It's a strange year to be in travel and tourism PR. Fuel costs are up, a major international soccer tournament has pulled global attention to North American cities, and AI is changing how journalists find and write travel stories — sometimes in the same week. PRSA Austin Live brought together three communicators who navigate all of it for a living, for a conversation that was equal parts industry insight and behind-the-scenes honesty.

Melanie Fish, VP of Global PR at Expedia Group Brands, Wesley Lucas, Director of Communications at Visit Austin, and Elsa Morales, Senior Account Director at Giant Noise, joined moderator Alison Kwong, Head of Global PR at Vrbo, at Visit Austin's downtown office for Beyond the Booking: Travel Trends and Brand Storytelling. As Alison noted afterward, the timing lined up almost too well: the World Cup descending on North America, Fourth of July weekend on the calendar, and a room full of communicators eager to talk shop about what's actually moving in travel.

A few threads stood out. On the destination side, Wesley walked through how Visit Austin plans around the city's biggest tourism moments — F1, SXSW, ACL — building promotion strategies months in advance of events that put Austin in front of a global audience. Melanie and Elsa picked up that thread with their own experiences turning unexpected cultural moments into travel stories, a reminder that some of the best PR wins come from spotting a trend before it has a name.

That idea got two real-time proof points in the days right after the panel. Vrbo's "Readaways" data — tracking a rise in book-focused, slow-travel getaways — made headlines in The New York Times. And Melanie herself turned up in Fast Company discussing new Expedia data on budget-conscious summer travel, describing a shift where travelers are spending less time asking where to go and more time figuring out how to make a trip work within their budget — through rewards, all-inclusive stays, and lesser-known destinations. Two different signals, both confirming the exact data-to-headline pipeline our panelists described on stage. (For the record: the panel also taught us the term "set-jetting" — travel inspired by shows like The White Lotus — so apparently travel trends can come from anywhere, including PRSA Austin.)

The conversation also turned candid on the harder parts of the job: how travel brands manage reputational risk when a customer's trip goes wrong, how AI is already changing the way panelists pitch and research stories, and what it actually takes to break into travel and tourism PR. The panelists didn't shy away from sharing their own missteps alongside their wins — proof that even the most polished campaigns started somewhere messier.

Thanks to Melanie, Wesley, and Elsa for their candor, to Alison for moderating a conversation that covered serious ground without losing its sense of fun, and to Visit Austin for hosting us. If you weren't able to join us, keep an eye out for what's next on the PRSA Austin calendar. Not a member yet? There's no better time to get involved.