John Lyotier is back — and we go deep on the .BOT future.
AI has moved from “tools” to agents, and John’s building at the sharp end: hundreds of AI-built travel brands, an agentic network underneath, and now a big bet on .bot domains (trip.bot, hotels.bot, ski.bot…).
We talk:

• Why .bot could become the identity layer for agent-to-agent commerce
• What “agentic search” means for travel distribution
• GEO/AEO: what’s real, what’s hype
• Marriott + Google’s AI selling moves — threat or opportunity?
• The coming “return to real” in travel: tech scaffolding, human soul

 Subscribe for more AI x Travel builders & operators.To get your hands on your free trial of Videreo, check out our most recent case study with details on the free trial here.

This week I’m joined by Jason Bryant, VP Strategy (Consumer Applications) at Oracle and founder/former CEO of Nor1.

We talk about:

• How Nor1 started (perishable inventory + willingness-to-pay for upgrades)

• What changes when a startup gets absorbed into a Fortune 500 (risk profile, security standards, speed)

• Why the next phase of AI in hospitality is orchestration, not “the next best model”

• Why unified data platforms are a prerequisite for personalization

• The real reason “AI pilots fail”: not tech, but execution, workflow design, and measuring P&L impact

If you’re in hotels, travel tech, or building AI products, this is a practical conversation about what actually works in 2026.

See the Videreo case study and start your free trial here: https://gamma.app/docs/Creator-Marketing-gets-measured-in-Palau-oicfv54zvjq0ckb

Welcome to 2026 and the first episode of the year on Everything AI in Travel.

As tradition now, I’m joined by returning guest Christian Watts to do something most people avoid: we revisit our predictions from last year and grade them.

Christian ran our 2025 predictions through an AI scoring system (he swears he didn’t rig it), and we go point-by-point on what actually happened:

• Search changed, but Google didn’t die

• LLMs reshaped how people plan (even if they still “Google” quick stuff)

• “Agentic AI” became the buzzword, but real-world booking is still messy

• OTAs didn’t collapse, but the “dumb pipes” conversation got loud

• Authenticity vs AI-generated content became a cultural fault line

• And yes, we argue about whether AI is already mainstream… or just mainstream in our bubbles

We also get into the uncomfortable part: which predictions were genuinely wrong, and what that tells us about forecasting in a year where the platform shifts don’t slow down.

If you want the written predictions, watch on YouTube where they’re on-screen.

Welcome to the final episode in the series on using AI to attract high value visitors and boost your career.

In this wrap-up, we cover the Image-to-LinkedIn Post Creator, a tool designed for one simple job:
upload any image (chart, infographic, screenshot, photo, even a napkin sketch) and instantly generate a structured, high-engagement LinkedIn post you can copy and paste.

We stay consistent with the series’ running use case: Germany as the source market, Ecuador as the destination, and the goal of attracting German travel professionals for partnership and distribution conversations.

You’ll see how the AI:

• Extracts meaning from the visual

• Asks for quick tone guidance (professional vs storytelling)

• Writes a post that fits LinkedIn’s “hook → value → credibility → CTA” format

• Optionally converts the post into a LinkedIn carousel script for higher engagement

By the end of this episode, you’ve seen the full four-stage framework in action:
Strategy → Intelligence → Content → Outreach, powered by the nine tools.

Find all the tools at www.santiagor.com/free-ai-tools

You now have the full set.

In Episode 9 of the “9 AI Tools to Attract High-Value Visitors” series, we review a powerful outreach tool designed for professional growth and B2B partnerships: the LinkedIn Top Voice Post Creator AI.

This AI is trained on the structure and quality patterns used by LinkedIn Top Voices — creators whose posts consistently perform at a high level and are recognised by LinkedIn as trusted, influential experts. The goal is simple: help you publish authority-building LinkedIn content that attracts partners, opportunities, and distribution relationships.

Unlike the previous tool (Social Media Expert AI), which turns destination content into posts for travelers, this tool transforms your existing content into posts aimed at professional audiences — travel agencies, tour operators, DMOs, hotels, distributors, and other stakeholders you want to work with.

