What a trip: How DMOs can leverage the power of AI

Across industries, artificial intelligence is a hot topic. Yet in destination marketing, AI is a largely untapped resource.

The small percentage of destination marketing organizations using AI in a customer-facing manner are mostly investing in chatbot capabilities, managing conversations with travelers that often fall into the “FAQ” category.

While these are both useful applications for AI, I believe there are other untapped areas where DMOs can reap significant benefits.

AI can help destination marketers focus on what matters

I’m sure my fellow marketers will agree that no matter how we rearrange our work day or workflow, the way many marketers work is still somewhat inefficient and manual in nature. AI has the potential to change this by automating lower‐value, time-intensive activities and optimizing time spent on the high‐value, creative, insight‐based work that drives results.

For example, in the age of Instagram where a picture is worth more than a thousand words, marketing professionals can spend hours sifting through images for the perfect visual content for a campaign. AI has the power to find the needles in the haystack, drastically reducing time spent on a manual task.

And this is just one example of how AI can make a marketer's work more efficient. In an environment where many DMOs are trying to do more with limited resources, you can probably think of a few manual activities that are taking up too much of your team’s valuable time.

AI can power personalized trip planning

In addition to optimizing workflow, AI also has the power to assist DMOs in connecting with target audiences in a meaningful, personable and customized way. Marketers today know that customers expect a highly personalized experience. AI can play an important role in meeting that expectation and, in turn, lead to a higher conversion rate.

The online retail space is blazing the trail on this front. Take, for example, clothing company North Face. Visitors to their website are greeted by a super‐personable AI chatbot that asks about potential customers’ interests in a conversational way and then suggests the most relevant items of clothing to suit each individual’s tastes.

Now imagine applying this AI‐enabled approach to the travel industry, where visitors spend dozens of hours planning a memorable trip by muddling through an overwhelming number of resources. Their goal is to make choices that result in the best travel experience for them.

Imagine as a DMO, you could help make those choices easier. AI has the power to connect travelers with the experiences they’re most interested in by offering different experiences to different types of travelers and, ultimately, enabling a better time planning and enjoying a trip.

AI can help you tap into big data (even without a big budget)

Generally speaking, marketers today are overwhelmed with the amount of data that’s out there for us to act on. AI tools can process huge amounts of data to provide new insights, confirm best practices and predict human behavior – all of which can make our jobs easier and more effective.

And while only the big Fortune 500 companies were previously able to process large amounts of data, these capabilities are quickly becoming more democratized and accessible to smaller organizations.

How DMOs can get started with AI

You may be a bit unsure of where to start leveraging this technology to achieve your own unique goals. As a first step, I’d encourage you to take a good look at where your team is spending their time today. What activities are taking up a ton of time or require a great deal of manual effort?

Next, consider where AI might present an opportunity to drive better results for your current marketing efforts. Do you need to get a higher return on spend from your advertising? Would you love to deliver better performance from your website?

Lastly, ensure you’re aware of any AI capabilities already at your fingertips! You may be surprised to learn that a number of technologies used by travel marketers are already incorporating AI behind the scenes. Ask your providers whether their current technology solutions incorporate AI, or how it factors into their product roadmaps.

If they are already using AI, ask for examples of how it’s working and if there are any new ways you might leverage this capability to accomplish your marketing goals. If they are not using (or planning for) any AI‐enabled solutions, it might be worth investigating how other travel marketing providers are using AI and whether those offerings could fulfill your unique needs.

AI is neither here to replace the inherent value we bring to the workplace nor to rid us of creativity or control. On the contrary, AI will help us work smarter and gain access to actionable insights that simply weren’t available before.

And most importantly, it will help us destination marketing folks to deliver a more personalized experience to visitors, ultimately resulting in more satisfied travelers.