AI Is Becoming the New Front Door to Inbound Tourism
AI Is Becoming the New Front Door to Inbound Tourism
By Uzaidi Udanis – AI Inbound Tourism Strategist
Imagine a traveller in Germany asking ChatGPT:
“What are the best authentic local experiences in Malaysia?”
Or a family in Australia asking:
“Where can I find a unique cooking class near Penang?”
The question every tourism business should ask is:
Will AI recommend your business?
This is one of the biggest shifts happening in inbound tourism today.
Travellers are no longer relying only on search engines, online travel agencies, or social media. Increasingly, they are asking AI assistants for recommendations, travel ideas, and personalised itineraries.
That means AI visibility is becoming just as important as Google visibility.
From Search Engine Optimisation to AI Optimisation
For many years, tourism businesses focused on SEO to rank on Google.
Today, we also need to think about AI SEO—making your tourism business easy for AI platforms to understand, trust, and recommend.
An AI-ready tourism business is more likely to be discovered because it has:
A professional website with clear information
Well-structured tourism products and local experiences
Up-to-date prices and booking details
High-quality photos and descriptions
Frequently asked questions
Authentic customer reviews
Easy online booking
AI cannot recommend what it cannot understand.
Why This Matters for Inbound Tourism
International travellers often know very little about your destination before they arrive.
When they ask AI for suggestions, the businesses with complete, trustworthy, and accessible information have a much better chance of being recommended.
This creates a tremendous opportunity for travel agencies, tour operators, homestays, community tourism projects, guides, and local experience providers.
The future of inbound tourism is not only about creating great experiences. It is also about making those experiences visible, bookable, and AI-ready.
The Role of an AI Inbound Tourism Strategist
Technology alone does not attract international visitors.
Strategy does.
As an AI Inbound Tourism Strategist, my role is to help tourism businesses prepare for this new era by combining digital strategy, experience design, AI visibility, and global distribution.
Through Your Inbound Matters, we help tourism businesses:
Build AI-ready tourism websites
Create bookable local experiences
Connect with global marketplaces
Improve AI visibility through content and structured information
Develop long-term digital growth strategies
The objective is simple:
Help tourism businesses become visible, bookable, and AI-ready so they can reach more international travellers.
The Future Starts Today
AI is not replacing tourism professionals.
It is changing how travellers discover them.
Businesses that prepare today will be in a stronger position as AI becomes the preferred travel assistant for millions of people worldwide.
The question is no longer whether AI will influence inbound tourism.
The real question is:
When travellers ask AI for the best experiences in your destination, will your business be one of the recommendations?
About the Author
Uzaidi Udanis is an AI Inbound Tourism Strategist and the founder of Your Inbound Matters, an independent platform helping tourism businesses become visible, bookable, and AI-ready through AI, digital transformation, education, and innovation in inbound tourism.