In this walkthrough, we use a real case:

• You want to position yourself on LinkedIn as an Ecuador specialist

• Your target is German travel agencies and German tour operators

• You already have a consumer-facing blog post (a 7-day itinerary)

• You want the AI to convert it into a 5-day LinkedIn post series designed to attract partnerships

You’ll see the AI guide you step-by-step to:
 Choose your starting point (text, image, topic, or “find trending tourism topics”)
 Define your audience (B2B partners, not travelers)
 Choose language style (English, German, or a mix for cultural relevance)
 Set the post style (storytelling, business-focused, or hybrid)
 Build either a progressive series (day-by-day narrative) or standalone posts
 Generate 5 LinkedIn posts formatted for “see more” hooks, clear value, and partner-focused calls-to-action
 Create image prompts for scroll-stopping, professional visuals that match each post theme

By the end, you’ll have a complete LinkedIn mini-campaign you can post immediately to:

• Grow your network

• Show expertise and credibility

• Spark inbound partnership conversations

• Position your destination offering in a professional context

• Build momentum without starting from scratch every day

 Access all 9 free AI tools here:
 santiagoR.com/freeAITools

 Want help applying these tools to your destination or tourism business?
I offer coaching and staff training to help you build a repeatable system for strategy, content, and outreach.

If you found this useful:
 Like
 Subscribe

In this episode of the “9 Free AI Tools to Attract High-Value Visitors” series, we enter the Outreach phase of the framework and review one of the most practical tools for organic growth: the Social Media Expert AI.

This AI is designed to transform long-form destination content (blog posts, itineraries, guides, articles) into ready-to-post social content — single viral posts or full multi-day campaigns — tailored to the platform you choose.

In this walkthrough, we use the ongoing case study (Ecuador as the destination, Germany as the source market) and take an existing long-form blog article created earlier in the series: “From Cobblestone to Volcanoes: A 7-Day Andean Journey from Cuenca to Quito”

Then we use the Social Media Expert AI to turn that single article into a 10-day Facebook campaign, with posts that are:

Short, emotional, and highly readable on mobile

Built with a consistent format (hook → story → CTA → hashtags)

Optimized for engagement (questions, prompts, lightweight emojis, clean spacing)

Easy to copy/paste directly into Facebook

Capable of generating image prompts so you can create original visuals to match each post

You’ll see the AI guide you step-by-step:  Choose your starting point (text, image, idea, or “find trending topics for me”)  Confirm the post angle (story-focused, responsible travel, photogenic route, etc.)  Build a day-by-day campaign plan before writing anything  Apply platform best practices (format, timing, CTA style, hashtag strategy)  Generate the final posts in clean, publish-ready form  Create one-by-one image prompts and refine visuals without adding unwanted text overlays

The key idea: long-form content becomes dozens of outreach assets, and you finally get consistency without burning hours every day.

 Access all 9 free AI tools here:  santiagoR.com/freeAITools

 Want help implementing these tools into a real content system for your destination or tourism business? I offer coaching + staff training to help you use AI faster, better, and with a repeatable workflow.

If this episode helped you:  Like  Subscribe  Comment with the platform you want to grow (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn) and I’ll share the best post formats to start with.

In Episode 7 of the “9 AI Tools to Attract High-Value Visitors” series, we introduce a different kind of AI: the How-To Articles Writer (Educational AI) — a tool designed specifically to help DMO teams, tour operators, and tourism stakeholders understand and overcome real, everyday professional challenges.

Unlike the previous tools in this series, this AI is not about external promotion. It’s about internal alignment, training, and capacity-building — because attracting high-value visitors also requires knowledgeable staff, confident partners, and shared ways of working.

