Opportunities and Challenges of AI-Powered Marketing
Added: 02 Jun 2026
ASVA members recently joined an Industry Insight Webinar with Ruth Berry and Teresa Turner from The Media Shop to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping paid media and digital marketing for visitor attractions and tourism businesses.
The session, Turning Screens into Ticket Sales: The Promise and Perils of AI-Powered Creative on Paid Media Platforms, examined how AI is already influencing audience targeting, campaign optimisation and content creation across major advertising channels, including Meta, TikTok, Google and connected TV.
Drawing on practical examples and industry experience, Ruth and Teresa demonstrated how AI-powered tools can help marketing teams work more efficiently by scaling creative output, testing multiple content variations and delivering more personalised campaigns. For attractions and tourism businesses with limited marketing resources, these tools offer significant opportunities to improve performance while reducing the time required to create and manage campaigns.
The webinar also highlighted how consumer search behaviour is evolving. As users increasingly turn to AI-generated search results, businesses are being encouraged to adapt their content and SEO strategies to remain visible online. Speakers noted that AI-generated search overviews could reduce traditional website click-through rates, making it increasingly important for organisations to develop strong paid and organic search strategies.
Members also heard how advances in AI are helping make television and streaming advertising more accessible to small and medium-sized businesses, opening up new marketing channels that were previously beyond the reach of many visitor attractions.
While the opportunities are significant, Ruth and Teresa stressed the importance of maintaining human oversight. AI can support content creation and campaign delivery, but strategy, storytelling, brand identity and decision-making should remain firmly in human hands. The session emphasised that successful use of AI should be “human-led”, with technology enhancing creativity rather than replacing it.
Key Messages from the Session
- AI is increasingly being used to support audience targeting, campaign optimisation and creative development.
- Smaller marketing teams can use AI tools to create, test and refine content more efficiently.
- Diverse creative content often delivers stronger campaign performance, and AI can help generate multiple versions for testing.
- Search behaviour is becoming more conversational and specific, requiring organisations to adapt their content strategies.
- AI-generated search results may reduce website traffic, increasing the importance of effective SEO and paid search activity.
- AI-powered advertising tools are making TV and streaming campaigns more accessible to visitor attractions and SMEs.
- Human oversight remains essential to protect brand authenticity, maintain quality and guide strategic decisions.
The webinar recording is now available in the ASVA Members Area for those who were unable to attend or would like to revisit the session.