Artificial intelligence had its own place on the programme of the CityDNA Summer School in Dijon, particularly during Jonathan Easton’s session on the technology and AI revolution. What interested me more, however, was how often AI appeared elsewhere during the week. It came into discussions about bidding, corporate clients, destination discovery, sustainability, data, PCOs and the future role of convention bureaux. That probably says more about where we are with AI than any individual presentation could. AI is gradually becoming part of the normal operating environment of the business-events industry. We are moving beyond individual AI use Most destination organisations have already experimented with generative AI. Employees use it for writing, summarising documents, translating, researching, developing ideas and preparing presentations. These applications can save considerable time, although they rarely change the organisation itself. The more interesting development is what happen...

I spent this week in Dijon at the 40th City Destinations Alliance Summer School, surrounded by people working across convention bureaus, associations, PCOs, corporate meetings, sustainability, technology and destination development. The programme covered a lot of ground, from bidding and client expectations to inclusion, legacy, AI and the changing role of convention bureaux. Across these discussions, a fairly coherent picture of the business-events industry emerged. Convention bureaus are moving beyond selling destination product. Increasingly, our role is to understand what an organisation wants to achieve, determine whether our destination has something relevant to contribute, bring the right people together locally and demonstrate afterwards what the meeting actually achieved. The right meeting can be more valuable than the biggest meeting For years, much of the business-events discussion has been dominated by delegate numbers, hotel nights and economic impact. Those indicators...

The trend room session on artificial intelligence at CityDNA Helsinki was short by conference standards, but it carried more weight than its format suggested. Organised as the first step in a wider CityDNA conversation that will continue with an online workshop in June and a white paper in the autumn, the panel brought together Joshua Ryan Saha from the University of Edinburgh's Futures Institute, Stefan Kapel from Austria Tourism, and Jonathan, co-founder of Give Me and the network's AI partner. The framing was deliberate. This was not a session about whether AI matters for destination management. That debate is closing. The more precise question raised in the room was what happens when the architecture of discovery itself starts to change, and when the destination website, long the central asset of most DMOs, ceases to be where the first conversation with the traveller takes place. The website is no longer the front door The data presented in the room was not dramatic in i...

The International Conference and General Assembly of City Destinations Alliance, held this year in Helsinki under the theme "The Human Pulse of Place and Purpose," concluded on 22 April with a Board election that brings several new members into the network's governance. Leena Lassila from Helsinki Partners, Marie-Louise Schnurpfeil from Linz Tourismus, and I were elected as Board Members for three-year terms. Gerry Lennon from Visit Belfast was re-elected, and Maya Janssen from Amsterdam & Partners was elected Vice-President for a one-year mandate. The continuing Executive Committee, led by Barbara Jamison-Woods as President, was confirmed in its composition. For me, this is a moment worth pausing on. Joining the Board of CityDNA is an honour, and equally an invitation to contribute more actively to a network I have long respected and learned from. It also arrives at a particularly interesting point in the wider conversation about what European city destinations are ...

The CEO Summit in Newport Beach brought together a consistent message across discussions. The role of destination leadership is expanding as the environment around it becomes more complex and less predictable. This combination is reshaping what the job actually is. The global context: growth with increasing complexity Travel and tourism continue to grow and remain one of the largest economic sectors globally. The scale is significant, both in terms of GDP contribution and employment. Growth, however, is no longer a simple indicator of success. The conditions behind that growth are changing. Geopolitical tensions, rising costs, and shifting travel patterns are all influencing how and where people travel. Long-haul travel is becoming more expensive. Regional dynamics are shifting, with Asia Pacific and the Middle East gaining momentum, while some traditional markets are facing slower recovery in international demand. Domestic travel remains a stabilising force. In many countries it repre...

Day 1 reflections: reputation, trust, and the uncomfortable middle ground Day one of the CityDNA CEO Summit in Barcelona set a clear tone early on.  The opening framing by the CityDNA leadership and hosts in Barcelona made that explicit. Cities are operating in turbulent conditions where tourism is no longer judged only by its economic contribution, but by how it shows up in everyday urban life.  Global turbulence, local consequences The keynote from WTTC reinforced something many of us already sense intuitively: global tourism performance cannot be separated from geopolitics, climate pressure, social licence, and institutional trust. What was particularly relevant from a city perspective was the emphasis on reputation as a form of resilience. Destinations that lose credibility with residents, policymakers, or international partners become fragile very quickly, regardless of demand curves or connectivity statistics. What struck me was how closely this global framing aligned wi...

Today I travelled from London to New York, via Paris and Athens, in about an hour. I did not leave my desk. I spent some time playing with AI-generated images, using ChatGPT’s Create image function and a single reference photo of my own face. I placed “myself” into a handful of familiar city settings and let the system do the rest. I generated several images that might create a sense of travelling. This was partly curiosity, partly play. But it is also very directly connected to my PhD work. My research looks at how rural DMOs can use AI in tourism promotion in ways that are effective, ethical, and grounded in local values. Not to replace real places or experiences, but to understand what these tools actually do, how they feel to audiences, and where the boundaries should be. Using my own face was a deliberate choice. It avoids copyright issues, ensures consent is clear, and keeps the experiment transparent. Every image you see in this post is AI-generated, and every face in those imag...