Destination marketing organizations (DMOs) are leaning into artificial intelligence (AI) to increase efficiency.
The German National Tourist Board is using the technology for research, public relations pitches, campaign evaluations and setups, according to Ricarda Lindner, regional manager for the Americas and
Israel and the director of the German National Tourist Office in the U.S.
But the team also employs AI for “fun stuff” such as map creation for presentations.
“We really use it for a whole variety of things,” Lindner said during an interview in the PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright Conference. “We started doing our custom GPTs … we tailor-made them to our tasks that our colleagues are struggling with or not struggling with.”
Internal use cases are similar at Tourism Tasmania, per CMO Lindene Cleary.
“It's sort of looking at what are the mundane tasks that we can free people up from to really focus on being creative and strategic,” she said. “So looking for efficiencies, looking for ways to just get started on something that you otherwise might spend
hours trying to figure out.”
Both said education is key, particularly given different comfort levels with the technology.
“You have early adopters that naturally gravitate to that, and then you have others that think, ‘We don't [really know] what to do with it,’” Lindner said.
The biggest hurdle is fear of AI and helping people realize the benefits outweigh the challenges, Cleary said.
Cleary and Lindner also touched on additional AI uses, authenticity and sustainability. Watch the full discussion with PhocusWire senior reporter Morgan Hines below.
How destinations are navigating the rapid pace of change