How can AI help tourism businesses save time, support their teams and improve the guest experience? That question was at the centre of OHTO’s 2026 Annual General Meeting, held virtually on October 7.

The AGM brought together tourism operators and partners for OHTO updates and a practical session, “AI in Action: Real Solutions for Tourism Operators.” During the AGM, AI educator Emily Baillie and Joel Greaves, Founder and CEO of Somewhere Inn, shared practical ways to use AI in tourism, along with lessons from real-world implementation.

The takeaways for working with AI were plentiful: start with a specific need, keep humans in the loop, and check the output. Whether you were in attendance at the AGM or are looking forward to the replay, read on.

Key Highlights from the 2026 AGM

  1. Start with practical, everyday tasks
    AI can support work across several parts of a tourism business:

    - Back office: scheduling, staff training and routine administration
    - Marketing: developing first drafts and campaign ideas
    - Revenue activities: forecasting and campaign analysis
    - Guest experience: building itineraries and answering frequently asked questions

    AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT can help with many of these tasks. As Joel explained in the presentation, the best place to begin is often to choose one repetitive job that takes time or frustrates your team.

    “Pick a task that you hate that's repetitive and ask Claude or ChatGPT how it can do that for you on a regular basis,” said Joel.
    Solving one task can reveal related opportunities and build momentum.

  2. Keep a human in the loop
    It’s true that AI can produce useful work quickly, but it can also sound confident even when it is wrong. Emily emphasized the need to check its outputs carefully. 

    “AI does a great job of sounding very, very convincing and very confident,” Emily explained.

    Emily recommended verifying information before publishing it or acting on it. She suggests asking the AI tool you are using to show its sources, correct errors directly and give clear instructions about what needs to change.

    Keep in mind that privacy matters, too. It’s good practice to avoid entering guest data, medical information or credit card details into free AI tools. If you use a chatbot, it’s important to disclose that to users.

Insiders Tip: Download the Marketing with AI: Humanization Checklist & Ethical Best Practices Handout in the member portal to learn more about practical AI applications, ethical considerations, and strategies for balancing technology with the human connection that builds trust with audiences.

3. Make AI search work for your website 

Canadian tourism data indicates travellers are increasingly turning to AI tools when trip planning. This means using clear, plain-language answers on your website can help those tools understand your business and surface accurate information.

A useful place to start when modifying your website is to develop an FAQ page written in a straightforward question-and-answer format. This can also help address inaccuracies when AI-generated search results misrepresent a business or its offerings.

4. Use AI to give hospitality teams more time with guests   
Joel explained he began exploring AI to tackle two challenges at Somewhere Inn: front-of-house staff were spending too much time on administrative work, and guest information was spread across systems such as the property management system, point of sale, messaging and email.

Joel started by giving Claude a defined role as a “VP of Operations,” then used it to identify ways to reduce administrative work and connect information across systems. That work now supports three areas:

  • Guest experience briefs that bring together current information about in-house guests.
  • Automated financial, marketing and NPS (Net Promoter Score) reporting for the business and its investors.
  • Back-end administration, including bill settlement and cleaning checklists.

The goal is to free staff hired for empathy and hospitality from unnecessary computer-based tasks.

Joel explained that it’s important to ensure your team can focus on hospitality, because that is what they were hired for, and that’s where their strength lies. Joel reported year-over-year improvements in reviews and NPS scores as the team gained more time to do what they did best: to focus on guests.

5. Look at the AI features already in your toolkit   
Some property management and guest messaging systems are adding features such as suggested replies and task automation. These can be a low-friction way to explore AI, especially when staff review suggestions before they are sent or acted on.

At Somewhere Inn, the guiding rule for guest-facing messages is to keep a person involved: AI can draft a reply, and staff can make any needed changes before sending it.

Next Steps: 

1. Help Shape OHTO’s Tourism Priorities. Ontario’s Highlands tourism operators are invited to complete OHTO’s annual Tourism Performance & Sustainability Survey and share it with others in the industry. Your input helps build a clearer picture of tourism across Ontario’s Highlands and supports planning grounded in the experiences of local operators. This year, the survey will also include new county-level sub-regional cuts for DMO partners. 

TAKE THE SURVEY

2. Expand Your Knowledge through our upcoming webinar exploring the latest visitor and tourism industry data for Ontario’s Highlands that can help you with business planning for the next season. Learn more and register here. 

3. Update Your Member Profile through OHTO’s Member Portal to ensure it is accurately listed and ready to appear on ComeWander.ca through the new integration. 

4. Book a Discovery Call to explore marketing and support opportunities with OHTO. 

Board of Directors
OHTO Insider