All Episodes

June 30, 2026 59 mins

Send us Fan Mail

Today's travelers aren't just choosing where to go, they're choosing what they'll experience once they get there. From immersive exhibitions and live music to unique cultural events, in-destination experiences have become one of the biggest drivers of how people choose, remember, and share their travels.

In the first episode of our In-Destination Experiences Series, Dan sits down with Rocío Trujillo, Regional General Manager for Southern Europe at Fever, one of the world's leading platforms for discovering live experiences. Rocío shares how Fever has grown by combining technology, data, and local market expertise to help people discover everything from intimate Candlelight concerts to immersive exhibitions and one-of-a-kind events.

The conversation explores how Fever identifies emerging demand, scales successful experiences around the world while adapting them to local audiences, and uses its Secret Media network to inspire millions of people to discover what's happening in their own cities. Rocío also shares her perspective on the future of experience discovery, including how AI is making recommendations more personalized and how emerging technologies could soon help travelers build complete itineraries in real time.

Whether you work in travel, tourism, or hospitality, this episode offers a fascinating look at why experiences have become one of the industry's most powerful competitive advantages and why they're increasingly the reason people choose a destination in the first place.

Thanks to Pernod Ricard for sponsoring this series!

👉 Listen to How Fever Is Changing the Way We Experience Destinations Now

🔥 Special Thanks to our Season 7 Title Sponsors for their Support: Bokun, Civitatis, Intrepid, Kaptio, Propellic and Protect Group

The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. 

https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/

Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:05):
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Travel
Trends Podcast.
This is your host, DanChristian, and I'm thrilled to
introduce our final theme forseason seven, which is
indestination experiences.
This has been our most populartheme for the last three
seasons.
We introduced it in season fivewith our good friends over at
Pernault Ricard.
And we had another amazing threespeakers in season six.

(00:28):
And this is the very firstepisode of our three-part series
for season seven as we go intoEuropean and North American
summer.
We thought it was the perfecttime to introduce this series as
we move into July.
And there's been one companythis entire time that we've been
so keen to get into the podcast.
And it hasn't worked in seasonfive and season six.

(00:50):
But there's this amazingindividual, Rocio Trujillo, who
works at Fever, who I met lastyear in Sevilla at the Tourism
Innovation Summit.
And she was on a panel, and shewas extraordinary on this panel.
So I was so keen to have herjoin us for this podcast
recording.
And so before I do, though, Ijust want to quickly acknowledge
our sponsors, of course, PernoRicard, as part of this in

(01:13):
destination series.
They have these incredible brandhomes that you've heard about in
our last uh few seasons, wheretheir brands really come to life
through immersive world-classexperiences from iconic
distilleries to innovativevisitor centers.
Perno Ricard brand homes explorehow destinations are shaping the
future of experientialhospitality and engaging
travelers once they arrive.

(01:34):
You can learn more about PernoRicard and their brand homes and
their global portfolio atPurneau-Ricard.com.
So thanks again to Laura and theteam at Perno Ricard for kindly
sponsoring this series.
And now, on that note, let'skick off with our very first
episode with Rocillo Trujillofrom Fever.
Rocío, welcome to Travel Trends.
Thanks so much for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 (01:55):
Dan, thanks to you and the team for finally making
it happen.
We're very I'm very, very happyand we're very excited to be
part of this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 (02:02):
Wonderful.
Thank you so much.
And the uh for our listeners,they've heard me talk about
fever over the last uh threeyears because I had such an
extraordinary experience at theStranger Things in Los Angeles
when I first discovered feverduring the pandemic.
And since then, I've gotten tolearn so much more about the
company.
I know Bruno Ricard and KimViviala Ventures have invested
in fever.

(02:22):
I've met uh the founders who arealso uh incredibly inspiring and
fascinating.
And you've built such animpressive global business that
many listeners, I'm sure, arenot even familiar with.
They may have taken some of yourexperiences but not know about
fever.
So maybe let's start with that,or I'll see you if you might
give us a bit of an overview offever.
And for our listeners, it'sfeverup.com if you want to
multitask and check out thewebsite at the same time.

(02:44):
But yeah, give give us a bit ofbackground on the company,
please.

SPEAKER_02 (02:47):
Indeed.
Or maybe the listeners want tocheck out the the app, which is
just fever.
Um well, fever is the largest umdiscovery platform today for
live entertainment.
So what we do is we give ouraudiences the menu of the things
that they can do at anydestination so that we help them

(03:07):
discover what's out there.
Let's leave it here because wehave a very long conversation
and I think we're gonna cover alot of topics.

SPEAKER_01 (03:13):
Well, and your role specifically, you're the
regional general manager in inEurope.
You're based in Madrid.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour role and how long you've
been with the business.

SPEAKER_02 (03:21):
Sure.
So I joined FIBA three years agowhen we were, I think, around a
thousand people in the company.
Today we're north of threethousand people in the company.
It's been three years, threeamazing, amazing years.
Um, so I'm managing SouthernEurope, meaning I am responsible
for landing the incredible um umpartnerships that we bring from

(03:46):
outside, such as the ones wehave with uh Football Club
Barcelona or Atlético de Madridor uh the F1 Gran Premio de
España, which is gonna happen inSeptember in no time.
Well, we're we're responsiblefor um the technology on those.
And precisely for the GranPremio de España, we're also
taking care of the fanexperience.

SPEAKER_01 (04:08):
Fantastic.
And this is where when I got achance to meet Rocio last year
in person and be on stage withher, I'm always very keen to
make sure that not only we get achance to meet uh beforehand we
go on stage, but also the nightbefore I was reading up on uh
all the panelists' background.
And I just want to share thiswith our listeners too, because
I'm sure many of you willconnect uh with Rocio afterwards
on LinkedIn.
But she has a law degree, shedid her MBA at Inseed, she's

(04:31):
worked at McKinsey and um alsoAmazon.
So uh Fever is very fortunate tohave you, first and foremost.
But but it also highlights youknow what an incredible scale-up
uh Fever is, and then the factthat it attracted you to be a
part of the business to join.
Um and so I know things havegrown considerably over the last

(04:52):
couple of years, but yeah, telltell us a little bit more about
where the business is today.

SPEAKER_02 (04:56):
Sure.
So um and thank you for for yourkind words.
Yeah.
Um I was a lawyer initially, butthen I switched completely into
strategy, did my MBA, and thenum jumped from McKinsey in SEAD,
and then finally Fever, and thisis where I hope I can stay long.
Like I don't I don't need anyother change.
But um on Fever, what we do iswe are we are a multi-category

(05:19):
platform.
That means we are taking care oftechnology for life events, um,
and we don't settle or we don'tfocus into one category per se,
such as music or such asnightlife.
But we take care of everythingbecause we have the assumption
that who buys today a concert isor any category is the person

(05:39):
who tomorrow is gonna take theirkids to a theme park, and then
yesterday was the one visiting amuseum and tomorrow it's gonna
go to a to a football match orto a sport experience.
So um this is, I think, theheart of what we do.
We we understand consumers as awhole, and then we gather
learnings and data from one sideand the other.

