Tourism Ireland’s Advice for AI Search: Choose What You Want to Be Famous For

Key Points Tourism Ireland says information it provides answers nearly one in five AI queries about Ireland, a rare published figure in a field where most destinations are still auditing what AI says about them. The agency's research found the share of travelers naming AI as their primary source of travel inspiration doubled in the past year. Mansergh said AI left alone repeats the same recommendations, so Tourism Ireland is feeding it smaller regional experiences and building corroborating mentions across Reddit, YouTube, and Tripadvisor. Summary Tourism Ireland says information it supplies now shapes close to one in five AI-generated answers about Ireland, a figure CEO Alice Mansergh disclosed Thursday at Skift's Transatlantic Summit in Dublin. Most destination marketing organizations are still auditing what tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini say about them, and few have published any measure of their own influence on those answers. Tourism Ireland's own research found the share of travelers naming AI as their primary source of inspiration doubled in the past year, and Mansergh said the agency responded by optimizing all of its digital content so generative AI can read it, then tracking the results. Left alone, she said, AI repeats the same familiar recommendations, so Tourism Ireland is pushing smaller experiences — sheepdog demonstrations in Sligo, traditional boat building on the Aran Islands — to spread visitors and spending around the island. Because the models also pull from Reddit, YouTube, and Tripadvisor, her advice is to choose what you want to be famous for and build what she called "a bit of a surround sound" of other voices repeating it. She also warned against overusing the technology, citing consumer distaste for "AI slop." Skift has contacted Tourism Ireland for more on its methodology.