From virtual tour guides to the metaverse. Discover new digital tools for destination managers. In this episode, I speak with Daniel Kharlas, who is the Chief Operating Officer of EXAR Studios. EXAR Studios is a digital creative tech company whose mission is to develop extended reality (XR) technology that helps destinations all over the world bring engaging cultural content to users on location.

Learn more about how design can help your tourism and destination development work:
www.mdash.consulting
www.linkedin.com/in/matthewhardythomas

This episode of the Destination Design Podcast is part of our ongoing conversation with professionals who are doing cutting-edge work in the fields of tourism and destination development.

Regina Schröter is designing and researching sustainable urban futures with a focus on mobility, new work, and public spaces. She worked with urban transformation agency Pop-Up City in Amsterdam and German Railways' innovation unit Smart City DB in Berlin. Regina is currently collaborating with All Things Urban on building a community-based career platform for urban professionals.

Show Notes
City Quitters, Karen Rosenkranz
Small Is Beautiful, E. F. Schumacher
The 15-Minute City, Paris
I Amsterdam
The Generic City, Koolhaas, Mao
Stadverlaters & nieuwe ruralen
AirSpace, Kyle Chayka
Visit Sweden
Luminato Festival
Tempelhof Park, Berlin

The Future of Urban Tourism
In 2017, 4.1 billion people were living in urban areas. This means over half of the world (55%) now live in urban settings. Many of us have heard this fact, but what does that mean for tourism and destination development? By 2030, an estimated five billion people will live in urban areas. By 2050 the global human population will account for 9.7 billion people, with about 70% living in the cities. How can cities prepare for this massive urbanization movement and what are the tourism challenges and opportunities? 

Designing the Future of Urban Tourism
Given these projections, it is very likely that city tourism is going to experience a sharp growth in the future, adding millions of tourists to a growing urban population.

Because of the pandemic, we haven’t had t deal with this reality yet. However, now is a critical time to set a new course that takes advantage of emerging trends to design destinations that are sustainable and balance the needs of tourists and locals. This includes not only the general economic factors but also indirectly supporting the quality of life of locals through the creation of cultural offerings, improved public transport, improved safety, urban regeneration projects, entrepreneurial opportunities.

Learn more about how design can help your tourism and destination development work:
www.mdash.consulting
www.linkedin.com/in/matthewhardythomas

This episode is part of my ongoing conversation with professionals who are doing cutting-edge work in the fields of tourism and destination development. I’m your host Matthew Thomas, a destination designer who works with communities to use design-thinking, and human-centered design to create magnetic tourism attractions and destinations.

In this episode, I speak with Alex Waffle, who is the co-president of Earthscape —  a design/build firm that specializes in children’s play structures. They are creating some of the most creative play structures I've seen and they plan an important role in destination development. 

Show Notes:

• See Earthscape's play structure photos here
• Superkien public park in Copehagen 
• St. Piet Pier in Florida 

The needs of children and families are often overlooked when we create tourism attractions and destinations. When we’re designing destinations, we can take a human-centered design approach and carefully consider the needs of all the users of that space. Especially kids, because Millennial parents continue don't stop traveling once they have had children. In fact, in the next two years, close to half of Millennial travelers plan to take family vacations, according to a report from Resonance Consulting. 62% of Millennial parents are traveling with kids under the age of 5.

Alex has some great tips to help us design destinations to accommodate kids and families. In this episode, you’ll hear about topics like:

• The sameness of places and how to uncover what makes a destination unique
• Site Context and how play structures can speak to the distinct history, ecology, or culture of a place
• The role of masterplans in developing great destinations  
• Designing experiences
• Connecting destinations to nature
• How to create memorable places for families 

Learn more about how design can help your tourism and destination development work:
www.mdash.consulting
www.linkedin.com/in/matthewhardythomas

How do we attract more tourists and develop great destinations? The Destination Design Podcast explores the work of key innovators, delving into design thinking principles that create thriving tourism destinations.  

Destination Design is hosted by Matthew Thomas, the owner of MDash, a consulting business that helps destination managers, destination marketers, and tourism professionals create destinations that attract tourists and investment through design-thinking and innovation.

Destination Design is an emerging field that incorporates design thinking and human-centered design principles with fields like Economic Development, Marketing Communications, Cultural Planning, Urban Planning, and Tourism Development. 

The Destination Design podcast includes two types of episodes. In the first type of episode, Matthew interviews interesting professionals from a wide spectrum of industries. These interviews are with inspiring professionals on the bleeding edge of work in the circular economy, urban design, the experience economy, and digital marketing. 

The second type of episode is where Matthew shares what he's learned about destination design, innovation, strategic foresight, and other design techniques through his consulting work. Design thinking is being used by innovative Fortune 500 companies and businesses around the world. It’s helping new products come to life and leapfrog competitors. It’s about time that municipalities and destination management organizations begin adopting these tools and processes to create a competitive advantage. 

Learn more about how design can help your tourism and destination development work:
www.mdash.consulting
www.linkedin.com/in/matthewhardythomas