- Santiago Rodriguez, PhD Tourism
- Jul 20
- 8 min read
Updated: Sep 14
Insights into Results in 4 Steps with 9 Free Tourism AIs (+Your own)
In today's rapidly evolving tourism landscape, leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be the key to staying ahead.
This guide will walk you through a 4-step process: from 1. Strategizing, to 2. Market Intelligence, to 3. Content Creation, until 4. Outreach, using nine free AI tools.
Plus, at the end, you will get 2 bonuses:
1. How to create your own AI tools tailored to your unique needs, and
2. Where to find low-cost AI-powered services to attract your target markets.
So, let's dive into how to go from insights to results in 4 steps with tourism AIs, plus how to get the 9 free AI tools.
Why It Matters
Despite the growing accessibility of AI tools, most tourism professionals still struggle to connect insights to outcomes.
Many collect data, understand their markets, and even build plans but fail to act on them efficiently.
This gap leads to missed opportunities, inefficient campaigns, and poor resource allocation.
Worse, destinations that don't keep up with data-driven strategies risk falling behind more agile, tech-savvy competitors.
With traveler behaviors constantly shifting, it’s critical to use AI not just for understanding the market but for adapting quickly and getting tangible results.
How Some Tackle AI the Wrong Way
Many tourism professionals attempt to tackle these challenges with outdated approaches.
Some invest in generic AI tools without aligning them with their strategic goals, leading to confusion or irrelevant outputs.
Others rely too heavily on intuition or traditional marketing methods while ignoring available data.
There are also those who collect vast amounts of information but never turn it into actionable strategies, letting valuable insights sit idle.
These missteps not only waste time and money!
They also prevent destinations and businesses from staying competitive in a fast-changing digital tourism environment.
How to Do It Correctly
To address these challenges effectively, it's important to follow a structured process.
The key is to integrate strategy, market intelligence, laser-targeted content, and effective outreach and marketing using smart, accessible AI tools.
This integration and flow is explained in the following 4-step process:
Here is a simple explanation of each of the four phases shown in the image, presented as a continuous cycle that helps travel brands and destinations turn insights into real results:
1. Strategize – Set Vision, Goals & Actions: Everything starts with a clear strategy. In this phase, AI helps travel brands or destinations define where they want to go (the vision), what they want to achieve (the goals), and how they will get there (the actions). This sets the foundation for all the work ahead. A good strategy gives direction and focus, ensuring every step is aligned with the bigger picture. Once this vision is clear, the next step is to gather the right information to support it, this is where intelligence comes in.
2. Intelligence – Research Markets & Trends:
With a strategy in place, the next phase involves using AI and digital tools to collect and analyze data. This helps uncover important insights about the market, competitors, customer preferences, and trends. For travel brands and destinations, this could mean identifying what types of experiences travelers are looking for, or which destinations are rising in popularity. These insights make it easier to adjust the original strategy if needed and feed directly into the next step: creating meaningful content.
3. Content – Inspire, Support, Educate:
Insights become action when transformed into content that resonates. In this phase, the information gathered is turned into materials that inspire travelers, guide visitrors, or educate partners, such as blog posts, videos, itineraries, or destination guides. The goal is to build trust and show expertise, while also motivating people to explore and book. Good content brings the strategy to life and helps connect emotionally with the audience and AI helps accelerating this process. But content alone isn’t enough, it needs to reach the right people, which leads to outreach.
4. Outreach – Social Media & Marketing:
The final phase is about getting the content in front of the right eyes. This is where social media, email campaigns, ads, and other marketing efforts come in. AI tools can help automate and personalize these efforts, making them more effective. Outreach turns inspiration into action, like clicks, bookings, or inquiries, and gives measurable results. Once the marketing is running, it provides feedback and data that can be used to adjust strategy (step 1), closing the loop and starting the cycle again with smarter decisions.
Each of these phases is connected, and when combined in a continuous cycle, they create a powerful and dynamic process to grow travel brands and destinations using AI.
The 9 Free AI Tools for Implementation
Now I will walk you through how to move through the cycle with 9 Free AI Tools to go from strategy all the way to market outreach.
Each of these free AI tools was crafted by myself, based on my over 25 years of experience and daily work with over 130 destinations and travel brands internationally.
To access the free AI tools, just click on the link of any of the AI's name, fill in a 1-minute survey, and you will receive the direct access link in our inbox.
1. AI Tourism Expert (Strategize)
Get expert support in tourism with: strategy, visitors personas, data analysis, planning, coaching, product development, stakeholder management, funding & more. The goal of this AI is to help travel brands & destinations enhance their staff's capabilities to attract high-value visitors use tourism as a tool for sustainable and sustained success.
2. Context-based Market Assessment (Intelligence)
A context-based tool to assess & forecast the feasibility of conquering a market, considering 27 key factors within 5 key dimensions: economic, social, political, environmental, and psycho-emotional. Includes the strategies to leverage optimistic scenrios and to mitigate conservative scenarios. Based on the latest online information, get in 30 minutes intelligence that used to take a month to generate. Stay ahead of the curve with contextual knowledge and strategy.
