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Season 4 opens with Peter Pilarski and Kendel Lavallee back from the summer break, working through what changed whilethe industry was busy hosting. Peter names AI burnout as real, for practitioners and for the DMO leader trying to learn AI on top of a full job, and makes the case for pacing yourself. The two then trace how requests to Tourism AI Network have shifted from training toward building: Build Sprints, packaged tourism workflows, and version one of TourismOps AI, the reportingtool built with the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association. Peter also previews the season's guest lineup, including members of TAIN's Expert Advisory Network.

The back half turns to Google. Kendel walks through the new travel features in AI Mode, including hotel booking through themajor chains and OTAs and what she found testing it on smaller properties, and Peter connects Google's Ask for Me feature to a near future where AI agents phone businesses for quotes. The episode closes with a family trip to Japan planned and navigated inside a Claude project.

In this episode:

• Why AI burnout is real, and how to paceadoption
• The shift from "teach me" to"build it for me"
• What agentic AI looks like in operations,marketing, and HR
• Google AI Mode's new travel and hotelbooking features
• Voice agents, speed to lead, and keepingyour data ready

Hosts: Peter Pilarski, Founder, Tourism AI Network; President, CIPR Communications. Kendel Lavallee, Director of AI Adoption and Visibility, Tourism AI Network.

Read the full blog here [HYPERLINK].

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#AIinTourism #TourismAI #AIAdoption #DMO#TourismIndustry #Hospitality #GoogleAIMode #AIAgents

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Peter, Kendel, and Matthew unpack the Two Journeys Framework, the idea that every tourism business is now on parallel paths of AI maturity and digital authority, and why getting them in the right order changes everything.

In this episode: Peter's Trendsetter to Watch award, the new Digital Authority Framework launch, how CIPR Communications rolled out organizational change through daily morning huddles, the Invisible Innovators problem in tourism, Peter's vibe-coding adventure with Claude Code (and what it actually takes to build something useful), and why being a messy learner right now beats waiting for certainty.

If your team is investing in AI tools but your brand says different things in different places online, you're accelerating in the wrong direction. This conversation explains why and what to do first.

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#AIinTourism #DigitalAuthority #DMO #DestinationMarketing #AIAdoption #TourismAI #TAINPodcast #VibeCoding

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Data governance is a people, process, and legal problem. In this episode, Peter Pilarski sits down with data analytics expert and Tourism Ops AI co-builder Jeremy Adamson to unpack what AI data governance actually looks like for tourism organizations of all sizes.

They cover why good intentions aren't enough without documentation, the very real financial penalties hiding behind everyday AI habits, what GDPR compliance means for Canadian operators marketing to Europe, and why the regulatory picture in Canada is murkier than ever.

Whether you run a DMO, a small operator, or anything in between. This one is worth your time.

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This 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.

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#AIinTourism #DataGovernance #TourismTech #DMO #DestinationMarketing #GDPR #TourismAI #AIAdoption

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What does it actually look like when a DMO starts preparing for AI adoption? In this episode, Peter Pilarski walks Gerardo Corro, Executive Director of Tourism New Westminster, through a live AI readiness assessment. Gerardo shares his team's real tech stack, pain points, data gaps, and organizational challenges as a 2.5-person team doing the work of 40.

This is Part 3 of our AI Adoption for DMOs series, and the conversation gets practical fast: from disconnected file systems and reporting bottlenecks to the question every small destination needs to answer before touching a single AI tool.

Read the full blog here.

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This 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.

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#AIinTourism #DMO #DestinationMarketing #AIAdoption #TourismTech #AIReadiness #SmallTeam #TourismStrategy

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Most tourism businesses are spending 90% of their energy on 15% of the AI adoption problem. In this episode, Peter, Kendel and Matthew break down Peter's latest blog "From Chat to Delegation" and what the updated AI adoption hierarchy means for tourism operators.

The team also covers Anthropic's new Claude Opus 4.6 model, the release of Cowork for Windows, TripAdvisor's ChatGPT-powered trip planning app, and a rapid fire round on EU AI transparency rules, airline disruption chatbots, Google Maps VibeCheck, and Airbnb's AI listing descriptions.

Read the full blog here.

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This 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.

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#AIinTourism #AIAdoption #ContextEngineering #TourismMarketing #DestinationMarketing #TourismTech #ClaudeAI

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Small tourism businesses need AI tools they can trust. That starts with understanding how those tools are built and what values guide their behaviour.

Peter, Kendel, and Matthew discuss why Tourism AI Network made the switch from ChatGPT to Claude, diving deep into Anthropic's groundbreaking constitutional AI approach. From the 23,000-word ethics blueprint to real security concerns with viral tools like OpenClaw (formerly Clawdbot), this episode unpacks what responsible AI adoption actually looks like.

Key topics:

1. Constitutional AI vs reinforcement learning from human feedback
2. The four-tier priority hierarchy: safe, ethical, compliant, helpful
3. Why Claude Code is changing how non-coders build solutions
4. Security risks with hyped AI tools (and how to spot them)
5. Matthew's workflow automation that saves hours weekly

Read the full blog here.

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This 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.

#AIinTourism #ClaudeAI #AIEthics #TourismTech #ResponsibleAI

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PeterPeter climbed Mount Kilimanjaro as part of Melanie's Ascent, raising over $300,000 for domestic violence victims. What started as a fundraising trek became a masterclass in hospitality, service excellence, and tourism's real impact on communities.

In this episode, Peter shares stories from 8 days on the mountain with 11 hikers and 55 crew members, revealing how Tanzanian guides and porters delivered six-star service at 19,000 feet. From tables and chairs set up for tea breaks to porters thanking tourists for meaningful work, the experience reshaped Peter's understanding of what great hospitality actually means.

Plus: The AI revelation Peter had on the flight home that changed how he thinks about technology in tourism.

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This 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.

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#AIinTourism #Hospitality #TourismAI #ServiceExcellence #Kilimanjaro

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Most tourism organizations hit a wall after personal AI experiments. Data security concerns freeze leadership. Teams plateau after initial enthusiasm. Sound familiar?

In Part 2 of our AI Marketing Workflow Series, Peter Pilarski, Kendel Lavallee, and Gerardo Corro tackle the messy middle; moving from individual AI use to full team integration.

You'll learn how to calm data security fears (spoiler: they're often overblown), build AI "team members" with custom projects trained on your organization's context, and find the "aha moments" that turn skeptics into champions.

We cover responsible AI policies, avoiding hallucinations, managing team accounts, and setting tiny goals that become quick wins. If you're ready to move beyond dabbling and actually integrate AI into your workflows, this episode gives you the roadmap.

Read the full blog here.

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This 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.

#AIinTourism #DMO #TeamAI #DataSecurity #AIAdoption #TourismIndustry #DestinationMarketing

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How do small DMOs adopt AI when they don't have Amazon's budget or enterprise resources?

Gerardo Corro (Executive Director, Tourism New Westminster) joins Peter and Kendel to break down AI adoption for destination marketing organizations operating under real-world constraints. This isn't about billion-dollar strategies—it's about what a team of three can actually implement.

We cover the shift from personal ChatGPT use to systematic team adoption, why "AI Thursdays" work for building culture, and how context engineering prepares your organization for what's next.

Key topics:

1. Moving from individual experimentation to team systems
2. Why DMOs need standard operating procedures now
3. Context engineering for 2026
4. Building a culture of innovation from the ground up
5. Practical first steps for resource-constrained teams

Read the full blog here.

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This 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.

#AIinTourism #DestinationMarketing #DMO #TourismTech #ContextEngineering #SmallBusinessAI

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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.

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This 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.