SPEAKER_01 (05:58):
One of the things that's really fascinating about
your business model is that younot only draw from potential
inbound travelers, but you alsogive people a chance to explore
their own city.
And this is where I see what'sreally unique about Fever.
And I was having a conversationwith one of your investors
comparing Get Your Guide toFever, whereas with Get Your
Guide, you know, you need to goto a new destination, whereas
Fever, you can explore your owncity, especially these amazing

(06:21):
candlelight events that you run.
I I'm always getting targetedwith your ads on social media,
and I want to ask you about thatbecause you guys do such clever
marketing.
Uh but tell us a little bitabout more about how you curate
these experiences, and I'd loveto get your take on the overall
experience economy becauseclearly you guys are leading in
that space.

SPEAKER_02 (06:39):
Sure.
So, Dan, the fact that you areconstantly targeted by
candlelight means that you'regonna love the candlelight
because we only target peoplethat we believe we're gonna love
the experience, and second, thatthe team is doing a great job.
So, congrats to the team fromhere because they're doing a
very good job.
Um, all right, so on theexperience economy, well, when

(07:00):
we think about travel, um, whatwe've seen is there's a switch
from people looking ataccommodation, transportation as
their main driver intoexperiences as the main driver
of choosing a destination andactually be building a travel
around, right?
So today people find what theywant to do and then they build a

(07:21):
trip around.
And that means we're switchingfrom destination economy to what
we call the experience economyitself.
And people are more and morelooking towards how am I gonna
belong into the place that Ivisit?
How what how am I gonna feel?
What are what's the feeling?
What's how am I gonna engagewith the city?
How am I gonna engage with thedestination rather than what am

(07:44):
I gonna see?
Or what's the sightseeing partof that I visit, right?
So this means um experiencesbroadly considered are are
becoming increasingly importantinto the economy more and more.

SPEAKER_01 (07:58):
Well, it's interesting.
Uh, the experience economy, asmany of our listeners know, Joe
Pine, who's been on our podcast,the author of The Experience
Economy.
We've talked about the fact thatyou know this year, 2026, is
very much the year of thetransformation economy.
That's obviously the title ofJoe Pine's new book.
And the connection there, when Imentioned the investor that was
on the podcast, it's MichaelZeisser, who runs FMZ Ventures,

(08:18):
and he's the one that his twobiggest successful investments,
and this is someone that goesback to working for Alibaba and
even before with uh Expedia andhas had incredible success
investing in travel.
He decided his thesis forinvesting was the experience
economy, and two companies thathe got behind were Fever and Get
Your Guide.
And he was early into both andhas done incredibly well and

(08:40):
continues to remain invested,bullish.
And so with fever, the fact thatyou have this opportunity to
take trips within your own city,I would say that is what is one
of many things that's reallyspecial about fever.
And the fact is, is that onceyou become a customer of fever,
then clearly, as you mentionedat the beginning of the app, you
know, there's so manyexperiences for you to

(09:01):
continually discover events thatare happening around you.
So I've got so many questions onthis topic, uh, but I I guess
I'd love to understand thestrategy around that, Rocio,
when you look at the cities youoperate in.
Tell us, yeah, I guess give us alittle bit of overview of the
scale of how many your yourcities you're in now.

SPEAKER_02 (09:17):
Sure.
So I think I already mentionedthat we're north of 3,000 people
in fever, out of which 1,500 arebased or around are based in
Spain, where we have our umcentral services and
headquarters.
And we're present in more than50 countries.
And we have been um selling uhin more than 550 cities.

(09:41):
So I can say we're pretty muchalmost everywhere.
So yeah, scale is big.

SPEAKER_01 (09:46):
Yeah, and that's where I mean your um, you know,
five years plus overnightsuccess story and and have an
incredible five-year trajectoryahead of your global growth,
because not only you have achance to scale to more
countries and more cities, butalso to build up the number of
experiences you're offering ineach of them.
And so let let's talk a littlebit about those experiences
because I know you work withpartners, you do a licensing

(10:07):
model, if I understand itcorrectly, with some partners,
um, the Stranger Things being agreat example because I also
have been to Stranger Things uhthrough fever in other cities as
well, because having kids thatwere super into the show, and
then having nieces and nephewsthat um also then discovered it.
And so um clearly there'ssomething for all ages.
So tell us a little bit aboutthe types of experiences that

(10:28):
you curate when you work withpartners, how you create your
own experiences.
Uh love to know how it all comestogether.

SPEAKER_02 (10:34):
Interesting.
Well, the thing is, feverdoesn't necessarily work
imagining imagining experiences.
What we do is we get hundredsand millions of data points per
month, and then we're able tounderstand what are the trends
that are actually shaping theindustry.
So if I take a step back,because I think we're we're
moving um deep into what, likeinto this part of the

(10:57):
conversation, but withoutnecessarily understanding that
FIBA as a company, it has thisum discovery site that you can
jump in in the app, you can jumpin online in FeverApp.com.
Then you have all this ticketingtechnology, which is key to have
a seamless experience to makesure that you get the
transaction whenever theaudience has the impulse to buy.

(11:19):
And then you have all thesemarketing tools that are
actually um feeding from the uhfrom you let what you learn from
the app, what you learn from thetransaction to make sure that
you're targeting and retargetingthe right people.
And finally, you have all thesesecret media, which is the
largest media outlet of uh liveentertainment uh content in the

(11:39):
world that actually tells youthe many of things that you have
to do in the city, notnecessarily transactionable, all
of them.
Some of them are for free, butit gives you an idea, it gives
us an idea of what people areliking, right?
So this is fever as a whole,like in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_01 (11:55):
Then what you just shared is really important.
So I'm glad you underscoredthat, which is that as fever
creates these experiences, youalso manage the entire ticketing
and booking process and do themarketing.
So like it is you are themarketplace for the own
experiences that you create,sell, and promote.
And that's really important forpeople to understand.

SPEAKER_02 (12:12):
Yeah, it's important.
And I'm lett helping themunderstand what's the audience,
what do the audience care about,so that we can then in turn get
a larger audience into theseinto these experiences that they
weren't necessarily interestedin in the first place.
But then I uh what I wanted tosay um before I explain this
about Fever is that we don'tnecessarily create ideas.

(12:34):
Yes, we do have the candlelightum events, but we didn't create
the classical music.
What we did is we found uminsights um within our million,
actually it's billion datapoints, that people were looking
for classical music and theywere looking for formats to
experience classical music, butthey weren't liking what they
see.
So imagine 10 years ago, fiveyears ago, you wanted to see uh

(12:57):
Beethoven concert, and you wouldgo to the um largest and most
most historical um culturalplace in your country in your in
your city, and it was like veryold school, it was a very long
uh event, you didn't know how todress, you didn't know when you
could take out your cell phone,etc.
What we've done is we haveinfused into something that we

(13:20):
know people are looking for,which is classical music, which
has which are we we have infusedcertain elements that we know
people like, so shorter formats,um closeness to the to the
musicians, we tell them whenthey can get out their cell
phone, um, we tell them how tointeract with the with the
format, how to share it, etc.

(13:40):
So people just like a new way ofconsuming something that has
always always been there.
So this is what we do when wesay that we experience like that
we create experiences, whatwe're doing is we're finding
spaces that people are lookingforward and we're just um
understanding what what's what'sactually that blank space and

(14:01):
feeling that filling that up forthem.

