Brisbane-based agency Media Mortar has partnered with Australian Regional Tourism (ART) to launch the AI Destination Marketing Lab, a six-week program helping tourism organisations optimise content for AI-powered travel discovery.
As generative AI becomes a starting point for travel planning, destination marketers are facing a fundamental change in how travellers discover places.
Instead of typing keywords into search engines, more travellers are asking AI assistants where to go, what to do and where to stay. That means destinations need to rethink how they create content if they want to appear in AI-generated recommendations.
The six-week AI Destination Marketing Lab will teach regional tourism organisations how to audit their AI readiness, create content that AI can understand and surface, identify content gaps before they affect visibility, and measure destination performance as AI search evolves.
“Destinations that don’t adapt risk becoming invisible in the very places tomorrow’s travel decisions are being made,” said Media Mortar founder Hannah Statham.
“We wanted to partner with Australian Regional Tourism to help tourism organisations understand what this shift means and, more importantly, what to do about it.
“This isn’t another workshop full of theory. We’re not teaching people how to use AI, we’re helping them create content that’s built for the future of destination marketing. Participants will leave with AI-ready content they can use immediately,” Statham added.
The initiative was developed in partnership with Australian Regional Tourism, with the first intake capped at 15 LGA participants.
