TravelCon is one of the many conferences for travel creators that is held annually in the United States.
There are some differences between TravelCon and the many other travel creator conferences held in North America every year.
Keep reading to learn more about TravelCon, including what it is, what you can learn there, information about TravelCon 2025, and a recap of TravelCon 2024.
PS: In late 2023, it was announced that FinCon’s owners had bought TravelCon from Nomadic Matt. They put on their first event in May 2024, so any information released before 2024 is outdated.
Published: February 4, 2025
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What is TravelCon?
TravelCon is a professional conference for travel content creators. It is hosted every year in destinations around the United States.
The conference includes talks from creators and other professionals in the travel space, opportunities to network with other creators and industry professionals, and tours around the destination hosting the conference.
The conference slogan is “The business event for travel creators,” and its two main focuses are Going Pro and Scaling.
“Go Pro” sessions help creators take their business to the next level: professional. Some of these sessions include improving your content, tools for creators, how to work with brands successfully, and how to monetize your content.
“Scale” sessions are for more advanced creators. They include topics like building a team, diversifying your revenue, and balancing life as a full-time creator.
The event’s sessions are split into these two categories and some general sessions for everyone to attend.
TravelCon is a place for content creators to connect, learn, and improve their skills.
Where is TravelCon?
TravelCon 2025 will be in Tucson, Arizona.
If you are flying to TravelCon 2025, you should consider flights to Tucson International Airport (TUS).
You can also fly into Phoenix International Airport (PHX). However, you must rent a car or take a bus from Phoenix to Tucson for the remaining two hours.
TravelCon 2024 was in Portland, OR, in May and was the most recent event.
What Can You Learn at TravelCon?
One of my favorite things about TravelCon is the wide variety of topics covered. No matter what type of travel creator you are, there is a lot to learn about.
There are even sessions about staying motivated, organized, and nurturing your audience, so not all the sessions are as technical and focused on the platforms we create on.
Here are some of the topics covered at TravelCon 2024:
- Optimizing your content
- Using your blogging skills to crush it on Youtube
- Five-figure months on social media
- Leverage subscriptions to scale your business
- Brand partnerships
- Using AI
- Book publishing
- Monetizing a small audience
- Hiring a virtual employee or team
You can expect to see a similar variety and some new ones at TravelCon 2025.
The array of talks also brings in a diverse group of creators, making it easy to meet people who are on similar platforms as you and learn from creators who you might not otherwise connect with on other platforms.
TravelCon 2025 News
TravelCon 2025 will be in Tucson, Arizona, from March 14 to 16.
This section will be updated as more information about the event is released.
Until then, read about TravelCon 2024 in the next section.
TravelCon 2024 Recap
TravelCon 2024 was in Portland, Oregon, and it was my first TravelCon.
- Sessions: The main learning opportunities at TravelCon 2024 were the sessions. As detailed above, they were split into two categories: Go Pro and Scale.
- Expo: The Expo is the area at the conference where brands, startups, and DMOs set up tables to chat with creators. You can network, get special offers, and find out what’s happening in the travel industry between sessions at the Expo.
- Networking: A few weeks before the conference, you will be able to set up one-on-one meetings with travel brands and boards to discuss partnerships.
- Creator conversations: These are sessions where you learn a bit from topic experts and chat with other creators to learn from and brainstorm with each other.
- Meetups: Creators host meetups in locations around the city to find people with similar niches or interests.
- Dinner clubs: Dinner clubs were application-only events in which you were paired with a group of ~8 creators or professionals to enjoy dinner at a local restaurant. The dinner clubs spanned different neighborhoods and cuisines in Portland.
- Late-night niche meetups: The two host hotels held late-night niche meetups every night to help creators meet others who also create on their platforms, such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and podcasting.
- FAM trips: There were also TravelCon FAM trips, which were one-day tours before and after the conference to explore Portland and even some outside of the city. The following section has more information on the TravelCon FAM trips.
These events were optional, but some required sign-ups, like the dinner clubs, networking, and FAM trips. They were all included in the cost of your TravelCon ticket except for the dinner clubs.
TravelCon 2024 Review
Overall, TravelCon 2024 was a good event, and I learned a lot at the sessions. The sessions are all recorded and I like that I can go back and watch what I missed. There is also an online community for creators where we can connect after the event.
I also loved my two FAM tours, one of which was a wine tour to two wineries outside of the city and the other to Tillamook Creamery.
However, there are certainly some things I hope will improve in 2025. The opening party was not a private event, leaving some confusion about who was there for TravelCon and who was not, making networking hard.
There was also much left to be desired at the convention center, as there was no food or even water available during the day, as many events like this offer.
The Dinner clubs left a lot to be desired. I was part of a dinner club in Portland. We had a great group of women, and the restaurant was good. Still, we did not get to meet the chef or hear the restaurant’s story like the dinner clubs were supposed to, so it was just like a group of friends going out together and nothing special.
Finally, I did not attend any of the late-night niche meetups, but I heard they were a little awkward and a lot more casual than people were expecting.
TravelCon FAM Trips
FAM trips are a part of TravelCon, where creators can explore the destination where the conference is hosted. The trips cover a variety of interests and activities in the city and state hosting the conference.
The FAM trips were first come, first serve, and you can sign up for one per day (two total) for 2024. If you want to attend FAM trips and tours at TravelCon 2025, I recommend buying your ticket early so you get first dibs on the FAMs.
Here are some of the FAM trips that were offered for TravelCon 2024:
- Wine country tour
- Tualatin Valley Adventure
- Tillamook Creamery Expereicne
- Lunch & Golf at Langdon Farms
- Food carts, food tour
- Waterfront walk & wine tasting
- Bike the waterfalls of Columbia Gorge
- PDX Cocktail Tour
The FAM trips for 2025 will be different, as the conference is in Tucson, Arizona.
Unlike some conferences, TravelCon did not offer multi-day FAM trips you had to apply for in 2024.
Ready To Go To TravelCon?
TravelCon is the most professional conference I have attended, and there was so much to learn there.
My brain was overloaded with information and ideas when I left – thank goodness for session replays!
I think TravelCon 2025 will be even better, and I hope to see you there 🙂
Here are the resources I use to plan my trips, including to travel conferences like TravelCon!
- Top travel credit cards
- SafetyWing for travel insurance
- Flytographer for professional photoshoots all over the world
- Daily Drop for daily travel tips and tricks in one fun, short newsletter
- Daily Drop Pro for miles and points bookings (learn more in my guide)
- Booking.com for a huge variety of hotels, vacation rentals, flights, and more
- HostelWorld for the best hostels around the world
- Vrbo for vacation homes and rentals
- Going for cheap flight alerts
- Skyscanner for the cheapest flights
- Amazon for travel and packing must-haves
- Priority Pass for airport lounge access
- TripAdvisor for the top hotels around the world
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