Untangling Tourism Tech

ChatGPT 6 Astra landed on 3 September and it uses your computer the way a staff member would: the mouse moves, the forms fill, the work gets done. In Episode 20 Fabienne Wintle and Liz Ward said that full autonomous agents were perhaps two to five years away. Ten weeks later, here one of the first, inside your ChatGPT. This episode is the plain-English version: what Astra is, what it costs, why a $300-a-month licence is cheap if you understand what it replaces, and what has to be in place before you switch it on. Topics covered:

Tourism Tribe helps tourism operators and destination marketing organisations stay ahead of AI and technology change. Find the Compass AI Playbook for DMOs and more at tourismtribe.com. Subscribe to Untangling Tourism Tech for a new episode every few weeks.

Most DMOs call Tourism Tribe wanting to fix their website. Fabienne Wintle and Liz Ward explain why that's the wrong question. When you ask AI such as Google or Gemini where to eat or stay, the answer comes straight from the operator's Google Business Profile, not the DMO's website or directory. In this episode, they get real about what's actually working with DMOs in the early stages of AI transformation. Topics covered:

Fabienne and Liz are also running two DMO-only webinars on the Compass framework and how to avoid the costly mistakes of an AI transformation journey: Tuesday 18 August at 1pm and Wednesday 19 August at 4pm.

Tuesday, 18 August, 1-2 pm → Register now

Wednesday, 19 August, 4-5 pm → Register now

Tourism Tribe helps tourism operators and destination marketing organisations stay ahead of AI and technology change. Find the DMO AI Playbook and more at tourismtribe.com. Subscribe to Untangling Tourism Tech for a new episode every few weeks.

AI can inspire a trip in seconds. Getting tourists to actually book those experiences has been a different story. In this episode, Liz Ward talks with Daniel Blickling and Dhruv Sharma from Traveloris, a B2B AI trip planner that does something most tourism tech has only promised: it generates personalised, locally-informed itineraries and handles live booking in the same session.

Topics covered:

- How the travel purchase cycle has shifted more in the past two years than in the previous 25

Daniel Blickling is the founder of Traveloris (previously Traveler AI), with a background in aerospace avionics engineering and head of innovation technology at British Airways. Dhruv Sharma is the product manager, previously a strategy consultant at Boston Consulting Group and product lead at Telstra.

Tourism Tribe helps tourism operators stay ahead of technology and AI. Find out more at tourismtribe.com.

Learn more about Traveloris at traveloris.com.

Most tourism operators have tried AI. Fewer know what to do next. In this episode, Fab and Liz unpack the AI "driver's licence" journey, from basic ChatGPT prompts to building autonomous agents that do your work while you sleep.

They cover:

Whether you're just getting started or wondering what's possible beyond ChatGPT, this episode will show you where the road leads.

Links:

Welcome to the 2026 season premiere of Untangling Tourism Tech! In this episode, Liz and Fab dive into the massive technological shift currently reshaping the tourism landscape: the move from static AI models to active, goal-oriented AI Agents.

If 2023 was the year of the "Chatbot," 2026 is officially the year of the Digital Doer.

Brain vs. Body: Learn why Large Language Models (LLMs) are like a static "brain" that just waits for a question, while AI Agents act as the "body" that can actually perform tasks, follow rules, and execute a playbook.

The Agnes Water Case Study: We revisit the famous Paperbark Walk to explain how old AI models fail by giving outdated advice, and how new AI Agents can fix misinformation loops by checking real-time data.

Agent Legibility: Discover why the new priority for Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) isn't just "pretty websites," but creating "legible" data that AI Agents can find and use.

Digitising Local Knowledge: How regional tourism can maintain its competitive edge by turning the "lived experience" and "soul" of local staff into machine-readable formats.

The Google Evolution: A look at how Google Workspace is moving beyond simple search to become an integrated business assistant that understands your emails, documents, and back-office operations.

Don't wait for the technology to be "perfect." The tools are already "plug and play". This episode is your guide to taking small, progressive steps to ensure your destination remains relevant and sustainable in this new era of AI partnership.

This episode gets real about why short, simple video is the fastest way for tourism operators to grow their reach and why perfectionism is costing them visibility. Liz and Fab break down practical ways to repurpose content, use smart AI tools without losing your voice and stay ethical and transparent in an AI driven social landscape. It’s a no nonsense chat that shows operators how to show up confidently on camera, keep their humanity, and let tech do the heavy lifting without taking over.

In this episode of Untangling Tourism Tech, Fabienne and Liz unpack how AI is reshaping what works (and what doesn’t) on social media for tourism businesses.

From Reddit threads making a comeback to Google surfacing Instagram posts, they reveal why authenticity and human connection are now the ultimate algorithms. Learn how to keep your content real, consistent, and confidence-building — even when AI seems to run the show.

Tune in for practical, no-fluff strategies to make your social media shine in the age of AI

It looks like you. It sounds like you. But it’s not you.

AI is the new front desk for travel planning – and if your tourism business isn’t showing up in ChatGPT, Gemini, or Bing’s new AI results, you might already be invisible. 😬

In this episode, Fabienne Wintle and Liz Ward break down what AI-driven search really means for tourism organisations and how to future-proof your website and digital content.

You'll learn:

Whether you're a regional tourism body or a small operator, this episode is your must-have roadmap for surviving – and thriving – in the AI-powered travel era.

Hit play and start optimising today.