The Tourism AI Podcast

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PeterPeter climbed Mount Kilimanjaro as part of Melanie's Ascent, raising over $300,000 for domestic violence victims. What started as a fundraising trek became a masterclass in hospitality, service excellence, and tourism's real impact on communities.
In this episode, Peter shares stories from 8 days on the mountain with 11 hikers and 55 crew members, revealing how Tanzanian guides and porters delivered six-star service at 19,000 feet. From tables and chairs set up for tea breaks to porters thanking tourists for meaningful work, the experience reshaped Peter's understanding of what great hospitality actually means.
Plus: The AI revelation Peter had on the flight home that changed how he thinks about technology in tourism.

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This podcast was recorded using Riverside.FM – the platform we trust for studio-quality remote recordings. With local tracks, HD video, and easy guest access, Riverside makes it simple to create pro-level podcasts from anywhere.
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#AIinTourism #Hospitality #TourismAI #ServiceExcellence #Kilimanjaro

Did you know we offer a free AI Minute Snippet for your organization's newsletter? Give your members valuable AI insights without adding work for your team. Partner with us to add high-quality, thought-provoking AI content to your newsletter - for free! ⁠Book a 15-minute call⁠ to learn more! 

Most tourism organizations hit a wall after personal AI experiments. Data security concerns freeze leadership. Teams plateau after initial enthusiasm. Sound familiar?

In Part 2 of our AI Marketing Workflow Series, Peter Pilarski, Kendel Lavallee, and Gerardo Corro tackle the messy middle; moving from individual AI use to full team integration.

You'll learn how to calm data security fears (spoiler: they're often overblown), build AI "team members" with custom projects trained on your organization's context, and find the "aha moments" that turn skeptics into champions.

We cover responsible AI policies, avoiding hallucinations, managing team accounts, and setting tiny goals that become quick wins. If you're ready to move beyond dabbling and actually integrate AI into your workflows, this episode gives you the roadmap.

Read the full blog here.

Follow Tourism AI Network:
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This podcast was recorded using Riverside.FM – the platform we trust for studio-quality remote recordings. With local tracks, HD video, and easy guest access, Riverside makes it simple to create pro-level podcasts from anywhere.

Want to launch your own? Try Riverside ⁠here⁠.

#AIinTourism #DMO #TeamAI #DataSecurity #AIAdoption #TourismIndustry #DestinationMarketing

Did you know we offer a free AI Minute Snippet for your organization's newsletter? Give your members valuable AI insights without adding work for your team. Partner with us to add high-quality, thought-provoking AI content to your newsletter - for free! ⁠Book a 15-minute call⁠ to learn more! 

How do small DMOs adopt AI when they don't have Amazon's budget or enterprise resources?

Gerardo Corro (Executive Director, Tourism New Westminster) joins Peter and Kendel to break down AI adoption for destination marketing organizations operating under real-world constraints. This isn't about billion-dollar strategies—it's about what a team of three can actually implement.

We cover the shift from personal ChatGPT use to systematic team adoption, why "AI Thursdays" work for building culture, and how context engineering prepares your organization for what's next.

Key topics:
Moving from individual experimentation to team systems
Why DMOs need standard operating procedures now
Context engineering for 2026
Building a culture of innovation from the ground up
Practical first steps for resource-constrained teams

Read the full blog here.

Follow Tourism AI Network:
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⁠X (Twitter)⁠
⁠Facebook⁠
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⁠Website⁠

This podcast was recorded using Riverside.FM – the platform we trust for studio-quality remote recordings. With local tracks, HD video, and easy guest access, Riverside makes it simple to create pro-level podcasts from anywhere.

Want to launch your own? Try Riverside ⁠here⁠.

#AIinTourism #DestinationMarketing #DMO #TourismTech #ContextEngineering #SmallBusinessAI

Did you know we offer a free AI Minute Snippet for your organization's newsletter? Give your members valuable AI insights without adding work for your team. Partner with us to add high-quality, thought-provoking AI content to your newsletter - for free! ⁠Book a 15-minute call⁠ to learn more!

Small tourism businesses need HR support but don't have time for it. Greg Klassen and Stavros Karlos built a solution.

KATE is a free AI HR assistant trained on 80+ trusted sources of Alberta employment standards, labor policies, and tourism-specific resources. Instead of watching hundreds of hours of training videos or reading thousands of pages of documentation, operators can now ask questions and get vetted answers instantly.

In this episode, we discuss how KATE was built, why small language models matter for tourism, and how this approach could be replicated across the industry. Greg and Stavros explain the labor challenges facing tourism (closed hotel floors, restaurants unable to open for all meals) and how better HR practices directly impact profitability.

Follow Tourism AI Network:
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⁠X (Twitter)⁠
⁠Facebook⁠
⁠LinkedIn⁠
⁠Website⁠

This podcast was recorded using Riverside.FM – the platform we trust for studio-quality remote recordings. With local tracks, HD video, and easy guest access, Riverside makes it simple to create pro-level podcasts from anywhere.

Want to launch your own? Try Riverside ⁠here⁠.

Did you know we offer a free AI Minute Snippet for your organization's newsletter? Give your members valuable AI insights without adding work for your team. Partner with us to add high-quality, thought-provoking AI content to your newsletter - for free! Book a 15-minute call to learn more!

In part 3 of our 2026 predictions series, we tackle the two biggest disruptors facing tourism: agentic commerce and AI politics.

McKinsey predicts AI will drive 46% of transactions by 2030. Peter thinks that number's low. We discuss why OTAs are positioning aggressively while DMOs risk becoming just data indexes for AI agents, how the customer relationship is shifting from B2C to B2A2C, and what operators must do NOW to avoid OTA 2.0.

Then we explore AI politics: how regulations like the EU AI Act will shape what tourism businesses can actually do, why early engagement with policymakers matters, and how the industry can avoid getting caught unprepared.

Read the full blog here.

#AIinTourism #AgenticCommerce #DMO #DestinationMarketing #TravelTech #AIRegulation #TourismAI

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This podcast was recorded using Riverside.FM – the platform we trust for studio-quality remote recordings. With local tracks, HD video, and easy guest access, Riverside makes it simple to create pro-level podcasts from anywhere.

Want to launch your own? Try Riverside here.