This podcast episode dives into the transformative dynamics within the travel industry, particularly in the context of post-pandemic recovery and geopolitical shifts. Our guest, Alfredo Gonzalez, draws upon his four decades of experience in the realm of travel and tourism, offering valuable insights into the evolution of marketing strategies and the paramount importance of fostering partnerships. We engage in a robust discussion on the necessity for Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) to adopt a more realistic and expansive perspective on international markets, emphasizing the significance of understanding global competition. Moreover, Alfredo accentuates the essence of human connection in hospitality, asserting that despite the rise of technological tools such as artificial intelligence, the heart of the industry remains rooted in personal interactions. This episode serves as a compelling call to action for industry professionals to embrace innovative approaches while remaining deeply attuned to the needs and desires of their audiences.

IN THIS EPISODE

• 00:07 - Introduction to Aqua Talks
• 08:01 - The Importance of Partnerships in Tourism
• 12:49 - The Impact of COVID-19 on Travel and Partnerships
• 19:20 - Culinary Experiences Around the World
• 24:42 - Exploring Global Flavors
• 29:03 - The Evolution of Hospitality Careers

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The podcast emphasizes the importance of fostering meaningful connections with audiences through innovative marketing strategies.
• Listeners are introduced to the transformative power of marketing within the travel and tourism industries, especially post-pandemic.
• The discussion highlights the essential role of partnerships in the marketing realm, particularly in promoting destinations effectively.
• The speakers reflect on their extensive experience in the travel industry and the significance of sharing knowledge with future professionals such as those in the EFTI program at the University of Florida.
• The episode underscores the necessity for destination marketers to adapt their strategies to the evolving global competition in tourism.
• Insights are provided on the complexities of marketing at both the state and national levels, showcasing different challenges and opportunities.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Alfredo Gonzalez (LinkedIn)

Alfredo Gonzalez is a seasoned industry veteran with decades of experience shaping the hospitality and tourism landscape. He has held leadership roles with organizations such as Visit Lauderdale (formerly Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau), Visit Florida, and Brand USA, and continues to influence the industry as a member of the University of Florida’s EFTI Industry Advisory Board.

As the founder of AG Hospitality Group, Alfredo has built a strong track record as an entrepreneur, specializing in international marketing, business travel, leisure, sales, and negotiations. His career reflects a passion for creating opportunities, driving growth, and building meaningful connections across global markets.

Welcome to Aqua Talks where marketing meets bold game changing ideas.

Join your hosts, Larry Aldrich and Maddie Dudley as they explore the art and science of cutting through the noise, capturing attention and fostering meaningful connections with your audience.

Whether you're a destination marketer, government contractor, or simply passionate about the transformative power of marketing, Aqua Talks offers engaging discussions, fresh insights and actionable strategies designed to inspire and inform.

Welcome to Aqua Talks where we take a deep dive into the world of marketing.

Whether you're new into the world of tourism, destination travel, or you're a seasoned veteran in the world of marketing, government contracts, private sector, we're going to give you deep insights and have good conversation around the world of marketing and how we can help you possibly give good insights into growing your, your audience base.

Today we're sitting here, we'll have a conversation with Alfredo.

Alfredo, you want to, you want to jump in and kind of give a little bit about yourself?

Sure, Larry.

Well, thank you for the opportunity to do this with you guys.

I think that it's definitely an opportunity because of the timing.

There's so many incredible changes going in the travel industry today and not only because of, you know, going back and thinking that we're living in a post pandemic environment, but I think if we look at what's going on geopolitically, just so many things, I think the timing to really sit down and discuss what our options are are great.

I'm lucky enough that I spent the last 40 years working on the travel in the travel industry from, you know, some very humble beginnings at the beginning when I started working for Marriott hotels back in the mid-80s and lucky enough to have joined in the the government side with greater Fort Lauderdale, which is called today Visit Lauderdale.

And really ended my career, what I always said proudly, working for two of the largest institutions to promote travel both at the state level with Visit Florida and Brand USA at the national level.

