The Phocuswright Conference 2025 Launch Innovator: The Data Appeal Company

The Data Appeal Company seeks to help destinations utilize data effectively through its strategy suite, D/AI Destinations.

“There are really two velocities and an increase of complexity in the job of a destination manager,” Data Appeal CEO and founder Mirko Lalli said at The Phocuswright Conference.

According to Lalli, on one side, travelers are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and on the other, destinations are using dashboards that look like they're “from 20 years ago” and contain old data that is too difficult to be read.

In a presentation as part of Phocuswright's Innovation: Launch program, Lalli outlined the company's two-pronged approach to address this.

“The first step, that is already done, is what we call 'from dashboard to dialogue.' It's like bringing the simplicity of a conversational interface to data—you can chat with data ... and ask whatever you want in plain language,” he said. “The next step is what we call 'from dialogue to delegation,' and it's here where we bring out agentic AI.”

Lalli also said that Data Appeal's software-as-a-service product is not something ChatGPT can replicate.

“Can this be done by ChatGPT? No, because ChatGPT doesn't have 11 years of data, it is not built and trained on a  specific expertise and we did the guard-railing on that very narrow topic of destination management,” he said. 

“We want to add that additional layer to the smart tourism framework, bringing a new layer of agentic AI, and it's our vision.”

Data Appeal was acquired by Almawave in 2022, and in late 2023, the company acquired 70% of travel intelligence company Mabrian Technologies for €3.7 million.

See below for Data Appeal's full Launch presentation.

Lalli also joined Mitra Sorrells, SVP of content for PhocusWire and Phocuswright, in the PhocusWire studio to discuss the company in more detail.