In this episode of The Best Part of Travel, your hosts Janelle Visser and Stephen Joyce sit down with Haley Ward, VP of Sales at Hudson Yards Experiences, to unpack how one of New York City’s most iconic attractions—Edge NYC—drives demand, delivers exceptional moments, and keeps guests coming back.

Haley shares how her team uses seasonal activations—including wildly popular concepts like Pinkmas—to transform the experience, create new reasons to visit, and keep the attraction relevant in every season. From premium upgrades to immersive pop-ups and strategic brand partnerships, we explore how Hudson Yards maintains its position as a must-visit NYC experience.

Whether you're a tour, activity, or attraction operator, this conversation offers inspiration and practical strategies for refreshing your product, engaging new audiences, and standing out in a competitive market.

In this episode, we cover:

• Seasonal activations that drive revenue and repeat visitation, including the creative thinking behind events like Pinkmas.

• How Edge positions itself within one of the largest and most innovative mixed-use developments in the U.S.

• What modern guests expect, from premium add-ons to memorable, Instagram-worthy moments.

• The role of events, partnerships, and curated pop-ups in keeping an attraction fresh year-round.

• Women in leadership & team culture: creating safety, confidence, and opportunity for emerging leaders in tourism.

• Leadership advice for operators (and everyone, really), including overcoming imposter syndrome, giving yourself a “pep talk,” and inspiring new leaders at every level.

• Actionable advice for tour, activity, and attraction operators looking to elevate their products through creativity and collaboration.

Some resources and other things we mention:

🔗 Pinkmas at Edge

🔗 The Event-Driven Traveler report

🔗 Glasgow Willy Wonka Experiences (What NOT to do!)

🔗 Inside Enterprise Attractions report

🔗 Upcoming Arival Events

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 James Thornton, CEO of Intrepid Travel, to explore why multi-day tours are taking off, and how authentic small group experiences, people-first leadership and a thoughtfully integrated climate strategy have been essential to Intrepid’s success.

🗺️ Topics we cover:

• The rise of multi-day tours & meaningful travel: Travelers are increasingly seeking authentic experiences that foster real human connection — and finding them in small group tours.

• Brand identity & post-pandemic growth: How Intrepid Travel has grown since the pandemic by focusing on “conscious travelers,” and the importance of having an engaged workforce that believes in your brand.

• Growing with purpose… and profit: Why Intrepid Travel is moving away from carbon offsetting to focus on “Travel for Good” and positive impacts, and how “baking sustainability in” to their products has helped them grow their bottom line.

• Thoughtful AI adoption: How Intrepid travel is approaching AI while maintaining its focus on the importance of human connection.

• Urban Adventures & brand strategy: How Intrepid Travel has adapted its day tour brand to amplify its brand and build awareness about its multi-day offerings.

• Leadership in action: James Thornton’s and Intrepid’s people-first approach to leadership and teams, and the importance of diversity of age, gender, country of origin and so on in building a strong leadership team.

• The future of small group travel: and why James Thornton is optimistic about the power of human connection, especially with the challenges in the world today, such as the toxic news cycle, geopolitical uncertainty and the loneliness pandemic.

Learn more with these resources:

🔗 Intrepid Travel

🔗 ⁠The Multi-Day Moment: On the rise of multi-day travel and the top challenges and opportunities of this rapidly-growing sector of travel experiences.

🔗Join the next Multi-Day Track at ⁠Arival 360 | Valencia

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

The world of multi-day tours is changing fast — and the technology powering it is evolving just as quickly.

In this episode, your podcast co-hosts Janelle Visser and Stephen Joyce dive into the tech side of the increasingly popular world of multi-day travel, exploring how distribution and booking tech are evolving to move multi-day forward.

First up, Travis Pittman, CEO and Co-Founder of TourRadar, shares how his company is redefining how travelers discover and book multi-day tours online, connecting operators to influencer content with "Moments" — and why partnerships, flexibility, and sustainability are key to the next wave of growth.

Next, Erika Sternburg, Director of Strategic Accounts at WeTravel, joins to talk about what makes multi-day operations so complex — and how tech companies like hers are rising to the challenge. From online booking and payments to partner networks and travel advisors, Erika takes us behind the scenes of how WeTravel is building tech that empowers multi-day operators to connect the dots across the global travel ecosystem.

If you’ve ever wondered how distribution and tech is developing for multi-day tours, this is the episode to listen to.

🗺️ Topics we cover:

• Why multi-day travel is the next big opportunity for tour operators

• How TourRadar's new "Moments" is connecting user-generated content with bookable experiences

• The complexities behind managing multi-supplier, multi-currency, cross-border trips

• WeTravel’s “Partner Hub” and the bridge between day tour and activity operators and multi-day operators

• The rise of passion- and interest-based travel (from knitting to cycling to safaris!)

• What’s next for the multi-day travel tech & distribution landscape

Learn more with these resources:

🔗 The Multi-Day Moment

🔗 The Multi-Day Track at Arival 360 | Washington DC

🔗 TourRadar Moments

🔗 WeTravel

🔗 Join the next Multi-Day Track at Arival 360 | Valencia

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