Larry sits down with Daniel Horsch, Senior Sales Director at Azira, for a wide-ranging conversation about what data can actually do for destination marketers when you stop chasing impressions and start asking better questions. Daniel describes Azira as "the Swiss" of the data world — neutral, flexible, and plugged in across channel partners, agencies, and direct clients — with geolocation data that's universal enough to translate across verticals but laser-focused on travel and hospitality.

The bigger thread here is intentionality. Daniel makes the case that DMOs are getting pulled past the old "heads in beds" scoreboard and into harder questions: Are visitors actually shopping? Eating? Staying longer? Coming back? He shares a sharp example from his pre-Azira days running marketing for a DFW destination, where data showed a nearby high-affinity market was only staying 1.5 days — prompting a budget reallocation to longer-stay markets that drove real economic lift. He and Larry also riff on the realities of AI as a "coworker, not a captain," the death of analysis paralysis, and why no Zoom call will ever replace a real conversation at an event.

Key Takeaways

• Geolocation data goes way beyond "did they see the ad." Azira's value sits in tying media exposure to actual in-market behavior — restaurants, shops, attractions, length of stay — which is exactly the proof point stakeholders are demanding from DMOs right now.
• Set the attribution expectation up front. A 30–60 day window for awareness campaigns vs. an immediate-return event-ticketing campaign are wildly different conversations. Daniel's first move with any partner is aligning on what "success" actually means before the first dollar runs.
• Polygon-and-pivot for fly markets. For destinations served by multiple airports, Azira polygons each airport to surface the real visitor makeup, then layers in where those flyers also travel — which surfaces both lookalike opportunities and net-new visitor pools competitors are already winning.
• Reallocate against length-of-stay, not just affinity. Daniel's DFW war story is a great reminder: a market that loves you but only stays 1.5 days may be costing you more than it's worth. Move that budget to 2–3 night markets and the downstream economic impact compounds.
• AI's biggest unlock for non-analysts is prompt-driven sense-making. Daniel is candid that he's "not a data analyst," but using AI to interrogate raw data sets has killed his analysis paralysis and given him real confidence walking into partner conversations. (Bonus: he and Larry agree AI is a coworker, not the boss.)
• The standout case study — turn a red-eye observation into 2,000+ visits. On a late arrival into Chicago, Daniel skipped the Uber, took the Metro, and spotted Fort Worth out-of-home placements (an existing Azira partner). He pitched a geofence layered on top of the existing OOH buy — capturing Metro riders at the station, then re-engaging them at work and home. The result: 2,000+ measured Chicago-origin visits to Fort Worth from a strategy that complemented (rather than replaced) what was already running.
• Relationships are still the platform. Both agreed: events like Etourism and Destinations International aren't networking nice-to-haves — they're where the real partnerships actually start, and where AI-era trust gets built face-to-face