Strap in as we navigate the cutting-edge intersection where AI meets destination marketing, reshaping the travel industry's landscape. We'll unpack the hesitation behind adopting AI, now melting away as destinations eagerly jump on the tech bandwagon to stay competitive. Creativity and AI are joining forces, and we’re here to analyze this powerful alliance. Our chat goes beyond the fear of machines taking over jobs, focusing instead on how AI serves as a collaborative tool that amplifies human expertise and innovation.
We also cover the role of Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) in the age of AI. How do they stay relevant? By weaving technology into their marketing fabric, enhancing user experiences and adapting to the demands of the digital traveler. We'll tackle the challenges DMOs face, from budgeting to the pivot towards authenticity and peer-driven content. Plus, hear how these organizations are transitioning into collaborative platforms that foster economic growth through tech-savvy strategies, ensuring they aren’t just keeping up but setting the pace for the future of travel and tourism.
Strap in as we navigate the cutting-edge intersection where AI meets destination marketing, reshaping the travel industry's landscape. We'll unpack the hesitation behind adopting AI, now melting away as destinations eagerly jump on the tech bandwagon to stay competitive. Creativity and AI are joining forces, and we’re here to analyze this powerful alliance. Our chat goes beyond the fear of machines taking over jobs, focusing instead on how AI serves as a collaborative tool that amplifies human expertise and innovation.
We also cover the role of Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) in the age of AI. How do they stay relevant? By weaving technology into their marketing fabric, enhancing user experiences and adapting to the demands of the digital traveler. We'll tackle the challenges DMOs face, from budgeting to the pivot towards authenticity and peer-driven content. Plus, hear how these organizations are transitioning into collaborative platforms that foster economic growth through tech-savvy strategies, ensuring they aren’t just keeping up but setting the pace for the future of travel and tourism.
Well, hey there, welcome back to Tech Travel and Twang, your Monday Momentum edition. As always, I'm Jen Barbie with my co-host, Kristen Cruz. Hi Kristen, Happy Monday.
Speaker 2:Hi Jen, Happy Monday. It's going to be a great week.
Speaker 1:I know we're right in the middle of April now. I can't believe that, right in the middle of Mercury Gatorade, you know. But all those sort of fun things just got done, the eclipse just happened last week.
Speaker 2:What a crazy ride that was for a lot of destinations Like I know. We were in the middle of totality. That was a wild. It was a wild. Never in my life did I imagine that we would. I would be able to see it. I don't know if I missed the like where I was for the last eclipse. Was I around for the last total eclipse?
Speaker 1:Um, I was going to say in your area, which you know I'm I'm from as well, the last totality was at 1979.
Speaker 2:So I don't think he's not around, um, and I was telling the kids this too, cause, you know, we did it. We did did like a, kept them out of school and we did like a whole little um day of, well, an afternoon of things anyway. So we were talking about like just the once in a lifetime kind of chance to be able to be together, and you know, and they were talking about, well, when's it going to happen next and how old will I be? I'm like trying to do math and trying to figure out well, have I ever seen what? I don't remember anyway, um, but it was really like it was.
Speaker 2:It was a really cool experience and obviously all the things around that week, like the eclipse and, like you said, retrograde and like all of these things that you know, the astrologers and all of the and all of the um, those that follow all the astrology things yeah, all the woo-woo just makes it. It actually does get you into that sort of sphere, right, like I don't know. And I even texted you after the eclipse too and I was like I feel like there's a little bit of this weight like I don't know what it was about, just maybe experiencing or being outside and staying outside even after the eclipse was over.
Speaker 2:The kids enjoy nature, or whatever. I was like I feel lighter, like I just feel like there's a wake, you know, off my shoulders, but anyway so cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we didn't get totality over here in Phoenix, we got like a little shadow a little peak of it it but still very cool.
