Schedule

In a follow-up to last year's popular session, Amir Eylon will return to the stage and seed the conversation with some timely leisure travel insights and travel trends facing DMO's and challenge the audience to discuss how they have been, are, or can apply these insights into their marketing efforts!

Takeaways: 

• Some quick and actionable insights about   American leisure travelers. 
• Actionable applied ideas from their peers.
• Inspired ideation of solutions   among the roundtables.

DMOs are under pressure to adopt AI, yet many lack a clear path from experimentation to operational impact. This peer-to-peer roundtable grounds the conversation in Visit Mesa’s AI roadmap, including what worked and what did not. Then the session shifts to facilitated discussion so attendees can compare approaches, address stakeholder expectations, connect AI efforts to ROI, and identify realistic next steps they can implement immediately.

Takeaways: 

• Evaluate where your DMO is on the AI adoption spectrum.
• Prioritize AI efforts based on organizational readiness, value, and capacity.
• Identify concrete next steps to advance AI adoption responsibly within your organization.

If your community is asking, “Why are we doing another tourism plan?” or “Is this just going to collect dust?”, then it’s time to reset the conversation. Creating the plan matters, but implementation is what actually drives change. This roundtable session is infused with a panel to help participants focus on how to move beyond the document and use the strategic plan as a practical, everyday tool to align partners, guide decisions and actually get s**t done.

Takeaways:

• Apply best practices to build implementation steps into the strategic planning process.
• Institute steps to hold strategic planners, the destination organization, and community stakeholders accountable for delivering impactful results.
• Establish communication and follow-up to report success stories and challenges as part of the effort to strengthen community involvement and support.

Destinations face pressure to justify tourism funding but rely on outdated metrics that miss full community value. The Arizona Office of Tourism shares real-world experience transforming impact into data stories that win support from boards, officials, and residents. Attendees will co-create communication plans for scenarios like overtourism, resident sentiment, or political headwinds—leaving with actionable frameworks to implement immediately in their own communities.

Takeaways: 

• Connect their current strategy to measurable tourism objectives.
• Identify other sources of data to include in their reporting beyond social media impressions and taxes.
• Develop a draft communications plan tailored for different audiences with specific storytelling tactics.

AI has become the loudest word in travel marketing, but underneath the buzz, DMO leaders are wrestling with real questions that rarely get honest answers. What actually changes when a visitor types a question into ChatGPT or Perplexity instead of Google? Does your content structure matter to a language model? Can you influence how AI platforms answer questions about your destination? And is your agency actually equipped to help… or just repackaging old deliverables with an "AI" label?

This roundtable cuts through the hype. Facilitated as an open, practitioner-level discussion, we would tackle the myths DMO marketers hear most — in vendor pitches, conference keynotes, and board rooms — and replace them with ground-level clarity. The goal is for attendees to bring their skepticism, their unanswered questions, and their real experiences and leave with actual clarity. 

Takeaways: 

• A clearer framework for evaluating AI vendor claims.
• Practical content and GEO strategies grounded in what LLMs actually respond to.
• Peer perspectives on what other DMOs are testing, investing in, and walking away from.

Events are often judged by attendance numbers, but attendance alone doesn’t tell the full story. As destinations face increasing pressure to justify investments, recruit the right opportunities, and demonstrate value to stakeholders, many are asking: Which events create the greatest value? How should success be measured? And what information is needed to make smarter event decisions?

Join this interactive roundtable discussion as we explore how destinations are evaluating event performance, defining event value, and identifying opportunities that align with their goals. Participants will share challenges, best practices, and emerging approaches to event measurement and strategy.