This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.
In this video:
Travelers are seeking authentic, less-visited destinations that offer novelty and personal meaning.
Pairing storytelling with clear access helps destinations spread visitation more evenly and sustainably.
Better connectivity empowers travelers to explore responsibly and supports more balanced, long-term growth.
Today’s travelers increasingly seek experiences that feel authentic and unexpected. According to Skift Research, 70 percent of millennial and Gen Z travelers actively seek experiences unfamiliar to their peers. This creates both an opportunity and a challenge for destinations – to inspire travelers to look beyond major hubs while ensuring they can easily access these locations.
At the Skift Transatlantic Summit 2025, Wendy Olson Killion, CEO of Rome2Rio, sat down with Kate Anderson, SkiftX’s creative content strategist, to discuss how improved access to secondary locations can reshape the way destinations think about growth. Watch the full conversation here.
Olson Killion describes a growing shift from overtourism to what she calls unbalanced tourism – when a few well-known places absorb most of the demand while others remain undiscovered. By pairing storytelling with clear transportation options, destinations can help travelers move confidently beyond major gateways. Through examples like Rome2Rio’s collaboration with Visit Brazil, Olson Killion emphasized how connecting inspiration with access enables destinations to distribute travel more thoughtfully and sustainably.
The takeaway for destination leaders is clear: inspiration must be backed by access.
“If inspiration is the spark, mobility is the fuel,” Olson Killion said. As destinations move from marketing to stewardship, connectivity becomes a central tool in their sustainable tourism playbook – enabling travelers to explore responsibly.
This content was created collaboratively by Rome2Rio and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.