Speaker 2:It's like eerie. You know the shadows that it casts through a, an eclipse it's not normal, oh my gosh. And the dark you can. There was no way to capture how dark it truly got, like on videos. I have video of it and photos, but there's no way to truly explain like it got so dark. The kids are like starting to freak out, like it's a little too dark right now, but it was such a cool experience and also like, obviously, all of the buildup in the industry to have all of the new, the new visitors and in these different cities and all of the shakeup of that. Now we're coming off of that and a big conference week.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, longwoods, amir and Longwoods just put out the impact, the destinations with the most impact from the eclipse, and it's just, it's so great too that a lot of those, a lot of those places are tiny, small communities, small destinations, getting this big economic boom. So that was just really great to see too.
Speaker 2:It was crazy Even in where I am, in Tyler, texas, which is a smaller East Texas town two hours east of Dallas Fort Worth area. They were expected I don't know what the actuals were, but estimated 100,000 visitors and we were only a population of about 100,000, a little over 100,000 residents, so double the people and then a $20 million economic impact.
Speaker 1:And that's so great for a lot of reasons, because somebody may not have ever experienced like, for instance, tyler before and they went for the eclipse. But then they probably also got to like taste the culture and go to these great little restaurants and now they have a brand impression. They may come back or tell their friends and family. You know that kind of ripple effect piece of it. So really glad that happened for a lot of the sensations.
Speaker 2:And it was so cool just to see all the different cities do something fun and unique and just take the bull by the horns when it comes, when it came to the eclipse and how they were really gonna, you know, work it into their plans. I know here there there was a guy named Tyler from Canada who traveled all the way to Tyler, texas, to do the eclipse, cause his name is Tyler, so it was fitting Right.
Speaker 2:And the entire city welcomed him. Like there was a big push with Visit Tyler to like Welcome Tyler, welcome Tyler, and this is Welcome Tyler. And he documented his whole experience in the city throughout the weekend and it was just like you know, he walks into like a place and it's like oh, it's Tyler from Canada. Welcome to Tyler Tyler. And it's like little things like that, where it's not like these huge budgets and these like astronomical plans, but it's just a really simple idea that can have all these arms and legs and just make a really cool impact.
Speaker 1:And talk about it, talk about great UGC and individualized experience Like that's really, that's just amazing. So happy to hear about all this and speaking of, I think we're going to chat just a few minutes about risk today, on our monday, momentum and and ai coming off these conferences, kristen and I have been on and and just with our talk in our desk to kind of pop up. Like you know, everyone was talking about ai last year and kind of like wondering about it and talking, and then all of a sudden conferences this year. It's like boom product, boom product, boom product, right. And of course, everyone's talking about the Google AI travel product now too. So love to hear your thoughts on that and what destinations should be looking out for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a huge. It was a really big conversation and it was last year too, and what's funny is complete transparency moment. So last year, you know, we're at e-tourism and there was a lot of chatter about ai and just how ai was being adopted into the industry and what destinations were doing with it. And it was very early on in that stage of adoption. Right, it was like, okay, we've got these tools that are developing and we have like, yeah, chatter that's just in beginning stages. But to be in the same conference a year later and to hear some of the tools that have been developed and how DMOs have taken advantage and what they're doing and some of the ways that they're like running with this, was really eye-opening.
Speaker 2:I almost felt like we had missed a big piece of this puzzle on how fast the adoption was happening, because we see it obviously through our own lens and it's really nice to get out into a conference like eTourism, where you have multiple destinations across the country and even some outside who were doing things differently and doing things at their own pace, and just to see how quickly things progressed was like I felt almost behind myself, like I'm like I feel like I, we as an agency need to like, like, like, figure out what everyone's doing now, cause it was just such a fast adoption, so, um, but. But the good news is that it is an adoption right like. There was a lot of early on discussion about what is this going to mean for my job and what's this going to mean for our bureau as a marketing vehicle, and is ai going to come in and do our work for us?