SPEAKER_00 (14:03):
We'll be right back.
Did you know that over 20% ofpeople who purchase a ticket
upgrade to a refundable optionwhen given the choice?
By offering Refund Protect, youmake it easy for your customers
to protect their ticket purchaseagainst emergency circumstances
including illness, injury,accidents, and more.
Whether you're an airline, hotelgroup, tour operator, ticketing

(14:24):
platform, OTA, or transportsolution, when you partner with
Protect Group, your customersget peace of mind and you
generate extra revenue.
With a trust pilot score of 4.8stars and over 31,000 reviews,
we treat your customers as ourown, earning the highest
customer ratings in theindustry.
To find out more, check out theProtect Group website at
Protect.group slash traveltrends.

(14:50):
Travel has changed.
But many multi-day touroperators are still stuck with
spreadsheets and disconnectedsystems.
Today's travelers expect more,more choice, more flexibility,
more unforgettable momentswithout the friction.
That's where CapTO comes in.
Built on Salesforce, Captio is amodern platform designed
specifically for multi-day touroperators.

(15:12):
From tailor-made trips to grouptours, from rail to river to
cruise, we bring youritineraries, bookings, payments,
and operations together in oneseamless system.
With automation, real-timeinventory, and supplier
integrations, we make complextravel simple.
So you can focus on what you dobest.
Serve travelers, notspreadsheets.

(15:32):
Visit CapTo.com to learn more.
In the world of travel, youbring the WOW, those
extraordinary scroll stoppingexperiences that travelers never
forget.
And BOCUN, they bring the how.
As a trip advisor company andthe number one booking system
across major OTAs, BOCUN is thecomplete booking and channel

(15:52):
management solution forextraordinary experiences.
From an intuitive websitebuilder to synced availability,
Bokoon handles the code so youcan focus on the guests.
Plus, scale your businessthrough Bokoon's marketplace.
Over 2,600 OTAs and resellers.
Are you ready to grow withoutthe growing pains?
Visit Bokoon.io today to startyour free 14-day trial.

SPEAKER_01 (16:16):
And now, back to the show.
So let's maybe look at a fewexamples because I'm familiar
with a few of your major successstories, and that's from the
outside looking in.
But from your vantage point, I'dlove if you wouldn't mind
sharing, you know, and youmentioned things like F1.
So I know you're in music,you're in sports, you do
different um uh cultural, you dopop-ups.

(16:37):
Um, and so there's there's quitea range of offerings that uh
fever focuses on.
Take us through, if you wouldn'tmind, how how you categorize
some of those experiences andwhat are the most popular fever
experiences do you offer?

SPEAKER_02 (16:51):
Interesting question.
So we take care, like we takecare, as I said at the
beginning, we're not focused ona particular category.
We take care of everything umthat could be sold in person,
like any in-person umexperience, right?
Life experience.
The thing is, what's what'sgonna be our our locker is that

(17:12):
we only sell things that we knoware gonna be valuable.
Because um part of the valuethat we bring to our partners is
that once we have a curate likea um really worked on PL, like
we have um optimized the capex,we have optimized the operation
so that our opex goes well, um,we can then scale this uh

(17:35):
experience throughout the world.
And we can only do that ifwhatever we sell, it's gonna be
solidly um managed from a P ⁇ Lperspective, right?
So um so that's the thing.
Um, and then some of theexperiences that that we that
are our best uh our bestsellers, one of them for sure is
a candlelight that we'vediscovered, we've discussed uh

(17:57):
already.
But then we are here just foranything.
I would say in Southern Europe,we're very, very large in sport,
um, with all these amazing uhpartnerships that we have, but
we are also present in the worldof theme parks.
So we work, for example, we weretaking care this month.
From this month, we're launchingMadame Tussaud, The London Eye.

(18:19):
So we're working with MerlinEntertainment, which we have
been working before, to actuallytake care of their London
cluster.
Or um this month we saw theexperience of uh El Papa,
actually the Pope, coming intoSpain, and we have taken care of
their access control for all themedia.
So we took care of tens ofthousands of people,
accreditations um to visit thePope.

(18:41):
So the scale and the amplitudeof what we do is just amazing.
We just take care end to end ofanything that is um
entertainment, liveentertainment related.

SPEAKER_01 (18:51):
Rossi, I found it fascinating, all the types of
experiences.
I know when I speak to LauraPernault Ricard, they have a
great relationship with Fever,and you guys not only help them
uh promote the brand homes andprovide ticketing, but also uh
co-create a number of umexperiences with them, like at
Havana Club.
And so, how do you work withpartners?
I'd love to know for partnersthat are interested in

(19:13):
collaborating with Fever, uh,how does that all come together?

SPEAKER_02 (19:17):
Interesting question.
So, the basis or the core ofwhat we do is that we take care
of their um ticketingtechnology.
That's gonna help us understand.
And and that means anything thatthey sell, it's gonna mainly be
sold through Fever.
Then we can connect all the OTAsand all the traditional
platforms if needed, but um weare the core technology.

(19:41):
That means we're gonna be, we'regonna have an unparalleled view
of how the audiences are arebehaving, in what they do and
also in what they don't do.
And actually, we understand verywell, and this is like the
amazing job of hundreds ofengineers that we have here, um,
we understand very well whatpeople are why people are um

(20:01):
leaving the the basket, wherepeople are not transacting, um,
and that help us then re-work onthe value proposition.
We we reshape together with ourpartners how we need to tell the
storytelling of what's going onin the in the experience, how do
we need to rework on the pricingside of the of the event, which

(20:22):
is also very important, or howdo we need to take care of the,
I don't know, number of of um oftickets sold or uh sessions.
We work with them so that thethe package, the value
proposition of the event, it'svery well, it's very clear, it's
well known and very wellunderstood by the audience, so
that more and more people startum buying that event.

SPEAKER_01 (20:44):
One of the things I'm keen to ask you, because you
obviously not only have theopportunity to work with all
these partners, but you have theopportunity to visit and to have
these experiences yourself.
So one of the things I'm gonnacome to in a moment, uh Rocillo,
is some of your favoriteexperiences that you've um uh
either helped create or you knowthat you've just enjoyed
yourself.
But before we do, one of thethings I'm sure our listeners

(21:05):
would be very keen to understandis how you go about creating a
successful experience and whatsignals you're looking for.
Because I really interesting ofall all the data points you're
looking at to try andunderstand, and obviously that's
perfect for our podcast sinceTravel Trends is about trying to
separate the signal from thenoise and understand what
consumers are looking for.
And as you've highlighted, it'syou know, you sit at the
intersection of discovery,ticketing, and creation, and

(21:27):
you're not just distributingexperiences, you're creating
them in certain instances, butnot always.
Um, but clearly your trackrecord of success is so
impressive.
So you are making sure that youare paying attention to the
signals to then determine what asuccessful experience would look
like.
So, if anything, you're workingwith partners to know how you
can create something together orhow you would actually be able

(21:49):
to market somethingsuccessfully.
So tell us a little bit more.
Tell us about that.
I'm really intrigued to knowwhat signals you're looking for
and what makes a successfulevent.

