Destination marketers should resist the temptation to design
websites around AI algorithms and continue putting ‘people first’, attendees at
the Travel Marketing AI Summit heard.
A panel at the event, organised by Phocuswright, at Convene,
London, highlighted the rapid shift from traditional search engine optimisation
(SEO) towards optimisation for AI-generated answers, while stressing that the
technology and best practice remain at an early stage.
Kathrin Chambers, digital marketing manager at Fáilte
Ireland, said her organisation had invested in a ‘complete B2C digital
transformation’ of its websites before ‘AI came along’.
But the arrival of generative AI had forced it, along with
other destination marketing organisations, to rethink how their content is
discovered. Chambers said Fáilte Ireland had been performing strongly in
conventional search but found itself largely absent from AI platforms.
The organisation formed a working group to address the
problem and subsequently expanded its use of structured data and more detailed
content. Since republishing its schema in May this year it has seen a 25 per
cent rise in citations and mentions across AI platforms, which they are
tracking through Semrush, a visibility management and digital marketing
platform.
Chambers
said: “The important thing for us is being where the visitor is looking at the
time they're looking and ensuring that we're delivering for them, so if people
now are doing these longer form searches, we're going to give them that on the
website.”
The experience illustrates the emerging transition from SEO
to what is increasingly being described as answer engine optimisation (AEO) –
competing not simply to appear in search results, but to be referenced in
AI-generated answers.
Yet Robert Scott-Clark, head of data & analytics at
VisitBritain/VisitEngland, warned that destinations should not lose sight of
why their content exists in the first place.
“The inspiration to come to Britain isn't done when you type
‘I want to get Britain into the LLM’,” he said. “It's when you're thinking
about your perfect journey.”
He argued that destinations should continue inspiring people
before allowing AI tools to help with the practical stages of planning.
Optimising exclusively for what an AI system is statistically likely to
recommend could also reinforce existing destination biases, he warned,
potentially concentrating visitors in already popular locations.
For Chambers,
the lesson was to keep experimenting rather than assume there is already a
definitive playbook.
“It's an open conversation,” she said. “Nobody has the
answer.”
Both speakers stressed the pace of change.
Chambers expects
significant shifts over the next six to 12 months, while Scott-Clark described
the industry as being at “the infancy” of an increasingly agentic web.
For
destination marketers, the message was therefore less about abandoning SEO or
racing to “beat” AI, and more about building strong digital foundations,
producing genuinely useful content and understanding changing visitor
behaviour.
As Scott-Clark put it: “You've got to meet people where they
are.”
Earlier moderator Nick Hall, from the Digital Tourism Think Tank, had quoted figures that showed that while 93 per cent of Google AI Overview traffic doesn’t lead to a website click, when it does, the conversion rate is five times better than traditional search.
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Written By
James Lancaster
AMI editor James
Lancaster is a familiar face in the meetings industry and international
association community. Since joining AMI in 2010, he has gained a reputation
for asking difficult questions and getting lost in convention centres. Proofer, podcaster, and panellist - in his spare time, James likes to walk,
read, listen to music, and drink beer.
