Four Ways AI is Helping Destinations Connect with Travelers
February 7, 2023
AI is not just bringing us to the precipice of a technological evolution that will change and shape the world around us in the future, we’re already living in the world AI is creating.
Marketing technology is already being molded by AI-enabled capabilities—and these emerging technologies are creating new opportunities and opening destination marketers eyes to new ways to reach and engage travelers. Tried-and-true tools are becoming obsolete as adaptive AI-powered tactics are changing the ways DMOs connect with travelers.
Here are the four ways AI is helping DMOs connect with travelers that you can leverage for your destination. It’s time to prepare for the future AI is already writing—literally, they have AI that can write now.
Chatbots for Tourism and Travel
Chatbots are not new, but back end technology has leveled up. Chatbots are gaining an increasingly well-rounded understanding of language. They will soon understand all the weird questions and requests we throw their way and respond in a way that won’t make us want to pull our hair out. Even more exciting, your existing website content can be used as part of a training dataset to allow it to be prioritized over other general information. Chatbots can even be trained to give them their own personalities and avatars.
AI-driven chatbots for tourism and travel will likely continue to evolve in the following ways:
Improved natural language processing
Chatbots will become more adept at understanding and responding to customer queries in a natural and conversational manner.
Increased personalization
Chatbots will be able to analyze customer data and preferences to provide more personalized recommendations and assistance.
Greater integration with other systems
Chatbots will be integrated with other systems such as booking engines, CRM systems, and social media platforms, providing a more seamless customer experience.
More advanced decision making capabilities
Chatbots will be able to make more complex decisions and provide more accurate information to customers in real-time
More advanced virtual reality and augmented reality integration
Chatbots can use VR/AR to provide immersive experiences for customers, for example, virtual tours, and walkthroughs of destinations or hotels.
Multi-lingual support
Chatbots will be able to support multiple languages, making it easier for tourists to communicate with locals.
Proactive customer service
Chatbots will be able to anticipate and act on customer needs before they are even aware of them.
Advanced analytics
Chatbots will be able to collect and analyze data from customer interactions and use that data to improve the chatbot’s performance over time.
When we envision the future, there will be chatbots interacting with each other through systems integration. They will become master multitaskers, seamlessly integrating with booking engines, CRM systems, and social media platforms, making the whole travel experience a smooth sailing. Chatbots powered by AI are going to revolutionize the way we travel and make the whole experience a lot more fun and stress-free.
AI-powered translations
But let’s not forget about the language barriers that often can come with international travel. Chatbots and AI-powered translations will speak multiple languages, making it easy for tourists to communicate with locals and navigate through unfamiliar places. Just imagine: no more awkward hand gestures or Google translate fails! AI-powered translations will make communication with locals a breeze. No more getting lost in translation, or accidentally trying to order a plate of worms instead of spaghetti.
Booking a trip will also be less of a headache, with AI-powered translations helping international travelers understand and complete online forms with ease. And the best part? No more confusion about important information, like hotel amenities or tour schedules, as AI-powered translations will make sure everything is crystal clear.
But it’s not just the travelers who will benefit from this technology, customer service representatives will also be able to assist international travelers in their native languages, making the overall experience even more delightful. Marketing efforts will also get a boost, with AI-powered translations assisting in creating effective marketing materials that can reach a wider audience.
Overall, AI-powered translations have the potential to greatly improve the tourism industry for international travelers by making communication and navigation more seamless, providing more accurate information, and improving the overall customer experience.
AI-Enhanced SEM & SEO
AI is the secret ingredient to a great Search Engine Optimization (SEO) recipe for destination marketing websites. Imagine having a tool that can analyze large amounts of data and tell you exactly what keywords and phrases to use to make your website more delicious to search engines.
We are already using some AI tools in our current efforts across SEO and Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and we envision these efforts to continue to expand AI can greatly improve your overall search efforts (paid and organic) in several ways:
Keyword Analysis
AI-powered tools can analyze large amounts of data to identify the most relevant keywords and phrases for a given destination or tourism service, helping to optimize website content and improve search rankings.
Content Optimization
AI can analyze website content and suggest changes to improve its relevance and searchability, such as adding keywords or reorganizing text.
Voice Search Optimization
AI-powered tools can optimize websites and apps for voice search, allowing companies to reach customers who prefer to use voice commands, this can help increase visibility of the website on search engines.
Predictive Analytics
AI can help identify patterns and trends in customer search behavior, allowing marketers to anticipate and respond to changes in search demand and optimize their SEO strategy accordingly.
Image and Video Optimization
AI can be used to optimize images and videos for search, by analyzing the content and automatically adding relevant tags and descriptions.
Ad targeting
AI can analyze user data and behavior to target more relevant ads to specific audiences, this improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the ad campaign.
Bid Optimization
AI-powered SEM tools can analyze large amounts of data and optimize bids on keywords and phrases, ensuring that the ad is displayed to the right audience at the right time.
Overall, AI can help optimize website content, improve search rankings, increase visibility and improve the effectiveness of ad campaigns. It can also provide detailed insights into how visitors interact with a destination marketing website, helping to identify areas for improvement and optimize the user experience.
AI-powered (but human-driven) copywriting
AI-powered copywriting is a tool that uses AI to generate content. After this initial creation, a human editor can review the content before publishing. It is estimated that 90 percent of online content may be synthetically generated by 2026.
This mixture of technology and human skill ensures that you get the best of both worlds: automated writing and original ideas from humans. AI-powered copywriting has become increasingly popular because it can be used for a variety of purposes, including:
- Creating landing pages for your website
- Writing emails for newsletters or other marketing assets
- Generating new blog posts
- Creating marketing advertising taglines
- Training AI-driven chatbots
So,you may be wondering as you read this: how much of this article was written by AI? About 50% was provided by AI, all guided by an outline to start and refined with our knowledge. Time saved, easily 3-4 hours.
It’s AI’s World, We’re Just Marketing In It
In summary, while artificial intelligence may seem like an advanced and futuristic concept, it’s actually already in use today. AI is a tool that helps businesses make better decisions by analyzing data and presenting insights at a faster rate than humans could ever do on their own.
The goal of this article was not only to introduce the concept of AI but also show how it can be used by tourism professionals today in order to improve their services or products. Please do not hesitate to connect with our team at Madden who are constantly looking for ways to bring the latest technologies to our clients.