So I've had an amazing career and Chip and I are hoping to give some of that back with our relationship with the University of Florida and their School of hospitality.

So I love opportunities like this to kind of share experience and see if we collectively can redirect some of the things that need to be redirected as we look forward to what is coming our way in the development of tourism and hospitality globally.

Can you give a little bit of an insight, you don't have to give too much into what you and Chip are doing with the University of Florida?

Yeah, well, I graduated from Florida back in the early 80s and I was honored to join the EFTI, the Everett Freeman Tourism Institute.

And it really, the reason I do it is because of the relationship that we've created with the students.

We're able to engage directly with the students.

They tell us what they want, they tell us what they're working for, what the future looks like.

What they don't have is the experience that we have.

And Chip and I and the members of the advisory board, we hope that we can become not just, you know, advisors, but mentors and friends.

The University of Florida has given us that opportunity.

Dr. Rachel Fu and Dean Reed allow us to have this engagement with the students.

And look, if it isn't for the students, I mean, we're at the end of our careers.

The future of tourism and the future of hospitality and the future of the world relies on what these students are going to do once they graduate and start working in the real world.

So it is an honor and opportunity to give back a little of what we got from.

From the school and the hospitality.

So.

And like Chip will probably agree with me, it's super rewarding to be able to talk to these students and find out what they're looking at.

And sometimes kind of, they have some ideas of what the hospitality industry is.

And I've actually sometimes been a little unpopular because of my.

My comments to them and in reference to, like, AI, I've always told them, I said, hey, look, AI is a great tool, and it'll be redefining and transforming the industry from whether it be a front desk to an automated bartender on a cruise ship.

But at the end of the day, hospitality is about the people.

It's about allowing people that work all year to take maybe in this country, a couple days off.

But if you look at globally, where people have four weeks of vacation time or holiday time, we have an opportunity to, not through AI, but through us, the people, to continue to be the welcoming factor where these people will take their money and use it and drop it in our country, our hotels, our restaurants, our attractions.

So through the University of Florida program, I think we have an opportunity to let these students, not only through what they learn, but through what they hear from us, that we're an additional tool above and beyond AI.

And that's been my role for the last 10 years or so that I've been on the board.

Yeah, that sounds like that's going to be really exciting to see and do for.

For you and Chip.

And I'm actually looking forward to hearing more about that and seeing how that turns out.

And before Chip jumps in just to help our audience.

Can you give a difference between working on the national level with Brand USA and visit Lauderdale, Visit Florida, where you're there.

So a little difference between a national level and breaking it down to the state?

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, when, let's say you're.

You're working for visit Lauderdale and you have one county, 32 communities, and there are some specific needs, you can get very specific based on the assets and benefits that you offer.

You know, Brayer, Fort Lauderdale had a great seaport, a great airport, and a pretty diverse hospitality community.

You go to work for state level, then you have 64 counties, and you have 64 different ideas of what they want to do.

Whether you're up in Tallahassee or you're in the Florida Keys, you have to then at the state level, manage those, what everyone needs specifically.

And then you multiply that by 50 states, five territories in the District of Columbia, and then your job is to promote them on the global stage.

Given the diversity of product that we have available in the United States of America, it is a challenge, but it is an honor as well.

So big differences.

You know, when you go from.

From a county to a country, not only is it the size of the job, but it's also the expectations.

And to me, one of the greatest pleasures working for Brand USA was actually working directly with the state directors of tourism and then some of their local communities that felt, and I know they know this well, is that Brand USA gave them an opportunity to have a place in the world like they've never done before.

So smaller communities in the middle of the country, whether you'd be in South Dakota or Montana, Wyoming, Louisiana, it gave them an opportunity that in the past relied on big cities.

Miami, Orlando, New York, Las Vegas.

Now with Brand usa, we were able to give everyone a voice, give them a place to say, look, we too can play in this international tourism world.

You know, it's an absolute.

It's funny, we were talking about this on, on a different podcast, just talking about that where areas they've experienced over tourism are looking for that, you know, to diversify their product a little bit more, to make people more aware of those other smaller destinations.

So that's, you know, that's, that's, that's wonderful to hear on the Brand USA level that, you know, and, and, and coming from a smaller destination in my tourism background, it was great to utilize Brand USA as a partner because we were able to expose ourselves to markets that we would have never been able to do as a Small county, but to kind of jump into that and off camera, you and Larry and I talked about partnerships extensively.

And you and I actually met doing a partnership when you were with Visit Florida with airlines.

So what's your kind of philosophy on partnerships and maybe make a case, cite a case or something where you're particularly proud of a partnership that you helped orchestrate.

Sure.

And Chip, that was great working with you with our carrier in Florida, because actually we got a lot done and I think the key word it is partnerships.

And I, I always use this kind of like as a joke.

I say, hey, he who can go out there in the world and dominate on its own, I'll find a gold star and give it to you.

But it's because it's going to be rare.

You need to partner with people.

In the case that you and I work together, it's real simple.

An airline wants to start flying from point A to point B.

In the airline world, there are no guarantees.

In the airline world, a lot of startups don't work.

They'll start, they'll try, they'll fail.

And the airline has the ability to reposition those airplanes in other places, they'll be more profitable, have higher frequencies, higher ticket costs and so forth.

In the case of what I been doing for years in partnership development, especially on the airline side, was getting the airport, the local community, mostly the tourism community and the airline to work together.

Because if the airport is on its own to try to convince a carrier, it's going to be the airport funding trying their best to convince that airline to go, well, the airline is only a, a vehicle.

The airport is just a facility.

What the passenger wants is a destination.

So my work and what we did together with Chip was tell the airline you're not alone in this process.

You're working with two entities here, state level and city level, and airport that will join you.

And in this world where you're counting every dollar because your budgets are reduced or whatever, instead of the airport having to pay 100% of the nutrition, having to cover the expense of that startup, it's covered between the airport, the cbb, the state, and in some points, Chip and not, we didn't do it with, with that in that case, even at the national level, because even Brand USA did work together with the carriers and the destinations to support them.

And look, you guys know almost as well as I do that airlines don't really make money.

They minimize the money they lose.

So anytime that there's additional funding to market, promote and help that that startup it minimize of that airline not being successful and staying in a particular destination.

So the key word partnerships, if you can do it alone, I'll find a gold star.

Great, have a great life.

If not, you're gonna have to count on your friends, your partners and to work together and form these partnerships that are not a one on the partnership is created to last a long time.

Right.

We do partner a lot at Aqua.

We've got some really good strategic partners with Brensys.

That's really been the key to brentzys growth.

Working on federal contracts, doing a lot of marketing for large agencies like the VA and Department of Interior.

We've been working with partners on some of these larger campaigns and projects.

And so partnerships partnering is huge.

And a lot of the larger agencies, they like to see companies, vendors come together and bring their skill sets together to be able to offer a better value to the government.

So you know, we partner a lot and it's a big key to our success and jumping over a little bit.

You've, you've talked about national experience and, and state level experience.

So question a little bit about international.

If you had to pick one direct to consumer advertising, digital or trade shows, travel, trade, which way internationally would you lean?

But then we got hit with a little thing called Covid.

Covid was an interesting situation because what it did is it was like a hit, hitting a giant reset button.

What do we do now?

Well, all of a sudden, right towards the end of COVID people wanted to travel, they needed to travel, they just didn't know how to travel, they didn't know what was open, they didn't know what the conditions were, they didn't know what was open, what was closed.

And so a very important part of the travel industry was reborn and that was a travel agent, the retail travel agent, you know, Kelly down at CSF Travel or Bob at this travel, because the travel agents stayed in touch with the product.

They knew what was open, that was what's closed, what the conditions.

That happened a lot overseas, all of a sudden there was a resurgence of home based travel agents.

And not just in, in the UK or in Ireland and Germany, all over the place because people did not feel comfortable enough in just going on online and booking their holiday, not knowing what was the product at the finish, at the end.

