Voice Search Is Stuck in Tourism Marketing Limbo

25.08.2023 - 14:03 / skift.com / Dara Khosrowshahi / Dawit Habtemariam / Gloria Loree

The great promise and hype by travel executives several years ago about the potential of voice search to revolutionize the industry have gone nowhere. Voice-based search hasn’t progressed as serious destination marketing avenue because the technology underpinning it yet can’t drive effective engagement, inspire travel and handle the complexity of travel search.

The recent introduction of ChatGPT has reignited the discussion around AI and its applications, one of which is voice recognition. Voice search uses speech recognition technology to search the web. Consumers can use it on smart devices like a smart speaker, phone, connected TV, etc. One estimate has it that half of U.S. consumers use voice search daily. About one-third of Americans own a smart speaker, according to Statista.

While voice tech continues to proliferate, its potential has stalled in travel marketing. Before the pandemic, voice was on the to-do-list for travel marketers to capitalize on. “There was a lot of talk, but there hasn’t been a thoughtful continuum,” said Destination Canada Chief Marketing Officer Gloria Loree. “I don’t know any chief marketing officers getting on stages and talking about their impact through SEO or voice search. It’s just not there and I’d put ourselves in that same group.” 

At the 2016 Skift Global Forum, Expedia founder and Zillow Chairman Rich Barton, then-Expedia Group CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and Priceline founder Jay Walker talked about voice-based search being the next frontier in travel. 

Expedia introduced voice-based capabilities on Alexa and Google Assistant in subsequent years. Fast forward, not much has been done. An Expedia spokesperson said there were no updates to share on these capabilities.

For tourism agencies, the priority initially was and continues to be topping voice search results. Crafting web pages that were made for pickup by voice are a big focus, according to Robert Patterson, senior vice president of marketing technology for MMGY Global, a travel marketing agency.

Some tourism agencies saw the potential to influence travel discovery and choices on the voice capabilities of smart devices. A few projects and campaigns tried to be first movers, according to Patterson. Those projects unfortunately didn’t really get too far, he said.

In 2019, Travel Oregon introduced an Alexa skill that centered on the state’s winemaking. “From an accessibility standpoint and just looking at how prevalent these devices are, we just thought it would make sense to kind of experiment with voice,” said Mo Sherifdeen, director of global integrated marketing at Travel Oregon.

An opportunity was to inspire visitations and traveler engagement with creative audio storytelling on smart speakers. With Travel