In 2026, America is rolling out a double celebration for the ages. The 250th anniversary of the United States and the 100th anniversary of Historic Route 66 is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.
These twin milestones offer an unprecedented promotional opportunity for communities along the Route 66 corridor between Chicago and Santa Monica to spotlight local culture, heritage attractions, and special events that will draw travelers from throughout the country and from around the world. These opportunities are not limited to the 12-month calendar. Siezing these opportunities in 2026 will have an impact for years to come.
Yet, behind the scenes of this remarkable cultural moment lies a frustrating, avoidable problem. Outdated and incomplete event calendars are costing destinations thousands of potential visitors and frustrating travelers.
Across social media and traveler forums, there is an unmistakable theme, folks planning once-in-a-lifetime road trips want to know what’s happening as well as where and when, but many local tourism calendars fall short. They’re missing events, others are out of date, and they often rely on manual updates that lag behind real-time planning or are that are error prone.
Instead of acting as helpful trip planning tools, these calendars tell a story of missed opportunity. A traveler in Oklahoma might scroll a destination calendar only to find no listed events for a historic car show happening downtown that weekend. A family planning a centennial road trip from St. Louis to Flagstaff can’t find the parade dates or festival details they saw referenced on Facebook. These gaps don’t just frustrate visitors. They cost communities traction, visibility, and economic impact at a time when every visitor counts.
Many Convention & Visitor Bureaus (CVBs), Chambers of Commerce, and tourism offices still rely on legacy systems or manual imports from partners to populate their event calendars. Tools like ChamberMaster’s ChamberMaster/ChamberMate offer basic calendar views but require significant manual input and maintenance from staff in order to stay current. That makes them a weak link.
Other platforms such as Tempest provide feature-rich tourism marketing suites, including event strategy guidance, but they’re often designed around broad promotional efforts rather than automated, real-time aggregation of every local event. And not one of these event calendar tools solve the day-to-day challenge of keeping an events calendar fresh, complete, and traveler-ready without a dedicated staff member overseeing it.
Bottom line, these systems still leave gaps. They still require manual work, constant updating, and coordination across multiple partners. All of this during a time when your team should be focused on big-picture promotion and the visitor experience.
Enter Yodel, the AI-powered event calendar solution built for communities that want maximum reach with minimal manual effort or investment. Unlike old-school calendars that depend on staff to chase down event listings, Yodel automatically aggregates events from websites, social platforms, and public calendars to deliver a continuously updated, richly detailed community calendar right on your site. As a bonus no extra staff hours are required.
Yodel’s AI pulls everything from community bulletins to Facebook events and local partner sites, so no festival, car show, or parade slip through the cracks. It offers automatic aggregation from hundreds of sources
Events are updated continuously, meaning your calendar reflects the latest information and travelers aren’t stuck clicking outdated listings. This is accomplished through customizable and seamless integration. Yodel embeds directly into your website or app with a branded, responsive widget that works beautifully on phones, tablets, and desktops alike and that gives users a friction-free planning experience.
SEO and engagement benefits are another advantage. More events mean more reasons for visitors to stay on your site, explore more pages, and plan longer stays. And that is good for both local businesses and your search rankings.
No added workload for staff is another benefit. Unlike traditional event calendars or manually managed systems, Yodel handles ongoing updates so your team can focus on storytelling, partnership building, and strategic marketing. Yodel turns opportunity into impact!
The Route 66 Centennial isn’t a typical anniversary. This is a once-in-a-century chance to elevate your community’s profile, welcome new visitors, and join a national heritage and exploration. But that opportunity will only be fully realized if travelers can find what’s happening when they arrive.
And as this is also the 250th anniversary of the United States, you don’t have to be on Route 66 to benefit from this surge in travelers seeking a cultural or heritage tourism experience. But if you are located on iconic Route 66 your event calendar will be doubly important.
An outdated event calendar doesn’t just represent missing data. It represents missed dollars, missed experiences, and missed connections between visitors and the businesses in your community.
With Yodel, you can turn your event calendar into a dynamic, always-fresh tool that works for you, not against you. It will deliver up-to-date event info without adding staff, stress, or spreadsheets to your workload.
At a moment when every traveler’s decision matters, let your destination shine. And let Yodel help you make it happen.
Written by Jim Hinckley’s America
