How AI Can Be Used For Digital Destination Marketing Services

While I doubt that Skynet is about to wage war over digital marketers, the reality is that each sector, including destination marketing, is experiencing continuous growth in the revolutionary application of these tools. This includes streamlining work, content generation, personalising copy, and so much more. As destination marketing services are at the forefront of AI’s potential, let’s take a look at how the sector is evolving.

Content and Social Media Marketing

 Sojern’s State of Destination Marketing 2024 report, which surveyed insights from more than 300 destination marketing organisations (DMOs), revealed that content creation (49%) is predicted to be the facet of marketing that is most transformed by AI. Leveraging text generation tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini has revolutionised the way marketers create engaging content. From witty social media captions and compelling blog openings to clickable titles and web pages optimised for SEO, these tools give marketers the power to resonate with their audience by adopting and applying a tone of voice that appeals to the target market.

 The process is simple. All it takes is a concise prompt alongside the context of your company and audience, and the AI tool will use its vast data set to generate written content that inspires solo travellers, couples, and families to book their next holiday. However, as AI text generation tools gather information from various sources it is important not to rely on them too heavily to keep content original. Furthermore, directly using AI generated content can lead to deindexed websites as Google’s March 2024 core update has aimed to crack down on low-quality and AI-generated spam content.

 As the world moves towards consuming visual content over text, AI image generation tools like DALL.E and Midjourney offer new capabilities ranging from imagery in any art form to increasingly realistic videos. Combining both text and image generation provides DMOs with new tools to expand their destination marketing services, allowing brands to stand out in a saturated marketplace and connect with their audience while saving time and resources in the process.

 Here’s an example I produced using DALL.E for one of our destination marketing clients, Adventures Croatia.

When it comes to applying SEO to destination marketing services, AI has become increasingly useful for efficiency. Let’s look at the process of producing blog or web page content with the assistance of AI text generation tools.

Starting with keyword research, AI tools are great at producing keyword synonyms and topical keywords for search queries or long tail keywords. Alternatively, they can help to analyse competitor content and find out which keywords competitors are using, so you can also compete for those keywords.

Once you have written your content, fine-tune your title to align with the tone of voice of your work and ensure your target keyword is used correctly. This feature allows you to resonate with your audience so that you can portray romantic getaways or fun family adventures.

Finally, when it comes to uploading your content, condense your text into meta descriptions that include a relevant CTA to draw viewers in, while remaining under 160 characters. Additionally, you can gain valuable insights into on-page SEO recommendations by reuploading your work to your AI tool.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

AI integration with PPC is aimed at agencies. Microsoft Ads’ newly built-in Microsoft Copilot and Google Ads’ integrated AI-powered advertising, optimises adverts with AI generated headlines, descriptions, and ad asset recommendations. 

For DMOs, AI integration streamlines the campaign creation process. Simply providing a brief description or website URL instantly produces high-quality campaigns while maintaining your brand’s tone of voice.

 Given the advancement of built-in tools, is it time to ditch ChatGPT and other AI text generation tools when it comes to PPC?

 Additionally, Google shifted its focus towards automated bidding strategies in 2016. Therefore, with the introduction of ‘maximise conversions’ and ‘target return on ad spend’, ‘manual CPC’ is becoming progressively obsolete. DMOs can automatically adjust bids, ensuring seasonal and trending keywords are effectively bid on to maximise conversions.

AI has been rapidly changing the landscape of destination marketing. Signify’s destination marketing services stand to benefit from the efficiency and creativity that AI brings to the table. While its primary advantages are set in text and image generation across social, content, SEO, and PPC marketing, I’m optimistic that advancements will develop quickly. In the next couple of years or even months, if AI is able to predict consumer behaviour, forecast travel trends, and anticipate seasonal fluctuations, DMOs will be empowered to optimise their marketing strategies with exponentially bigger data sets for maximum efficiency.

Hear more about my take on the advantages of AI here: