Change grip
Tourism board executives think ChatGPT is awesome, but they haven’t yet seen solid evidence of its real-world application in destination marketing to make a significant investment.
Dawit Habtemariam
Destination marketers say they’re taking a wait-and-see approach to ChatGPT. Some executives speaking at the ITB’s tourism conference in Berlin last week said they don’t yet know if ChatGPT and generative AI tools will have an impact on destination marketing and won’t had not devoted internal resources directly to its use. They expressed their views during a session entitled “Digital, personalized and open: how DMOs are gaining momentum in digital journeys”.
Since its introduction, ChatGPT has revived the discussion around the possibilities of AI. Some destination marketing professionals believe it has a place in internal operations and travel research. “We look at everything from an internal workflow perspective, but it can also be a great tool to transform our research,” said Oregon Travel Global Integrated Marketing Director Mo Sherifdeen told Skift.
At ITB Berlin, when asked about the future of ChatGPT in destination marketing, Singapore Tourism Board CEO Keith Tan said the jury is still out on whether it will work for destination marketing. “ChatGPT can work for universities and schools. It might not work for us in destination marketing, but we don’t know that,” he said. , it’s the ability to test and pilot and see what works and what doesn’t.”
German National Tourist Board Alexa Brandau, head of media management, agreed. “We don’t know the future yet. We have to learn by trial and error, so we need some leeway first,” she said. Brandau says the tourism board’s ongoing initiative with the German tourism industry to develop a structured content data warehouse could potentially help ChatGPT improve its functionality as a by-product.
Similar, Tourism eXchange Great Britain, which is a VisitBritain partner and connects tourism businesses to distribution channels, theorizes its data projects will provide a foundation for ChatGPT and Generative AI. Chief executive James Berzins said they could potentially provide him with content, visits, bookings and other data.