Austin Travel and the Future of Destination Management | Live From IPW 2026

Welcome to a special IPW 2026 series of View From Afar. In this episode, recorded live from the conference floor, Visit Austin⁠ president and ⁠CEO Tom Noonan⁠ sits down with Afar editorial director Billie Cohen for one of our most forward-looking travel industry interviews yet: a conversation about Austin travel at the exact moment the city is tearing itself down and rebuilding on purpose.

Tom has led Visit Austin since 2016, capping nearly four decades in destination marketing. Under his watch the city has posted year-over-year visitor gains, record convention bookings, and the launch of the Visit Austin Foundation.

But he is also steering the most disruptive project of any major U.S. destination right now: the $1.6 billion "unconventional ATX" rebuild of the Austin Convention Center, which came down in April 2025 and will not reopen until 2029. That is 40 months of competing for major events without a convention center, a real-world test of destination management under pressure.

In this episode, Tom and Billie discuss:

Why Austin is "redoing everything" by 2031, from 36 new airport gates to new arenas, a light rail line from the airport to downtown hotels, and a convention center twice the old size

The $1.6 billion bet on a zero-carbon civic space with $18 million of public art, dropped into a park setting beside the new ⁠Waterloo Greenway⁠,

How a destination holds its momentum, and its convention business, without its biggest meeting venue for more than three years

The new Austin Tourism Public Improvement District and what it funds

Why the live music capital of the world is expanding into tech, corporate, family, and culinary travel, with a Michelin-fueled taco scene that refuses to name a favorite (the Michelin guide recently came to Texas)

Tom's honest case for why the next chapter of Austin travel makes the city "the next hot destination again in 2031"

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, the hospitality industry leaders and travel changemakers shaping American cities, and the Austin travel story still being written. For destination marketers and travel industry news watchers, it is a front-row look at destination management on the largest possible scale.

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