Now What? Moving DMOs from AI Awareness to Action

AI search isn't replacing how travelers find destinations. It's changing what they get back when they search. And for DMOs, the difference between your destination showing up and your organization being credited as the source is everything. This session is the third in a series built for destination marketers who are past the awareness stage and ready to act. We cover what the latest search behavior data actually shows, why the real disruption is already happening inside Google, and how to audit your AI visibility, fix what's wrong, and build the content and measurement practices that position your DMO as the authoritative source for your destination.
Presented by Jason Dodge, BlackTruck Media + Marketing.

Transcript

1. Now What? Moving From AI Awareness to Action Jason Dodge BlackTruck Media + Marketing Where do you stand? Take the AI Readiness Assessment → Slides & Resources: bit.ly/actionableAI
2. 17+ Performance Discoverability C L I E N T S & P A R T N E R S Focused Expertise. Deeper Questions. We're not a full-service agency — and that's by design. As search evolves and generative AI reshapes how people find and engage with brands, the gap between noise and signal is growing. We go deep where it matters — asking the questions that connect your marketing strategy to the conversations happening in the boardroom. The result is marketing aligned with where your organization is actually going. Years in Business Google, Bing, Meta, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, TikTok Paid Media + SEO/GEO + Analytics Trusted by brands to improve their visibility online. From traditional search to AI-driven discovery — we help brands show up where their audience is looking today and tomorrow.
3. Where We've Been. Where We Are. P h a s e 1 Discovered, Not Clicked Why AI search changes how travelers find you. P h a s e 2 Measure What You Can't Click How to track what your dashboard can't show. P h a s e 3 Now What? What you actually do about it, today.
4. Where DMOs Actually Are Right Now 1 10 9 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Starting Line (0–5) Building Awareness (6–10) Gaining Ground (11–14) Leading the Shift (15–18) 9.4 Average score 2–15 Score range across DMOs #1 Gap Measurement Gap Most DMOs stuck at GA4 BlackTruck Media + Marketing, DMO AI Readiness Assessment, 2026
5. What Your Score Means 0–5 Starting Line Not yet on the radar. You're not alone, most industries are here. 6–10 Building Awareness You know this matters. You've started some things. But nothing is systematic yet. 11–14 Gaining Ground You have early processes. Connect this to your reporting and stakeholder communication. 15–18 Leading the Shift You're ahead of most. Keep refining and share what you're learning. The industry is in the middle of figuring things out together.
6. 01 The Landscape Has Not Stopped Moving
7. Search didn't die. It changed.
8. What the Data Actually Shows 94.3% Google's US desktop search share, Q1 2026. Google is still where your travelers go. What they get back is what's changing. 2x AI tool visits doubled in 14 months. Still under 2% of total desktop visits, but the pace of growth strengthened. Source: SparkToro / Datos, State of Search Q1 2026
9. ChatGPT climbed to #7. Up from #14 the year before. Q4 2024, Where ChatGPT Ranked #1 Google #2 Microsoft #3 YouTube ... #14 ChatGPT → Q4 2025, Where ChatGPT Ranked #1 Google #2 YouTube #3 GitHub ... #6 ChatGPT ↑ This shows where people go AFTER a search, not where they search. Traveler research now includes AI as a follow-up step. Source: Datos / SparkToro, Top US Search Destination Domains Q4 2024–Q4 2025
10. The real disruptor is already in Google. Travelers didn't change their habits. Google changed what they get back. Google AI Mode: 2.5x growth in one quarter 0.16% US | 0.21% EU/UK as of Q1 2026. Up from 0.06% just one quarter earlier. Source: SparkToro / Datos, State of Search Q1 2026
11. Your website's job has changed. B E FO R E Website as Destination Travelers searched → clicked → arrived at your site. Your website was where the journey ended. Traffic = proof of discovery. N O W Website as Source AI searches → reads your site → delivers the answer to the traveler. Your website is where AI goes to learn about your destination. If AI can't read your content clearly. It finds another source.
12. 02 What AI Actually Pulls From
13. The hardest problem to explain. Visibility Your region is mentioned. ✓ The destination wins Someone asked about your area and the AI mentioned it. ≠ Authority AI cites you as the source. X The DMO often doesn't AI pulled from a travel blog, Reddit, or TripAdvisor instead.
14. A citation is AI saying: "I got this from here." When AI answers a traveler's question about your destination, it's drawing from somewhere.
15. How to Check Who's Getting Cited Five steps. Takes about an hour the first time. 1 Open Google, ChatGPT, and one other AI tool side by side. 2 Type in your top traveler queries, one at a time. 3 Screenshot every result. 4 Look past whether your destination is mentioned. 5 Ask specifically: what source is AI crediting? Is it your site, or someone else?
16. When you run the audit, one of four things comes back. Each one has a different response. Sc enario 1 Your site is being cited. Sc enario 2 A third-party source is getting the credit. Sc enario 3 Destination mentioned, nobody cited. Sc enario 4 Your destination isn't showing up.
