Turning Surf City USA Into an Overnight Destination | 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 Huntington Beach president and CEO John Urdi sits down with Afar deputy editor Michelle Baran, who happens to have grown up in Surf City USA, for one of our most personal travel industry interviews yet: a plan to turn Surf City USA from a day trip into an overnight destination. John took the helm of Visit Huntington Beach in late 2024 after building and leading Mammoth Lakes Tourism, a move from the mountains to the sea, with earlier stops at the U.S. Travel Association and Visit California. He even married on the beach at Tower 11. In this episode, John and Michelle discuss: Why only about a quarter of Huntington Beach visitors currently stay overnight, and how the team grew conference bookings from 56,000 to 87,000 room nights on the way to a six-figure goal The Tourism Business Improvement District funding model, how a visitor-funded assessment supports both marketing and the visitor experience, and how it fuels a more sustainable tourism strategy How privatizing that funding gives a smaller destination the agility to chase markets it never could before, from Japan to Australia What it takes to convert day-trippers into hotel guests without losing the free-spirited beach town that locals love How John is navigating a destination that has drawn polarizing national headlines, and his plant-more-flowers philosophy of promoting 10 miles of open coastline while welcoming all visitors What a beach town can learn from a mountain town about taking a destination to the next level 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, destination management, and the travel marketing strategies that reshape a place's story. For a candid look at the future of Surf City USA, it is a front-row conversation with one of the hospitality industry leaders shaping what comes next. Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome to View From Afar 00:01:30 From Mammoth to the Beach 00:03:00 Building the Hotel Funding Model 00:05:30 Planting Flowers, Not Weeds 00:09:00 Live Between Waves 00:11:30 What's Next on the Waterfront 00:16:00 The World Cup and LA28 Opportunity Resources Visit Surf City USA Find Visit Huntington Beach on Instagram and Facebook Explore Afar's California travel guide 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 ⁠[email protected]⁠ 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