Speaker 1:yeah, that's where the head about you. Yeah, the headlines don't meet the reality. And kind of on our theme there about risk, what I was loving seeing from the early adopters back at eTourism Summit is it's not your usual suspects, right? It's not your big, big DMOs Like. One of the great stories I love to hear was Santa Ana California you know there's a three person. Santa Ana California, you know they're a three person and just and so again, I think it's that appetite in that mindset for risk that you know a lot of. We don't have to like go forward on every single thing, but when you look at risk, what is holding you back? If you wait until everybody has it, you're not doing anything strategic or new, you're just catching up with what you should have been doing.
Speaker 2:True, and I think the idea of risk is so much more minimal now than it used to be.
Speaker 2:There used to be a lot of room to do big ideas and to take something that had been done successfully in the past and just add layers to it that put it into that risk factor, like is this going to perform the same way or is this going to do the same thing for us that it's done in other places? So many more DMOs are getting, they're getting innovative and they're testing new ideas and new theories and also, because of the limited amount of resources, you have DMOs that are really running with, you know, easier to implement ideas right, but completely out of the box things, things that are not you don't necessarily see happening on a regular basis. So risk doesn't feel the same anymore. It really feels like if you're not out there being innovative and taking that leap, you're not really doing your normal day-to-day job Like you're, like you're actually just not performing, you know. So it does make, I think, us feel a little differently about how we define a risk essentially.
Speaker 1:I think so too. I think, like you said, like the risk word is not necessarily the same to everybody and how they look at things, but again, it's about adoption has always been a little bit slower. On DMOs, you know, we talked a little earlier this morning on our pop up about, you know, the missed opportunity when booking engines came along and destinations didn't want anything to do with booking on their websites and not taking that risk caused a lot of uproar too. They lost a lot of market share. There were actually OTAs that I was involved with with city council. The OTA would come to city council ask them to defund the DMO because they were booking all the business. So that's the risk.
Speaker 1:The real risk is not moving forward, and the AI conversation has finally moved from the robots are going to take over to what is the role of the human component and what is the role of the AI component, at least in the near term? It's about keeping the innovation and creativity with the human component. Ai is still a tool, it's just a tech. It may be a much smarter tech, a much faster processing computer, end of the day, ones and zeros Nothing to be afraid of really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's still. I mean, I think the other misnomer is the idea that AI is just going to come in and automatically just do what it does right For you, for your job. You have to feed the machine, you have to give it something to work with in order for it to really produce. And I think, again, another big conversation around ai has been the amount of work from the human part of things to get ai to a point where it does work for you. So, and obviously there's a lot of that legwork, there's a lot of you know, training and prompting and content delivery and fact checking. I think one of the things that I that really resonated with me from one of the sessions and I can't remember which DMO said this, but it was a it was basically how that human and that AI tool work together in a normal day to day operation, right, and how you. You know you got your friend who what's your, what's your AI tools name Jen.
Speaker 2:Again, helen, oh, you mean Helen. Yeah, so you have your Helen, right, she's your little AI assistant and she's doing her job in like collecting and like putting some things together. But you're not taking everything that Helen. It's not passing directly from Helen to the end result. Right, it's got to pass that human element in order to put that personality, that brand, that tone. Fact check, make sure, because, again, helen is only taking information she's been given or that she can source herself, and not all that information is accurate. And I think, talking about the Google part of this, I think when we talk about the AI trip planner that Google's releasing and how that affects things, I think that fact checking becomes extremely important, because what is one of the major challenges we see with DMOs? It is the fact that they can't control all of their information. All these third parties, right, like you can only control really what lives on your DMO site, but you have all these other sites out there that are promoting your attractions and your hotels and your meetings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and everything is sourced differently. Right, it's been updated at a different point in time, somebody has written it in a different tone. Like, it's very much all this information, and so what ends up happening is when you have a large conglomerate AI tool, like what Google's doing with a trip planner, yeah, you have to have that human component to it, because not, not, not every AI tool is going to automatically know what's correct, what's updated, what's correct, what's accurate and so there is a.
