Technology
What should the visitor experience feel like? That is the question every marketing organization should be asking.
What should the visitor experience feel like?
Technology
Artificial intelligence is transforming destination marketing, but technology alone doesn’t create great experiences. Explore what Steve Jobs’ relentless focus on brand ownership, simplicity, and integration can teach destination organizations about implementing AI with purpose.
By Franci Edgerly
Steve Jobs did not build Apple by following technology trends. He built it by deciding what Apple would stand for—and refusing to release anything that weakened that promise.
That distinction matters as destination marketing organizations rush to integrate artificial intelligence into websites, content strategies and visitor services. AI offers extraordinary potential, but it also presents a fundamental risk: allowing the technology to shape the destination’s voice, visitor experience and brand instead of requiring the technology to serve them.
Jobs would have embraced AI. He would have recognized its ability to eliminate friction, anticipate needs and make complex information feel remarkably simple. But he would never have added AI merely to demonstrate that Apple was keeping pace with the market. He would have demanded that it improve the experience in a way consumers could immediately understand and appreciate.
His first question would not have been, “Where can we add AI?” It would have been, “What should the visitor experience feel like?”
That is the question every marketing organization should be asking.
Jobs would have embraced AI. He would have recognized its ability to eliminate friction, anticipate needs and make complex information feel remarkably simple. But he would never have added AI merely to demonstrate that Apple was keeping pace with the market. He would have demanded that it improve the experience in a way consumers could immediately understand and appreciate.
His first question would not have been, “Where can we add AI?” It would have been, “What should the visitor experience feel like?”
“What should the visitor experience feel like?”
That is the question every marketing organization should be asking.
Jobs understood that a brand is not a logo, campaign or collection of marketing messages. It is the cumulative experience people have with an organization and its products.
For a destination, that experience begins long before arrival. It starts when someone searches for inspiration, lands on the destination website, explores events, compares neighborhoods, builds an itinerary or asks a question. Every interaction either strengthens the destination’s identity or makes it feel interchangeable with somewhere else.
That is why brand ownership cannot be delegated to an AI platform.
AI should understand the brand before it speaks for the brand.
A generic system trained on information from across the internet may produce an answer that is technically adequate. But accuracy alone does not create affinity. A response can be correct and still fail to express the destination’s personality, priorities or point of view.
Jobs would insist that AI understand the brand before it speaks for the brand. He would expect the organization to determine which information is authoritative, what deserves prominence and how recommendations should be framed. He would not accept an experience in which paid listings, questionable sources or generic suggestions quietly override the destination’s strategy.
AI should understand the brand before it speaks for the brand.
One of Jobs’ greatest strengths was his resistance to fragmented experiences. Apple products were designed as parts of a connected ecosystem. The hardware, software, content and interface were expected to work together because the customer should not have to understand the machinery behind the experience.
That principle should guide AI implementation.
Too often, AI is treated as another feature placed on top of an already complicated digital environment. The website operates separately from the events calendar. Business listings live in another system. Itineraries are static articles. The trip planner stores different information. Then an AI chatbot is added and expected to somehow unify everything.
Accumulation
Website
Events calendar
Business listings
Static itinerary articles
Trip planner
AI Chatbot
AI chatbot, added on top
Separate systems, and the visitor repeats the same research in each one.
Integration
Ask what to do Saturday evening
Save the event
Add nearby dining
Build it into a trip plan
One conversation, connected to action.
One of Jobs’ greatest strengths was his resistance to fragmented experiences. Apple products were designed as parts of a connected ecosystem. The hardware, software, content and interface were expected to work together because the customer should not have to understand the machinery behind the experience.
That principle should guide AI implementation.
Too often, AI is treated as another feature placed on top of an already complicated digital environment. The website operates separately
from the events calendar. Business listings live in another system. Itineraries are static articles. The trip planner stores different information. Then an AI chatbot is added and expected to somehow unify everything.
That is not integration. It is accumulation.
Jobs would reject it because the burden eventually falls on the visitor. Travelers should not have to search one section for an event, another for a restaurant and a third for an itinerary—and then repeat the same research when using the AI assistant.
Jobs would reject it because the burden eventually falls on the visitor. Travelers should not have to search one section for an event, another for a restaurant and a third for an itinerary—and then repeat the same research when using the AI assistant.
A well-integrated destination platform should allow AI to work with the organization’s approved places, events, editorial content, itineraries and planning experiences. The conversation should connect naturally to action. When a visitor asks what to do Saturday evening, the answer should reflect current information and allow that person to save the event, add nearby dining options and incorporate everything into a trip plan.
Jobs’ commitment to simplicity is often misunderstood as a preference for minimal design. It was far more demanding than that. He believed organizations had to understand a problem deeply enough to remove unnecessary complexity for the customer.
AI can either advance that objective or undermine it.
A visitor does not want to learn prompt engineering to plan a weekend. Nor should a traveler need to know whether information came from a database, content management system, API or language model.
The person simply wants a useful, trustworthy response.
If the answers to the questions below are no, the implementation may be technologically impressive but experientially incomplete.
Jobs was famous for eliminating features that distracted from the central purpose of a product. Marketing organizations should apply the same discipline. More AI does not automatically create a better experience. The goal is not the largest collection of capabilities. It is the clearest, most valuable journey.
What the traveler should never have to see
A useful, trustworthy response
Destination marketers must therefore evaluate AI from the traveler’s perspective:
Does it provide an immediate path forward?
