Tourism Digital Marketing

A lot of destinations are spending big money on marketing and still blending into the background. Not because the places aren’t incredible, but because the content feels completely lifeless. I visit roughly 15 countries per year, I see it every single day, drives me crazy. Every destination says the same things. Hidden gem. Authentic culture. World class hospitality. Breathtaking views...blah blah blah. Once you’ve seen it a thousand times, it all becomes wallpaper. The problem is that most destination marketing is built around what executives want to approve instead of what travelers actually connect with emotionally. Real travel is messy, emotional, funny, loud, human, spontaneous, cultural, and personal. But most tourism content feels like it was written by committee inside a boardroom. Here’s the tactical part that DMOs seriously need to understand: 1. Stop marketing your destination like a brochure. Nobody opens social media hoping to read tourism slogans. 2. Put real people at the center of the content. Chefs, taxi drivers, bartenders, musicians, fishermen, hotel staff, street vendors, grandmothers cooking local food. That’s the soul of a destination. 3. Show movement and energy. Too much destination content feels static. Travel is emotion in motion. 4. Create content around moments, not landmarks. A place becomes memorable because of how it made someone feel. 5. Stop trying to make every post look luxury. Some of the best performing travel content online feels raw and immediate. 6. Think platform first. A LinkedIn audience, Instagram audience, TikTok audience, and YouTube audience consume content completely differently. Most DMOs still post the exact same thing everywhere. 7. Build long-term creator relationships. One influencer trip and 12 Instagram Stories is not a strategy. 8. Start creating content for AI discovery now. The destinations that tell deeper stories online today are going to dominate search visibility tomorrow. Tourism marketing has changed. Attention spans changed. Consumer behavior changed. The algorithm changed. AI changed discovery. But a huge part of the tourism world is still marketing destinations like it’s a printed magazine ad from the good old days. And then they wonder why engagement is flat. 🙄🙄🙄 --- If you like the way I look at the world of hospitality, let’s chat: scott@mrscotteddy.com

While the travel industry races to dominate Instagram and TikTok, many sustainable travel brands, especially those who are unbranded, local or community-driven are missing out on a quieter but incredibly powerful platform: 𝐏𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭. Unlike traditional social media, Pinterest isn’t designed for likes or virality. It’s a visual search engine where users go to plan their lives, not scroll through them. And that’s precisely why it’s one of the most aligned platforms for sustainable tourism. Pinterest is where people search for how they want to travel, not who they want to travel with. And here’s where it gets interesting: as of now, 96% of all searches on Pinterest are unbranded. That means users are typing in things like “eco retreats in Latin America”, “cultural trips for women”, or “offbeat travel experiences” not company names. This creates a rare opportunity for grassroots, regenerative, and offbeat tour operators to be discovered without needing global recognition or massive ad budgets. 𝟏. 𝐏𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 In a space where big OTAs (online travel agencies) dominate Google and social algorithms, Pinterest flips the script. The fact that almost every search is unbranded makes it the perfect discovery tool for small, community-rooted experiences from a women-led trek in Morocco to a seaweed-foraging tour in Chile. If your brand centers around values instead of volume, Pinterest is your space. 𝟐. 𝐈𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐀𝐠𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥 Pinterest’s core users are women aged 25-44, many of whom are sustainability-conscious, wellness-driven, and in a phase of life where they’re actively planning meaningful travel solo retreats, family holidays, cultural immersions or low-impact honeymoons. These women are not just dreaming, they’re deciding. This demographic is increasingly steering tourism demand toward slower, greener, and more inclusive experiences. 𝟑. 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 One of Pinterest’s biggest advantages is how content remains evergreen. A post today about “regenerative farming stays in Portugal” can resurface six months or even six years later and still drive traffic. This is vastly different from platforms where visibility dies within hours. Plus, Pinterest doesn’t rely on followers. It's driven by visual design and keyword search, meaning anyone can get visibility with the right content strategy. If you're a sustainable travel brand or tour operator especially one focused on authenticity, culture, and community. Pinterest could be your most impactful channel. The conscious traveler is already out there, searching. Pinterest is where many of them begin that journey.