So they went back to the basics.

And the basics was to now re educate the consumer.

So you asked me what would I do right now?

I would do a combination of both.

The trade shows are very important now.

The difference is that not all the trade shows are as important as they used to be.

There are some better than others.

There is a very easy way to reach consumers.

Educated consumer will make an educated decision if they know what the product is.

And I think that if you combine the trade shows, a really good distribution network and a way to reach consumers to educate them on the diversity of the product, I think you're in good shape.

Not anymore.

You know, sticking on the topic of international travel and your experience, what do you think a lot of DMOs, not all of them, but are larger travel related businesses, larger resorts, et cetera.

What do you think they get wrong when they try to get go into international markets initially?

And in that matter, what do they get right?

What they're getting wrong is to think that business is the same as it was 10 years ago, that the doors are open, therefore they will come.

A lot of DMOs don't understand the level of global competition.

If we think as a country with the only country with roller coasters or beautiful beaches or great shopping malls, we're very, very wrong.

This world, if you covered like I have, has amazing things to offer and there's a lot of countries and around the world, like if you look at our friends in the Dominican Republic, our friends in even Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica, they go out to the world promoting and spending millions of dollars in attracting the customers that we thought we owned and no we didn't and we don't.

I think it's an arrogant thing to say.

There was many, many years ago a person wanted to get rid of a tourism office in central Florida.

I won't tell you which one, but.

And Chip, you know who it was, he said we have the biggest attractions in the world.

Why should we spend so much money trying to attract them?

And I actually sat on the, on the, on, on a advisory board at that time and I said, well, if that's what the way you think, I'm off board.

Because if you don't think the world has a lot more to offer than these attractions, you're very wrong.

And he was the doors are open, that doesn't mean they will come.

The doors are open.

That means that you have an opportunity to let, let's say a brand new essay, open those big doors for you so that the little people like Biloxi or Wakula or whatever, that they can then come through.

But it's got to be a DMO has to understand the basics of what they have today as a product that they have the ability to partner with their state or their national level.

DMOs need to be more realistic.

And they also can need to understand that a lot of DMOs will, like, for example, ignore Scandinavia.

Scandinavia.

Four countries, actually really five, as you include Iceland.

Those four countries have the top three economies in the world.

No unemployment, they speak better English than we do, amazing air infrastructure.

So they can fly from any city, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Finland, Austria to the US all year round.

And then.

But the DMOs don't realize, they say, well, you only get so many people from Denmark and so many people from, from Finland.

But if you add them together, they equal about the same visitation as the UK.

And we're spending 80% of our international budget on the UK.

That's why I think we need to start opening our eyes.

Where are the airplanes coming from?

Who can afford to be here?

Who wants to be here?

I mean, we have a big problem with our Canadians.

They don't want to come, but we have to try to express our feelings to the Canadians, say, look, we understand how you feel, but we still want you to come.

We actually need you to come back.

And we will do everything we can in the travel industry, not the political side, to tell you that we are welcoming, that we've always loved Canada, especially from me, that I've lived in the state of Florida for the last 40 years.

My international business, it was from Canada, I would not be here today.

So that's the situation internationally that I think we need to start thinking as CBBs, DMOs and even Brand USA to start thinking there's a bigger world than the top five markets into the U.S. yeah.

Wow.

Absolutely.

Makes a lot of sense.

And we're, we're all professional marketers and we're in travel and tourism.

We're, we're in a couple sectors and you travel a lot in, in your, in your job and what you do.

And we travel a lot.

And for some reason on this show, it always goes back to food.

So let's just, let's just do what we do and talk about food for a second here.

In all of your travels and all of the places you've been, let's keep it to the US Right now.

Where are some of the, where one or two of your Top places where you've really enjoyed the food and maybe go a little further and talk about, if you want, where that destination was and what kind of food it was.

Well, Larry, it's a.

That's a difficult question because I don't know if I say fortunately or unfortunately.