SPEAKER_02 (21:57):
So um let me use some mu.
Example here.
So DIECE, it's one of thecompanies that works with FIBA
that belongs to the FIBA group,and they have been working with
Olivia Dean since she was almostnot well known in the UK, right?
Or nowhere, right?
She was it was very um in herearly days.

(22:18):
Well, we started launching intoour audiences this post telling
them, hey, Olivia Dean is comingand she's gonna be doing XYZ in
this in this area, in this, inthis venue.
And we realized, or these arethe things that we measured for,
right?
We realized that um whenever weposted about her, the volume of
engagement, the volume of peoplesharing the post, actually

(22:40):
liking the post, commenting onthe post, or saving the post was
larger than usual.
Then, whenever we had thecountdown for the event, um,
there were a lot of peopleactivating the countdown more
than on average.
And then whenever we had thewait list open, people would
just go into the wait list likemassively, and people would go

(23:00):
like, Hey, even if I know salesare not launched yet, I'm just
gonna go and try to buy to seeif I find a bag here and I can
get my ticket soon.
Well, all these signals arethose that show us how are
people liking uh a format, howare people liking an experience
before it's even on sale, so wecan see what's the size of the

(23:22):
untapped audience.
With this knowledge andinformation, we get back to the
to the orders of Olivia Dean andactually her song, listen, if
you haven't closed it yet, Imean if it's possible, go to a
larger venue or get a secondnight or a third night or a
fifth night because there'sgonna be demand.
And today we can say that shehas, I think it was like no long

(23:43):
ago that she has um been part ofthese uh arena and even larger
than arenas, and she has been umperforming in front of tens of
thousands of people.
Well, that's the sort of signalsthat we're looking forward, that
that that we're looking to.

SPEAKER_01 (23:57):
Yeah, we saw her perform at the Grammys this
year, and Olivia Dean has becomea huge success.
So fever was part of herjourney, if I'm understanding
you correctly.

SPEAKER_02 (24:06):
I'm very happy to say so, yes.

SPEAKER_01 (24:08):
Oh, that's a great, that's a great success story.
I mean, I think that's where youknow music, culture, the things
that people, especially in theirown cities, and that's I guess
that's um an important point tounderstand, uh, is when people
are booking with fever, is therea can you kind of share a little
bit of guidance for us on howmany people are actually within
their city booking fever ortraveling when they're booking

(24:29):
fever?

SPEAKER_02 (24:30):
Yeah.
Um, well, I don't think I havethose numbers um top of mind,
but I can say the recurrence inthe app, it's very, very high.
So the whenever we see that ouraudience, well, they're based in
a city and they're looking forthings in a city, and it's it's
um we tackle them, right?
We inspire them.

(24:50):
But then we see that the personis looking for a different city.
What we do is we get theirinsights and we understand and
we trap um transpose the thingsthat we know they have liked in
their own city into their citythey're looking or they're
exploring now.
So and then we show them the umexperiences that we know they're

(25:11):
gonna like.
So after all, we we're justlearning what people like and
we're just giving them the menuin the place that they're
interested in.

SPEAKER_01 (25:19):
Yeah, that's really interesting because we still see
that many travelers are bookingin destination.
And although more people havestarted to book in advance of
their travels, it's still verymuch just the case that people,
you know, half of travelers willbe booking in destination.
And it's interesting youmentioned that because that's
certainly my experience in usingfever.
When I was in Berlin last yearfor um earlier this year,
rather, for ITB, I was looking,I had seen um a fever ad, and

(25:43):
then I and I always see yourmarketing because it is very
effective, but then I look tosee whenever I'm in Europe,
local events that are happening.
And so I use it, you know, bothto see what's in Toronto, and
there's always like there'salways uh new events coming up
in Toronto, but then I wheneverI'm traveling.
So it's interesting, and that'swhy I was curious to know
because clearly the answer isboth.
I mean, people are using it intheir home city, and then people

(26:06):
are using it when they'retraveling.
So um just to keep uh on onemore question for you on the
experiences and how they scale,since you've given some great
examples on music and youmentioned the candlelight
concerts.
Um, is there uh a formula, ifyou will, or some um consistent
elements that you've seen thathas gone from an idea to

(26:26):
creating these immersiveexhibitions at scale or you
know, seeing what uh formula forcreating experience resonates
globally, but still has thiswonderful local feel because
that's you know thecandlelight's probably the best
example of that because you knowI see multiple candlelights in
Toronto and I see candlelightsin every city I go to.
So um, yeah, tell us a littlebit about how you create a

(26:48):
formula for that, if you will.

SPEAKER_02 (26:49):
That's uh a very good question.
I would say when we find um anevent or a format that can
scale, and we say, we tell ourpartners, listen, there's a big,
a large opportunity here.
There's a lot of demand, there'sa lot of untapped demand, let's
go big.
What we're looking forward is, Ithink I shared it a little bit
before, but we're lookingforward to something that it's

(27:11):
gonna be profitable.
So we know very well what aredeliverers from a PL perspective
or cost, revenue, etc.
But then we look for um eventsthat can actually be curated to
tackle the audience like in eachof the cities.
So we curate the elements tomake sure that we are um

(27:32):
catering what people in SouthEurope or in southern Spain
like, which is not gonna be thesame as people in Chile or
people in Toronto or people inSouth Korea.
So we need to have this formatwhich can then be um infused
with um local elements thatpeople are gonna be resonating
with.
And I would say the formula hereis the more simple an idea is,

(27:56):
the more people um can alsoexperience it, can resonate with
it, and can somehow extract anemotion out of it, the more
successful the experience isgonna be.
So we don't have to look forvery, very complex ideas.
We have to look for people forthings that actually generate um
an emotion, generate a feelingin the audience.

SPEAKER_01 (28:17):
For you, this is where I'm keen to ask you what
have been some of your favoritesthat you've really enjoyed?
Because they really stay withyou.
This whole idea of immersiveexperiences, a lot of them are
so like profound and likeespecially this whole idea of
immersive, ever since thepandemic, when all of a sudden
we, you know, we were stuck inour own cities and couldn't
travel, and now we can travelagain.
But some of these art exhibitsthat travel around that I know

(28:39):
Fever partners with, and youknow, fever presents.
I love when I see that.
I feel like it's like Netflixpresents.
I get excited when I see Feverpresents.
Because to me, to me, that showsa standard.
That's like a it's I'm I'mpretty much assured I'm gonna
love this.
Like you guys, you know, it'sthere's a a production level
that fever has that is justlike, you know, I don't I can't
even think of uh what comparesto that.

(28:59):
Like Meow Wolf does an amazingjob, but really, you know, you
guys are incredibly unique inhow you operate.
So um I'm sure there's many thatI've missed that have been in
Europe.
So tell tell our listeners whatsome of the highlights have been
for you in your time at Feverand what have been the big
successes.

