What travel marketers should understand about synthetic research
Why does one traveler book while another keeps looking? What puts a destination on a meeting planner’s short list? When does a package feel worth the price, and when does it become another expense to cut?
Website activity, booking patterns, social listening and guest feedback all offer clues. But understanding what drives those decisions—and what to do next—often requires more investigation.
Synthetic research offers another way to explore those questions. It uses artificial intelligence to simulate how different audiences might think, react and make decisions, from leisure travelers and hotel guests to meeting planners and potential investors.
For travel marketers, the appeal is a way to examine potential motivations and barriers before committing to a direction or investing in deeper research. The challenge is knowing how much confidence to place in the responses.
Start with a practical question
Some of the most useful applications involve everyday decisions that rarely receive a dedicated research budget.
A hotel team might explore how guests could interpret a package offer. Does the messaging make the value clear? Do the included amenities matter to the intended audience?
A destination marketer might examine potential barriers to an off-season visit. Is the concern weather, uncertainty about what will be open or a perception that there will not be enough to do?
An attraction might consider how families could respond to a revised ticket package. A group sales team could explore objections a meeting planner might raise about transportation or attendee costs.
These exercises can help surface an overlooked concern or a benefit that needs a clearer explanation, giving teams something specific to investigate or refine.
Make audience research more focused
Before conducting interviews or launching a survey, marketers can use simulated responses to sharpen the questions they want to ask real people.
Consider a resort trying to understand why guests are not returning. The team may initially focus on price. An exploratory exercise could suggest questions about changing family needs, the range of experiences available or the ease of planning another stay.
Those possibilities need validation, but identifying them early can help teams make better use of their research budget.
Look beyond the marketing campaign
The applications extend to the experience itself. A change in check-in procedures, a new transportation option or a revised service policy can influence how people perceive a travel brand. Exploring possible reactions may help teams spot confusion or friction before a change reaches customers.
Destination organizations also need to consider how visitors, residents, hotel partners and local businesses might respond differently to the same tourism initiative.
Developers seeking investment or stakeholder support for a new project face similar questions. How might potential investors, local officials or community partners interpret the proposal? Where is the rationale unclear? What concerns might arise about demand or local benefits?
Exploring those questions can help developers refine their pitch and prepare for stakeholder conversations. It cannot establish investor appetite, demonstrate community support or replace direct engagement.
Know what kind of answer you need
Synthetic responses can help generate hypotheses. They should not be presented as measured awareness, actual customer sentiment or a reliable forecast of bookings and visitation.
Their usefulness depends on how audiences are defined, what information informs the simulation and how critically the output is reviewed. A convincing answer can still reflect a narrow assumption or a stereotype. Asking AI to respond as a “luxury traveler” does not establish that its response represents your luxury travelers.
Travel also has a human complication: circumstances can change the experience in an instant.
A delayed flight turns an easy arrival into a stressful one. Unexpected costs change how a family evaluates value. An employee’s kindness gives a guest a reason to return.
Those moments reinforce why direct conversations, observed behavior and feedback from real people remain essential.
For travel marketers, synthetic research offers a way to challenge assumptions earlier and ask better questions. The judgment comes in knowing when a simulated response is useful—and when the decision requires hearing from the people it will affect.