Live From IPW: Visit Detroit's Claude Molinari on Staying True to Motor City

Welcome to a special IPW 2026 series of View From Afar. In this episode, recorded live from the conference floor, ⁠Visit Detroit⁠ president and CEO ⁠Claude Molinari⁠ sits down with Afar editorial director Billie Cohen to talk about a city he insists is well past its comeback chapter—and what comes next. Claude has led Visit Detroit since 2021, after a decade running ⁠Huntington Place⁠, the city's convention center. Under his leadership, the city has hosted the NFL Draft in 2024, secured the NCAA Final Four for next year, and won the bid to host IPW itself in 2028. Five new skyscrapers have gone up downtown in five years, the city has seen population growth three years running, and visitation is up year-over-year—even with Canadian tourism down 30 percent. In this conversation, Claude and Billie discuss Why Claude pushes back on the "renaissance" framing: this isn't a comeback, it's a complete transformation, and the narrative has finally caught up with the reality How Visit Detroit got onto Italian soccer jerseys—⁠a partnership with Juventus⁠ that has driven a 400 percent increase in European website traffic and almost 600 percent from Italy alone The reopening of ⁠Michigan Central Station⁠ as the global epicenter of autonomous vehicles, complete with an electric road out front What it means to be the only ⁠UNESCO City of Design⁠ in the United States—and why architecture, from the ⁠Guardian Building⁠ to the ⁠Detroit Riverwalk⁠ (rated number one for four years running by USA Today), is doing the work of telling Detroit's story How a majority-minority city is leaning into its authentic identity rather than trying to be everything to everybody, and what other destinations can learn from that approach Three new convention-center hotels opening before the Final Four—including a five-star Edition, a JW Marriott, and a Nomad inside the restored train station Resources: ⁠Visit Detroit⁠ ⁠Detroit Riverwalk⁠ ⁠Michigan Central Station⁠ ⁠Henry Ford Museum⁠ at Greenfield Village ⁠Eastern Market⁠ ⁠Detroit Institute of Arts⁠ ⁠Buddy's Pizza⁠ ⁠Afar guide to Detroit⁠ 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 ⁠⁠advertising@airwavemedia.com⁠⁠ 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