SPEAKER_02 (29:12):
So to me, and I know it's uh it's um it's it hasn't
passed yet, but the Gran Premiode España, F1 Grand Prix, it's
by far the one that I'm mostexact excited about, right?
It's it means the first timethat Fever has partnered with
F1.
We're taking care of the funexperience from the awareness
side to the moment they reachthe Grand Prix, and then

(29:35):
everything that they they doaround like the entertainment,
music, but even the PutinBerber.
So we're gonna be taking care ofall that, and that's gonna be
amazing.
But I have to say two otherthings.
One is this um drone art showconcert that we did in the
Vatican called Grace for theWorld, where we had starring um
amazing, like amazing stars.

(29:57):
Like it's such a pity that wecannot put some images here
because it's worth having a lookat Grace for the World.
We had um Andrea Bocelli, we hadCarol G, we had like amazing,
and everyone was we had hundredsof thousands of people in in the
San Marcos Square, and there wasthis uh gospel cars, uh chores

(30:18):
like increasingly like amazinglybig, and on top of everything
was the drones, and you couldsee the the hands of
Michelangelo, you could see theface of the boat, amazing.
That was amazing.
And I also have to say the umdrone-up show, um, sorry, the
the Harry Potter show, the thelight trail, and the the last
one I went to was in Montaban inFrance, the Harry uh Harry

(30:40):
Potter, a forbidden forestexperience.
And my kids just loved it.
They they went nuts with it.

SPEAKER_01 (30:46):
Yeah, that's a perfect one for a family.
Anything to do with uh HarryPotter, and this is where, you
know, when you get to partnerwith these amazing brands at
this scale and be able to havean impact on millions of
travelers, because that'sliterally what your uh your your
audience is each year andgrowing, um, you know, you're an
important part of the thecultural connection of a city.

(31:06):
And I I would love to ask youthat because I'm sure you give a
lot of consideration to who youpartner with, the experiences
that you offer, and how muchneeds to be uh a strong cultural
connection with a destination.
And so uh, and given you guysare based in Spain, which is one
of the most amazing places totravel in the world, I'm you
know, often in Spain.
I was just in Barcelona lastweek, as you know, and I love

(31:29):
traveling uh to Spain.
Um and even when you mentionedF1, I just want to highlight
too, one of my favorite podcastepisodes is the Acquired
podcast.
It's a I I know many of ourlisteners likely listen to
Acquired as well.
And the one they did on F F1 wasamazing.
And then all of a sudden, once Ilearn more about F1, I want to
do an F1 event.
Like it just it brings you intothat experience and the
storytelling and knowing thehistory of it.

(31:51):
But as to in terms of culture,how much consideration do you
give to uh being mindful oflocal culture or leveraging
local cultures to createexperiences?

SPEAKER_02 (32:00):
All right.
I have to say on F1, um, weannounced last week that we're
gonna be powering the F1.com Umtechnology.
So now we're gonna be thissource of technology for any and
all the uh Grand Prix happeningaround the globe.
So from Azerbaijan to Barcelonato um you name it, we're gonna
be their um their provider andwe're extremely proud of this.

(32:23):
Wow, it's huge.
Yeah, it's huge, it's huge newsfor us.
So then on the on your question,we believe finding the local
flavor is so so important thatthis is why we developed the
secret media network.
And as I said, this is the I Idon't know if I said it already,
but this is the largest mediaoutlet, and what we do is we

(32:44):
have um uh presence online inalmost, I think it's 500 cities,
and we tell the audiences whatit's there to do.
So we inspire audiences.
80% of what we tell them, it'snot necessarily transactional.
So in Spain, we will tell themabout where they can find the
best um and the coldest beer orwhat's happening this week on on

(33:06):
um cultural events where youdon't have to pay or where to
take your kids this weekend, andand we just tell them things.
But then people like us, peopleengage with us.
In Madrid Secreto, we havemillions, I mean, and we have
millions and millions of peoplefollowing us in in Secret NYC,
Secret London, Paris Secret,it's all all across Europe.
And then we tell them, hey, butthere's an amazing new thing

(33:29):
happening in the city, and it'sI don't know, a uh a new museum
which is opening.
Why don't you go and check itout?
Well, people like us and peopleknow that we offer very Q rate,
like very nice plans, Q-ratedelements, what to do with the
families.
Whenever we tell them, hey, getyour ticket, people are in the
best of moods to actually getout um their wallet and execute

(33:51):
the transaction.

SPEAKER_01 (33:52):
The secret media part of your business is
probably one of the most uhincredibly savvy and I would say
sophisticated approaches tomarketing that is, and it's even
the branding around that.
Like Fever has a great brand,but these you know, secret, the
idea that you are an insider,that you're getting access to
something special and uniquethat other people may not know
about, is really clevermarketing as far as I'm

(34:13):
concerned.
And one thing I'm I'm keen toask you on that is um having
worked with the fever team onsome initiatives, it's so one of
the things I didn't fullyappreciate is just how powerful
the marketing engine is umbehind fever.
So um tell us a little bit moreabout how that came about and
the timing because I'm not wasthat something really from the
beginning of the inception offever?

(34:34):
When did the secret part of thethe group emerge?

SPEAKER_02 (34:38):
Right.
That's a very, very goodquestion.
So when we talk about fever, uhwe've discussed a lot these um
technology, ticketing technologyand end-to-end live
entertainment technology foraccess control, etc.
But then creating and generatingdemand, it's another of the
pillars of what we do.
One of the things that we arevery good at is at engaging

(35:00):
local audiences or people whodon't necessarily live here, but
they're interested about whathappens in the city.
So I follow myself, um, Seagirand YC because I like the city
and I want to know what's goingon.
And then the people who arethinking about traveling into
Madrid, they already know thatthey like Madrid, and most of

(35:20):
them follow Madrid Secreto, andwe're already telling them what
to do so they can start planningtheir cities, right?
Their trips.
Um so this is something thatcame from the very beginning.
Um, so the fact that wedeveloped the technology
together with the super mediawas uh was uh one of the pillars
of their success.
And then we've also realizedthat through both of those um

(35:45):
business sides or through thosethrough both um angles, we get
so much data points, weunderstand so much what people
are engaging with.
And now once that people arethey are um interested in doing
something that we taught we toldthem about using secret media,
and now they get into thetechnology side and then they

(36:06):
buy the ticket or they don't buythe ticket, then we we get so
such a large database that wedata data points, like actually
a data cube, it's it's huge whatwe have.
That then we said, hey, whydon't we use all these
information and data points toactually do our own marketing?
So you said at the beginningthat we're taking care of the
marketing of the majority of thepartners, and that's true.

(36:28):
We have hundreds, and I'm sayinghundreds of engineers doing
marketing from a scienceperspective, not necessarily
from a um creative perspective.
We of course bring in thecreative side, but only when we
know science-backed that it'sgonna work.
So we only introduce changes,changes into the marketing

(36:50):
because we know they're gonna bedriven more sales.
And this is part of what we do,like this organic side of the of
the awareness of the event andthis inorganic side.