In this walkthrough, you’ll see how the How-To Articles AI:

Helps you explain complex tourism challenges in a clear, step-by-step way

Creates short, practical educational articles your teams can actually read (and apply)

Covers themes like AI adoption, marketing, distribution, sustainability, technology, and productivity

Includes built-in research, structure, and editing guidance, like working with a professional editor

Automatically generates a cover image so the content is ready for blogs, internal newsletters, Slack, or training portals

Using a real example, we build an article on: “How tourism professionals can use AI in simple, practical ways every day — without tech overwhelm.”

The AI walks through:

Common mistakes teams make when approaching AI

Why “spectacular” automations often fail in real workplaces

6 realistic daily AI habits for DMO staff and tour operators

Clear calls to action that encourage small, immediate wins

This tool is ideal if you want to:  Train staff and partners consistently  Share your professional point of view publicly  Align stakeholders around new tools and practices  Build internal confidence with AI before scaling it externally

 Access all 9 free AI tools here:  santiagoR.com/freeAITools

 Need help applying these tools inside your organisation? I also offer 1:1 coaching and staff training to help tourism teams accelerate their AI learning curve and use these tools effectively in real workflows.

If this episode is useful, like, subscribe, and share it with someone in tourism who’s responsible for training, stakeholder engagement, or internal transformation.

In this episode of the Everything AI in Travel podcast, we dive deep into the vacation rental world and the fast-changing landscape of property management systems (PMS) with guest Shahar, founder of Boom, an AI-native operating system for vacation rental managers.

From Miami, Shahar shares how he went from doing hundreds of millions in real-estate deals to “accidentally” building a vacation rental management company—then vertically integrating management, construction, cleaning, and a $50M fund—before spinning out the tech and ultimately selling his management business to Casago. Today, that same tech powers Boom, now live in 20 countries across five continents.

We talk through:

• ​ What PMS looked like in 2017 – basic channel managers and unified inboxes – and why that wasn’t enough for serious operators
• ​ Why traditional PMS + a dozen disconnected tools (pricing, tasks, guest comms, accounting, etc.) breaks down—and how Boom’s “business as software” view ties it all into one data model
• ​ How AI agents can only work if all the operational data is structured and connected (cleaning, tasks, GPS, inspections, payments, owner P&L, trust accounting, reviews and more)
• ​ How Boom is already automating 80% of guest communication, and what true agentic AI looks like in property ops
• ​ Why their ICP starts at 50+ properties, what they’re seeing from leading operators, and how they’re rolling out globally
• ​ The future of OTAs, trust and discovery – from filter-based search (“Miami, Dec 23–Jan 1, max $600/night…”) to open-text intent (“I want a 2-hour flight, kid-friendly activities within walking distance, ocean view, pet-friendly”) – and how LLMs will sit between guests and inventory

We also cover Boom’s recent $13M Series A, backed by heavyweights including the former CEO of Hilton, major real-estate families, and top vertical SaaS founders—and why combining deep ops knowledge with frontier AI talent is their core edge.

If you:

• ​Run a vacation rental management company (50+ doors and up)
• ​Work at a PMS, channel manager, or OTA and want to see where the puck is headed
• ​Are thinking about how agentic AI will reshape operations, distribution, and guest experience

…this episode is a masterclass in where vacation rentals + AI are going next.

 Guest: Shahar – Founder, Boom (AI-native PMS / operating system for vacation rentals)Connect with him on LinkedIn 

 If you got value from this conversation:

• ​Subscribe to the channel
• ​Leave a comment with your biggest insight or question about AI in vacation rentals
• ​Share it with someone in your network who manages properties or builds tools for them

And don’t forget to subscribe to the Everything AI in Travel newsletter for weekly deep dives on AI, travel tech, and creator-driven distribution.

In Episode 6 of the “9 Free AI Tools to Attract High-Value Visitors” series, we review one of the most practical tools in the entire framework: the Self-Guided Tour Creator AI — built to help you create real, walkable, time-logical itineraries your visitors can use on the ground once they’re already in your destination.

This tool sits in the “content” phase of the framework, but unlike inspirational blog articles, this is utility content: self-guided walking tours that improve the visitor experience, reduce friction, and help your destination deliver more value while people are there.

