Roger W. Miles, chairman of the board of Miles Partnership, was inducted into the U.S. Travel Association’s Hall of Leaders on November 17 at the association’s fall board of directors meeting. Roger Dow, president and CEO, U.S. Travel Association, and Christine Duffy, president, Carnival Cruise Line and national chair, U.S. Travel Association, presented Miles with the award.
Individuals are named to the U.S. Travel Association’s Hall of Leaders for sustained, noteworthy contributions that have positively impacted the travel industry and raised industry-wide standards.With this induction, 103 travel industry luminaries have been named to the U.S. Travel Hall of Leaders since it was established in 1969.
“Roger [Miles] is a trailblazer whose ingenuity, creativity and business acumen shaped the modern-day field of destination marketing, inspiring countless visits to a host of American cities and travel businesses and sights,” said Dow. “He graciously shares his knowledge on place-based marketing and has contributed in meaningful ways to the success of every entity and leader that he’s advised over the years.”
Miles founded Miles Partnership in 1990. He leveraged his background in business and engineering to bring an analytics-driven approach to destination marketing, leading to the development and evolution of ground-breaking digital marketing strategies. Miles played an instrumental role in the creation and utility of destination travel websites.
Miles is also credited as a leading voice in evolving cooperative marketing models from media-driven display advertising into content-rich storytelling. Core to this approach was the creation of tangible assets—articles, photos, videos and more—to help destination marketing organizations (DMOs) promote themselves to digital audiences. Miles was instrumental in developing programs that helped individual tourism businesses collaboratively market with local DMOs, and local DMOs partner with state tourism organizations. This approach also helped build out national programs in support of Brand USA.
Prior to founding Miles Partnership, Miles had more than 17 years of management experience in the publishing industry. He currently serves on the board of trustees of Thornton Academy in his hometown of Saco, Maine, and has held board and officer positions for numerous tourism-related startups and national trade associations, as well as chambers of commerce and convention and visitor bureaus.
Related Stories
U.S. Travel Applauds Infrastructure Bill; AHLA Notes Shortcomings
ASTA Awards Members, Partners At Global Convention