From Assistant to Amplifier: Rethinking AI for Tourism Marketers

After attending MAICON, a Marketing AI conference hosted by SmarterX, one message came through loud and clear: AI isn’t replacing marketers—it’s making our work sharper, faster, and more imaginative.

As someone who works in tourism marketing every day, I saw clear opportunities for our industry to use AI more intentionally. Instead of bouncing between trendy tools, tourism pros have an opportunity to build smarter systems, ones that help streamline everyday work like content planning, reporting, and campaign creation, while freeing up time for the parts of marketing we love most: strategy and storytelling.

This isn’t about chasing tech trends. It’s about designing practical systems that boost momentum. Think high-performing prompts, reusable knowledge, and workflow maps—all coming together to help your team get more done without burning out.

From Soloist to Conductor: Reimagining the Role of AI

One of the key takeaways from MAICON was this simple mindset shift: “Stop thinking of AI as the soloist. Start thinking of yourself as the conductor.”

If you’re juggling social media, PR, digital ads, website updates, and 15 other to-dos before noon—you know this hits home. It’s tempting to use AI for quick fixes: a caption here, a summary there. But when you treat AI like a system and not a sidekick, you’ll see bigger wins.

Here’s the secret: You don’t need to be tech savvy to lead the orchestra. You just need three tools:

1. Prompts that work: Crystal-clear instructions AI can act on.
2. Organized knowledge: Reusable context that keeps your voice and goals consistent.
3. Workflow maps: Simple outlines showing where AI fits into your day.

When you shift your role from taskmaster to conductor, AI becomes less about catching up—and more about unlocking time, energy, and creativity.

Step One: Build a Prompt Library You’ll Actually Use

Ever opened ChatGPT and immediately blanked on what to type? You’re not alone. The real magic starts with building better prompts—and saving the ones that hit.

At MAICON, the most useful insight was this: Prompting is a skill you can scale. With a simple spreadsheet or doc, your Prompt Library becomes a go-to resource. It turns AI into a consistent teammate instead of a one-time helper.

For example, instead of typing “write a social post about fall events” every time, you might save a reusable prompt like:

“You are a tourism marketing specialist. Write three friendly, on-brand Facebook captions promoting fall events in [Destination]. Keep it conversational. Use emojis sparingly. Include a call to action to check the event calendar.”

You can then tweak this prompt for future campaigns like winter festivals, wine trails, or holiday events, and share it with your team so everyone benefits.

A solid Prompt Library helps you:

• Save time on repeat tasks.
• Stay consistent across campaigns.
• Onboard new team members faster.

As your prompts evolve, your AI system becomes stronger. That’s when things shift from experimental to essential.

Need help crafting the perfect prompt? Try this CustomGPT.

Step Two: Add Context with Knowledge Blocks

Once you’ve got your prompts, you’ll want to make them smarter. That’s where Knowledge Blocks come in.

Think of them as reusable “cheat sheets” you can plug into any prompt. They tell AI what it needs to know about your brand: your tone, your target travelers, your standout experiences.

At MAICON, this was described as one of the simplest ways to save time while improving quality. Instead of explaining your brand over and over, you can store a short, well-written Knowledge Block that you reuse whenever you create content.

Here are a few examples of Knowledge Blocks tourism marketers might create:

• Brand Voice & Tone: How your destination “sounds” — friendly, welcoming, curious, authentic.
• Destination Overview: A concise summary of your destination’s highlights (lakes, trails, museums, local culture).
• Audience Profiles: Key traveler types such as families, outdoor adventurers, or couples looking for weekend getaways.
• Seasonal Messaging: Phrases or ideas you return to each season (e.g., “Find your fall adventure” or “Celebrate summer on the water”).

Once you’ve written these once, you can plug them into any prompt you use — for a press release, a blog post, or even a social media caption. The AI instantly has all the right context to sound like you.

One well-written block = dozens of better prompts. Bonus: your content stays sharp, no matter who’s behind the keyboard.

Try this CustomGPT to help you create your next Knowledge Block.

Step Three: Map It Out—Then Watch the Time Savings Add Up

Once your prompts and Knowledge Blocks are in place, the final step is connecting them to your real-world workflows.

At MAICON, we talked about creating a simple Process Map — a list of everything you do in a week, from checking analytics to writing newsletters to posting on social media. Once you see your responsibilities laid out in one place, you can start asking:

• Which of these tasks could AI help with?
• Which ones could AI do part of, to save me time?
• Which steps still need my personal creativity or approval?

From there, you can build Workflow Maps — step-by-step outlines of specific tasks like “launching a campaign” or “creating a seasonal blog.” For each step, you can match the right AI tool or prompt.

For example, a “Content Campaign Workflow” for a destination marketing organization might look like this:

1. Brainstorm theme ideas: Ask AI for content concepts that align with upcoming events or seasons.
2. Draft content outlines: Use your Prompt Library and Knowledge Blocks to build initial drafts.
3. Edit and optimize: Have AI suggest SEO improvements and consistent tone.
4. Repurpose content: Ask AI to adapt blog content into social media posts or email snippets.
5. Analyze results: Use AI tools to summarize performance data and identify what worked best.

Even one or two workflow maps can unlock serious time savings. You’ll spend less time reinventing the wheel—and more time building campaigns that move the needle.

Bringing It All Together: Make AI Work for You

You don’t need to be an AI expert. You just need a system.

Start small:

• Build a Prompt Library.
• Create a few Knowledge Blocks.
• Map out a weekly workflow or two.

Suddenly, AI shifts from “overwhelming” to empowering. You get more done. You get better results. And your team spends more time doing the work that actually inspires them.

The most effective tourism pros using AI aren’t the flashiest—they’re the ones using it with purpose.

Want to see this in action? TAP has free AI workshops built for tourism professionals like you. Each one is packed with real examples and simple steps you can put to work right away.

Watch the on-demand workshops here: https://travelalliancepartnership.com/webinar-replay-ai/

Whether you’re just starting to explore AI or looking to refine how you use it, these sessions offer practical ways to boost your marketing game—and build systems that help your team thrive.