In this walkthrough you’ll see how the AI:

• Starts with a destination prompt (example: Cuenca, Ecuador) and a defined target market (example: German visitors aged 25–50, culture + nature + local life)

• Lets you choose between a pure walking route or a route that includes short transport

• Builds a realistic route with space/time logic: stop sequence, walking times, visit durations, and total tour length

• Writes engaging descriptions for each stop (and lets you refine tone, style, and format as you go)

• Generates a title + short platform-ready tour description you can paste into a brochure, app, website, or tour platform

• Optionally creates a quiz to add interactivity and engagement

• Finds Creative Commons licensed images for each stop (with source links)

• Translates the whole tour into simple, friendly German (or any language), and can even add practical info at the top of each stop: address, time to visit, next stop, and walking time

By the end you’ll have a complete self-guided tour you can publish as:
 a web page
 a PDF handout
 a tour-platform listing
 a destination app experience
 content your staff can reuse in visitor support

 Access the 9 free AI tools here:
 santiagoR.com/freeAITools

 Want help implementing this for your destination, hotel, or tourism business?
I also offer 1:1 coaching and staff training so you can apply these tools faster, with better outputs, and with a real content system behind them.

If this episode helps you, like, subscribe, and share it with someone who works in tourism and wants better visitors and better visitor experiences.

In this episode of the Everything AI in Travel podcast (now sitting in the top 3 travel-technology podcasts on Apple Podcasts), Tony sits down with Healy Cypher, co-founder & CEO of BoomPop, a company that just raised $25M to make planning in-person events, offsites and group travel radically easier with AI.

We dig into Healy’s wild founder journey — from growing up in Saudi Arabia, to selling his first startup to eBay just seven months after joining, to rolling out those touchscreen kiosks in McDonald’s, Wendy’s and more (including the legendary “temptation cookie” upsell)… and why all of that led him to build BoomPop.

Then we zoom out to the big shift: post-pandemic hybrid work, half-empty offices, and $1.7T in “freed” office spend that companies are quietly redirecting into in-person experiences, offsites, sales kickoffs and client events. Healy explains why group travel & meetings are the last undigitised corner of travel, and why AI is finally the unlock.

You’ll hear how BoomPop uses AI to:

• Turn a simple prompt (“Offsite within 2 hours of SF in Q1, X budget, Y vibe”) into venue options, dates, full itineraries and a live event website

• Match corporate events with hotel “need dates” so everyone wins on price and occupancy

• Learn a “taste graph” for organisers and companies to recommend better venues and experiences over time

• Handle all the messy coordination: negotiations, blocks, RSVPs, guest messaging, packing lists, dinner changes and more
  — plus how a 35-person human planning team plugs in when you need a real expert, not just an agent.

We also talk about the future of event agencies and travel advisors in an AI world, the incumbents like Cvent and the old-school RFP process, and what a new competitive landscape looks like when AI-native platforms start hitting escape velocity.

If you’ve ever:

• Burned months of an EA’s time on a single annual offsite

• Run a remote or distributed team that lives for its one big IRL gathering

• Worked in hotels, DMOs, or meetings & incentives and wondered “why is this still done by fax and spreadsheets?”

…this conversation will be painfully familiar and seriously hopeful.

 Listen now to learn how AI, group travel and in-person experiences collide — and why this is one of the ripest opportunities in travel tech.

 Guest
Healy Cypher – Co-founder & CEO, BoomPop
BoomPop: AI-powered platform for offsites, retreats & corporate events
Podcast: Don’t Be a Jerk – conversations with high-performers who prove you can win in business without being an asshole.

 If your team has an offsite, retreat or client event coming up
Before you sacrifice six months of someone’s job to planning it… check out BoomPop and see what AI can take off your plate.

 If you enjoy this episode:

• Subscribe to the channel

• Drop a comment with your biggest takeaway

• Share it with someone who organises events and desperately needs their life back

And don’t forget to subscribe to the Everything AI in Travel newsletter for weekly deep dives on AI, travel & creator commerce.