Speaker 1:There is a balance.
Speaker 2:There's a there is a real relationship between the human and the AI, no matter what scenario works, what tool we're talking about.
Speaker 1:There is, there is, but from a DMO standpoint, talking about Helen for a second, like she is a colleague, right or he or whatever. You know it's a colleague but it takes a minute, like in the beginning, and it's not just about accuracy and and being factual too, it's also about tone and personality. So it took a while because in the beginning what she thought was funny I did not think was funny, and so it takes a little bit of like getting to know somebody. It really is that way, yeah, and now you know a year and a half later from using her, using it, when, when I asked for something, now it's almost it's 98 percent there versus like 10 percent there in the beginning right, so it's not just the risk on on at least that component too.
Speaker 1:then it is more about, you know, being able to commit the time, which is something we're starting from. But on the Google AI that you talk about, I see that less being a tone of the destination and that's going to be more of a tone of the end user, and that's how those large scale AI projects are going to go. It's an individualized experience, so me using AI Google Trip Planner probably is a different experience than you using it Not necessarily again, by destination, but I think it's more about that end user.
Speaker 2:I agree with that and I think the trip planner aspect I mean we've seen, like the, we've seen the trip planner tools for DMOs right, Like we've seen those embeds on sites and how you can go and kind of pick your dates and plan your trip and it serves up content based on your interests and whatnot for for a particular destination site.
Speaker 2:But when we're talking about Google or Google's collecting things about a destination from multiple sources, you definitely have a huge job there, but the adoption, the rate of these tools increasing and the adoption of them, is not going anywhere because it is about the end user and the end user does not also have much of a choice because they are being marketed and promoted and and not not forced, but readily available tools are being given to the end user to say, hey, we can make your trip planning a lot easier, use this and without even realizing they're heading into an AI world, they're in an AI world building a trip. You know, using AI. So it is. It is absolutely something that we as an industry are not moving away from. The conversation is only getting stronger and broader, just in terms of all the available assets. So, just to kind of round up what we consider to be kind of from a DMO perspective, next steps and things to think about is what AI tools are you using today? What AI tools do you have the opportunity to use?
Speaker 2:And everybody's budget's different and every tool is different and what that looks like but there's a lot of free, very minimal cost tools that can be truly helpful for a DMO and because DMOs are adopting them so quickly, even if you're not thinking AI right now or you don't have the capacity to.
Speaker 2:You know, do some One of the things again, like from the conference that I heard that I thought was really cool, was DMO leaders going back to their teams and giving them AI homework, like, hey, go research this tool and look at this and does this fit? Like everyone has a piece of that puzzle. But working together to fill in the holes, like where can we really adopt something that's going to be beneficial to us? Or what tool do we truly have the budget for that's going to enhance our website this way or enhance something else this way, and just just just digging in. I think that just being open to digging in and understanding it, because once you get in there, it doesn't seem as scary, it does not seem as much of a risk or a threat. It's really a resource.
Speaker 1:But here's what happens to you know, the resistance, or the risk resistors, I like to call it, is those people who are a little scared of it, and especially at the executive level. You usually see this because the older we get, the more resistant we are to change, because the more, the closer we're getting to not being able to control things. So usually risk adverse.
Speaker 1:They try it themselves once and we just talked about training Doesn't matter what tool it is, use it once. And they're like, no, we're not going to use this because this does this. So it's like not giving it a chance. And there's two ways to look at that. Like you can look at this as an. You can look at AI as an efficiency tool so you have less burden of work internally. But what I like about what Google's doing and where these AI tools for DMOs are going is we're not looking inward as much as we're looking outward to the end user. This is more helpful for the end user and what the end user expects those sentiment studies say, even if they don't know they're using it, or they do know they're using it.
