The Tourism AI Podcast

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:⁠Instagram⁠⁠X (Twitter)⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠Website⁠This 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 #TourismAIFollow Tourism AI Network:InstagramX (Twitter)FacebookLinkedInWebsiteThis 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! Peter, Kendel, and Matthew tackle the operational side of AI in 2026. They break down what agentic AI actually means (and why 40% of projects will fail), explain why you can't rely on one AI tool anymore, and reveal what's replacing SEO as the most critical marketing activity this year.Practical takeaways: three things tourism operators can do right now to improve their generative engine optimization, how to audit whether AI tools even surface your business, and why we're past the early adopter phase.Read the full blog here.#AIinTourism #AgenticAI #GEO #DestinationMarketing #TourismTech #AIAdoptionFollow Tourism AI Network:⁠Instagram⁠⁠X (Twitter)⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠Website⁠This 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! Welcome to part one of our 2026 AI Predictions series. Peter breaks down the three foundational shifts every tourism professional needs to understand: why AI literacy is becoming non-negotiable, how jobs are transforming (not disappearing), and why context engineering matters more than technical skills.This isn't about Amazon's $2.5 billion training budget. It's about what a five-person wilderness lodge in BC needs to know right now. Matthew brings a Gen Z perspective on AI literacy, and we walk through practical examples of context engineering for small operators.Read the full blog ⁠here⁠.#AIinTourism #TourismTech #DestinationMarketing #AILiteracy #ContextEngineering #TourismAIFollow Tourism AI Network:⁠Instagram⁠⁠X (Twitter)⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠Website⁠This 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.

How are travellers really finding hotels in 2025? According to SiteMinder's latest report, OTAs have officially overtaken search engines as the #1 discovery channel, and AI-powered discovery jumped from 4% to 18% in just one year. In this episode, we break down what this seismic shift means for DMOs, hotels, and tourism marketers.Peter, Kendel, and new TAIN team member Matthew Dias discuss whether SEO budgets still matter, how DMOs can reclaim their position as the "ultimate source of truth," and why generational differences in travel planning are reshaping the industry. Plus: rapid-fire hype meter on Canada's $1B AI investment, Google's Nano Banana Pro image generator, Claude's Excel integration, and why Grok thinks Elon Musk could beat LeBron James in a fitness contest.#AIinTourism #DMO #TravelTech #HospitalityMarketing #OTA #TourismAI #AIDiscovery #SearchEngineOptimization