❗Google Makes Dramatic Change To "Things To Do" Searches.❗ I've noticed a major shift in the search results recently for anyone doing searches for "things to do" in a destination. This is the most significant change I've seen in a long time, but confirms my suspicion that Google is moving to a more curated experience, and a focus on local businesses. The results feature a curated list of local businesses (via GMB) classified by category. I had to scroll for quite a bit to find the #1 organic result, which was TripAdvisor. So what does this mean for operators? 1. You NEED a GMB (Google My Business) profile if you want to stay relevant. Also, you need to send your review invites to Google and nowhere else. I've been saying this on the podcast quite a bit. It appears that Google's curation is favoring operators with a lot of reviews and high ratings. 2. Popular POIs (Points of interest) in your destination are becoming more authoritative. I've seen this trend the past few years. If you have a resort or entertainment district in your town with a GMB, it's wise to partner with them. 3. OTAs and resellers are going to be forced to pay a lot more to acquire bookings. OTAs receive a substantial amount of sales through organic traffic sources. With Google pushing their users directly to the business, OTAs will see their organic traffic sharply decline. Commissions could increase, or other fees imposed to justify the loss of bookings. 4. Larger and more distinguished operators may see more direct bookings, but it could also mean that smaller operators are harder to find due to the curation. 5. Google TTD (Things To Do) feeds are going to become even more important than ever in this new ecosystem. These feeds are more widely distributed throughout different searches. It's not just "things to do" searches, but I've seen them display in longtail as well (i.e. miami dolphin tours). 6. Make sure you are relevant on discussion boards. Even though there was some indication recently that Google was putting less emphasis on Reddit results, it's clear that Google wants some form of discussion boards in their new Things To Do ecosystem. 7. It is my belief that Google will eventually charge for GMB. Back in 2019 they tried to roll this out, but I believe they pulled back due to Covid. However, if they are going to cut out OTAs and Resellers, they will need to compensate themselves for pushing all this traffic direct. Or maybe they charge per booking as an affiliate. They have a lot of options. If you still intend on creating local content for your website for SEO benefits, there is opportunity! Focus on long tail topics where there isn't a lot of competition. Google doesn't seem to mess with results when there isn't a lot of searches.

Your biggest tourism asset might not be a landmark, but a local icon and a flagship live event? This summer, Bad Bunny is expected to generate nearly $200 million in economic impact for Puerto Rico. Over 600,000 people will travel to San Juan for his residency, the first of its kind on the island. Hotel occupancy is already up 70% compared to last year, and Glorianna Yamín from Discover Puerto Rico confirmed a major spike in travel interest. This kind of economic impact isn’t new, we saw it with Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour which grossed over $2 billion in ticket sales and poured millions into local economies. We’re seeing a shift: travel marketing shouldn’t just sell a destination, it should tap into live moments people already care about. That’s where cultural relevance meets business impact. Rafat Ali has coined a phrase that I think captures this perfectly “Live Tourism”... but how do you market it? The smartest destinations will start creating content well ahead of the event. They know that when people are planning to visit, they are going on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube searching for videos of what to do. They know that if they want visitors to stay for longer and spend more money when they arrive, they need to make it easy to discover what’s on offer. Short video itineraries of what to do, where to stay, where to eat, drink and relax in Puerto Rico should be all over social media right now, building value for the future guest, not around a generic campaign but around actionable insights tied to these live cultural moments.

Your travel content isn't a destination anymore. It's raw material. While most travel marketers are still optimizing for clicks, smart brands are realizing their content has become infrastructure for AI systems. Here's the shift that's happening right now: - From Traffic Driver to Training Data Your destination guides, tour descriptions, and travel tips aren't just web pages anymore. They're being retrieved, understood, and assembled into AI answers that millions of travelers will see. - New Goal: Get Included, Not Clicked Success used to mean someone clicked through to your site. Now it means your expertise gets cited, quoted, and synthesized into the AI response. The traveler might never visit your website, but they're still consuming your knowledge. - Content as Building Blocks Think of every piece of content as a LEGO brick that AI systems can snap together. Your "Best Time to Visit Santorini" blog post might get combined with someone else's flight data and hotel recommendations to create the perfect AI travel answer. The metrics that matter are changing. Instead of just tracking pageviews, ask yourself: Is my content quotable? Is it becoming part of the collective travel intelligence that AI systems rely on? Your content strategy needs to optimize for retrieval and synthesis, not just search rankings. Are you creating content that AI wants to include? DMOs... you may be in trouble if you haven't changed your reporting to focus on this over traffic.

