I recently had the pleasure of presenting at the Destinations International Marketing & Communications Summit in vibrant Austin, Texas. During the session, "Innovation in Action: Success Stories in Emerging Tech," I shared some exciting examples of how destinations are leveraging AI to elevate their marketing efforts. If you missed the presentation, you can watch it here, or read the TLDR version:
- AI chatbots can enhance the visitor experience. Visit Savannah saw success with their AI chatbot to create a more personalized user experience, which resulted in high engagement, click-through rates and lead generation.
- AI can improve accessibility and generate alt text. Travel South Dakota used AI to automate alt text generation for their image library, making their content more accessible to users with visual impairments and freeing up staff time to focus on other initiatives
- AI can help serve personalized content. The Nashville CVC is integrating an AI-powered events platform into their new website (launching soon) to better match visitors with events based on their behavior and preferences with the goal of enhancing their experience and driving more engagement.
In addition to the presentation, we also curated a collection of AI tools that can help with a variety of tasks in the destination marketing space. Shoutout to Miles’ Justin Gibbs for creating the original list!
AI Toolkit for Destination Marketers
Writing, Editing & Communication
- Foundational LLMs, the OG tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, can support drafting compelling copy or even just polishing your grammar.
- Jasper is specifically designed for marketing tasks, self-proclaimed as “The AI your marketing deserves,” and it starts at $49 per month per seat.
- Grammarly is an AI-powered tool that helps to ensure your writing is clear, concise and error-free.
Content & Idea Generation
- Foundational LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini) aren’t just for writing; they can also help you brainstorm fresh ideas and generate unique content.
- Copy.ai is your creative partner in crime for creating marketing copy, social media captions, blogs, ads and more.
- Notion AI is built right into the Notion workspace, helping you generate ideas, summarize notes and create content on the fly.
- Midjourney and DALL-E are AI image generators that can bring your creative ideas to life, creating custom images from text prompts.
Meeting Notes, Summaries & Transcriptions
- Otter.ai is a transcription platform that records audio and creates real-time or post-meeting transcripts so you can focus on the conversation at hand.
- Fathom is a meeting assistant in your Zoom calls; it summarizes key points and action items in real time.
- Zoom is getting in on the AI action with its AI Companion: Zoom is getting in on the AI action, too! It can help with meeting summaries and transcriptions and is included with most Zoom subscriptions.
Data Management & Record Keeping
- Airtable is already a powerhouse for organizing data, but with AI-powered field suggestions and automations, it takes your data management to the next level.
- Microsoft Power Automate lets you create "flows" that automatically triggers actions based on specific events.
- Zapier also allows you to connect your favorite apps and automate workflows by setting up trigger events and subsequent actions.
Task and Workflow Management
- Trello offers a kanban-style task board with a variety of AI-powered integrations to help you stay more organized.
- Notion is also a great option for task and workflow management. Its powerful databases and collaboration tools make it easy to stay on top of your to-do list.
Research, Summaries & Quick Information Access
- Foundational LLMs are also great for research, helping you quickly find and summarize the information you need, but remember to validate the information it provides to ensure accuracy.
- Feedly is a news aggregator that uses AI (called Leo) to filter and summarize relevant articles so you can stay informed and up to date.
- Notebook LM allows you to upload up to 50 sources (including pasted text, links, YouTube videos, slides decks) and can help summarize the content, extract details and even create a podcast.
Marketing & Social Media Management
- Hootsuite is a social media scheduling platform that's been around for a while, but it's now even better with AI-powered writing and optimization tools.
- Buffer is another great social media management tool that can help you generate ideas and repurpose your existing content.
- Canva is already a go-to for creating beautiful visuals, and now it has AI capabilities built right in. Use Canva’s Magic Studio to to assist your creative needs, from crafting catchy captions and writing short posts to creating presentations and more in a matter of seconds.