3. Statistical Forecasting (Intelligence)
Easily predict demand based on your data about visitation, occupation, spending, or any data points you have available. Understand how future results may look using powerful statistical methods without any expertise required. This AI is also helpful to find publicly available datasets or even with small datasets. Prepare for the future and foresee potential seasonal developments. Forecasting aids in resource allocation and strategic decision-making.
4. Travel Blogger - Inspirational (Content)
Expert travel blogger AI that creates long-form inspirational articles about your destination with an engaging storytelling itinerary approach, highlighting responsible & sustainable travel behavior. Craft relevant content for your ideal visitors to discover and learn about your destination's gems. Craft engaging content that resonates with your target audience. Effective content creation enhances visibility and attracts potential visitors.
5. Self-guided Tours - Practical (Content)
An expert itinerary planner to create real self-guided walking tours through the iconic or lesser-known attractions and experiences of your destination. Let your visitors "walk the talk" during their stay. This AI focuses on spatial logic considering space and time between stops to build real-life journeys. Let your visitors get ideas on the go or adapt on the move. Unleash serendipity at your destination!
6. How-To Articles - Educational (Content)
This AI specializes in explaining step by step how to solve key tourism challenges. Use this AI to help your staff, stakeholders, and partners understand how to overcome current issues in an effective and practical way. Tackle any theme, such as marketing, distribution, networking, sustainability, funding, technology, and many others. It creates blog articles including a cover image.
7. Social Media Expert (Outreach)
Turn your content into viral text- and image-based posts. Let the AI know on which platform you want to post and it will identify the most trending format and create the perfect copy and image(s) for you. Just provide your text, rough ideas, or an image. Or ask the AI to identify trending topics for inspiration. Grow your audience and keep them engaged while you focus on driving leads to your business offer or destination.
8. LinkedIn Top Voice Post Creator (Outreach)
A LinkedIn post creator with a "Top Voice" format and quality. This AI crafts perfectly structured and highly engaging posts based on an idea, text, or image. Or ask the AI to search for professional trending topics for you to choose from. Grow your network, position yourself as an authority, and position your business or organization as a leader in your sector.
9. Image-To-LinkedIn Post (Outreach)
Simply paste an image (chart, infographic, picture, screenshot, etc.) and hit "enter" to create an engaging LinkedIn post with the perfect structure. The AI will interpret the image, including any data, to extract the key highlight and craft a high-value engaging post. Quickly share your visual insights, ideas, or news on the largest professional platform.
The Bonuses (as promised!)
1. Build Your Own AI Tools
Customize or create AI tools tailored to your business needs at low cost and with no code.
For that, simply open a ChatGPT Plus account for $20 USD a month (no sponsorship here, this is really what I use!), go to "Create GPT" and, only using natural language (like giving written instructions to an employee), create as many customized AIs as you like.
You can create tools just like the ones I just shared with you here. You can use them as "inspiration" and build you own versions, if you want.
Note: You can also start in ChatGPT with a free account, but in order to build your own tools (the so-called "GPTs") you will need a "Plus" (paid) account.
2. Affordable AI-Powered Services To Attract Your Target Markets
Gathering updated world-class intelligence on how your target markets discover and book your travel brand or destination can now be achieved on a budget.
For that, reach out to Herrmann Global - Tourism Insights & Marketing. A USA & Europe-based tourism think tank specialized in highly affordable data and marketing solutions for lesser-known and smaller destinations.
Within Herrmann Global's Get International Visitors Program, ask for their Global Market Audit, which includes:
Media Monitor: Discover how media inspires your international target markets.
Global Demand: Uncover the volume in which your markets look for you.
Hotel Booking: Track month-over-month impact through hotel data.
Invitation
Consider reaching out if you need any support to effectively implement these AI strategies in your travel brand or destination, boost your career, and attract high-value visitors.
We can just reflect on your challenges and goals (we will always learn something new from each other!), or I can help you with my Coaching Program for Tourism & Talent Growth with AI to implement the 4-Step process through the 9 AI Tools for your own case.
Or perhaps, do you want me to talk at your event? Just drop me a line here.
Summary and Recap
Strategize: Define your vision, goals and strategies to take action.
Intelligence: Gather fresh market data to confirm your strategy.
Content: Inspire, support & educate through relevant content.
Outreach: Craft effective social media and marketing copy.
Adjust: Reflect based on results and refine processes.
Repeat: Feedback lessons learned into strategizing.
The current state of AI is the worst it will ever be. It will only get better! It has never been cheaper and easier in history to access such powerful tools. Now is your best chance.
WHENEVER YOU'RE READY, HERE ARE MORE WAYS I CAN HELP YOU.
A self-paced, hands-on course that teaches you how to attract the type of tourism you want for your destination or business and gives you the tools to take action and track results.
Overcome the key challenges of Tourism CEOs, Leaders & Entrepreneurs. Get the tools, systems, and support for your personal success and that of your organization.
With the Herrmann Global team, we will help you attract your ideal visitors through world-class, highly-affordable Market Intelligence, Multi-lingual Content & Online Marketing.