AI’s rapidly evolving role as a gatekeeper of information poses the risk of isolating small tour operators and compounding problems with the over-concentration of tourism in a handful of popular African destinations.
Rhino Africa CEO David Ryan told Tourism Update the rise of AI-powered search engines is reshaping how travellers plan and book journeys with a significant and potentially detrimental impact on tourism’s digital marketing ecosystem.
“Traditionally, the journey of booking a safari or African holiday began with inspiration – a photograph of a lion, a honeymoon story from friends or a glossy travel magazine. Curiosity led travellers to Google where they waded through blogs, price comparisons and reviews.”
Ryan said this combination of curiosity and discovery traditionally shaped how marketers operated with industries built around mastering Google’s algorithms, search engine optimisation and online advertising.
“With tools like ChatGPT, travellers no longer search. They prompt. They ask a question and they get a single answer back – structured, confident and instant. The behaviour we once built our entire digital marketing universe around – attention, exploration, persuasion – is quietly evaporating.”
The training of AI systems on vast datasets – favouring scale and volume and often privileging large hotel chains, booking platforms and globally indexed websites – could leave small operators in the dark, according to Ryan.
“If your business, your product, your philosophy has not been captured in the data these models are trained on, then you don’t exist. Not to the machine. And, increasingly, not to the traveller.”
The African context
Ryan cautioned that the AI landscape poses particular risks for Africa’s tourism ecosystem largely comprising small, owner-run lodges, niche operators and conservation-led initiatives with reputations built not through scale but through trust and expertise.
“The machine doesn’t care that your lodge is family-owned, conservation-led or built around a 30-year relationship with the community. It doesn’t know that you supported staff through COVID or that you’ve protected rhino for two decades. It chooses based on what it has been taught,” said Ryan, warning that, in many cases, this data is incomplete, unverified and “dangerously skewed” towards volume over value.
“The guest still comes but through narrower channels. Fewer choices. Less education. Less differentiation. They book what they’re told to book – often unaware that hundreds of better, richer, more meaningful alternatives exist just beyond the machine’s reach.”
He emphasised the intricacies of travel to Africa.
“We are selling journeys that take place in remote regions, across multiple suppliers, often involving nuanced decisions about timing, routing, wildlife patterns, weather, cultural access and community immersion. And we’ve always relied on people – real people – to hold those decisions with care.”
Ryan voiced concern that the exclusion of small businesses from AI-driven discovery systems could have a ripple effect on the economy and conservation.
“Fewer bookings equates to less revenue circulating through rural economies, fewer jobs created in conservation areas, fewer opportunities for community-based tourism and, ultimately, fewer reasons to keep protecting wild spaces.”
How should the industry respond?
Ryan stressed that AI is here to stay so urgent action is needed to incorporate the unique stories of Africa’s tourism sector into the new search model.
He suggested building new digital pipelines created not just to tell stories but to feed into structured, machine-readable data.
“The rules have changed and so must our infrastructure. We can no longer afford to rely solely on SEO, social media and traditional content marketing to get our products in front of travellers.”
He suggested the syndication of African content into AI models, and the formation of partnerships with developers and global platforms.
“This ensures that we are shaping – not just reacting to – the datasets that are being trained. If the machine is going to answer on our behalf, then we must be present inside its memory.”
A joint effort
The competitive landscape of the traditional digital marketing model – where businesses, lodges and DMCs fight for SEO rankings and advertising attention – requires a shift to a more collaborative approach, according to Ryan.
“In a single-answer world, competing for space becomes self-defeating. The more we fragment, the less we are seen. We must start thinking as an ecosystem. That means cross-linking products and services, building networked presence across regions and categories, and sharing content, data and expertise in service of the whole as part of a unified value chain.”
While Africa’s safari industry has perfected the art of striking and emotionally evocative campaigns, Ryan pointed out that this is purposeless if it isn’t visible.
“We now need to design for discoverability. That means understanding how AI summarises, cites, recommends and prioritises. It means creating content that can be referenced and recombined. And optimising not just for search but for response.”
Ryan called on destination marketing organisations to develop strategies for national visibility.
“This cannot be left to the private sector alone. We need leadership, investment and urgency. Our tourism budgets should no longer be focused exclusively on top-of-funnel awareness. We have awareness. What we lack – critically – is integration into the platforms that matter,” said Ryan, calling for the development of structured content libraries and the formation of partnerships with global AI companies.