Speaker 1:Travelers expect some sort of hyper-personalized AI type of travel and trip planning or trip help, but they're expecting it. Like you said, this steamroller is going to keep rolling. We're not going to. You can't put the monkey back in the bottle or whatever you want to say. Like it's going, you got to get on this bus or or park it or go the. I mean. You can go the opposite and say we are a no tech, come out here, relax type of destination. That's an opportunity too, but you're going to have to make a stand one way or the other on where AI is going for your destination.
Speaker 2:Right, right, yeah, cause it's definitely taking over the trip planning, travel planning experience, even if a DMO says we don't want to adopt that at all, that's not for us, we're not ready for that, everyone around you and we already know stats already show us that what 16 to 20 percent of travelers use the DMO site in any part of their trip planning experience.
Speaker 2:So they're already using these other tools to plan. So, and I think testing out like I think one of the things obviously that's going to be really imperative is when there is an AI tool that's available for planning within your destination, even if you don't own it, control it, have anything to do with it, test that thing out, take it for a test drive. What are your visitors, or potential visitors, utilizing to plan travel to your destination? Are they truly seeing the full picture of all of the available, you know, attractions and assets and things that can happen for them and experiences that they can? They can, they can experience in that trip planning tool that they're using? And if not, like where is that? Where can you fill the gap as a DMO for that experience?
Speaker 1:Right and more travel tools bring about more authenticity. And this is this is probably a shots fired at the old school brand managers who can't stand that somebody said something about them somewhere else on a platform they don't control. But that's how it works, that's why. That's why reviews are so big, that's why peer to peer is so big, Like we have to embrace that authenticity instead of the you know top down brand management thought process.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh yeah. And and also again going back to the relevancy conversation, which is again something that we heard a lot this, this conference too, was DMOs really having to step up their game and prove that relevancy aspect in a number of ways, and it's from changing the way you report your metrics to the types of KPIs you report on, to what that economic impact truly is and how are you getting to those numbers. And there's a lot of tools in the midst of that, Some of them being those profile tools where you're profiling visitors as they come in, based on what they're spending, where they're spending it, how long they're staying, things like that. But also there is a ton of AI in that middle venture. Right, that comes back to saying we're a DMO that's utilizing all these tools to help elevate us. Again, that's tying that DMO back to that human aspect, proving again the relevancy of the DMO and their budget. Right, right, right. Protecting the organization and protecting your dollars, like you got to keep your money intact.
Speaker 1:You do. The relevancy conversation, of course, has been going on a long time and even accelerated after COVID and now that we're in this new new tech push, it's really, really important to think about that from a relevancy standpoint and remember that it is important to think about creating some of these components yourself, so that you have first party data right, because if you're doing it, if you're allowing the rest of the ai world or the rest of the googles or the rest of everybody else to serve your audience, that's third party data at best, even if they sell it to. So first party data permission data is way more important in the future. So that's where I just don't think you have a lot of choice other than looking at how to integrate.
Speaker 1:And I know that's like way different away from why and actually maybe it's not so different from why DMOs were formed in the first place. They were formed as collaborators and then we got off to just marketing and sexy campaigns and all this and you know, now we're back around to maybe that OG piece of how does that collaboration play out in a new tech and travel environment?