17. SCE NARI O 1 Your site is being cited. Good news, but you’ve work to do. Now the question shifts: → Is the information AI is pulling from your content accurate and current? → Does it reflect your current brand positioning? → Document this as your baseline and track it quarterly. → Move into maintenance mode. The content freshness checklist applies here.
19. SCE NARI O 2 A third party is getting the credit. The most common scenario. What to do: → Identify exactly what topic or query the third party is winning on. → Look at their content. What makes it more useful or clearer than yours? → Update or create content on your site that directly addresses that topic. → One topic at a time. This is targeted, not a full site overhaul.
21. SCE NARI O 3 Your destination is mentioned. Nobody is cited. AI is cultivating from multiple sources at once. → Build content authority across your top topic areas consistently. → Focus especially on events and local experience content, where DMOs earn citations more readily. → Track branded search volume as your proxy signal. If awareness is growing, the work is having impact.
22. SCE NARI O 4 Your destination isn't showing up. Rare and the path forward is straightforward. → Identify the specific query type where you're not appearing. → Check whether you have any content on your site that directly addresses it. → If not, that's your next content priority. → If you do, look at whether it's written clearly enough for AI to extract and use.
24. What Makes AI Choose One Source Over Another Direct Answers Content that directly and confidently answers a specific question, not buried in marketing copy. Current & Accurate Information that is up to date. AI doesn't know what's stale. It presents old info with the same confidence as new. Consistent & Trusted Sources that are consistent and authoritative across the web. Established organizations with clear, maintained content. Real Experience Content written from genuine local knowledge. The things no aggregator, AI tool, or travel blog can replicate. The gut check: If your content disappeared from the internet tomorrow, would anyone notice the gap?
25. Events are a high-leverage opportunity. When travelers ask AI about events in a destination, two sources consistently show up as cited: Event listing platforms + DMO websites You've been the curators of what’s happening in your destination. AI is validating your role. Is your event content set up to take advantage of it?
27. So are your local business listings. DMOs continue to add value. What AI does with listing data When a traveler asks AI about restaurants, attractions, lodging, or experiences in your destination. AI pulls from whatever source has the clearest, most current listing data. If your listings are outdated or incomplete, AI finds another source. And that source, not your DMO, shapes what the traveler believes about those businesses. The DMO value proposition Every accurate listing on your site is a business you're helping get found. When AI cites your listings, it's citing your platform, not TripAdvisor. Outdated hours, wrong addresses, or closed businesses hurt the traveler experience and your credibility. Accurate, updated listings = DMO value that's visible in AI results. DMOs that maintain accurate listings aren't just serving travelers. They're protecting every business in their destination.
28. The freshness problem nobody's talking about. 70%+ of pages cited by AI were updated within the past 12 months We spend all our energy creating new content. AI doesn't know what's stale. It presents outdated information with the same confidence as current information. Real example: A DMO's Fourth of July events page hadn't been updated since 2023. AI was still citing it, with confidence, giving travelers wrong information. Update before you create. Source: Airops AI content citation research, 2025
29. Content Freshness: What a Quarterly Rhythm Looks Like 1 Run your top 10 traveler queries across AI platforms. What is AI saying about your destination right now? 2 Check your events section, are dates, times, and details current? Flag anything outdated. 3 Review your top five destination pages, is the information still accurate? Venues open? Seasons correct? 4 Check for closed venues, discontinued experiences, or seasonal details that haven't been updated. 5 Update FAQ content based on questions travelers are actually asking now, not questions from two years ago.
30. What Your Site Needs to Be the Source None of this requires a developer. Most of it is content strategy. Write clearly and directly Answer the question in the first sentence, not the third paragraph. AI reads your content the same way a smart reader does. Organize your events with all the details visible What, when, where, and what kind of experience. If AI can't find the date, it won't cite the page. Write from local knowledge and real experience The things no aggregator can replicate, insider perspective, neighborhood nuance, seasonal specifics. Think of video as a discovery asset AI platforms actively surface video content. DMOs already produce it, just not with this lens.
31. The technical things that actually matter. FOCUS HE RE Events and local business pages Structure matters where specific data lives: dates, times, addresses, hours, business type. These are the pages AI reads for factual answers. Site speed LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity crawl content in real time. If they are forced to wait, they move on to the next source. This one matters more than people think. Fresh content over new content You likely have great content already. Go back to it. Refresh it. Update it. That beats publishing new pages nobody asked for. LESS CRI TIC AL THAN YOU THI NK Schema markup on generic destination content and blog posts. For editorial pages, clarity matters more than technical formatting. SKIP FOR NOW llms.txt files. AI ranking tools without validated methodology. And creating large volumes of new pages to chase AI attention. Note: Google has published guidance on AI optimization. Worth knowing, though keep in mind they have their own interests in how they frame it.
32. 03 The "Now What" Playbook
33. St ep 1 Run the audit. Ten queries. Three platforms. One hour. If you haven't done this yet, this is your week. If you did it before, do it again. Things have moved. Google AI Overviews Already in the tool your travelers use. ChatGPT Now a top-10 search destination. Perplexity or Bing Catch patterns across platforms.