I have traveled to more countries than I have states in the U.S. wow, that's great, actually.

I wish I could have that problem.

My entire career has been international development.

You know, I just happened.

And you guys know this.

I happened to.

I was in Montana and Wyoming last.

Last week for the first time.

And I have to tell you, when I talk about the diversity of product in this country, from culinary.

But.

And hospital, it's about the people.

And so I. I don't have a specific, especially a culinary, because I eat everything.

I do have my opinion on eating overseas, though, so.

Sure.

Well, there's two places that have always been my favorite.

One is in Colombia now.

But Colombia has two regions like the capital.

In Bogota, there is a soup.

It's a chicken and potato soup called ajiaco.

And it is not a soup.

It is an.

It's a culinary experience with chicken and rice and the broth and guacamole and avocado and capers and cream and plantains.

It's not a meal, is an experience.

That's if you.

If you eat in the.

In the city now, if you go to another, like into the coffee region, like in Medellin, like in the mountain region, there is a plate called bandeja paisa.

Bandeja means platter.

And this platter has everything your little heart desires.

I mean, it's got chicken, chorizo, steak, plantains, rice, black beans, you name it.

And again, it's not a.

It's not a meal.

It's an experience.

Now, through my travels, I've been to places like, I remember eating off the road in a shack between Johannesburg and Durban.

And it was.

They call it biltong, which is basically beef jerky.

Delicious.

Needless to say, I had no idea what that beef jerky was made from.

Probably something that was really close to the road.

But it tasted good.

It tasted seasoned.

It was delicious.

And again, I have no idea what it was.

It was just hanging off the side, just drying off the side of the road.

But the taste of it was just amazing.

And some of the food that I've had, like in.

In Malaysia, it just.

I don't know how they put so much flavor, actually, in one that I will remember is in Chengdu in China, where I'M half Mexican, so I'm supposed to be able to handle hot food.

Oh, no, no, no.

You go to Chengdu, they could probably run engines with these sauces that they put on their food.

And again, it's just amazing how.

I don't know how they make these sauces, but the taste of everything is just like you never.

And you never get it anywhere else.

Even if you were in a restaurant, Chinese restaurant in the States, you'll never get the Chengdu experience.

Speaking like hot foods.

My son's really into hot sauce and all of that.

And it's like he'll get buffalo wings and then ask for a side of sriracha or a side of red hot.

And it's funny, I was.

He was home for the summer before he goes back to school.

And he's a computer engineer.

He's in his senior year.

He's doing a co op for a train company, working on the signals for like the, the.

Not the, like the metros and high rails.

So he's working on their signals.

So he has his computer bag with him.

And on each side where you're supposed to have water bottles, he has two different types of hot sauce bottles that.

He carries with him.

Well, your son needs to go to Chengdu because they have, in the restaurants, they will tell you or you visiting from Europe or you're visiting from America and they'll give you a chart.

Basically, what there's a red line that says, don't go past this because we won't be responsible and you won't be amazed when people like, well, I want to try that.

And they will and you'll see them sweat.

But your son would need to go if he likes hot sauces, that whole Szechuan area, cooking in the Chengdu area is where he needs to go.

That's the Mecca of the hot.

It makes Mexicans think they're drinking just tap water.

Oh, wow.

And I've had some hot food.

Mexico having.

Yes, we have.

Yeah.

Well, you know, all this talk of food.

We need to do another episode just on, just on food.

Yeah, we do because we end up.

Coming back to it every time.

Yeah, we definitely have to do like an ex and would love to have you, Alfredo.

Especially the fact that you've traveled and so you've, you've tasted foods internationally all over the place.

You're.

You got us thinking, got me thinking about going to China just to, you know, for the Szechuan.

Actually, I don't even eat all that hot stuff, so I just want to go and get some seafood over there.

I'll do it.

I'll take one.

There we go.

Yeah, Definitely an episode on travel and foods.

And we definitely want to have you back and my pleasure again on a lot of other things and continue this conversation and more conversations, even.

