AI Could Be an 'Existential Threat' to DMOs. What Some Are Doing

15.11.2024 - 15:37 / skift.com / Justin Dawes / Brand

Big Lincoln is the AI chatbot mascot on Enjoy Illinois, the website run by the Illinois Office of Tourism and charged with carrying out travel marketing campaigns for the state. 

The organization launched the tool in June and has received more than 8,000 messages from users since then, according to Daniel Thomas, deputy director for the Illinois Office of Tourism.

The same AI that powers the website’s chatbot will soon power replies for the organization’s accounts on the Meta-owned social media platforms Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. 

Illinois is among a growing number of destination marketing organizations (DMOs) that have integrated similar generative AI tools. 

Despite initial pushback from DMOs on adopting the tech, some leaders in the sector are moving ahead.

Brand USA recently hired Janette Roush for the newly established role of chief AI officer. Funded partially by the U.S. federal government, the organization leads the country’s international tourism marketing and often consults with smaller DMOs.

Roush said during a Brand USA conference last month that now is the time for DMOs to get ahead of the curve.

“You read the newspapers. You’ve heard what Google is doing with their generative AI Overviews,” she said. “And the trickle down effect of that is we’re going to have less traffic to our websites. So that’s an immediate upcoming impact of generative AI that we need to learn to get ahead of. It’s a kind of existential threat, possibly, for a DMO.”

Brand USA did not respond to an interview request from Skift.

Roush said during the conference that she had done nearly 50 talks with travel professionals, meeting planners, and DMOs on how to use AI. Continuing that educational work will be a key aspect of her role, which she started in October after leading marketing for the New York City tourism and conventions bureau.

Big companies like Expedia have internal teams to do this work, but most smaller travel companies do not. She said Brand USA is integrating AI throughout the organization, with plans to share everything it learns with the industry. 

“We need to understand how this stuff works so we can take advantage of it,” Roush said at the conference.

“I do not want lack of expertise to be the reason that the U.S. travel industry falls behind when it comes to AI. This is going to affect how we advertise, how we personalize our offerings, how we reach our customers; it’s going to change how our customers want to reach us or how they want to do their travel planning.”

Thomas from the Illinois Office of Tourism believes much of that caution around DMOs adopting AI comes from a lack of understanding on how it could be beneficial, as well as legal concerns around privacy. 

“I think that’s