How to Use AI in Creating Travel Content
Travel marketing isn’t about spreadsheets and specs. It’s about anticipation. Goosebumps. The moment someone can already feel the trip before they’ve booked it.
So where does AI — often painted as cold, robotic, and soulless — fit into a business built on human emotion and lived experience?
Here’s the truth: nearly every marketer (about 95%) is already using AI in some form. The real opportunity isn’t letting AI write your final copy. The power move is using it as a strategic co-pilot — one that saves time, sharpens thinking, sparks ideas, and helps you show up with more clarity at every stage of the traveler journey.
Below are seven practical ways travel marketers can use AI without sacrificing voice, values, or authenticity.
Tip 1: Master Content Versioning (Work Smarter, Not Harder)
If you’ve already done the hard work — researching, planning, and writing strong content — you shouldn’t have to reinvent it for every channel.
The Tactic
Use AI to take your human-powered, long-form content and adapt it for different formats and platforms.
Start with a detailed itinerary planning document (often written for internal use, not travelers) and ask AI to turn it into:
- A short, traveler-friendly web page or slide deck
- 6–7 social media captions with different angles
- Email subject lines or ad copy for A/B testing
Always review for accuracy and make sure the output still carries your brand’s voice and sense of place.
The Exercise
You created a 1,500-word blog post titled “The Ultimate Guide to Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.” Upload your human-generated source material and ask AI to generate:
- A 15-second Instagram Reel script highlighting three hidden gems
- Five subject line options and body copy for a nurture email
- A 250-word partner newsletter blurb focused on family-friendly experiences
The Benefit
One strong source of truth fuels your entire content calendar — without burning out your team.
Tip 2: Create Hyper-Specific Traveler Personas
“Culture Seeker” isn’t a persona. It’s a placeholder.
AI can help you move beyond vague segments and build richly detailed traveler profiles that reveal emotional drivers, objections, and decision-stage questions.
The Tactic
Use a detailed prompt to generate a persona that includes:
- Name, age, income, and travel style
- Emotional motivations
- Booking hesitations and objections
- Questions they need answered before they commit
The Exercise
Prompt:
“Create a persona for a high-value Cultural Explorer interested in our 10-day Alaska Land & Sea tour. Include their emotional drivers (legacy, authentic local connection), booking objections (feeling rushed, large crowds), and the specific content they need at the Decision stage.”
The Benefit
You stop guessing what content will convert. You may discover that a 360-degree dining room walkthrough to address crowd anxiety is more valuable than another hero image.
Pro Tip: Save and name the persona in your AI thread so future prompts stay laser-focused on the same traveler.
Tip 3: Run Instant Content Gap Analysis Against Competitors
Do you know what your competitors are explaining better than you are? If not, AI can compare your content directly against theirs — and flag gaps across the traveler lifecycle.
The Tactic
Ask AI to compare two pages (yours vs. a competitor’s) and identify missing or weaker content at a specific funnel stage.
The Exercise
Prompt:
“Compare my ‘8-Day Northern Lights Adventure’ landing page with Competitor X’s page. Identify content gaps in the Consideration stage, focusing on gear guidance, cancellation policies, and guide expertise.”
The Benefit
You get a clear feature and education gap analysis — fast. If a competitor offers a downloadable Northern Lights Photography Guide, you’ve just uncovered a high-value opportunity to close the gap.
Tip 4: Upgrade Your Content Audits
You already know what great content looks like—or at least which pages drive bookings. AI can help you reverse-engineer why and make every page work harder.
The Tactic
Create a reusable audit prompt that evaluates content against your proven success criteria, such as:
- Emotional pull in the headline
- Use of personal anecdotes and traveler perspective
- Scannability (subheads, bullets, short paragraphs)
- Clear call to action
- Itinerary clarity
The Exercise
Direct AI to the URL of a product page and ask:
“Audit this page for emotional storytelling, traveler perspective, writing quality and scannability, clarity of why travelers want to book, and strength of the call to action. Score each area from 1–5.”
The Benefit
You develop a consistent scoring system that reveals whether your content is selling an experience — or just listing amenities and destinations.
Tip 5: Break Through Creative Blocks
AI won’t replace your creativity. But it will help you get unstuck.
I once used AI to brainstorm a dating profile for a major U.S. airport as part of a Valentine’s Day campaign. AI didn’t write the final copy — but it sparked ideas that led to something genuinely funny and effective.
The Tactic
Feed AI detailed brand inputs: history, destinations, guides, tone, quirks, and values.
The Exercise
Prompt:
“Generate three humorous summer campaign ideas for an Alaska tour operator using the voice of a slightly eccentric sea captain. Themes: escape and discovery.”
The Benefit
Some ideas will miss. Some will surprise you. And a few will unlock an entirely new direction you wouldn’t have found alone. It’s still your job to make the content great.
Tip 6: Fine-Tune SEO and Simplify the Complex
AI excels at optimization and clarity — especially when content gets dense or legalistic.
The Tactic
Use AI to:
- Identify SEO keyword opportunities
- Simplify complex language
- Write clearer, more reassuring meta descriptions
The Exercise
Prompt:
“Analyze this ‘How to Book’ page. Generate 10 long-tail SEO keywords related to travel insurance and cancellation. Rewrite the content to an 8th-grade reading level. Create a meta description focused on peace of mind and flexibility.”
The Benefit
You reduce friction at the Decision stage and replace fine print with reassurance.
Tip 7: Generate a Content Mission Statement
Every strong brand needs a north star — especially when multiple teams touch content.
The Tactic
Ask AI to draft a content mission statement that includes:
- Target audience
- Core topics
- Benefit to the traveler
The Exercise
Prompt:
“Create a concise content mission statement for a small-ship tour operator serving adventure travelers aged 45–65. Focus on authentic local experiences, sustainability, and emotional connection.”
The Benefit
This statement becomes the foundation for newsletters, social content, CTAs, and campaign strategy—keeping everyone aligned.
The Jaunt Approach
We believe that AI should always be human-powered. And that travel brands should not use AI to:
- Generate final copy
- Create copy that relies upon facts
- Replace human-to-human communication or customer service
Do use it to think faster, plan smarter, and show up with more intention at every stage of the traveler journey.
AI doesn’t replace you as the guide. It just helps you choose a better route.