34. How to Pick Your Queries Think like which traveler, not like a marketer. G O O D Q UE R Y T Y P E S "Things to do in [Destination]" "Best [experience] in [Destination]", restaurants, hiking, beaches "Weekend trip to [Destination]" "Family-friendly activities in [Destination]" "Events in [Destination] this [season]" "Is [Destination] worth visiting?" "[Destination] travel guide" A V O I D T H E S E X Your DMO's branded name X Campaign slogans or taglines X Internal marketing language X Keywords from your paid search campaigns Update these quarterly, traveler questions shift seasonally.
35. Which traveler is asking? Different travelers ask different questions. Your audit should cover more than one. Family Travelers "things to do with kids in [Destination]" "family-friendly hotels in [Destination]" "is [Destination] good for families?" Couples / Romance "romantic weekend in [Destination]" "anniversary trip to [Destination]" "best restaurants for couples in [Destination]" Adventure Seekers "outdoor activities in [Destination]" "hiking near [Destination]" "adventure sports in [Destination]" Event Goers "events in [Destination] this weekend" "festivals in [Destination] this summer" "concerts in [Destination]" If you only audit one traveler type, you only see one slice of how AI represents your destination.
36. St ep 2 Fix what AI gets wrong. Most DMOs in this group found inaccuracies when they checked, but have no process to address them. AI presents outdated information with exactly the same confidence as current information. Without a process, it stays wrong indefinitely. Spot it Run your quarterly audit. What is AI saying that's wrong, outdated, or misrepresentative? Fix it Update the content on your own site first. Your site is the source of record. Make the accurate version the best version. Monitor it Quarterly re-check. Things change. A correction you made last quarter can drift back if you don't maintain it.
37. St ep 3 Build your content authority. Content authority isn't about volume. It's about accuracy and trustworthiness. 1 Update before you create Refresh stale content before publishing anything new. A current version of an old page beats a brand-new page nobody asked for. 2 Make your events section the best it's ever been Most complete, most current, most clearly organized. This is your highest-leverage content type. 3 Write from local knowledge The things no travel blog or AI tool can replicate, neighborhood specifics, insider context, seasonal nuance. 4 Answer real questions in plain language Not marketing headlines. Not SEO-optimized titles. The actual questions travelers ask before they decide to visit.
38. St ep 4 Build your measurement layer. The weakest dimension across all DMOs who took the assessment: most are stuck at GA4-only. No AI visibility signals at all. Three signals to start tracking, no new tools required: 1 Branded search volume trends, If someone discovers you through AI and later searches your name directly, it shows up here. Track monthly. Growth = AI is working. 2 Engagement depth on arriving traffic, Pages per session, time on site, return visits. The traffic that still clicks through is higher intent. Measure it separately from everything else. 3 Which top queries trigger AI answers, Manual check, quarterly. Are you being cited in those answers, or someone else? That answer drives your content priorities.
39. St ep 5 The complete measurement story. L ay e r 1 AI Visibility Before the click Is your destination showing up, and is your content the source being cited? L ay e r 2 On-Site Behavior The click that happens What does traffic actually do when it arrives? Engagement, intent, conversion actions. L ay e r 3 Real-World Impact People visiting. Spending money. Visitor data, spending patterns, economic impact at destination level. Imperfect but directional. No single layer tells the full story. Together, they give you a picture sessions and bounce rate never could.
40. 04 The Board Conversation
41. When someone asks why traffic is down. B E FORE "Our website traffic is down 15%." You’re in defense mode . . . → NOW "Our destination appears in AI travel results for our region. Our events content is being cited as a source. Branded search is up, people are finding us through AI and searching for us directly." Build the second answer now, before the meeting where someone asks. Intent to travel is becoming a more important signal than website visits.
42. Your value hasn't changed. The proof has. What's changed is how you demonstrate it.
43. You're not behind. You're early. Nobody has this completely solved. The tools are still developing. Industry-wide measurement standards don't exist yet. The organizations that come out ahead aren't the ones with perfect execution. They're the ones building the right habits now, consistently, so they compound over time. The DMOs in this room scored between 2 and 15 out of 18. Average: 9.4. That's not failure, that's an industry in the middle of figuring something out together. The advantage goes to the organizations that start asking the right questions, consistently.
44. 05 What To Do This Week
45. Your one thing this week. Run the audit. Pick 10 traveler queries. Run them through Google AI, ChatGPT, Claude, etc. Screenshot what you find. Look for whether your site is being cited, not just whether your destination shows up. Those are two different questions. Everything else builds from knowing where you actually stand.
46. Let's keep the conversation going. Jason Dodge Founder & CEO, BlackTruck Media + Marketing jason@blacktruckmedia.com blacktruckmedia.com Linkedin.com/in/dodgejd Take the AI Readiness Assessment Help us build the ongoing picture of where the industry is headed. Good marketing starts with the right conversation. Serious about the visibility of your brand online? We’d love to hear what you’re working on.