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Why Palau’s new influencer campaign is the start of a revolution in travel distribution

When you enter Palau they put a declaration into your actual passport that you must sign to enter their country. The declaration you are signing is to protect the country and its nature during your stay. No sign, no entry. Palau is a country used to doing things a bit different.

Their recent influencer campaign with Blaze Lopes is yet another example of Palau (and their partners GTI and Pacific Trade Investments) heading off on the road less travelled. This time it is around nailing down the ROI of influencer campaigns to make sure they are getting good value for their money.

On the surface the campaign looks like any other. Lopes with her passionate following of 140K on Instagram was willing to back that she could drive real results and teamed up with Videreo to prove it.

If you look at the campaign itself you will see Lopes is deploying the ‘lead magnet’ strategy where the influencer calls on the audience to take an action if they want more information, in this case to receive Lopes’ detailed guide for travelling in Palau based on her recent trip there.

From here the data of all those who raise their hand is tracked. How many open the guide? How many share it with someone? How long do they spend on the guide? Do they click links? Which links? Do they buy something?

In my old world at Intrepid, we lived and died by ‘brochure requests’ for decades. This is the digital and social version of that same concept.

No longer is this just a game of views and likes. Influencer marketing in travel now has a data trail and there will be winners and losers. For the influencers, those with a genuine following quickly float to the top and become the most recommended by Videreo to our clients.

Those without a genuine following (which is very different to just a lot of followers!) are quickly exposed to those who can peek behind the data curtain.

Do you want to take a peek? We are waitlisting the next bunch of brands to join Palau, Intrepid, Carpe Diem, Holiday Pirates, Imagine Experiences and others in this new paradigm of data, ROI and success in this burgeoning growth channel for travel businesses.

Keep an eye on our own Instagram to see these campaigns roll out.

Videreo is the place for brands and creators to meet & create a new sales pipeline together.

This content is provided by the (interim) newsletter sponsor Videreo.com

Lots of AI conferences.

Last week’s newsletter got abandoned because I have been out attending and helping out at the Arival Conference and AI Forum in Washington DC (well actually the toy town of National Harbor in Maryland).

The week started with a pre-forum catch up with those interested in kicking around some future thinking in a session with myself and Alex Bainbridge.

Having never run an AI Forum previously, we weren’t sure how many of the Arival crew might be up for arriving early and going deep. Turns out – lots!

Alex summed up the event here. He talked with the crowd about his inverted product funnel in the AI world where travellers design trips and suppliers run moments.

He also attended another AI conference for the hotel industry, this one actually in DC, on the same day as the Arival Forum. There is now so much activity in the AI + Travel world we have conference clashes!

Woweeeee.

Of course this is not the end of AI conferences for 2025. There is the Travel Trends AI (Virtual) Summit upcoming in a few weeks. This one is virtual – so everyone can get involved.

Clayton Reid lays it all out

An extensive tome from Clayton Reid, the retired ex CEO from MMGY this week tried to make sense of where we are at and where we are going.

It is a thoughtful piece from someone who has experience and presumably the time to think things through deeply.

I’ve pulled a few highlights out here:

AI and LLMs promise improved personalization, efficiency, and simplified supply chains, but may not overturn fundamental distribution and marketing power structures in travel.
There is a distinction between AI for workflow automation, backend processes, and personal agentic AI that acts on our behalf with limited direct user interaction.
Investment in travel AI is surging, with expectations of new infrastructure and applications, but true value may accrue to those who build core platforms and networks.
Corporate travel AI is progressing faster than leisure travel, with near-term use cases including always-on travel management and automated trip adjustments.
Leisure travel faces a fragmented, validation-rich decision path, with travelers still relying on multiple sources and experiencing skepticism toward AI-driven recommendations.
Content authenticity and the risk of deepfakes, fake reviews, and AI-generated “slop” pose trust challenges for travelers and platforms.
Big platforms and aggregators (Amadeus, Booking, Expedia, Google, etc.) are likely to consolidate influence, making it harder for new entrants to gain mindshare.
Travel advisors and agents remain relevant, particularly for complex or high-touch itineraries, even as AI tools evolve.
Loyalty programs may shift toward tech-enabled value propositions (fintech partnerships, subscription models) rather than traditional points-based rewards.
The ultimate impact of AI in travel may reflect the interests of entrenched players rather than a wholesale transformation of the ecosystem.

OpenAI chooses the incumbents in the next evolution of ChatGPT

It was DevDay at OpenAI this week and that is always a big day in the AI world. This version did not disappoint.