SPEAKER_01 (37:00):
Yeah, I'm really glad you mentioned that because
many of our listeners to thepodcast work in the startup
space.
And one of the biggest mistakesthat we certainly see, and I'll
speak from my experience, and Iknow a lot of investors would
say something similar, is thatthis concept of you, if you
build it, they will come, whichI uh I love the book Shoeless
Joe, is written by a Canadianauthor, interestingly enough,
and I would say I love the book,uh, not only the book, but the

(37:23):
movie Field of Dreams.
And that with Kevin Costner,most people would have seen that
film and they become familiarwith that line.
If you build it, they will come,which is a very meaningful
phrase in the book in the film,but it means something
completely different in thatcontext.
And people often use it inbusiness and to their own
detriment.
And one of the things I justwanted to highlight to what you

(37:43):
just shared, Rocio, is that youknow, if there was a great
example, if you build it, theywill come, is the events that
Fever runs.
But the reality is you don'tjust build great events and make
them easy to book, you then goand tell the world about them
and really effectively spar.

SPEAKER_02 (37:58):
Indeed.

SPEAKER_01 (37:58):
Yeah.
And you have significant uh paidmedia efforts behind that.
And I know one of the thingsyou're very sophisticated about
is your the algorithms to targetpeople on paid social.
And that's where you know itbecause it is incredibly
effective.
You've got a great ROI.
So your investors are bullish onthe future of fever for a reason
because you've you know you havea very sophisticated approach uh

(38:19):
to marketing these experiences.
And so I want to ask you aquestion along those lines when
it comes to technology, sinceyou guys very much are a
technology company.
And the question we have to askevery guest, I'm sure you get
this all the time when you're onstage too, is AI and how you are
leveraging AI, especially as itcomes to personalization or even
just being able to uh enhancethe discovery process.

(38:40):
So I'd love to hear if youwouldn't mind being able to
share with us some of the waysthat you have integrated AI into
your, you know, the platform orto the marketing.

SPEAKER_02 (38:47):
Sure.
Um let me maybe um take a stepback and and discuss a little
bit on the travel side.
And what we're seeing here isthat um people are no longer
looking at destinations based onlandmarks, be people are
choosing their destinationsbased on the experiences that
they're gonna live there, right?

(39:09):
So whenever you find experience,then you're gonna decide to go
there.
And uh the the one of the greatuh greatest examples is on the
musical side.
Let's say, let's come back toMadrid.
Um, we just have a 10-dayresidence show for Pappani.
We're gonna have a 12-dayresidence show for Shakira, and
we have hundreds of thousands ofpeople coming in, flying to

(39:29):
Madrid and choosing the citybecause they know that they're
gonna have this experience, andthen they're gonna they're gonna
be living a 360 experiencearound immersive, around uh
landmarks, around food, aroundcultural assets, about sports,
you name it.
But people know that they'regonna come in here and they're
gonna live an end-to-endexperience, right?

(39:50):
And they're gonna be able toshare it via social, um, social
media, which by the way sharesfeelings and belongings way more
than shares or more effectivelythan sharing just uh a
destination.
So this is one of the reasonswhy we're very good with
travelers, right?
And then um your question wasaround AI.

(40:11):
So what we've seen is that AIhas to be used more and more to
understand what people like andthen tell them or show them what
they're gonna be liking in thecity that they are discovering.
And I think I said that before.
Um, whenever we know that you'reyou've enjoyed because you've
valued, you you've gone thereand you've valued very
positively an experience, and weknow there's something similar

(40:34):
happening in the city thatyou're you're traveling towards,
um, well, we're gonna be usingAI to understand, hey, these are
the three, four things that thewe need to be showing to Dan
because we know he and hisfamily are gonna be enjoying
this.
So AI for us is a um a means ora tool that we use to actually

(40:55):
help you generate emotionsthrough experiences.

SPEAKER_00 (40:58):
We'll be right back.
In a world of endless traveloptions, how do you guarantee
quality?
The answer is curation, and it'sthe core of Civitadas, the
leading marketplace for globaltours and activities.
Instead of just more options,their promise is more quality.
Their experts handpick the bestfrom over 90,000 activities in
4,000 destinations worldwide,ensuring every tour meets the

(41:21):
highest standards of quality,availability, and price.
They focus this winning strategyon capturing the world's fastest
growing customer market,travelers from Latin America.
By connecting these travelers totheir global portfolio of
experiences in native Spanish orPortuguese, Civitadas creates
the powerful customer loyaltyyour business can count on.
Their model is a proven formulafor generating massive demand

(41:43):
and driving industry-leadingconversion.
For the travel trade, themessage is clear.
Partnering with Civitadas isyour strategy for capturing the
massive outbound Latin Americanmarket and turning their growth
into your revenue.
Visit Civitanis.com for moredetails.
Propelic is the leadingfull-service travel marketing
agency built for how peoplediscover travel today.

(42:06):
We help travel brands growthrough SEO, paid media,
analytics, and AI-drivenvisibility across search and
generative AI platforms likeChatGPT.
Recently named to the Inc.
5000 list of fastest growingcompanies, Propelic works with
leading tour operators,hospitality brands, and
destinations worldwide.
If your brand cares about demandcapture performance and winning

(42:27):
in the next era of search,Propelic is your partner.
Learn more at Propelic.com.
Looking for travel that'spurposeful and hassle-free?
Intrepid Travel, the world'slargest adventure travel
company, offers over 900 locallyled tours across more than 100
countries on every continent.
Every journey is designed toconnect travelers deeply with

(42:50):
people and places, while theytake care of the logistics so
your clients can focus on theexperience, not the details.
With small groups andoff-the-beaten path adventures,
Intrepid delivers meaningful,immersive, and responsible
travel.
Explore the world with purposeand ease at IntrepidTravel.com.

SPEAKER_01 (43:08):
And now back to the show.
For most uh travelers that arebooking travel online, they may
not be aware of how AI is beingutilized to market, to position
to them, and there's so there'swhat companies are using in the
background.
One of the things that has beena major topic of focus for us,
even in this, you know, we didan agentic AI series in season

(43:30):
seven.
It was one of our most popular.
We had nine speakers, and peoplekeep asking about the agentic
series.
That's obviously going tocontinue.
We're doing our summit laterthis year talking about beyond
AI.
But one of the things aroundagentic AI, so this is the thing
that stands out to me as far aswhere fever can go.
And keen to get your take onthis is that if we're already
utilizing AI within technologyand marketing to better

(43:52):
personalize and curateexperiences and make
recommendations, could we get toa point where utilizing agentic
AI, that the fever app, Can makea recommendation for you and
book it.
So, you know, that um, you know,you're gonna be in Madrid this
week.
Did you know that this concert'shappening?
Or just to let you know, not anemail.
Not it's like literally just toprompt you to say, I've got a

(44:14):
spot in the first row.
I know you love these kind oftickets.
Can I go ahead and book them foryou this Friday?
My answer to that would be yes.
So it really changes the wholediscovery to a recommendation
engine that agencai AI via voiceor this is what excites me for
the future of travel.
And I would think a company likeFever would be so well
positioned to deliver on this.
So not you have to give a futurethe future roadmap away, but I'm

(44:35):
assuming you guys are working onagentic AI as part of the Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (44:40):
We we believe at some point the AI is gonna be
able to give you real-time uhsuggestions.
It's gonna help you or theconsumer build a complete
itinerary, it's gonna book thetickets for you, and it's gonna
um change what what they'resuggesting based on your
preferences, on your location,on your context, on what you
have thought before, or what youtell them in real time.

(45:03):
So um, yeah, we believe it'sgonna be a large disruptor, and
we're working towards that.

