All things DMO with Janette Roush

This week I wanted to really dig into what is happening in the Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO) world when it comes to AI innovation. This is probably not the first place most minds go to when it comes to thinking about the adoption of new technology, and in many ways that was the point of this episode.

Quite a few months ago I was contacted to be a resident expert in a program for DMO’s on opportunities becoming available with AI. I was a little surprised that it was this noncommercial corner of the travel industry that was organising itself to do some deep learning & sharing on the emerging opportunities. Turns out this grouping is highly networked through agencies like GroupNAO & Miles Partnership who see it as their role to ensure their clients are on top of the latest trends making this one of the more fascinating places to be as a new tech like AI is rolled out.

Back in early July I came across a piece of research by EY that suggested that DMO’s could well be the lynchpin to leverage AI and bring about a new paradigm in travel that connects consumers directly with suppliers. Having spent a good part of my career to date on the supplier side - I took notice. Getting the lion’s share of rewards to those on the ground doing the face-to-face work in tourism has been my life-long mission because in my opinion, this is key to how tourism as industry is of most benefit to the world, especially in emerging economies and why the work we do is so important.

All this played a huge part in me ultimately co-founding Videreo recently to act as a plug and play mechanism to facilitate this transfer by giving organisations like DMO’s better marketing tools like enhanced storytelling through vertical video scrolling for their owned media, which almost none have now whilst at the same time facilitate the connection directly to supplier and set the scene for personalisation by doing deep tagging of each product. For DMO’s we therefore help provide the definitive answer to the all-pervasive “what have you done for me lately” question from their supplier network.

Much of that is covered in our conversation here. I hope you enjoy.

Huge thanks to TravelAi.com for sponsoring the pod.

This new medium of information about the world of travel & ai came about after a conversation with John Lyotier from TravelAI.com 

I am hugely grateful for the confidence they have in our newish little media business and their support to see the community around travel and ai grow and flourish.

TravelAI.com are shaping personalized travel experiences through micro-segmentation and the power of AI. Check out how on their site.