OTA players, big tech, and Google I/O keep announcing major updates. It's hard to keep up. And it should terrify tour operators. Or excite them. Depends on how you play it. Tripadvisor's CEO just told investors they're seeing "ongoing declines in flyby visitors" due to AI overviews eating their traffic. OpenAI named Expedia and Booking.com among its first partners. Google launched Project Mariner — an AI agent that browses the web, monitors prices, and books trips in one tap. AI Mode now remembers your full search journey — from "3-day trip to Rome" to "recommend a restaurant" — and pulls Google Travel results directly into the conversation. What this means for you: I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but If your tours aren't bookable online, you're invisible to AI. If your website isn't structured for search, AI can't recommend you. If you're relying on OTAs for distribution, AI is about to eat your margins. But here's what most people are missing: Only 15–25 million people actually pay for an AI subscription. About 1.3 billion use free tools. That leaves over 6 billion people who haven't touched AI at all. We're in the first inning of the first game of a very long season. You still have time. But the window is closing fast. Because when AI adoption hits critical mass — and it will — the infrastructure you have in place at that moment determines whether you win or disappear. Here's what smart operators are doing right now: → Building direct booking systems so AI agents can find and book them → Structuring their websites so AI can actually read and recommend their trips → Creating expert content that positions them as the human AI can't replace The irony? AI is making generic travel a commodity. Which makes bespoke, expert-led, human-curated experiences more valuable than ever. The operators who move now — while adoption is still early — won't just survive the shift. They'll own it. What's one thing you're doing to prepare your business for AI search?

Plot twist: The biggest threat to Google's travel dominance isn't another search engine 🤯 It's platforms like Skyscanner turning themselves into AI-powered travel advisors. While everyone's obsessing over SEO and Google Ads, Skyscanner quietly built something more valuable: direct relationships. 75% of their traffic now skips Google entirely. 1.2 million new accounts every month. They've cracked the code that most travel brands are still figuring out. Their secret weapon? Thinking beyond transactions. CPO Piero Sierra revealed they're using AI to become "trusted travel platforms" - not just flight finders, but comprehensive trip planners that understand context and intent. Here's what gets me excited: they're building B2B partnerships where AI agents collaborate across brands. Imagine booking a flight on Skyscanner and having it automatically sync with hotel recommendations, local experiences, and real-time travel updates. This is social commerce thinking applied to travel search. Instead of optimising for keywords, they're optimising for relationships and trust. Fits perfectly in a world where people are looking for authenticity and guidance when seeking travel out. For travel brands watching from the sidelines: the window is closing. Direct relationships beat algorithmic visibility every time 🚀 The future belongs to platforms that travellers choose, not ones they stumble upon.

AI Agents Are Booking Hotels. Is Your Direct Channel Ready to Compete? OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent Mode has transformed hotel bookings. AI is no longer just suggesting options. It now books directly on behalf of travelers. Instead of comparing hotels across websites, guests simply ask ChatGPT for what they want, and the AI searches, selects, and completes the reservation, often through OTAs. If your hotel content isn’t structured in a way AI systems can read and trust, your brand is effectively invisible. Traditional SEO tactics focused on human search behavior are no longer enough. Hotels must shift to Answer Engine Optimization, using structured data and clear content that AI agents can easily process. Most hotel teams are not ready for this shift and may already be missing bookings without realizing it. 📢 THE PIVOT FOR HOTEL COMMERCIAL TEAMS: Hotel commercial teams need to rethink their entire approach. This is not about improving your Google rank. It is about making your hotel visible to AI agents that now complete bookings for your guests. ⚠️ The rules of the direct channel have changed. Your content needs to be structured for AI discoverability. Your team needs to understand how AI agents make decisions. Without that, you will be bypassed without even knowing it. The direct channel is at risk unless your teams become AI-literate and start building content for machines as well as humans. FIVE ACTION STEPS FOR HOTEL TEAMS: 1️⃣ Audit and Optimize Structured Data Review your website and booking platform to ensure correct schema markup is in place. AI agents rely on machine-readable data to process your rates, amenities, and availability. 2️⃣ Implement Answer Engine Optimization Move beyond traditional SEO. Focus your content on clear, factual, structured property details across all platforms where AI agents can find them. 3️⃣ Upskill Your Team on AI Literacy Train your marketing, revenue, and sales teams on how AI agents function. AI is now a participant in the booking process. Your teams need to understand how to influence its choices. 4️⃣ Track AI Visibility and Recommendations Start measuring how often your hotel is seen or selected by AI systems like ChatGPT. Visibility is now invisible. Without tracking, you won’t know what you are losing. 5️⃣ Strengthen Direct Channel AI Readiness Ensure your website, booking engine, and voice assistants are optimized to serve both human guests and AI agents. Using AI Voice Agents can help capture direct bookings that might otherwise be lost. If your team needs help optimizing your direct channel, developing AI skills, or driving immediate revenue, reach out. Whether it’s training your team, creating structured content, or helping you track AI-driven visibility, I can support you. Consider me a gig member of your team, ready to help you drive results.

