AI trip planning is outpacing DMO adoption

Destination management organizations (DMOs) are lagging in artificial intelligence (AI) adoption as traveler use rises.

Fifty-four percent of travelers have used AI to plan travel, and 75% intend to use it for future travel planning, according to research from Mindtrip, Sabre, Sojern and MMGY Travel Intelligence.

Meanwhile, the joint report also found that 22% of DMOs are offering AI trip-planning options on their website, and 26% have a substantiated AI strategy.

“Most aren’t prepared yet, and the report makes the gap hard to ignore,” Michelle Denogean, CMO of Mindtrip, a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2025, told PhocusWire.

According to the Mindtrip-Sabre-Sojern-MMGY report, almost two thirds of travelers said they would use an AI trip planner that lives on a destination’s website. 

But it’s not just willingness to use AI that destinations need to consider. The traveler shift is harder than that. Twenty-five percent said they would be less inclined to use a destination’s website if AI features aren’t available.

DMOs around the world are at different stages of implementation, according to Lindene Cleary, CMO of Tourism Tasmania.

Given the pace of evolution, it’s not surprising to Cleary that DMOs are all over the map in terms of progress.

“We're all competing for travelers in a very competitive global market, and AI is changing where that competition takes place,” she said.

DMOs' changing role

The baseline purpose of the DMO isn’t likely to change, but AI will impact how they operate and could alter their level of influence, Cleary said.

She gave a breakdown: Traditionally, someone’s interest in a destination could be piqued by an advertisement. Then, they might do research, jump between websites, craft an itinerary and book. That progression could happen over the course of weeks, months or even years.

AI is compressing that sequence. Now, inspiration happens simultaneously with research and itinerary building.

This could offer DMOs a more significant role across the traveler journey, with AI presenting a chance for DMOs to lean in as a primary source for travelers.

Joshua Ryan-Saha, director of tourism, travel and festivals for the Edinburgh Futures Institute, said that DMOs’ purpose might evolve from promotion to authority.

Historically, marketing made sense as a DMO’s core function, as destinations needed to fight for attention, he said. That purpose could become antiquated with AI.

“Attention is now abundant and cheap to manufacture. Verification is what's scarce,”  Ryan-Saha said. “The organization that can confirm what's real in a place holds the valuable position.”

DMOs’ value has come from lived experience, human knowledge and insight, Cleary said. “The places, people, stories and the experiences and the human understanding of what will genuinely connect with travelers.”

AI will only expand DMOs’ role, Denogean said. 

Travelers are increasingly expecting assistance after inspiration: answers, recommendations, itineraries and guidance that transform an idea into a trip. 

“I think the role evolves from being primarily a source of inspiration to becoming a more active guide throughout the traveler journey,” Denogean said. “The destinations that succeed won't just tell great stories. They'll make it easier for travelers to make decisions, plan with confidence and connect with local businesses.”

But success in this period is not as simple as showing up in AI results alone, and AI isn’t the only discovery channel travelers are using right now. Cleary said travelers might find a destination by asking an AI assistant where to go, browsing Instagram or TikTok, hearing about it via word of mouth, reading about it the press, or seeing it on Google or Reddit—or through a combination.

“Distributed discovery is a big focus for us in making sure Tasmania shows up in the places people are now looking,” Cleary said. “That means thinking about how our content is structured and surfaced across AI platforms, social search and traditional search, alongside continuing to evolve our own digital channels.”

The gap

When a traveler asks AI about a place, an answer is assembled from existing information. DMOs need to have the right data in place to be effective for this kind of interaction.

According to Ryan-Saha, most DMOs aren’t primed for that aspect of the AI shift.

“The platforms hold the behavioral data. They know who came, when, what they paid, what they did next. The DMOs mostly don’t have that same level of data."

He offered a suggestion as an antidote: “I think DMOs need to have trusted data on when a place gets busy, when it empties, where money actually moves, what's shifting month to month. It's also the only data a destination can produce because it comes from the ground and it's inextricably linked to the place.”

On the marketing and creative side, he believes DMOs are ready for AI. DMOs are more in tune with authentic marketing.

Plus, Ryan-Saha said these organizations are experimenting with AI for creative content, which has led to some success and some failure. That indicates they are gaining an understanding of AI’s uses.

“Most DMOs I work with are working hard on optimizing for generative engine optimization, where they could really thrive is providing the ground truth data on what happens in that place and making that show up in AI,” he said.

Cleary said DMOs are looking at how their information is getting picked up by platforms, as well as experimenting with personalization and conversational planning. 

Some of the work happening across the sector is great, but no one has every answer as the technology and traveler behavior continues to rapidly transform, she said.

And there are lingering uncertainties around the technology too. 

“There are very real questions around accuracy, governance, responsible use, authenticity and trust that we all need to work through,” Cleary said.

The stakes

As more travelers use AI, it's vital for DMOs to show up as part of the conversation, stakeholders said. 

And DMOs are already feeling a shift: Seven in 10 reported a drop in organic search traffic as travelers turn to AI, Denogean said. 

“Absence is not neutral,” Ryan-Saha said.

Destinations are being described by AI with or without a DMO’s contribution, Ryan-Saha said.

“If our destination information isn’t visible, accurate and trusted, there’s a risk that [the] answer is shaped by other sources and doesn’t accurately reflect the destination or how we want it to be understood,” Cleary said.

From where Ryan-Saha sits, the role of a DMO could actually become more important in the AI world.

“It will be a curator, a convener of data that tries to bring truthfulness and the needs of the place into AI systems that are increasingly influential in how people visit a place,” he said.

Most destinations are recognizing the risk of not adapting on their own.

According to the joint report on AI travel planning, 72% of DMO leaders said that those that do not adopt AI within the coming two years could be rendered irrelevant in destination discovery.

But DMOs are showing willingness to adapt. Nearly every destination has experimented with AI in one format or another, Denogean said.

“What most don’t have yet is a way to turn those scattered pilots into lasting capabilities,” Denogean said. “The barriers they cite are real: bandwidth, technical expertise and budget are the top ones.”

Whether or not DMOs close the AI adoption gap, getting up to speed with the technology is not a golden ticket.

“I don't think simply using AI will make a destination stand out or cut through,” Cleary said. “What will matter is using it in ways that make sense for a destination, without losing sight of what makes that place different or the human connection that makes people want to visit in the first place.”