We were pleased to see Obvlo founder Callum McPherson quoted in a recent PhocusWire article exploring how destination marketing organizations are adapting as AI reshapes travel discovery.
The piece, by Morgan Hines, looks at the shift from DMOs as marketing entities to something closer to a "destination-as-a-service" — structured, trusted providers of destination data that AI systems can consume directly. With Phocuswright reporting that 56% of travelers are now using AI for trip planning, it's a shift that matters.
A few of the points covered:
- AI is already pulling DMO content at scale - analysis cited in the article found ChatGPT made nearly two million requests to DMO sites in just an eight-day window.
- Website structure, content management systems, schema markup, PR and backlinks all continue to matter - much of what made SEO work still applies to AI visibility.
- DMOs sit in a strong position to act as the local authority that verifies what's real, but the format of how that information reaches LLMs - indexing, MCP servers, APIs, or some combination is still being figured out.
- The DMO website of the future likely isn't a directory of local business listings. It's a curated, trusted layer of destination intelligence.
Callum's view, shared in the piece: DMOs are going to need to adapt significantly, evolving into highly curated, trusted information guides — and piping that information directly into LLMs is a real possibility worth taking seriously.
Read the full article on PhocusWire: DMOs shift toward destination-as-a-service model in AI era