SPEAKER_01 (45:10):
Exciting, yeah.
And I would imagine that youknow AI agents would already be
utilizing your website to makerecommendations.
So this is, you know, and I'mhearing so many examples even in
Barcelona last week of how uhother travel executives are
utilizing these tools, and it'sonly a matter of time between uh
once travelers start to discoverthem.
So, yeah, that's an excitingopportunity, one we can pick up

(45:30):
again in the in the future.
But to come back to the pointyou just shared, Rossio, about
cities and destinations and howthey're changing.
You mentioned something reallyimportant there around
sightseeing.
And I do see that.
Like people, you know, they wantto go to Europe.
I'll use the example of NorthAmericans, Canadians or um
Americans traveling to Europe.
You know, it's still a challengefor some of these uh European
cities that people want to go tothe Eiffel Tower, they want to

(45:53):
see the Sagrada Familia, theywant to go and see some of the
main sites.
So, like those are, you know, sowe have challenges around over
tourism that are real, andespecially peak times of the
year.
And a lot of organizations, getyour guide being a good example,
are trying to encourage peopleto go further afield and explore
um other uh neighborhoods andother unique places that uh will
take them off the beaten path.

(46:14):
One of the things that youhighlighted there is that people
are traveling more forexperiences than they are for
sightseeing.
And I overwhelmingly, I mean,you're absolutely right.
I mean, so people will stillwant to check things off on the
list, they still want to seecertain things, but by and
large, they're looking for anexperience, they're looking at
how a destination makes themfeel and how it connects to
their passions and theirinterests.
So, for tourism boards thatlisten to this, like that uh

(46:35):
need to be rethinking of howthey attract travelers, I'd love
to get your a couple ofsuggestions from you.
So, you know, how cities shouldbe thinking differently about
experiences as a way to attracttravelers.
What would what would you say tothem?

SPEAKER_02 (46:48):
What I would say is that those destinations that
understand what makes your umtravelers stick and what makes
them stay longer, maybe spend auh a couple of nights longer in
the in the in the place, um, arethose who are gonna be winning
over in the coming years.
And to that, to do that, whatyou need is data.

(47:11):
You need to understand what arepeople liking, what are people
gonna be interested in buying,how do we change that experience
that they know it's up there,but to adapt it to the local
flavor so that more and morepeople, not only the local ones,
but those wanting to experiencethe local um inside or the local
life are interested in buying.

SPEAKER_01 (47:31):
Very interesting.
Well, and that's where I thinkthere's the when you mentioned
data, I think it's the one oneof the most compelling uh
elements that many people maymiss.
Or certain DMOs obviously haveaccess to a lot of uh data, but
even still with having anunderstanding of people
searching for their destinationas to why they would want to
travel there, what you know, onething that has come up in our

(47:53):
DMO series that we did as wellwas um events and and and and
specifically music and concertsas a reason for people to
travel, or even the fact that ifthey've been featured in a
television show, that's alwaysone of the big hits, right?
You know, like Emily in Parisand people want to go to Paris,
but um or Game of Thrones or umLord of the Rings, people love
watching shows and thentraveling to those destinations

(48:15):
and being able to immerse in theexperience themselves.
Um, one last question on thisone, and then I want to shift to
the future to finish ourconversation on where the
industry is headed.
But if when you look at theindustry, I see fever is so far
ahead of any of the competition.
You know, there was a time whenCirque du Soleil was certainly
that in the in-destinationexperience space, and their book
Blue Ocean Strategy, I stillremember I shared it with the

(48:38):
CEO of G Adventures, where I wasworking at the time, and we went
to Las Vegas and saw a number ofshows and started to try and
look at uh how is it that thisone company has embraced this
strategy that essentiallydoesn't have any competition.
Every hotel in Las Vegas iscompeting to have their own
Cirque du Soleil show.
And you know, that to me is now,you know, uh I was just in Vegas
again.
I took my daughter and she gotto experience her first Cirque

(49:00):
du Soleil show.
And it's still it's very real,it's it's still a great example.
Um, but I see fever of kind ofyou know really leading in this
space globally.
Uh so you know, take away LasVegas.
You know, Cirque du Soleil doestravel to other destinations,
and it is a big business.
Uh, but you guys have thepotential to do circuses and
music.
Like it's just like it's a it'sa whole other scale.

(49:21):
And so indeed.

SPEAKER_02 (49:22):
Actually, we just started working with Cirque de
Soleil not month not not longago.
So a quarter or two quartersago.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (49:28):
Okay.
Well, I should have bought mytickets for you rather than MGM
uh when I got to the Bellagio.
So uh but yeah, what thequestion I would love to ask you
before we get into the future iswhat you see travel brands
getting wrong.
Since so many travel executiveswill be listening to this
episode, they could be traveladvisors, tour operators, and
it's like, you know, you seewhat works, but you also see

(49:49):
what is happening out there inthe industry.
And I'm not asking you to callanybody out specifically, but
when it comes to in-destinationexperiences, what do you think a
lot of travel brands are stillgetting wrong?
That seems obvious to you fromyour experience with knowing
what works.

SPEAKER_02 (50:03):
Well, I would say that um some of the travel
brands, and again, I'm we're notwe're not um uh talking about
anyone in particular.
Yeah, we'll generalize here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um they're treating experiencesas an anciliary.
So they are not still trustingthe power of experiences, right?

(50:25):
Um, whereas for us, experiencesare more of a strategic asset.
So more and more people theyincrease their share of wallet
of experiences rather on on uhany other physical uh
possession.
They like to share throughsocial networks um the way they
felt when they were doingsomething in particular, and

(50:47):
then people are increasinglyinterested in do uh things that
can talk to them from a personpersonalized, right?
So um I can have thisexperience, but I feel it it was
somehow personalized for me.
Then there's a lot of people whohave a lot of um who give that a
lot of value.
So uh to us, experiences are thestrongest um emotional

(51:11):
connection that you can createwith a consumer.
And you and you need to lead orat least take it into account
when you when you're buildingthe strategy for your travel
brand, that this is somethingthat has completely changed over
the course of the past years.
And uh we need to have it veryclear.
Experiences are at the core ofwhat we do and at the core of
what makes people tick and whatmakes people um spend their

(51:34):
money on one thing or the other.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (51:35):
That's such an insightful point.
And that's I I you're as soon asyou said it, it just dawned on
me the number of businesses thatare looking to add experiences
as ancillaries, especiallyhotels.
That's a good example where youknow they have partners that
have convinced them to addactivities as well.
And so it's people book theirhotel and then book their
activity, and they're looking atit as a revenue driver.
The interesting thing, there's acompany called Turnio that uh

(51:57):
focuses on this space.
And one of the things that theCEO had shared with me is that
actually they found it moresuccessful to convince people to
take hotels to get people totake an experience because
they'll give a higher rankingand rating to the hotel after
their stay.
So it's not actually about therevenue, it's the likelihood of
a guest having a greatexperience and coming back.
And I thought similar to youwhat you shared, that's just
actually it's quite insightfulto know why you're actually

(52:19):
doing this, what the big benefitis.
And so um so I love that becauseuh when we did this artist
series on looking at um resorts,and the number one driver for
them is experiences.
They're all trying to introduceamazing experiences.
That's what draws people to ahotel, not the amenities or the
pool or the having the spa.
It's literally the fact that youcan go and do horseback riding

(52:40):
or um so very, very insightfulpoint.
And so on that note, let's let'sproject forward because I'm very
keen to know where fever isheaded and what you can share
with us.
But let's maybe start more broadbecause you certainly have uh an
amazing vantage point in yourrole and great experience to be
able to speak from about how theend destination experience uh
will evolve in the next fewyears.

