About
25 years in travel.
Built an agency. Sold it.
Now helping DMOs do less, better.
Background
Harley Schachter, Founder
I founded Travel Mindset, the first influencer agency built for travel. I grew it, then sold it in 2022.
Before and since, I've worked with hundreds of destinations. Small regional DMOs. Some of the largest tourism boards in the world. I've been on both sides of the agency-client relationship. I know how scopes get padded, how numbers get spun, and where the gap between activity and results actually lives.
There's a longer, more personal version of why I left all that and came back to this. Why I'm Doing This →
THE PIECE NOBODY ELSE HAS
I've also run iExplore.com for 25+ years.
It's a consumer travel site. Millions of trip planners have used it to research destinations, plan itineraries, and book trips.
That's data nobody else in this business has. I see how travelers actually find destinations, plan trips, and make decisions, every day. From the publisher side.
What most DMOs produce and what travelers actually use to make decisions are two very different things. iExplore.com is how I know.
WHY THIS, WHY NOW
The AI shift is going to separate the DMOs that pay attention from the ones that don't.
ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews are already changing how travelers plan trips. Most DMOs don't know how they show up. A lot of them aren't showing up at all.
After 25+ years watching how travelers actually plan trips, I have a clearer view of where this is going than most. That's what iExplore for Business is built on.