THE DEXTER KOEHL GROUP offers cost effective solutions in communications, public and media relations, marketing, promotion and strategic planning in travel and tourism. 

Dexter Koehl, Principal

Dexter Koehl, Principal, provides four decades of travel and tourism experience in destination marketing, hospitality, attractions, airlines, retail agency distribution and associations.  When appropriate he also can draw on seasoned industry professionals to meet the needs of clients.

Until his retirement in March of 2007 Koehl was with the Travel Industry Association (TIA) for fifteen years.  TIA is the national association serving the common interests of the entire U.S. travel industry with a mission to promote and facilitate increased travel to and within the United States. 

Most recently he was TIA Vice President of Industry Relations where he managed all aspects of the 112 member TIA Board of Directors, the 40 member Travel & Tourism Coalition of association CEOs and the TIA Foundation.  He was responsible for the launch of the highly successful Travel Leadership Summit, an industry wide national lobbying event based on state hosted dinners for each state congressional delegation in Washington, D.C.  In addition, he coordinated the interface between the U.S. travel industry via TIA and the World Tourism Organization.

For 13 years Koehl was TIA Vice President of Communications and Public Relations, responsible for member communications and all domestic and international public and media relations.  During this time he managed the TIA Communications Council, a group of more than 40 public relations and communications professionals responsible for their craft in organizations across all sectors of the U.S. travel and tourism industry.  He also managed the media program for International Pow Wow, an annual 5-day gathering of 400 media from more than 40 countries around the world and under his leadership the media marketplace concept was created and implemented at trade events in North and South America, Europe and Asia.

While at TIA Koehl created the annual State of the Travel Industry Luncheon and produced the Travel Industry Public Relations Handbook.  He was instrumental in producing the first credible national research on cultural and historical tourism, and he served on the promotion/marketing working group for the 2005 U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Summit. 

Koehl authored The Forces of Change (“the 10 key forces that will have the greatest influence on world tourism 2006 – 2010”) in the Blue Paper A Look into Tourism’s Future with the World Tourism Organization for the United Nations.  He was directly involved in the planning and management of the White House Conference on Travel & Tourism run by TIA in 1995.  Koehl has lectured in the Master of Tourism Administration Program at The George Washington University and The University of Virginia School of Continuing & Professional Studies and was a contributor to the textbook Travel & Tourism Public Relations.  He has spoken before travel industry groups throughout the United States and across the globe from Australia to Argentina to Spain.

For a quarter century prior to TIA Koehl served in senior level travel industry positions in communications, public and media relations and marketing at:

• Carlson Companies, Minneapolis, MN (1986-1992)
• Hershey Entertainment & Resort Company, Hershey, PA (1977-1986)
• Swafford & Company Advertising, Beverly Hills, CA (1975- 1977)
• Sea Pines Company, Hilton Head Island, SC (1972 – 1975)
• American Airlines, New York, NY (1966-1972)

A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley in Far Eastern Studies, he also graduated from the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California and served in U.S. Army Intelligence as a Japanese translator at the National Security Agency.

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