Even offline.

So I'll be, you know, with Chip, working with him to make sure we.

We definitely continue those conversations and hear more about what you and Chip are doing and maybe we can find a way to pitch in somewhere.

Somewhere.

Sure.

Well, I mean, guys, the only thing we have.

I mean, I tell people that this is the end of my career, not the beginning of it, and it might sound like a cliche, but having the opportunity and the honor to do this with.

Gentlemen, what you do with ACWA and Chip, you and I working at the University of Florida and so forth, it is an honor and I would welcome the invitation anytime you need.

I'm lucky enough to have spent the last 40 plus years on the travel industry and being able to go around the world and learning about, not so much about the business side of it, but the people side of it.

I. I live in Florida, but I don't really know a lot of people in Florida.

All my friends live somewhere else.

And so I feel when I get a chance to go to an event in London or Germany or Oslo, I know we don't even stay in a hotel.

If I don't stay at my friend's house, I'm insulting them.

Yeah.

And I think that's.

I think that's the basics of hospitality.

I get to not only promote it, but.

And live off it.

But I also get to live it when I'm.

When I'm in my friend's house in Munich and we're like, hey, let's walk down to the pub or in Dublin.

When I say my friend's house, you know, that I only get because I understand hospitality and those little experiences I can share.

And if I can share it through networks and, and opportunities like yours and your podcast, I'll do it all day long because I'm proud of what I've done and I'm proud to the top validators, you're giving me a living.

So to share that to me is an honor.

Absolutely.

Your career is envious.

Coming from a small city, Pittsburgh, went to unit college there, lived in a small town right in south of Pittsburgh.

And information like this, conversations like this, never knew a career like yours existed.

You literally travel for work.

Your whole career was based off of traveling to some of the most Beautiful places on the planet, eating some of the greatest food that you can imagine, making great friends all over the world, speaking multiple languages, things like that.

Aren't heard of, weren't heard of.

And now we can.

We can talk about that.

We can promote that, we can market that.

People coming up today can see that.

I mean, there's so much opportunity.

If you just get out there a little bit and your career, like you just said, doing that over the last 40 years, I got a little jealous for a second.

I'm like, wow, that's a great life.

That's a great career.

Thank you for sharing that with us.

Well, it's been an.

It's been.

I don't think I could do anything else.

I don't want to do anything else.

But it gets to the point that it's never been about the product.

It's been about the people.

And that has kept me engaged, motivated.

Even when we talk about with this, with our students, they.

Yeah, they're very curious.

Oh, my God, you traveled the world.

Yeah.

But then we try to tell the students that the hospitality is also very diverse.

It's not just event planning like most of our students want to be in.

Event planning.

The hospitality industry goes anywhere.

It's, you know, it's your front desk clerk, it's your bellman, it's your.

It's your pilot, your co pilot, flight attendant.

It's that person who works the cruise line.

The hospitality industry is huge, and we need to try to help our students understand that it's not just event planning.

And I think that our group is trying to show that the students that this is.

They can do.

And if you bring the experience like mine and say, look, do you like to travel?

You know, do you want to see this in your future?

Well, these are the steps that I followed, and it is without a doubt, Larry, I am the luckiest man alive.

I have a great family.

I have a wife that understands almost all the time the fact that I don't live in the States most of the time.

But I am very, very, very lucky that I ended up in this business almost accidentally.

And now I can say that I can close a chapter soon.

Proud of what I did and who I did it for.

Yeah, absolutely.

And thank you for being with us.

I thank you personally for being with us.

Aqua talks thanks you, Chip.

Maddie, when she shows up, she thanks you for being with us.

Our listeners, they.

I know they got a wealth of information and they're going to thank you to hearing about what, how your career was.

They could find out more About Alfredo on aquatox.com will have his information on there his socials.

Please reach out to him.

Go visit his socials.

We'll have him on there and follow aquatox.com we'll have more information, more great guests like Alfredo and continue to talk to Alfredo.

So follow us on Aquatox.

Thank you.

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