A destination director can be genuinely curious about AI and still look at the year’s marketing plan and ask a very fair question: where, exactly, is this supposed to fit? There are visitors to reach, partners to support, and a budget that was spoken for months ago. I get it. Most of us have been there.
That question deserves a practical answer, so here’s mine. AI-assisted search is one more window into how a destination shows up while someone is planning a trip. It’s also a good excuse to ask what we actually need to learn before we spend the next dollar.
I’d start with the visitor decision you want to understand. Maybe it’s how a family pieces together a weekend itinerary, or what would convince someone to stay one more night. Give the team a defined question, and it becomes much easier to decide what to look into and what a useful answer would look like.
From there, make room for a test you can actually manage. Agree on the time and the budget up front. Then let the people closest to the work dig into the answers and where they’re coming from.
Then bring what you learned back to the bigger plan, where it can shape decisions about content, coverage, the website, or what to research next.
As a leader, my job is to give that kind of exploration a clear purpose and a fair chance to teach us something.
I want us to stay curious about what’s changing and careful with the resources our clients trust us with. A good question lets us do both, and honestly, it makes the work a lot more fun.