The AI for your tourism region

Imagine a group of travelers from Japan landing on your destination website. It is 11 PM. They are looking for a family-friendly hiking trail that also works in the rain, with a place to stop afterward. Your team is sleeping. Your FAQ page is silent. And your contact form promises a response "within 2 working days".

This is exactly what guests experience daily — on websites of regions that care for their visitors but cannot be there for them around the clock. AI changes that. Not as a replacement for your team, but as a digital companion that answers exactly when your team cannot.

1. Guests are ahead of most destinations

The numbers speak a clear language: 56% of leisure travelers have used AI for at least one trip — more than double the number in 2024. (Phocuswright, March 2026; US market, trend in Europe similar) And those who have once used AI for trip planning continue to do so: 78% of travelers rate AI-generated results as helpful for trip planning and local recommendations. (Phocuswright, July 2025; US market, trend in Europe similar)

Even more revealing is what happens after arrival. 51% of travelers also use AI on-site for recommendations — and 95% of them rate it as helpful. (Phocuswright, March 2026; US market, trend in Europe similar) This means: Your guests are already turning to AI to navigate in your region. The only question is, which AI answers them — and whether it is yours.

On the offering side, things look different. According to the BTE / DTV DMO DigitalMonitor 2025 (n=500 organizations), only 28% of German tourism organizations are comprehensively using generative AI. The majority are still testing, waiting, or have not prioritized the topic so far.

This gap between guest behavior and destination offerings is not an abstract market opportunity. It becomes apparent when a visitor cannot find what they are looking for on your website and instead asks ChatGPT.

2. What travelers expect from your website

The expectations of modern travelers have fundamentally changed. Those visiting a destination today arrive already informed — and expect digital touchpoints to function as well as the apps they use daily.

This is particularly evident when it comes to self-service. 70% of travelers would forego the front desk when checking in at a hotel; among Gen Z, it is even 82%. (Mews Survey, June 2025) What holds true in the hospitality sector translates to all tourist touchpoints: Guests want information immediately, in their language, and without waiting time.

This has concrete consequences for your website:

Immediate answers instead of forms. No one waits two working days for an email response when Google or ChatGPT can provide information in seconds. Those who do not find a quick answer on your website leave — and may not come back.

Multilingual support without effort. International guests expect to be served in their mother tongue. Static translations are not enough because guests ask individual questions that no templated response covers.

Contextual recommendations. "What can I do in the rain?" is a different question than "What is there to see in the region?" Travelers expect a website to understand their context — group type, interests, weather conditions, time of day.

Traditional FAQ pages and navigation trees cannot achieve this. Not because they are poorly done, but because they were built for a different type of user behavior.

3. From static content to digital travel companion

The crucial shift is not about producing more content. It is about making existing content accessible — at the moment a guest has a specific question.

An AI layer on your website does exactly that. It reads your existing content, your PDFs, your event calendars, and your offerings pages — and can generate precise, natural language answers from that. No guest needs to navigate through five subpages to find out if the via ferrata is suitable for children.

That sounds like a small step. In practice, it changes the entire guest experience. Those who receive a helpful answer right away stay longer on your website, discover more offerings, and are more likely to book through you — rather than through an OTA.

For your team, this means relief. Routine questions about opening hours, directions, or accessible services no longer land in the inbox but are answered automatically. This creates capacity for tasks that only humans can perform: personal advice, partner care, strategic planning.

The technology sector has already understood this. 61% of travel companies are already testing or scaling agentic AI. (Phocuswright / PhocusWire, February 2026; US market, trend in Europe similar) Booking Holdings communicated in its Q4 2025 annual results that despite a 10% growth in bookings, it has reduced service costs — with a savings plan of $500–550 million through AI transformation. What applies to a global OTA applies in a small way to a regional tourism organization: those who invest early save in the long term.

4. The data that no other tool provides

There is an often-overlooked advantage of AI-powered chatbots: They show you what guests really ask.

Analytics tools tell you which pages are visited. AI chat data tells you which questions remain unanswered. This is a fundamental difference. If a hundred guests ask each month whether there are vegan restaurants in your region, it is no coincidence — it is a blind spot in your content.

These insights are particularly valuable for DMOs because they connect the work between digital reach and real guest experience. You recognize:

• Which topics in your region are underrepresented

• Which languages and markets require special attention

• Where guests experience frustration due to missing answers

• Which offerings from your partners are often searched for but hard to find

This feedback loop exists in no classic CMS, no SEO analysis, and no social media dashboard. It only occurs when guests actively interact with your website — and you listen.

The BTE / DTV DMO DigitalMonitor 2025 also captured the perspective of professionals: 16% of practitioners expect tourist information to be completely replaced by digital services. 38% expect a hybrid role. The picture that emerges from this is not the end of personal advice — but its realignment. Digital services take over routine tasks. People take over what requires empathy and local knowledge.

5. What other destinations are already doing

Pioneer regions in Germany and Austria are already experimenting with AI-based assistants on their websites. The experiences are consistent: Users ask more questions than through classical contact channels, convert more frequently to bookings, and are more likely to return to the website.

A medium-sized mountain region in the German-speaking area has noticeably reduced its support effort after the introduction of an AI assistant. Routine inquiries about opening hours, parking options, and weather conditions have since been answered automatically — with measurable effects on the team burden during the high season.

A coastal destination with a high international share reports that a significant portion of AI conversations takes place in English, Dutch, and Scandinavian — languages for which no human support was available. The AI closes this gap without additional staff.

What connects these examples: The start was not a large project. The existing website, the available content, and the team’s knowledge were sufficient to train an AI assistant. The result was not a relaunch, but an expansion — a digital companion that is available around the clock, answers exactly when the team is offline, and improves with each interaction.

Whether branchly is the right tool for your destination depends on your requirements. What can be said is: The effort for the start is less than expected. And the time when guests use AI and destinations do not is already now.

Summary

Travelers use AI — for planning, navigation, and on-site recommendations. Most German destinations are still not prepared for this. Closing this gap does not mean replacing a team but expanding it: with a digital companion that answers around the clock, in any language, to any question.

The technological foundation is in place. The guest demand is also there. All that remains is the first step.