The AI moment in meeting planning: How host cities get discovered and why DMOs must adapt

If you’ve talked with a meeting planner lately, you’ve probably heard a familiar theme: “I just used ChatGPT to find that.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now baked into the early stages of how planners work; whether they’re shortlisting destinations, drafting an agenda, or gathering local info, meeting planners are saving time by automating tasks. However, this means the first interaction a planner has with your destination might not be with your destination marketing organization’s (DMO) website.

This blog breaks down how planners are using AI during site selection (based on real examples from training content), what that means for DMO sales teams, and steps you can take to show up where planners are looking.
 

Exploration begins online

Planners are leaning on AI as a concierge and trip designer before they ever reach out to a DMO. Planners report using AI to fill knowledge gaps fast by gathering information like:

• Popular restaurant or brewery recommendations.
• Safety, emergency, or transportation guidance.
• Unique networking activities and group outings.
• Translation or accessibility info.

The better your publicly available content is — like blogs, landing pages, meeting planner guides, FAQs — the more accurate AI outputs become, and the better your destination looks to AI search results.
 

Destination shortlists start with a prompt

“I’m planning a meeting in Michigan. Can you suggest some cities I should consider? I need at least 100k sq. ft., and my attendees love the outdoors and breweries.” In seconds, planners get a curated list of destinations, and it's often their first pass at narrowing the field.

You’re no longer just fighting competitor cities — you’re also fighting the quality of the public information feeding these AI tools. If AI can’t easily find and understand your sellable assets, it can’t recommend you.

This includes details like:

• Up‑to‑date square footage numbers.
• Clear descriptions of unique offerings.
• Easy‑to‑parse details about your convention package.
• Consistent signals about your destination’s strengths (breweries, outdoors, sports, affordability, walkability, etc.).

Essentially, if it matters to planners, make sure it’s crystal clear and easily discoverable online.
 

How DMOs show up and stand out

Strengthen the “signals” AI pulls from

Work closely with your marketing team to ensure that meeting venues and capacities are clearly published, your destination’s unique assets are reflected consistently in web copy, and your meeting planner pages offer multiple angles of useful detail — including event types, use cases, and sample itineraries. All content should be structured clearly and logically, as clarity not only improves the user experience but also helps AI better understand and surface your offerings. The more consistent your story is, the more consistently AI recommends you.
 

Build content that answers natural‑language questions

AI Overviews and LLM search engines prioritize content that mirrors how humans actually ask questions.

Planners use prompts like:

• “Best cities for a 1,000‑person conference with walkable hotels.”
• “Which Midwest destinations have convention centers with 100k sq. ft.?”
• “Cities great for meetings with breweries and outdoor activities.”

In response, DMOs should create FAQ‑style content that answers these prompts directly:

• “What makes [City] a great destination for mid‑sized conferences?”
• “How much meeting space does the [Convention Center] offer?”
• “Is [City] walkable for large conventions?”
• “Which hotels in [City] connect to the convention center?”

A simple starting place is to identify the top 10 questions planners always ask you and turn those into website FAQs.
 

Create “AI‑friendly” overviews of your destination’s strengths

Large language models (LLMs) respond best to clean, easy-to-skim summaries, which you can leverage by clearly describing your meeting space, hotel packages, neighborhood advantages, signature group activities, ease of access, and unique value propositions. When written concisely and structured well, these summaries are often pulled directly into AI-generated responses as authoritative “destination snapshots,” helping position your destination accurately and favorably.

Make sure content is easy for AI to grab and restate by adding the following to your meeting planner pages:

• A “Why Meet in [City]” section.
• A quick‑hit “Meeting Snapshot” box.
• A bulleted list of your top meeting differentiators.

You don’t have to outrun AI, you just have to meet planners where they are searching online. Increasingly, that means meeting them in their prompts. Because if the algorithm finds you, the planner will too.