Breakfast and Networking
Welcome to Day 2
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Evaluating the AI Visibility Question
Search behaviour is changing fundamentally. AI Overviews and conversational interfaces are reshaping how people find, evaluate and choose destinations. This keynote opens with a demystification of the terminology and walks through the shifts in consumer and search behaviour driving them.
Destination Marketing Without The Map: AI and the Future of Destination Visibility
Toby Morris of Tiki opens with a scene-setter on the shift from traditional search to AI and GEO, framing what destinations are now navigating. The conversation moves into the factors shaping whether a destination stays visible in this new channel and the tactics that have started to make a difference.
The Impact of AI on Destination Discoverability
Johannes Auer from Oberösterreich Tourismus shares how their "In Unserer Natur" campaign used AI to build a cast of animal reporters. He is joined by Stewart Howe from Discover Peterborough, who talks through the "Dinosaur City" campaign connecting AI-generated characters to real exhibitions, trails and museum experiences.
Coffee and Networking
Pick your Zone
Four zones running in parallel
Strategy Room: Going Further on GEO and AEO
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A strategic working session on how to take GEO and AEO further. The conversation covers cross-platform and multi-author content approaches, the choice between depth and volume and the harder strategic question of when to set the narrative versus respond to demand.
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The Lab: Putting GEO and AEO Tools to Work
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A hands-on session in two halves. The first puts leading GEO and AEO tools to a specific destination challenge. The second uses Claude in Chrome or ChatGPT in agentic mode to log into analytics, benchmark competitors, run technical checks and return with detailed strategic recommendations.
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Debating Room: Being Tactical with AI Visibility
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Should destinations align AI visibility with strategy or with demand? Strategy means setting bold objectives and increasing awareness in new markets. Demand means showing up when visitors are searching. Arguments from both sides, with a devil's advocate pushing harder questions. Does writing 'hidden gems' content help or harm the destination? Does GEO make overtourism worse?
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Advisory Clinic: Submitted Cases on AI Presence
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A focused advisory session built around discoverability cases submitted in advance. Facilitators identify common patterns, where destinations are getting tripped up and what good looks like in practice.
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Lunch
Designing Functional AI Interfaces
AI is increasingly the functional layer between inspiration and booking. This keynote walks through how AI interfaces are evolving across websites, social, apps and in-destination experiences, the global variation in AI acceptance and the harder strategic choices destinations face.
Building AI-Mediated Destination Experiences
Aleksandra Jerebic Topolovec from the Slovenian Tourist Board explores the DMO's role in connecting deep destination knowledge with partner content, industry data and real-time inputs. She shares the practical work behind Alma, Slovenia's AI travel guide, including the technical and editorial optimisations made to the site.
Closing the Visibility Gap
Mark Merrywest, Founder of Selfe, addresses the visibility gap facing DMOs and the industry, focusing on how missing schema and poor machine readability shape where destinations are positioned and discovered. He shares the technical foundations that determine whether a destination shows up in AI interfaces.
Coffee and Networking
Pick your Zone
Four zones running in parallel
Strategy Room: Investing in AI Interfaces with Longevity
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A strategic working session on how destinations should be investing in AI interfaces given how quickly the technology evolves. The conversation works through what KPIs actually matter, how to measure ROI when an AI platform doesn't connect directly to visits and when to pull the plug.
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The Lab: Vibe Design or Vibe Code
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A hands-on session comparing two approaches to building AI experiences: vibe design on Stitch versus vibe coding on Claude. The conversation closes on whether treating AI as a digital assistant will change the traditional balance between in-house development and working with external agencies.
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Debating Room: Deciding What to Build
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Should destinations build AI platforms and interfaces themselves, or focus on providing high-quality data for others to build on? The conversation moves through real examples and surfaces the harder strategic questions around fragmentation and what the desired set of solutions actually looks like.
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Advisory Clinic: Submitted Cases on AI Interfaces
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A focused advisory session built around interface and experience cases submitted in advance. Facilitators identify common patterns, where destinations are over-engineering, under-investing or missing the point and what good looks like in practice.
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