The main new feature demonstrated was the ability to “talk to apps” right inside the ChatGPT interface.

The simple examples shown were the ability to ask questions during a Coursera course to turn online learning into a personal tutor to help you get up to speed on what questions are in your mind as you are learning.

Another example was the use of Zillow where the user asked questions you don’t find on any real estate site when looking through listings. Things like how far the nearest off leash dog park is from a property.

OpenAI did this release with 7 Apps. 2 of them were from travel – Booking + Expedia.

What this theoretically means is that OpenAI are building a future where ChatGPT is the only browser you need. Just open ChatGPT and do all your searching, shopping and scrolling – nowhere else you need to go to get as rich, detailed and personalised info as you need.

Incumbents get the nod at the big debate at Arival too!

Friend of the newsletter and previous podcast guest, Gilad Berenstein moderated a debate at the Arival AI Forum over who out of the OTA’s versus direct would come out on top.

Berenstein summarised it thus: "My take is simple. The winners and losers of this AI Era will not be determined based on their place in the funnel or business model but on their willingness and ability to adopt, adapt, and innovate in this new world. As I often remind CEOs and their Boards, the winners of the Mobile Era were not the first companies to launch a phone app but rather those who committed to a decade of test and learn, and the same will be true for this AI Era."

I lean towards Dan Flores’ point as one of the debaters when he said to the direct side: “I really really want you guys to win, but you probably won’t.”

AI action for DMO’s

Fellow organiser and presenter at Arival, Janette Roush has been busy including running this session as part of the digital Think Tank for DMO’s.

Highlights included:

Authenticity Remains Paramount: AI should enhance workflows and extend capabilities, but authentic human-created content must remain at the consumer interface. DMOs build trust through truthful representations of experienceable realities, not synthetic imagery.

Commoditised Information Provides No Competitive Advantage: DMOs must differentiate through stories, local expertise and curated perspectives that add meaning beyond basic facts already accessible to AI models, rather than repeating information available everywhere.

Discoverability Requires Active Infrastructure Investment: Creating MCP servers and direct connections between destination content and AI models represents the modern equivalent of SEO investment, ensuring destinations aren't left dependent on intermediaries who may extract value or distort representation.

Internal Transformation Enables External Innovation: Building organisational fluency with AI tools and formal governance frameworks proves prerequisite to strategic external deployment and competitive advantage.

Multi-Platform Fluency Trumps Single-Vendor Commitment: Given rapid AI evolution and varying model strengths, organisations benefit from maintaining access to multiple platforms rather than committing exclusively to any single vendor.

Formal Governance Enables Rapid Innovation: Clear AI policies and security frameworks provide the foundation for confident experimentation, transforming data protection officers from barriers into partners and accelerating rather than inhibiting adoption.

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Trip.com upgrade their AI tool

News out of Trip.com that their consumer facing AI tool has undergone an upgrade.

“The company said Trip.Planner acts as a concierge and offers real-time transport integration including pricing, availability and descriptions as well as live availability for restaurants, hotels and attractions.

Recommendations are also destination specific, such as relevant airport transfers and local tours. The service also provides in-app AI chat with “expert-vetted” recommendations.”

Told you concierges were hot right now!

Their earnings call was awash with green possibly demonstrating that the rollout is working.

Slack Group!

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Most clicked last week was the link to YouGov report that young Americans are abandoning AI Trip Planning.

That’s it – you’ve made it to the end of this edition. I’ll be putting the result of the most clicked post in next week’s edition so you can see where others are focusing. If I’ve missed something, you’ve got a tip or any feedback at all – you can simply reply to this email and it will come straight to me. I’m doing this for You so please don’t be shy to tell me what you think

Glossary

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Artificial intelligence leverages computers and machines to mimic the problem-solving and decision-making capabilities of the human mind. (source IBM)

Generative AI (GAI) is a type of AI powered by machine learning (ML) models that are trained on vast amounts of data and are used to produce new content, such as photos, text, code, images, and 3D renderings. (Source Amazon)

Large Language Model (LLM) is a specialized type of artificial intelligence (AI) that has been trained on vast amounts of text to understand existing content and generate original content.

ChatGPT – Open AI’s LLM; sometimes referred to by its series number GPT3; GPT3.5 or GPT4. These are used by Microsoft & Bing.

Gemini – Google’s suite of LLM.

If wanting to go even deeper into the AI lexicon – check out this handy guide created by Peter Syme for the tours & activity sector