Welcome to a special IPW 2026 series of View From Afar. In this episode, recorded live from the conference floor, Visit Florida Keys and Key West president and CEO Kara Franker sits down with Afar editorial director Billie Cohen for one of our most candid travel industry interviews yet: a look at what smarter Key West travel looks like when a tiny string of islands is breaking visitor records. Kara arrived about a year and a half ago from Visit Estes in Colorado, bringing a mix of legal, marketing, and journalism experience. She inherited an organization that needed rebuilding, and a destination wrestling with a very specific challenge: huge demand, a fragile environment, and a beloved story to protect. In this conversation, Kara and Billie discuss: Why Key West travel is at a record high, with more arrivals at Key West International Airport in 2025 than ever before How Kara rebuilt the organization from 12 staff to 30, brought agencies in house, and recruited talent from outside tourism, including a VP who spent decades at Cisco The shift from broadcast spray and play to targeted marketing, and the industry debate over better tourism versus more tourism Why protecting the coral reef is a business strategy, not just an environmental one, and how it shielded Key West during Hurricane Irma What it means to court the highest average daily rate in the country while asking visitors to treat the reef, the key deer, and the locals with respect How tourism development taxes are funding capital projects, from a refresh of Mallory Square to a new artificial reef in the Lower Keys This is one in a series of travel industry interviews and tourism experts interviews recorded live at IPW 2026, part of View From Afar's ongoing look at travel trends 2026, sustainable tourism, and the destination management challenges facing fragile places. For an honest take on Key West travel and the future of the wider Keys, it is a front-row conversation with one of the hospitality industry leaders shaping what comes next. Resources – Visit Florida Keys website – John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park – Fantasy Fest – Afar guide to the Florida Keys and Key West Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome to View From Afar 00:01:30 Rebuilding the Team From Scratch 00:04:00 Better Tourism, Not More 00:06:30 Investing in the Community 00:11:00 Come as You Are 00:12:00 Pride, Politics, and the Path Forward 00:17:30 The Joy of the Keys 00:20:00 Becoming a Freshwater Conch Stay Connected Subscribe to View From Afar to catch all our IPW 2026 episodes this week. Follow @AfarMedia on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠TikTok⁠ for behind-the-scenes IPW content. ⁠Sign up⁠ for our travel industry newsletter, Afar Advisor. Rate and review the show to help other travel professionals discover these insights. Explore our other podcasts, ⁠Travel Tales⁠ and ⁠Unpacked⁠. This IPW 2026 special series was recorded live. View From Afar is a production of Afar Media and a part of Airwave Media's podcast network (email ⁠advertising@airwavemedia.com⁠ if you would like to advertise on our podcast). The podcast is produced by Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland, with assistance from Michelle Baran and Billie Cohen. Music composition from Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Case for Better Key West Travel, Not Just More | Live From IPW 2026

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Welcome to a special IPW 2026 series of View From Afar. In this episode, recorded live from the conference floor, Visit Florida Keys and Key West president and CEO Kara Franker sits down with Afar editorial director Billie Cohen for one of our most candid travel industry interviews yet: a look at what smarter Key West travel looks like when a tiny string of islands is breaking visitor records.  Kara arrived about a year and a half ago from Visit Estes in Colorado, bringing a mix of legal, marketing, and journalism experience. She inherited an organization that needed rebuilding, and a destination wrestling with a very specific challenge: huge demand, a fragile environment, and a beloved story to protect.    In this conversation, Kara and Billie discuss:     Why Key West travel is at a record high, with more arrivals at Key West International Airport in 2025 than ever before    How Kara rebuilt the organization from 12 staff to 30, brought agencies in house, and recruited talent from outside tourism, including a VP who spent decades at Cisco    The shift from broadcast spray and play to targeted marketing, and the industry debate over better tourism versus more tourism    Why protecting the coral reef is a business strategy, not just an environmental one, and how it shielded Key West during Hurricane Irma    What it means to court the highest average daily rate in the country while asking visitors to treat the reef, the key deer, and the locals with respect    How tourism development taxes are funding capital projects, from a refresh of Mallory Square to a new artificial reef in the Lower Keys   This is one in a series of travel industry interviews and tourism experts interviews recorded live at IPW 2026, part of View From Afar's ongoing look at travel trends 2026, sustainable tourism, and the destination management challenges facing fragile places. For an honest take on Key West travel and the future of the wider Keys, it is a front-row conversation with one of the hospitality industry leaders shaping what comes next.  Resources  – Visit Florida Keys website  – John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park  – Fantasy Fest  – Afar guide to the Florida Keys and Key West    Chapters  00:00:00 Welcome to View From Afar  00:01:30 Rebuilding the Team From Scratch  00:04:00 Better Tourism, Not More  00:06:30 Investing in the Community  00:11:00 Come as You Are  00:12:00 Pride, Politics, and the Path Forward  00:17:30 The Joy of the Keys  00:20:00 Becoming a Freshwater Conch    Stay Connected     Subscribe to View From Afar to catch all our IPW 2026 episodes this week.    Follow @AfarMedia on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠TikTok⁠ for behind-the-scenes IPW content.    ⁠Sign up⁠ for our travel industry newsletter, Afar Advisor.    Rate and review the show to help other travel professionals discover these insights.    Explore our other podcasts, ⁠Travel Tales⁠ and ⁠Unpacked⁠.   This IPW 2026 special series was recorded live. View From Afar is a production of Afar Media and a part of Airwave Media's podcast network (email ⁠advertising@airwavemedia.com⁠ if you would like to advertise on our podcast). The podcast is produced by Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland, with assistance from Michelle Baran and Billie Cohen. Music composition from Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

View From Afar is the travel industry podcast made by the travel industry, for the travel industry. Hosted by the editors of Afar, the show sits down with the CEOs, tourism experts, hoteliers, and destination leaders shaping how the world moves. These are travel industry interviews with the people actually making the decisions, from national tourism boards to the newest hotel brands, often recorded in the room where it happens, including live from major travel industry events like IPW.  Every episode is a real conversation, not a press release. Afar editors talk with travel changemakers about what the next era of travel will be built on: the rise of sustainable tourism, smarter destination management, the travel innovation reshaping the guest experience, and the travel industry challenges no one wants to say out loud. Expect tourism experts interviews that move from travel marketing strategies and travel consumer insights to local tourism initiatives, destination highlights, and the future of travel and tourism development. Past guests have led the tourism efforts of entire states and cities, run major transit and hospitality brands, and steered destinations through record years and hard pivots alike.  If your work touches travel, think of this as your briefing. As a travel podcast built for professionals, View From Afar delivers the travel industry news and travel industry insights that help destination marketers, hospitality industry leaders, tour operators, and travel professionals stay ahead of travel trends 2026 and beyond. It is travel storytelling with a purpose: honest, curious, and grounded in the real experiences of the people building the business of travel.  Afar has spent more than a decade telling travelers where to go and why it matters. View From Afar turns that same lens on the industry itself, giving you a front-row seat to the ideas, the debates, and the travel experiences defining what comes next. New episodes bring new voices and new destinations to the table.  Follow View From Afar wherever you listen, and join the conversation shaping the future of travel.

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