(53:02):
So, what are some of the thetrends that you're seeing in the
industry?
How how how is fever evolvingnow?
And what what do you think theindustry is gonna look like in
the next few years?

SPEAKER_02 (53:10):
Yeah, well, I wish I had this uh magic bowl, but we
don't.
But what we believe it's gonnahappen is that personalization
is gonna become a very, veryimportant thing.
So people, consumers arereceiving um or are being
impacted by a number ofexperiences, which is probably
the the largest that it has everbeen.
But we need to make sure that wetouch them with the right

(53:33):
message at the right moment withthe right angle, so that people
tick with that.
So personalization,understanding what people like,
what people uh how people move,how people take decisions, it's
gonna be more increasingly moreimportant.
And then I would also say umdemand is also becoming more and
more fragmented.
So the fact that you have a avery large IP that's uh scaled

(54:00):
globally doesn't mean that youdon't need to adapt it to the
local flavor and what are peoplegonna be looking at um from a
local perspective.
If you're able to understandwhat do people care about from a
personalization perspective, andat the same time, you're able to
adapt your experience, adaptyour IP to what locals are
demanding, then this is webelieve this is gonna be the

(54:23):
future of experiences.
This is probably gonna um toucha lot on the future of travel
also.
So not necessarily we're nottalking about necessarily larger
or bigger experiences, but we'retalking about more meaningful
experiences to the people thatare looking towards them.

SPEAKER_01 (54:39):
And one thing I I know you mentioned earlier,
Roccio, that you don't think interms of categories.
I know there are, you know, whenI was looking through the
website and looking forward toour call, you know, the you
know, there obviously no matterwhat, you we still think in
categories or group certainthings into categories, like if
there are music events or uhfood and drink.
And where I'm going with this isbecause and speaking to Laura, I

(55:00):
know culinary has really startedto take off and arrival at their
conferences are you knowintroduced a culinary track.
So food has become that muchmore of a reason why people are
travel as well.
Um if you wouldn't mind sharingsome of the kind of emerging uh
experiences that you're seeinglike like culinary, um, or if
there's any other specific areasthat you're seeing the the most

(55:20):
growth.

SPEAKER_02 (55:20):
Um well, we've seen a lot of growth in sports
because more and more sportsinstitutions are moving away
from match day or from the eventitself to actually what we have
been discussing so far, tocreating a culture, to creating
a brand, to making sure thatpeople feel part of something
larger than um themselves.

(55:41):
And that emotional connection,which doesn't necessarily happen
only on match day, but that youcan create that throughout the
throughout several touch pointswith your audience.
We know and we've seen thatpeople are super interested in
traveling because of sports,right?
So that emotional connectionbrings a lot of people, and that
to us that's something veryimportant.

(56:03):
And I will also say anothercategory which is increasingly
important in Fever, I would saywellness, for example.
More and more people travelingand taking decisions based on
wellness criteria, whichever uhwhatever that means, right, for
them.
But that's also a very large orat least a growing category
within Fever.

SPEAKER_01 (56:20):
Very interesting.
Yeah, sports.
We did a sports episode, we dida one-off episode, and it was so
popular.
I feel like there's so much moreto do with sports, and not only,
you know, technically F1 is asport, even though um it's not a
traditional athlete, but I meanobviously car drivers are.
Um, but the um uh World Cup, ofcourse, which is happening now
as we're releasing this episode.
And so and I think so many moreAmericans are getting into

(56:43):
soccer, football, and all of asudden we'll be interested in
following these experiences andbeing able to go and see the
home field.
So it's it's amazing to see theafter effect of a major sporting
event because it will still,even though it's a banner year
for football, it's also going tolead to a lot more interest in
you know, in the year or twoahead.
So um, and then in terms offever, let's talk about where

(57:05):
you guys are headed because youkeep going from strength to
strength, and obviously you'vegot an all-star team and many
amazing partnerships.
And obviously, I say the F1 islike that's massive, especially
at a time when the F1 is just umalso growing so tremendously,
their global audience.
Uh, tell us a little bit aboutsome of the other initiatives
that you can share with us thatyou guys have on for the rest of
2026, or even what you'replanning for 2027.

SPEAKER_02 (57:28):
Well, I wish I could share some of the partners that
we have lined up to announce,but I would be announcing them
and they would kill me if I didthat.
No.
Uh, but reality is um we areconstantly growing.
We're increasingly getting moreand more talent, and this is
actually one of our bottlenecks.
So we need such a good talent tocome come to fever, come here

(57:53):
and just let us or help usdevelop all the good things that
we want to put at the disposalof our partners.
So um, I cannot say one singlething, but there's a lot
upcoming in the in the nextmonths.

SPEAKER_01 (58:07):
Well, let's make sure all of our listeners, I
know you mentioned the app, Imentioned the website.
Obviously, I know people will bekeen to connect with you uh on
LinkedIn.
I'd love to make sure that allof our listeners, you can direct
them in the right way becausemany of them will be interested
in partnering with you and alsoto Rocio, like a lot of travel
advisors.
I mean, there's a huge tradecommunity out there that listens
to our podcast, and it's wheremy career first started, and

(58:29):
they're as relevant as ever.
We look at companies like Foraas a the host-based agencies
that sell travel, and there's noreason why they shouldn't also
be including these experiencesfor their guests.
So um, I'd love if you mighthighlight how our listeners can
connect with you and the team tofind out different opportunities
to partner with you.

SPEAKER_02 (58:46):
Yeah, sure.
So um, I mean, it's not onlythrough me on LinkedIn, which
I'll be gladly uh answering, butum th there's a lot explained
already in the fever.comwebpage.
If you go to um the the categoryof fever for business, etc.,
there's a lot there on what theycan do, and we'll be gladly

(59:07):
talking to them and putting themin contact with the right
person.
Like Fever is a big, big thing.
I mean, it's a big, big company,and there's a lot going on, but
there's always gonna be a personwilling to talk to you and
understand how we can help umfrom a technology and demand
generation perspective.

SPEAKER_01 (59:23):
That's wonderful.
Well, muchos gracios, Rocio,thank you so much for joining us
for this.
It was a real pleasure to seeyou again.
I look forward to seeing you atsome of the conferences this
fall.
Congrats on your continuedsuccess.
Best to you and the family andand to the team.

SPEAKER_02 (59:36):
Thank you so much.
It's been a pleasure.
Thanks to you, thanks to theaudience, and I hope they they
like the conversation.

SPEAKER_01 (59:42):
They definitely will.
Thank you again.
Really appreciate it.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Betrayal Weekly

Betrayal Weekly

Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc.

  • Help
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • AdChoicesAd Choices