As more travelers use AI to plan trips to Hawaiʻi, tourism businesses are learning it’s no longer enough to attract visitors with just a website.
A visitor planning his vacation to Hawaiʻi turned to artificial intelligence to plan his trip. He asked ChatGPT to come up with a 10-day itinerary on Oʻahu to save some time on researching every activity.
The AI chatbot came back with a range of activities and restaurants to visit. The problem — one restaurant had been closed for six months.
As AI reshapes how visitors discover Hawaiʻi, tourism businesses are learning that maintaining a website isn't just about attracting people through search engines. It may determine whether they are included in an AI-generated conversation at all.
Tourism businesses having to rethink the strategy around their digital presence. That's because AI recommendations are often determined by the quality and accessibility of online information.
Now many tourism businesses, like hotels and activity companies, must constantly scrub their websites of outdated pages and information. They have to make sure that information like hours, prices and other important information is current to be discovered by AI assistants.
Patrick Ahler is the senior vice president at Castle Resorts and Hotels. He said updating websites has become a competitive requirement for hotels.
Castle Resorts and Hotels recently rebuilt its website using AI to add a universal booking system for its 20 properties in Hawaiʻi, New Zealand and Nevada. Its also now able to be discovered by AI assistants.
Ahler said the site was built with AI assisted travel research in mind. He said that means providing structured facts about locations, rooms and amenities, and it means organizing the information and answering the questions that travelers actually ask.
