The news. Discover Puerto Rico, the island's destination marketing organisation, is working with Satisfi Labs on an AI that matches travellers to local businesses. The board's marketing chief told PhocusWire the aim is to understand why someone is asking. "Two people can type 'a beach day' and want completely different things," she said. "Same words, different businesses."
This is a plan, not a live product. About 30% of the island's businesses are in the index so far, and launch on the board's website is expected in the first quarter of next year. The team identified 27 descriptors of what people want from a holiday, grouped into nine motivators, and gives each business one primary and two secondary motivators. It also checks insurance and certifications so that it recommends only qualified businesses. Her example of the problem is her favourite fishing guide, who can only be found if a fishing shop likes you enough to recommend him.
Every desk has met this client
"A beach hotel, not too expensive" is not a brief. It might mean a family that needs a shallow beach, or a couple that wants to be left alone. A good agent asks two more questions before opening any rate sheet, because the words on their own point to the wrong hotel.
Most bookings sit in the long tail
The second part of the story matters as much. In one desk's system record, seven in ten bookings landed outside its hundred most-booked hotels. Most of what people actually book is not what a short list of famous names would suggest, and some of it barely exists online.
An index like this takes people and time, which is why the interesting number here is the 30%. Knowing a place well has always been slow work. Whoever does it holds something a general tool cannot look up.
What does your team know about a destination that exists nowhere online?
Source: PhocusWire, Discover Puerto Rico builds AI platform to connect travelers with local businesses.