Does it understand context?
Does it distinguish between inspiration and factual information?
Can it account for location, timing, interests and accessibility needs?
Does it remember what the visitor has already selected?
Can the traveler move from a recommendation to a practical itinerary without beginning again?
If not, the implementation may be technologically impressive but experientially incomplete.
Jobs was famous for eliminating features that distracted from the central purpose of a product. Marketing organizations should apply the same discipline. More AI does not automatically create a better experience. The goal is not the largest collection of capabilities. It is the clearest, most valuable journey.
Jobs would not treat AI as a one-time installation. He would manage it as a living product requiring continuous attention.
That means establishing standards for content accuracy, brand alignment, source authority, response quality and visitor usefulness. It means reviewing what travelers are asking, where the experience fails and which questions reveal gaps in the destination’s information. It also means measuring more than conversation volume.
Did the visitor discover more businesses?
Save an itinerary?
Explore a less familiar area?
Extend a stay?
Engage with an event?
Return to the website?
Move closer to booking?
Jobs would expect the organization to study those behaviors and continually improve the experience. He would see unanswered questions not simply as AI failures, but as valuable market intelligence. Every conversation can reveal visitor interests, planning barriers and emerging demand.
That intelligence should inform content development, partner education, campaigns and even product strategy.
Did the visitor discover more businesses?
Save an itinerary?
Explore a less familiar area?
Extend a stay?
Engage with an event?
Return to the website?
Move closer to booking?
Every conversation can reveal visitor interests, planning barriers and emerging demand.
That intelligence should inform content development, partner education, campaigns and even product strategy.
AI should help a traveler find a locally owned restaurant near tonight’s event.
The apparent contradiction of AI is that its highest purpose is not to make an organization appear more automated. It is to make the visitor experience feel more responsive, intuitive and personal.
Jobs understood that people do not form emotional connections with technical specifications. They connect with what technology allows them to experience.
For destination marketing organizations, the opportunity is not to promote artificial intelligence. Travelers do not visit because a destination has an AI assistant.
AI should help a family discover an activity everyone will enjoy. It should help a traveler find a locally owned restaurant near tonight’s event. It should introduce a repeat visitor to an experience they missed before. It should make the destination feel accessible without making it feel predictable.
That is where technology becomes meaningful.
Field guide
1
AI is only as reliable as the information it can access. Before launching an AI experience, determine which sources represent the official voice of your organization. Audit your business listings, events, editorial content, community data, itineraries and frequently asked questions.
For DMOs, this means ensuring recommendations reflect current visitor information and local tourism priorities. Chambers should verify business information and member data. EDOs must carefully maintain details about workforce, incentives, available properties and industry sectors.
AI should not be expected to repair a disorganized content ecosystem. Build the foundation first.
2
Your AI experience should not sound as though it could represent any destination or community. Establish clear standards for tone, terminology, priorities and recommendations.
A DMO may want AI to highlight locally owned businesses, lesser-known neighborhoods or seasonal experiences. A chamber may prioritize members while remaining transparent and helpful. An EDO may need responses calibrated for site selectors, entrepreneurs, residents or prospective employers.
Test the same questions across your website, Google and public AI platforms. If the answers are interchangeable, your differentiation is disappearing.
3
Do not measure AI success by the number of conversations alone. Determine whether it helps users make decisions.
Can a visitor move from a recommendation to a saved itinerary? Can a prospective resident find employers, housing information and community resources? Can a business owner discover member benefits, events or local support? Can a site selector move from a general inquiry to relevant workforce data, available property or a direct contact?
The strongest AI experience does not merely provide answers. It creates momentum.
4
Every AI conversation can reveal something valuable about your audience. Review the questions people ask, the language they use and the information they cannot easily find.
DMOs may uncover demand for accessible attractions, pet-friendly travel, multigenerational activities or experiences beyond the primary tourism district. Chambers may identify recurring questions about networking, permits or business assistance. EDOs may see increased interest in specific industries, infrastructure, incentives or workforce programs.
Turn these patterns into new content, partner education, campaigns and product improvements. AI should not only serve your audience; it should help you understand that audience.
5
AI cannot become another digital initiative that is launched and then left unattended. Assign responsibility to someone who understands the organization’s brand, audience and strategic priorities—not merely the technology.
That person should regularly review response quality, source accuracy, unanswered questions, engagement patterns and conversion activity. They should also coordinate with marketing, client or member services, economic development staff and community partners.
Jobs believed excellence required direct ownership. If everyone is generally responsible for the AI experience, no one is truly accountable for it.
The most important lesson from Steve Jobs is not that organizations should imitate Apple’s products or presentation style. It is that leadership must take responsibility for the entire experience.
Marketing organizations cannot surrender brand ownership because AI is complicated. They cannot allow outside platforms to determine which businesses are visible, which stories are told or how the destination is represented. They must define the vision, control the trusted information and insist that every digital interaction reflects the destination they are responsible for promoting.
Leadership must take responsibility for the entire experience.
He would integrate it deeply, simplify it relentlessly and measure it by the experience it creates. He would demand that it be accurate, purposeful and unmistakably aligned with the brand. And if it did not make the visitor journey meaningfully better, he would not release it.
That is the standard destination marketing organizations should adopt.
The future will not belong to the organizations that add AI fastest. It will belong to those that use it with the greatest clarity, discipline and commitment to excellence.
Franci Edgerly
Founder and CEO of ITI Digital, with 32 years of experience in tourism technology.
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