Destination marketing/management organizations (DMOs), like many other travel industry stakeholders, are tuned in to evolving technology - including ever-buzzy artificial intelligence.
But adoption of AI isn’t just an internal concern for DMOs. These organizations that work with local businesses to promote a destination also hold a level of responsibility to educate partners, suppliers and members on ways to further their mission.
So how much onus falls on DMOs to educate members on this and other new technologies and how to effectively use them - particularly as AI-powered search engines and agents potentially take on a bigger role in trip planning?
“The more savvy the destination is as a whole when it comes to both technology and marketing, the better we have at maintaining market share and driving the tourism economy,” said Kara Franker, current CEO of Visit Estes Park, the DMO for Estes Park, Colorado, who will take on a new role as President and CEO of Visit Florida Keys next month.
AI, like any new technology, can prove useful for each organization’s members and, in turn, a DMO’s mission on the whole, according to leaders in the sector - making education crucial.
DMOs as technology educators
Education is an integral part of a DMO’s role and responsibility to its suppliers, partners and members.
“We definitely see one of our roles being member education,” said Janette Roush, executive vice president of New York City Tourism + Conventions.
There's no user manual for generative AI, so we can't say, ‘Oh, just call OpenAI and their DMO or their attraction training division will be happy to help you.’ OpenAI is not taking that phone call.
Janette Roush, New York City Tourism + Conventions
And with AI, that capacity is important.
“As the world changes … our members need to be able to keep up,” Roush said. “But I also see that as core to having a competitive destination."
Franker agreed.
“DMOs can play a very important role in the process by getting out front and leading by example for small suppliers and businesses in the markets,” said Franker. “The more savvy the destination is as a whole when it comes to both technology and marketing, the better we have at maintaining market share and driving the tourism economy.”
Roush put it in terms of New York City Tourism + Conventions’ goals as an organization. The DMO wants to make sure it is driving travelers to choose New York over other destinations. AI can make that easier and make her team’s work more powerful, so it’s a natural desire to want to train members.
But Roush acknowledged education may not be a priority for all DMOs.
“Not all DMOs are member organizations, right?” she said. “So other DMOs might have a very different point of view. But because we are a membership organization … we have to provide value to our members, and education is one of the ways that we can do that, and we're in a good spot to do it, because we understand their business.”
Budgeting for education versus marketing
Industry voices have raised the question of whether DMOs should shift some of their marketing spend to technology development and training for members, in particular to help the longtail of suppliers digitize their operations and make personalized offers to travelers directly.
The point makes sense given two common questions raised by suppliers, partners and members to DMOs, according to Tony Carne, author of Everything AI in Travel Newsletter who recently penned an article for Travel Daily Media on how DMOs can help suppliers win with AI. Those questions include: “What have you done for me lately?” and “What did you do with the money?”
But Roush and Franker said the logic doesn’t necessarily hold up in a practical sense - re-allocation isn’t an exact solution to help partners advance technologically. Marketing is still important.
“Rather than reallocating marketing dollars to tech, I think it's striking the right balance between the two because for the future of encouraging [travelers] to book, you must invest in both,” Franker said.
Roush added it’s not actually expensive to invest in AI to begin with. There are ways to integrate AI with whatever budget as it stands.
“[It’s at] most $30 per user to have access to a ChatGPT team account … so my primary driver is showing people how to use those existing tools that do not take an enormous financial investment,” she explained.
Subscribe to our newsletter below
While it’s not an insubstantial cost, it’s not an amount that requires Roush’s team to rework their budget.
In addition, the team does have a devoted segment of budget for training purposes - for both staff and for members, she said.
Should DMOs play a role in driving direct bookings?
Another point raised by Carne’s article is that by helping the longtail of suppliers become more tech-savvy, DMOs would also be helping them be more successful in a future when AI may drive trip planning by making them more visible to travelers, potentially minimizing their dependence on online travel agencies for bookings.
Franker said it’s possible a DMO could help its suppliers bolster direct bookings.
“By implementing an AI tool like our Rocky Mountain Roamer through GuideGeek, we can guide potential travelers through the booking process, answer questions in real-time and recommend local suppliers,” Franker said.
And AI plays into that, Franker believes.
“We train Rocky Mountain Roamer on a wide range of topics with the goal of taking them through the marketing funnel from travel planning to booking. And we can in real-time go into the backend of GuideGeek’s system and also add human recommendations to the conversation,” Franker said. “So the answers can be part human and part tech. This gives us the ability to sell more than the technology would just on its own.”
Meanwhile, Roush doesn’t believe direct bookings should be the priority for DMOs in terms of responsibility.
As long as the destination is being promoted successfully, how bookings are achieved doesn't matter to her. “Whether the bookings are direct or if they are through a third party, isn't necessarily a piece that we are concerned [with],” Roush said.
“We would frame it as, ‘how are we driving business for our 1,700 members of New York City Tourism. So, it's restaurants, it's hotels, it's Broadway shows and the ticketing companies - so we [are] absolutely driving business to our members, [that] is a … core piece of our mission.”
But the exact question of “how” to use AI for destination and experience marketing is more nuanced, so the testing and learning will be ongoing.
“There's no user manual for generative AI, so we can't say, ‘Oh, just call OpenAI and their DMO or their attraction training division will be happy to help you,’” Roush said. “OpenAI is not taking that phone call.”
She continued: “So we all get to write the user manual together, and DMOs are connectors at the center of their communities … that opportunity for us as the connector, to say: ‘Great, this is, this is how we're using it. These are ideas for how you could use it. This is how this group over here is using it,’ and to create an environment for sharing. I think that's something a DMO is great at.”