What Visitors Are Really Asking AI: Webinar Recording and Edited Transcript

AI For DMO And Travel
Intentful Insights Team
August 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM
20 min read

This piece adapts a webinar created for Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs), led by Marina Petrova, the CEO & Co-Founder of Intentful, on August 26, 2025. The transcript has been edited for clarity while keeping the speaker’s original meaning intact.

Marina Petrova welcomed attendees and introduced the session as a look at thousands of real questions people ask AI on destination websites, paired with practical guidance for DMOs that want to become easier to find and more useful in the AI era.

The session focused on three areas:

• The kinds of things visitors ask AI on destination websites, using a sample of 15,000 real queries.
• A plain-language explanation of how AI locates information and selects what to answer.
• Practical recommendations for making a destination more discoverable and helpful across AI systems.

AI Is Shifting the Way People Look for Information

AI has moved well beyond early-adopter use. It is changing how people engage with content, brands, and places. For DMOs, that shift can feel like a lot to absorb, but it also creates a new opening: destinations can respond to individual visitors personally while still operating at scale.

Built From Applied AI Experience

Intentful’s perspective comes from implementation work rather than abstract theory. The team’s expertise is rooted in building with APIs, crawlers, retrieval systems, embedding pipelines, and the mechanics of how AI searches for, interprets, and returns information. That systems-level experience supports Intentful products including AI-search-driven Assistants and Generative Response Ads, where the AI needs to locate and present brand-aware responses instantly.

AI systems change constantly. For Intentful, adapting to that pace is part of how the company operates. Since 2021, the team has worked directly on AI discoverability, going deep with multiple LLMs and evolving alongside the technology in real time.

Beyond destination organizations, Intentful is working with organizations in travel, performing arts, consumer packaged goods, telecommunications, and agencies, with a growing global presence.

Methodology

The findings in this session are based on 15,000 anonymized questions submitted by real people through Intentful’s technology, including the Intentful AI assistant embedded on DMO websites.

We never collect any personally identifiable information. We only know the question that was asked, but we don't know who asked it.

Some visitor questions in the original webinar appeared exactly as typed, including misspellings, grammar issues, and informal wording, because that reflects the real way people use AI. Other examples were lightly adjusted to remove details that were too sensitive while keeping the underlying intent.

The Broad Pattern: Visitors Ask Almost Anything

The simplest summary is that visitors ask about nearly everything. Their questions range from practical details such as parking, hours, and events to offbeat curiosity, local history, very specific accessibility needs, and highly personal trip-planning scenarios.

For DMOs, the important test is whether a destination website actually contains the information needed to answer these kinds of questions. If it does not, AI cannot retrieve the answer, and visitors cannot get the help they came for.

Examples in the data included questions about whether reservations are needed to enter a park, whether overnight parking is allowed at a beach, who served as mayor in the 1990s, whether dogs are permitted on a trolley, where to go thrift shopping, how much it costs to add an event, ideas for date night, whether horses can be ridden on a beach, where to find a mongolian lobster roll, a grammatical issue in an ad on page 45 of a recent magazine, why traffic on 101 south was stopped, the best hike for someone whose husband recently had a hip replacement, whether a place is haunted, what time fireworks begin, and whether someone can get married in a lighthouse.

Visitors Talk to AI Like a Knowledgeable Local

Questions move across a wide range: parking fees, haunted places, thrift stores, bike races, July 4th drone shows, ADA beach access, event listings, local history, and more.

People increasingly write to AI in the same way they would speak to a helpful local. Over time, the pattern has moved away from short keyword fragments and toward conversational prompts that assume the system can understand context and respond with nuance.

Visitors also treat AI conversationally. They greet it, thank it, test it, joke with it, express frustration, and say goodbye, while still understanding that it is not a human. In the original webinar examples, people used casual hellos, morning greetings, appreciative follow-ups, negative comments, farewells, and even a joke about a computer visiting a doctor because it had a virus.

Every Query Points to an Information Need

The visitor’s intent usually falls into one of three broad information buckets:

• What do I need to know?
• How do I get what I need?
• Where do I find it in this destination?

Question Categories and Examples

Basic and Practical Details

Visitors ask for core operating information and trip logistics. The sample included questions about shuttle hours, whether Grove requires a reservation, what time a farmers market ends, whether public parking is available at beaches, average room cost, restroom availability at the beach, how late stores remain open, handicap friendly accessible activities, which streets are closed for a parade today, beach chair and umbrella rentals, elevation, when fall colors peak, and whether there is a customer service phone number.

Implication: Core logistics need to be easy to find and kept current, including hours, reservations, fees, parking, accessibility, and seasonal timing.

Short, Transactional Requests

Many prompts are direct and action-oriented. Visitors asked about having ordered 3 tix for tomorrow, food-related events, how to sign up, a vendor form for May 4, dinner cruise pricing for 2 people, directions, cost, start time, an address, actual statute numbers, previous ticket pricing for a food and wine festival, a 10 rooms stay for 03/20 - 03/22 with questions about discount and breakfast, an ocean front room from December 15 to17 and its price, reserving lake picnic tables, booth rental cost, applying to sell a product, refunds for ice rink tickets, reserving a table for 6, gift cards for general admission, and buying a 2025 poster of the jazz and blues festival.

Trend: Transactional intent is increasing as people discover that AI assistants can support more than older scripted chatbot interactions.

Human Curiosity

Some questions are not logistical at all; they are driven by curiosity and a desire for context. Visitors asked why chinese camp is a ghost town, why a firework celebration was scheduled the day before 4th of July instead of on 4th of July, where to go gold panning, facts about the lighthouse, recommendations for 2 days along the coast, when fall weather begins, more about ufos, whether swimming is allowed outside a sandy beach area, and whether there are bears.

Implication: Visitors are looking for stories, explanations, and reasons behind things, not only directories and listings.

Detail Checks After an Action

Visitors often follow up after taking an action somewhere else. They asked whether a hotel has free parking, how to get confirmation for tickets purchased on line, shuttle service for MAy 2nd for a group of 60 traveling from one place to another in waves, email reminders when tickets go on sale, whether snorkeling gear must be brought, how to enter a car show, where to use an America the beautiful pass, how to retrieve tickets for a comedy show, why a submitted event has not posted yet, and what time check in is.

Implication: DMOs should expect post-action questions even when the booking, ticketing, or submission happened through another system.

Accessibility and Personal Context

Visitors frequently provide personal details so the AI can tailor recommendations. The data included people asking where to go with a toddler, free or fun options for a girls 21st birthday, the best hike for a husband recovering from hip replacement, a 3/29 day visit for about 8 or 10 people with lunch and a short walk where one person uses a cane and may need shade and a place to rest, restaurants suitable for dairy, soy, or wheat restrictions, what someone who is mobility challenged with low back pain, a cane, and age 74 female can enjoy, whether there is enough to do for 5 days as a solo female over 60, which options are romantic for a honeymoon, pet friendly adventures, and examples of things to do for visitors with physical or sensory challenges.

Implication: Helpful content should include accessible routes, equipment details, terrain difficulty, pet policies, dietary information, and other context that supports individualized planning.

Local Questions From Local People

Not every person using a destination site is a tourist. Residents and local partners also ask questions, including whether they can walk to an event from their neighborhood, where to get forms or confirmations, and how to add a food truck or submit an event.

Implication: A destination website serves visitors, residents, and partners, so the content structure should account for all of those audiences.

Events and Near-Term Plans

Event questions are often time-sensitive. Visitors asked what is happening this weekend, whether there is a 2025 2026 new years eve fireworks display this year because it is a family tradition, who is playing at music in the park on Wednesday in July, what events are scheduled for the last week of March, and whether kids can attend the car show.

Implication: Event information needs to stay fresh, structured, and filterable by date range.

Food and Drink

Food questions are common and often preference-driven. Visitors asked for the best mexican restaurant, the best places to eat for a date night, whether something is vegan friendly, good breakfast spots, and where to find cuban food.

Implication: Listings are not enough. Content should include selection criteria that help both people and AI choose, such as kid-friendly options, outdoor seating, and gluten-free options.

Lodging, Transportation, and Parking

Visitors also ask about where to stay and how to get around. The sample included questions about hotels with meeting space, hotels close to the airport, the best place to stay for a honeymoon, an inexpensive but decent motel in a pretty setting, Rv parking, city parking with an rv, whether a public bus runs from the airport to downtown and how often, whether a parking reservation is needed before hiking this weekend, which streets are closed for a parade, and where to find the parking zone number next to the fort.

Implication: Many visitors expect real-time answers. Destinations should clearly separate general guidance from live or changing information and point people to authoritative sources when needed.

Why This Matters: Trip Planning Is Not Linear

The travel funnel still exists: dream, plan, book, visit. But people do not move through it in a neat order.

Travelers plan in fragments. They jump between topics, pause, return, and ask follow-up questions. Content should be designed so that any page can become the starting point, and each answer should make sense on its own.

How AI Chooses an Answer, in Plain Language

If information has not been published, AI does not have it to retrieve. Some AI systems may guess, while stronger systems may refuse to answer. In either case, content gaps create missed opportunities.

AI responds to accessible facts rather than institutional status. It does not automatically understand that a DMO is the official source unless the content and markup make that clear. Today, AI tends to surface information that appears clear and retrievable.

Retrieval depends on context as well as keywords. Content is split into chunks, converted into vector embeddings, and matched by meaning.

Machines work better with structured, accessible pages. Semantic headings, lists, tables, schema, sitemaps, and robots settings all help content become visible and parseable.

If AI cannot locate the information, it may simply move on. Additional retrieval attempts cost compute, so destinations should not assume there will be another chance.

Two Common Failure Modes When AI Cannot Find an Answer

• Pages that are difficult for AI to read because of weak structure, missing sitemaps, robots issues, or inaccessible content.
• Pages that look beautiful but lack the specific facts visitors need, such as hours, fees, parking, accessibility, and other practical details.

Intentful’s Actionable Recommendations

Intentful’s guidance combines a system-level understanding of how AI ingests and organizes information with a human-level view informed by 15,000 authentic visitor queries.

Balance inspiration with answers. Keep the strong visuals and destination storytelling, but pair them with practical facts.

Include the details AI needs: hours, seasonality, fees, parking, reservations, accessibility, pet-friendly information, dietary notes, equipment, terrain difficulty, public transit, and links to real-time sources. Update Member pages.

Structure content clearly. Use semantic headings, bullet lists, tables when useful, and relevant schema for events, places, and articles. Keep the sitemap clean and robots.txt configured correctly.

Treat accessibility as a core feature. Accessible pages serve more people and are also easier for AI systems to parse.

Keep near-term information current. Many queries involve today or this weekend, so time-sensitive content needs an internal update process.

Do not bury machine-readable content on hidden pages. Keep it visible to humans, even if it is less prominent in the design, and structure it clearly for machines.

For details that change frequently, such as prices, reduce manual maintenance where possible with API feeds, or provide ranges and direct people to authoritative sources for the latest information.

Closing

AI gives destinations a way to support every visitor with precise, contextual information. Make the website readable by machines, use detailed facts to own the destination’s story, and maintain a regular process for updating time-sensitive content.

About This Article

Intentful Insights shares perspectives on AI, brand strategy, and the movement from speaking at customers to speaking with them.

This article adapts the What Visitors Really Ask AI webinar presented by Marina Petrova, CEO & Co-Founder of Intentful. It covers real visitor questions drawn from 15,000 anonymized queries on DMO websites, how AI retrieval works, and practical recommendations for destination marketers.

Intentful is commercially deployed since 2021, working with organizations in travel and tourism, performing arts, CPG, telecommunications, and agencies globally. Contact: [email protected]