Tourism Boards Are Launching Their Own AI Assistants — What Hotels, Tour Operators and DMCs Must Do Now
The short answer Tourism boards and destination marketing organizations (DMOs) have stopped being brochure publishers and started being AI gatekeepers. Meet Boston launched an AI-powered WhatsApp trip planner in June 2026. Airports are deploying their own AI assistants. Google, meanwhile, now books hotels end-to-end inside AI Mode. For hotels, tour operators and DMCs, this creates a new distribution question that has nothing to do with OTAs: when the destination itself answers the traveler, whose products and services are inside that answer? ...