In this season premiere of The Best Part of Travel, Arival CEO and co-founder Douglas Quinby sits down with Andres Spitzer, the newly appointed CEO of Civitatis — the leading OTA for Spanish and Portuguese-speaking travelers. With a background spanning entrepreneurship and Amazon, Andres brings a fresh, tech-forward perspective to one of the experiences sector's most distinctive platforms. From radical curation to AI-powered personalization, this is a conversation packed with insights for any operator or industry professional thinking about where the market is headed in 2026 and beyond.

🗺️ Topics we cover:

• What makes Civitatis different: Why Civitatis operates as a curated platform — not an open bazaar — and what that means in practice: 37 Colosseum listings versus thousands on other platforms, and why that's very much by design.

• Curation in action: Civitatis rejects 70–80% of the activities it receives. Andres breaks down what operators need to know about what gets in — and what gets turned away.

• What it takes to succeed on Civitatis: The two things operators who "crush it" on the platform have in common — operational excellence and deep cultural sensitivity for Spanish and Portuguese-speaking travelers.

• The OTA–operator tension (and the flywheel): How Andres reframes the perennial tension between platforms and operators, drawing on Amazon's flywheel concept and Civitatis' partner-first approach.

• Lessons from Amazon: What Andres actually brought from his time leading product and tech for Amazon Business — and it's not what you'd expect. Hint: it's less about logistics and more about customer obsession.

• AI as a superpower, not a replacement: How Civitatis is thinking about AI — not to cut headcount, but to give people superpowers, from voice-to-voice multilingual customer support to personalized feedback reports for operators.

• The future of discovery and hyper-personalization: Why conversational AI is fundamentally changing how travelers search for experiences, and what that means for operators and platforms alike.

• Growth, profitability and the long game: Why Civitatis is proud to have been profitable from day one, its aggressive growth in Latin America, and how it's thinking about scale without sacrificing quality.

Learn more with these resources:

🔗 Civitatis

🔗 Global Operator Landscape Report — featuring new data on the growing role of OTAs in operator revenue

🔗 Upcoming Arival Events — Valencia, Brisbane & Spokane

The Best Part of Travel podcast is brought to you by Arival. Season Three is sponsored by Protect Group.

In the season two finale of The Best Part of Travel, co-hosts Janelle Visser and Stephen Joyce reflect on the standout themes and conversations from the past year. Sharing highlight clips from their favorite episodes, they explore what’s shaping the future of experiences, from trust, differentiation, and quality-driven travel to AI adoption, collaboration between attractions, and human connection. Finally, the episode wraps with a special reveal: an announcement of a newly added Arival event location!

In this episode, we cover (spoilers below):

• Why hopefulness, ease, trust and balance are important themes for 2026.

• Prioritizing quality experiences and the fiduciary duty to protect guests’ time.

• Getting comfortable with AI usage and how women leaders in tech should approach AI.

• Connecting tour products with User Generated Content (UGC), challenges in multi-day booking tech, and working with travel advisors.

• Why multi-day travel is having a moment, the loneliness epidemic and the importance of human connection.

• Planning ahead for seasonal activations and other special events at visitor attractions, and how getting this right is key to standing out.

• How Australian attractions are collaborating and offering bespoke experiences to attract travelers to the country, VIP Experiences at Sydney Opera House and sailing around Sydney Harbour.

• Transformational travel, phone-free summer camps and getting offline for real connection

  • Next Arival event location reveal: Arival Brisbane 2026!

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  Some resources and other things we mention:

  • Stephen’s Outlook for 2026 on WebInTravel: https://www.webintravel.com/year-in-review-2025-looking-ahead-to-2026-part-4/

  • Arival research on VIP Experiences at visitor attractions: https://arival.travel/article/attractions-offer-guided-tours-vip-experiences/

  • Arival Brisbane 2026 (first 100 operators to register receive $100 off ticket price): https://arival.travel/event/2026-brisbane/

  The Best Part of Travel podcast is brought to you by Arival. Season Two is sponsored by Protect Group.

  
  

In this episode of The Best Part of Travel, we sit down with Erik Blachford, former Expedia CEO and longtime travel industry leader, to explore what’s really changing in travel experiences — and what’s not. From AI and consolidation to leadership and human connection, this conversation cuts through the hype to focus on what matters most for operators and experience creators in 2026 and beyond.

• 🧭 Why human-led planning still matters in travel: How discovery, anticipation, and choice are essential to meaningful travel experiences — and why fully automated itineraries miss the point.

• 🤖 AI’s double-edged impact on travel and experiences: Where AI is already reshaping operations and cost structures, and the looming risks of labor displacement and demand erosion.

• 📉 The K-shaped travel economy & inequality: Why high-income travelers are pulling ahead, what this means for mid-market operators, and the risk of travel becoming less accessible.

• 🌍 Overtourism, climate pressure & regulation: How environmental limits and policy decisions are reshaping destinations, pricing, and long-term growth potential.

• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Human connection as the true differentiator: Why tours and activities function more like art than infrastructure — and why authenticity can’t be automated.

• 📵 The growing demand for digital detox and IRL (in-real-life) experiences: What screen-free environments, summer camps, and shared disconnection teach us about the future of experiences in an increasingly digital age.

• 💡 What this means for operators & leaders: Practical insights on where to focus, how to build resilience, and why leadership today starts with the product and the people.

Some resources and other things we mention:

• 6 Major Themes & Megatrends for Experiences in 2026: https://arival.travel/article/tourism-trends/

• Arival Summary Report from the Executive Summit on the Future of Experiences: https://arival.travel/research/executive-summit-2025-the-future-of-experiences-summary-report/

• Beyond Capacity: Managing Demand at Europe’s Top Attractions (Arival report on overtourism): https://arival.travel/research/beyond-capacity-managing-demand-at-europes-top-attractions/

• Medical referrals for outdoor experiences in Sweden: https://the-european.eu/story-51483/fancy-a-sauna-on-prescription-sweden-becomes-the-first-country-doctors-can-recommend-for-your-health.html

• Join the next Executive Summit in Valencia: https://arival.travel/event/2026-valencia-exec-summit/

• Upcoming Arival events: https://arival.travel/all-events-dashboard/

The Best Part of Travel podcast is brought to you by Arival. Season Two is sponsored by Protect Group.