate knowing the details ahead of time so they can plan accordingly.

Data Is the New Tourism Infrastructure

One of the most interesting insights from these conversations is how much the future of travel marketing may depend on something fairly unglamorous: data.

Wheel the World has built what may be the largest accessibility database in hospitality.

Why does that matter?

Because the way people search for travel is changing rapidly.

AI tools like ChatGPT and other search systems increasingly rely on structured data sources to answer questions.

If a traveler asks, “Where can I stay in Oregon with wheelchair accessibility?” those systems need reliable sources to pull from.

The destinations that have invested in detailed, trustworthy data are far more likely to show up in those answers.

In other words, the websites people may never visit are still becoming some of the most important assets a destination owns.

Because machines are reading them, even if humans aren’t.

A Bigger Opportunity Than Most Destinations Realize

Accessibility also represents one of the most overlooked growth opportunities in tourism.

Travelers with disabilities and their companions account for billions in travel spending each year. And yet studies suggest that three out of four accessible trips encounter some kind of problem.

That’s not just a service issue.

It’s a massive market gap.

Destinations that solve it well tend to gain something extremely valuable: loyalty and word of mouth within a community that actively shares travel experiences with each other.

The Takeaway

After hours of conversations with tourism leaders, the pattern became hard to ignore.

The future of travel marketing may not be about who has the best campaign.

It may be about who earns the most trust.

And increasingly, trust is built through transparency, data, and the willingness to share information that helps travelers make confident decisions.

If you want to hear the full conversations—including deeper insights on accessibility, destination storytelling, and the evolving role of travel marketing—you can listen to these episodes of Field Notes wherever you get your podcasts.

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