Using AI tools for easier social media

Tourism Tech Session recap

If you’ve been quietly wondering whether social media is still worth the effort now that Google and ChatGPT are answering travel questions with AI summaries, you’re not alone. It was one of the first questions raised in our Tourism Tech Session.

The short answer is yes, social media now plays an even more important role than in the past, just in a slightly different way.

While travellers are increasingly getting synthesized answers from AI in Google and ChatGPT, they are still checking social platforms and reviews to see what real people and real businesses look like. Your social media posts and reviews are then serving as your human proof for what the AI search results is saying about it. It is where trust is built, credibility is formed and buying confidence is created for your business.

And that is why staying consistent and authentic on social media matters more than ever in today’s marketing landscape.

Social media’s new role in AI driven discovery

AI search is changing the way travellers find and choose experiences, we’re sure you’ve heard that by now. But where are AI tools getting their information from?

AI tools are now pulling information from multiple sources including Google results, YouTube, reviews, Reddit and social platforms. That means your social content is no longer just feeding Instagram or Facebook. It is feeding the wider digital ecosystem that helps shape what AI tools say about your business.

Fresh, local and authentic content now carries more weight than perfectly polished marketing posts. Real photos, short videos, reviews, local tips and behind the scenes content all help signal to AI engines that your business is active, credible and relevant right now.

The key takeaway is simple here: social media posts are no longer just marketing material, they are also part of your search visibility.

But don’t despair about the amount of time you need to spend generating content, because with the advent of AI came a number of new, faster ways of creating quality content. So keep reading below for some of our best suggestions for using AI tools to create social content quickly and painlessly.

Use ChatGPT or Gemini to plan ahead instead of panic posting

One of the biggest pain points raised by tourism operators in our tourism tech session is the same one we hear every week. Social media feels random, time consuming and hard to stay consistent with.

So we demonstrated how ChatGPT can be used as a practical planning tool instead of a content vending machine.

Using Tourism Tribe’s custom GPT, Tourism Marketing Mate, and simple prompts, we showed how operators can generate:

• A basic customer avatar
• A draft unique selling proposition
• Key marketing messages
• Content pillars or themes
• A simple four week social media plan
• Post ideas and caption starters

The important point here is that AI does not replace thinking, it replaces staring at a blank screen.

Used properly to generate a plan and content, ChatGPT can give you structure, momentum and a starting point. From there, you can tweak the tone, add your own stories and shape the content so it actually sounds like you. So check out the Tourism Marketing Mate. Start by telling it a bit about your business and it’ll guide you through the steps of building or updating your marketing foundations and social content.

Why video now beats pretty pictures

Short form video now consistently outperforms still images across most social platforms. The data is clear, people engage more with video. They stop scrolling to watch a video and they remember them better. Also, AI tools increasingly treat video as a key data source for search and discovery.

The good news is that videos posted to social media are not expected to be professional or perfect. On the contrary, people currently seem to prefer the raw, authentic feel of videos with normal looking people fronting the camera, bloopers and all.

Phone footage, simple voiceovers, short clips of your experience, local tips or behind the scenes moments – these types of short videos all perform well because they feel real. So get in front of the camera and hit record. Listen to our Podcast, Untangling Tourism Tech Episode 16: Stop waiting for perfect and hit record for more thoughts and tips.

Turning long videos into short clips with AI

To make creating video content easier and less intimidating, we demonstrated in this tech session how AI tools like CapCut can take a longer video and automatically turn it into multiple short clips.

The workflow looks like this:

• Upload a longer video
• Ask the AI to create short clips
• Auto generate captions
• Tidy up spelling and timing
• Export for reels, shorts or TikTok

This allows you to repurpose one piece of content into several posts instead of constantly starting from scratch. It is a great way to get more value from what you already have.

Using Canva AI to turn reviews into posts

Canva’s AI features can be used to turn reviews into branded social media posts using bulk create.

The process is surprisingly simple:

• Pull your reviews into a table
• Paste them into a Canva Sheet
• Connect the data to a post template
• Auto generate multiple posts
• Schedule them in Canva

This turns reviews into a reliable content pillar that never runs out.

It also gives you consistent branded content that builds trust without having to constantly come up with new ideas. Read our full blog about how to batch create posts in Canva here.

Tools are cheaper than your time

A very real conversation with Tourism Operators emerged around subscriptions, overheads and tool fatigue. But the reality is, these tools aren’t an extra cost on top of your marketing, they are consolidation tools.

When used properly, Canva, ChatGPT and other AI tools can replace or reduce:

• Design software
• Copywriting time
• Content planning time
• Admin time
• External marketing costs

Looked at it this way, the right tools do not add overhead but buy you back time.

What this means for tourism businesses in 2026

AI will not replace your need to create marketing material but it will remove friction and the businesses that will win are not necessarily the most technical, they are the ones who are the most consistent.

Those who use AI to plan better, repurpose smarter and show up more regularly will stay visible, trusted and top of mind as discovery continues shifting toward AI driven search.

So follow along with the blogs and podcasts above see what you can manage in terms of increasing your social media post output and quality while decreasing the time spent on it.

Want to join our next Tourism Tech Session to stay current on all the latest developments in tourism tech? Join our Digital Assistance Plans and you can. Small businesses don’t have to figure it out all alone. Tourism Tribe exists for just this reason so you can free up your time to spend it on what matters most, your customers.

FAQs