One reel at Onera made us $78,400 in direct bookings. But we almost missed half of it because we weren't watching the right signal. Google Analytics said organic social drove less than 2% of our bookings at Onera. We were getting millions of views and 5-10k link taps into our booking funnel every month. Yet the analytics said almost none of those people were converting. So we made one tweak: added one question to our post-booking confirmation flow: "How did you hear about us?" Over 60% of guests said they found us through Instagram. That's a 300% error in Google Analytics. The problem is last-click attribution. A guest discovers your property on Instagram. Follows you. Watches your content for weeks or months. When they're ready to book, they type your name directly into their browser. Google Analytics attributes the booking to "direct traffic" even though social influence was the entire reason they booked. Since your content doesn't appear successful, you keep underinvesting in the one channel that's secretly driving more bookings than everything else combined. Here's the fix: just ask your guests. Add a simple drop-down question to your booking confirmation. Google, social media, I saw an ad, other. Test it for 30 days. Compare the results and take action. That decision led us to go all-in on content marketing. Today we're sitting at 80%+ direct bookings and over $8.8M in direct revenue at Onera. But here's where most operators are still leaving money on the table... Last year, a reel at Onera Wimberley hit 25,000+ views in the first few hours. Our normal range is 2,000-5,000 in that window. We treated it like what it was: a demand signal. We raised rates on available dates that same day. Guests who find you through a viral post aren't OTA shoppers. They just watched a video of your property and want to recreate that experience. They're booking on emotion, not comparison shopping. So the pricing tolerance is way higher. That post reached 1.7M+ views and drove 7,596 link taps into our booking funnel. 184 nights booked at a $426 ADR compared to $387 the month before. $78,400+ in direct bookings. A $39/night lift just from connecting two things that were already happening inside our business. This week's newsletters will break down both playbooks step by step. How to set up the one-question survey. How to track viral posts in real time and adjust pricing before the wave peaks. Link to subscribe in the comments 👇

✈️ Behind Every Great Tourism Campaign... Is a Smart Partnership Strategy. As someone working at the intersection of aviation and tourism, I’ve seen firsthand how powerful and strategic tourism board partnerships are. It's not just handing out brochures or running digital ads. It's about influencing Michelin guides, building public–private coalitions, and partnering with airlines to drive meaningful visitor flows. Some of the take from behind the working are as follows, 1. Public-Private Matchmaking Many tourism boards are public–private partnerships. Visit Florida matches state funding with private partners like Disney and SeaWorld. ROI? Every $1 spent returns $2.15 in tax revenue. 2. Trade Shows & Roadshows Tourism boards meet key partner airlines, DMCs, and hotel brands at ITB Berlin, ATM, and WTM London events. These are not just eye candy; when one plans their calendar well, they’re strategic sourcing grounds. 3. Michelin-Star Power Moves In 2024, Southern U.S. states co-funded Michelin’s expansion into their region to boost culinary tourism. These aren’t small bets, they’re investments in perception and positioning. 4. Operator Training as Marketing Smart DMOs train local tour operators to tell a consistent story. “Your operator’s marketing is your destination’s marketing.” 5. Data-Driven Destination Content Boards like Visit California now tailor content based on search behavior: “What to do with kids in June in Santa Cruz?” This shift from broad lists to personalized storytelling drives higher-conversion engagement. 6. Airline & Brand Co-Marketing Airlines, OTAs, payment platforms—everyone’s in the mix. Think Emirates + Dubai Tourism. Expedia + Destination Canada. Smart boards build bundles, campaigns, and loyalty plays. Want to pitch a tourism board? Know their target source markets, priorities, and brand voice. Tailor your pitch accordingly. Generic proposals go to the bottom, strategically relevant ones get the call. #TourismStrategy #AviationConsulting #DestinationMarketing #PublicPrivatePartnership #TourismBoards #RouteDevelopment #TourismInnovation #Sagheermoula