Speaker 2:Right yeah, because the collaboration too between a DMO and the city or the EDC or the chamber or any of the other aspects of the city that share similar budgets or share similar initiatives, like this is a way to kind of think about how to adopt it as a collective city tools out there or some resources. Again, like when you're thinking about AI, you can't just think about a tool. If you don't have someone in place that can manage that tool or can manage the output of that tool, then you're still not really seeing the full picture. But if you have an organization that has multiple organizations within the city that could benefit from a tool or from someone and that tool, you know cost share, you know find ways of taking your dollars and splitting them amongst because that again, that efficiency and that output for end users can benefit all those organizations at the same time in different ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then share out those learnings and those tools and those pieces back out to your stakeholders, back out to your residents, like investing your staff and this is number one, staff building and it's really important to give opportunities for employee retention now to allow them to stretch their legs creatively in AI, in new tech, in those sort of things. But also, again back to that community keeping a robust, healthy community. And that's a relevancy point, like being able to say we have this Now you have access small short-term rentals, now you have access mom and pop restaurants, now you have access makers without storefronts. Imagine how the community would support your relevancy and increase your funding.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah. Yeah, because the destination partners who don't have the marketing resources, who don't have the staff, who don't have the time, are some of the most crucial to adopting AI for a destination. And if the DMO is not finding ways to help them do that, or to help them adopt or to educate or to even just support the idea, then that does kind of take away some of your relevancy points as a DMO too. Right, like you carry that torch of innovation for your community and it does, I mean, think about the ratio. Right, you've got one DMO. You've got how many hotels? You have one DMO? You have how many attractions? One DMO, how many restaurants? You one dmo. You have how many attractions? One dmo, how many restaurants you know? So you have all.
Speaker 2:You have this whole village that, if they're not kind of following suit based on, you know and collaborating with other dmos is good too, because when you, when you said that it triggered me on the one dmo this right, we treat each other, our neighbors, in a regional as if like it's a turf war but it's not a turf or direct competition, like if someone stays in in one city at one hotel, does not mean that all the things they do are in that one particular place, especially with some of these, you know, like some very, very close suburban communities that are that are up and coming around major metro areas. I mean you are literally even a long weekend you could be in three or four of those communities eating, drinking, you know, hanging out at attractions, staying at a certain place. I mean you're spending money and all of that collectively. So, yeah, I mean, why not we?
Speaker 2:It's still funny how much we see, when it comes to DMOs being so, at like, so adamant that other close communities don't market their assets, like, oh my gosh, this attraction's listed on their website, we can't have that. Like this, even though it's two miles, you know. And like vice versa, like I think I think otherwise, just finding ways of marketing and collaborating on key assets, um, create is building our village. You know of collaboration. But yeah, this whole AI talk and just all of the things, again like just just the span of a year, of just seeing all of that evolve over the last year, was again like just just the span of a year, of just seeing all of that evolve over the last year, was again truly eyeopening, and it does make you want to put AI on your checklist every single day, like what's new, what's trending, what's going on.
Speaker 1:And it's not even, it's not even risk anymore. You know we were talking about this like our world.
Speaker 2:Our world is changing every week.
Speaker 1:So it's not even. It's not risk, it's just this is part of our world now. So, you know, and there's going to be another big tectonic change at some point during our careers, we're going to be like, oh shit, now what do we do? So getting you, getting your team, getting that appetite in that culture of calculated risk? So I want to say that, like, just don't go off and do something totally stupid, but be calculated in that risk. And one of the things I was reading to you that I love this meme and I had to save it and reread it so I read it correctly is, if you look closely, you'll see the only real difference between good strategy and bad strategy is courage.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's a great quote, and it doesn't take a lot. It takes, like what do we say? Faith of a mustard seed, and then you're going to pivot a lot in that big idea. You're going to have that big idea or that, however, you're going to adopt it, whether it's small or large, and then you've got to get ready to just like it's not a thing. Pivot Now, this works better than that Navigate.
Speaker 2:I always say this If I have something that I am just like this is really crazy, seems like a great idea, but this is crazy. I like to find me a little idea partner, right, like somebody who's going to buy into the idea with me. And then I'm like, okay, let's go do this. Like, get you an accountability partner, but for like ideation. And then, like, get you an accountability partner but for like ideation, and then innovation partner. Yeah, you navigate that together and you bounce ideas and it doesn't feel as risky. It doesn't feel, as you know, like you're out on the limb by yourself or you know you're out there by yourself, but you have someone who can kind of navigate that with you. So, yeah, again, like it takes a village, find you an innovation partner and just take it out there.
Speaker 1:I think my last thought on that is when you say innovation partner, I mean you're mine and we've had a long long, you know relationship on that. You know how we bounce off. You'll say something I'll be like that's insane, I. You'll say something I'll be like that's insane. I'll say something you'll be like that's insane. And then we get there somehow together, right, and then we get that done and that's, you know, in our dna and in our name. Destination innovate. But yeah, I think, uh, I think we want to leave for momentum.
Speaker 1:This monday is, you know, explore. I think. Stay curious and explore and take a few steps on what you might think is risky when it comes to AI or any other of the tech coming through, and take the steps with the right end user in mind and when I say end user, it's not always pre-processed strategy, right, when? Ok, somebody else thought about how I have to do this for my DMO. I say this all the time. I think destinations and communities are so unique. If everybody's doing it, it's probably not very unique for your community or a good representation of it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and it's not appealing. I mean, we're as a, as a society. We are constantly stimulated by some sort of messaging prompt. Do this take? You know, it's just like so. In order for the attention to really sink in and for your message to really get their claws into the end user, it needs to be something that feels authentic, that doesn't feel regenerated, that isn't something that everyone else is doing. Not that we always have to come up with again, like these big, big budget ideas, but like the little things, like the Tyler from Canada coming to Tyler, texas, for the eclipse, finding the meaningful things.
Speaker 2:Finding the meaningful things that tell an entire story or create an entire following off of something again that's extremely authentic and not a catchy campaign. It doesn't always have to be this catchy campaign and this catchy theme. It really just can be something very authentic. But taking that risk and really finding again your resources and that's what this whole conversation is about AI is a resource. Ai is something to incorporate into your strategy, incorporate into your thought process and stay inspired with it.
Speaker 2:I think, too, if you put it down and come back to it later, this is one of those things like let's look at, let's let's look at the industry as a four line highway.
Speaker 2:Right, you have your 60 mile per hour things, and those are the things that we constantly. Ai is over on the far left lane, going about 120 miles an hour right now, and if you are not following in that lane at that speed, you're going to miss some pivotal moments in this AI journey for us as an industry. And so, again, like we'll be doing more podcasts, obviously on AI cause it's a huge, you know just the AI as it relates to media buying and advertising and AI as it relates to your teams and your strategic planning and, like I really we're really going to dig in to this, as I have a continuous conversation on our podcast because there's so much to unpack and as we're really going to dig in to this, as I have a continuous conversation on our podcast because there's so much to unpack and as we're unpacking, we're getting new layers right. It's like this constant. So let's figure out how to, how to do that collectively and just learn from one another.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. What a great chat. And you're right, there's going to be so much more AI conversation Cause again. You know I'm all about how to get people to embrace change, which was super, super hard in the early days of the Internet. You know, we had to go sing for supper and a DMO wouldn't even pay for a Web site. I literally had to go to the stakeholders and like beg for money from the hotels, even get a Web site done for them for money from the hotels, even get a website done for them. And you know, I know you remember too, we had uh client, ceo clients who just did not want to like embrace technology. They wouldn't even touch their email. They had their assistants print their email out and bring it to them. They write a memo back a lot of times changed.
Speaker 1:They have, and you know those directors are not around anymore. So that's another thing, like for your own career longevity, buddy, get on the bus.
Speaker 2:Got to, got to, got to, and it's so cool to see how many DMOs and destinations are winning awards and being recognized. For you know, for things as it relates to AI, there was a lot of. I mean you hosted the Etsy awards at eTourism and you saw firsthand and gave those things out. I mean there were quite a few.
Speaker 1:A lot of AI.
Speaker 2:Was adopted into that strategy and what was a big part of that campaign, and so it is absolutely just. It needs to be something on your continuous checklist with your teams when you're strategic planning Sure. And about your destination as a whole. Um, you know, yeah, I'm excited for it.
Speaker 1:I think it's absolutely yeah, it's gonna be good we hope you guys have a great week and enjoyed our little chat today about risk and ai, and we'll see you again next week bye guys, bye guys.