Artificial intelligence could revolutionize your tour business… if you’re willing to let it.

Kelsey Tonner believes believes AI could be the greatest tool ever developed for travel entrepreneurs. As the founder of Guest Focus, he has helped hundreds of tour and experience operators launch and scale successful businesses. And he’s going all in on artificial intelligence as a core operations tool.

Kelsey returns to this episode of the podcast to talk about the power of smart AI implementation. He shares practical tips to help you start — or level up — your travel company’s AI systems. He shares insights into why your current AI use may not be working and shares a free resource for helping you build your travel company’s “AI brain.” Plus, you’ll hear Brian’s thoughts on why you can’t afford to ignore artificial intelligence any longer.

Insights from Kelsey

Kelsey had a lot of great insight about what travel companies can do to better leverage artificial intelligence. Here’s what he had to say about the biggest AI mistake most operators are making:

“We’re not giving it near enough context. You may be just giving it some snippets, but if you take a step back and think of everything that’s in your brain, everything that about your organization, your goals, a lot of that context is pretty relevant to getting the best possible results.”

Plus, he had great perspectives on:
 

    • The most powerful AI tools you’re probably not using
    • How to keep your company data safe when working with AI vendors
    • The actual cost of AI implementation

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Get Kelsey Tonner’s AI Brain Builder Prompt at guestfocus.com/gathergo.  

Key Moments From This Episode

4:43 — Why Kelsey Tonner is going all in on AI

9:14 — The state of AI in travel businesses today

12:32 — Secrets to building AI systems that actually work

18:09 — The most powerful AI feature you’re probably not using

26:29 — Can you trust AI companies with your business data?

31:58 — How much does AI implementation cost?

35:48 — Building an AI brain for your travel business

52:41 — Why you can’t afford to avoid AI any longer

Watch the Full Interview

See the full interview with Kelsey on our YouTube channel.

 

About the Podcast

Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.