Schedule

Every vendor claims to deliver the best performance, and every one of them has a deck that proves it. So how does a DMO know who's actually driving results?

This session walks through how to design an honest, head-to-head media test so you can evaluate partners based on performance instead of taking their word for it. It's practical, a little provocative and entirely on the side of the buyer. Best of all, you don't need to be a media buyer to use these principles. Whether you're a CEO, CMO, marketing manager or board member, you'll leave knowing the questions to ask and how to separate great storytelling from great performance.

Takeaways:

• A repeatable head-to-head testing blueprint you can apply with any vendor and at any budget level.
• How to identify attribution overlap and understand why two vendors can both claim to "win" the same campaign.
• A practical vendor audit checklist, including the questions every media partner should be prepared to answer.

Join Expedia Group Advertising to discover what resonates most with today’s travelers. Drawing on the Science of Wanderlust research, you’ll see how partners are creating content that inspires, builds trust, and drives bookings - from short-form videos to inclusive and authentic storytelling. Learn actionable strategies for leveraging AI, media networks, and creative partnerships to deliver measurable results across the entire traveler journey. 

Takeaways: 

• Learn how DMOs can create impactful, compelling content to reach travelers and drive bookings.
• Understand travelers’ attitudes and preferences to the role of AI in the travel booking journey to enhance campaigns while maintaining creativity.
• Explore new ways to build content through creative partnerships and leverage media networks to extend your reach even further.

Travel is constantly evolving & understanding where it’s headed requires more than surface level signals. We’ll introduce Tripadvisor Trendcast 2026, our latest look at the forces shaping how & why people travel. Featuring 10 emerging trends, this report draws on decades of traveler insight to spotlight what’s gaining momentum, what’s changing & what will influence travel decisions. We’ll break down each trend, why it matters now & how it’s already showing up in real travel experiences.

Takeaways: 

• Identify 2026's defining travel trends, backed by real-world consumer behavior.
• Examine the year-to-date trajectory of these trends.
• Discover how advertisers can outpace what's next.

Let’s be honest: most destination brands tend to be polite, predictable, and painfully interchangeable. This session unpacks how Choose Chicago broke from convention to create “Never Done. Never Outdone.”—a bold, research-driven brand platform built from real community voices, insights, and buy-in. Through fearless creativity and early stakeholder alignment, Chicago launched a brand that shows up with edge across leisure travel, meetings and conventions, and global markets.

Takeaways: 

• Turn research and community listening into creative fuel—not a constraint.   
• Build one brand that flexes across leisure, meetings, partners, and global markets without dilution. 
• Use stakeholder previews to sharpen the work, build ownership, and launch loud.

The transition from the Google digital ecosystem to Gen AI is well underway, and marketers need to adapt to rapidly changing consumer behavior. Join Carroll Rheem as she shares insights from iolite group's State of AI study, which focuses on how consumers use gen AI for travel - what situations they use it for, what they like/dislike about it, and what all this means for destination marketers.

Takeaways: 

• Understand the reach of Gen AI influence in consumer travel.
• Fresh perspective on what travelers want (and don't want) from AI.
• Key priorities for navigating the rise of consumer AI usage.

Destination marketing funnels haven’t disappeared...they’ve gone invisible. AI, algorithmic feeds, and zero-click discovery are shaping travel decisions long before (or if ever) websites or campaigns are engaged. This session reframes how destinations understand discovery, influence, and demand in a system-driven world, offering practical frameworks to adapt strategy, measurement, and content for what travelers actually experience today.

Takeaways: 

• A concrete set of moves they can run inside their own organization.
• Audit their AI presence before spending another dollar (run the 15-20 questions a visitor would actually ask an AI tool and see whether you appear, and whether it's accurate).
• Add brand visibility as a tracked KPI alongside room nights and economic impact, with a rehearsed answer for when a board member asks what a "citation" is worth.
• Structure content for citation, not just clicks (schema, named entities, attributed data, GEO fundamentals their web vendor should already be discussing).
• Stop treating AI search as an SEO hand-off and start treating it as the leadership-level brand problem it is.
• Do the culture work first, because none of the tactical work lands if the team isn't ready to execute it.

Many policymakers view tourism marketing claims with skepticism, shaped by inconsistent metrics and inflated success stories. This trust gap makes it harder for destinations to secure funding and long-term support. This session explores why the gap exists and how destinations can close it through transparency, independent data, and economic grounding—equipping attendees to communicate results in policy-relevant language and rebuild credibility with decision-makers.

Takeaways: 

• A communication framework for elected officials
• Common credibility traps to avoid
• Language for policy-aligned reporting
• Tools to restore trust in tourism outcomes