The 60th ITB in Berlin focused on online marketing and AI in tourism. There were many contributions to the conference on this topic. One of the most interesting was by Sarah Kopit, editor-in-chief of the US travel journal Skift. She began her presentation with a one word introduction.
UNCERTAINTY
- This seemed to summarise several researched trends in recent tourism, one of which was the use of AI.
- A wealthy customer group has doubled in size over the last five years, as have bookings for hotel rooms costing over $1000 per night. This segment is growing fast.
- Tourism reacts to political situations. The US has experienced a sharp decrease in international tourism since Trump came to power.
- AI is setting up new rules for OTAs (online travel agents) to attract users and buyers, and nobody can predict the future with any certainty.
- Less alcohol in journeys, mice etc. (Do not blame me: I am only the messenger).
Since she does not represent a travel company but a journal, she issued a warning regarding the upcoming presentations of Google, Expedia, etc.: “They will tell you that everything is working well and that they also know what the future holds. But nobody knows this at present. “
The warning was justified: the subsequent Google speakers, Yannis Simiakis and Anna Sawbridge, did exactly what she had predicted. They encouraged travel publishers to publish valuable content that can be used up by Google AI. To advertise, you should use the new Google Ads format, AI Max — obviously a follow-up to Performance Max campaigns, which are not yet available everywhere. For the best AI Max campaign you should offer a lot of data, at best user data from your website, a list of your customers and many more. On the other end, on the side of the customer these ads word best if he offers the data of his Google wallet, e-mails, search history, in short: everything! Google was, in former times, an intelligent and competent partner of dialogue. This presentation was more of a childish request to behave as a conform Google customer.
- They promised a agentic AI that delivers everything the traveler needs, not only generation of content but actions like searching for cheap flights, bookings, etc.
