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All India Resort Development Association
Industry Awareness Feature
Carla Cupid-Jones joins us from Trinidad and Tobago. Carla has more than 20 years of experience across tourism research, destination marketing, strategic planning, communications and digital transformation. She has worked with governments, tourism organisations, industry stakeholders and businesses to improve competitiveness, strengthen destination positioning and create measurable impact.
Her work sits at the intersection of tourism, technology and strategy, helping clients understand not only how travellers search today, but how destinations can position themselves to be found, trusted and chosen in an increasingly AI-driven world.
The way people discover destinations has fundamentally changed. Travellers no longer rely solely on search engines, brochures or travel agents. Increasingly, they ask AI assistants, social platforms and digital communities where to go, what to do and who to trust.
In this interview with Carla, she explains how she can help destinations and tourism businesses become discoverable in the age of AI through tourism intelligence, digital strategy, storytelling and practical, data-driven solutions.
Over to our fireside chat with Carla Cupid-Jones.
1. The Power of Storytelling
In your view, what makes a tourism story truly memorable and capable of inspiring lasting emotional connections with visitors?
A memorable tourism story makes a place mean something to the traveller.
We sometimes make the mistake of thinking that tourism storytelling is simply about describing what a destination has: beautiful beaches, good food, historic buildings, festivals, hotels and attractions. Those things are important, but a list of assets does not necessarily create an emotional connection.
A strong story answers a very different question: Why should this place matter to me?
That comes through people, culture, history, traditions, food, music, landscapes and the everyday experiences that give a destination its personality. It is the story behind the dish, the person behind the craft, the community behind the festival, or the history behind the building.
For me, the most effective tourism stories have three qualities: they are authentic, distinctive and relatable. They are rooted in what is genuinely special about the destination, but they are told in a way that allows the visitor to see themselves becoming part of the experience.
Ultimately, travellers may forget a list of amenities. They are far more likely to remember how a place made them feel.
2. Data Validates the Shift
How should tourism businesses adapt their strategies in light of this data, especially when traditional marketing often focuses on attractions and amenities?
Attractions and amenities still matter. The shift is that they can no longer be the entire story.
A hotel, for example, should certainly communicate its rooms, facilities, location and services. But increasingly, the opportunity is to connect those features to the experience the traveller wants to have.
Instead of simply saying, "We are located near the market," tell me what I might discover there. Who will I meet? What should I taste? What happens on a Saturday morning that I would miss if I stayed inside the hotel?
This requires tourism businesses to think beyond selling the product and start communicating the experience around the product.
It also means listening carefully to what travellers are searching for and talking about. Data should help us understand the traveller, while storytelling helps us connect with them.
The two should not be treated as opposites. Some of the strongest tourism marketing happens when data tells us what matters to the traveller and storytelling gives us the language and emotion with which to communicate it.
3. AI as a Game-Changer
What practical steps can tourism businesses take to ensure their stories are not only compelling but also discoverable by AI-driven platforms?
This is where tourism storytelling is changing quite significantly.
We are entering an environment in which it is no longer enough for information to simply exist online. It must also be accurate, consistent, structured and understandable.
AI systems, search engines and digital platforms are increasingly intermediaries between tourism businesses and travellers. If those systems cannot confidently understand who you are, where you are, what you offer and what makes you distinctive, you risk becoming invisible during the traveller's decision-making process.
I encourage tourism businesses to start with the fundamentals.
Make sure your website clearly explains your business and experiences. Keep your business information accurate and consistent across your website, search listings, maps, social platforms and relevant travel platforms. Use specific language about your location, experiences, culture and points of difference. Answer the questions travellers actually ask. Develop original content around the experiences you want to be known for. Where appropriate, structure your website information so that search engines and other digital systems can interpret it correctly.
Most importantly, do not allow your story to exist only on social media.
Social media is important, but your digital ecosystem is much larger than Instagram, Facebook or TikTok.
I often describe this as moving from simply telling the story to making the story discoverable, understandable and verifiable.
Because in the age of AI, a wonderful story that cannot be found may as well be a story that was never told.
4. Caribbean Tourism's Opportunity
How can Caribbean tourism sharpen its storytelling to stand out globally, while staying true to its authentic cultural roots?
The Caribbean has an extraordinary storytelling advantage, but I do not think we have fully converted that advantage into digital visibility.
Our destinations are filled with stories: our food, music, carnival traditions, architecture, indigenous heritage, African and Indian influences, festivals, fishing villages, cocoa, rum, cricket, steelpan, folklore and the personalities of our communities.
Yet internationally, Caribbean tourism can still be reduced to a relatively narrow visual vocabulary of sun, sea and sand.
Those are valuable assets, but they do not adequately differentiate one Caribbean destination from another.
Our opportunity is not to manufacture new stories. It is to uncover, document, curate and communicate the stories we already have.
That requires stronger collaboration with communities, historians, cultural practitioners, tourism businesses and storytellers. It also requires us to ensure that what we publish digitally is accurate and representative. Cultural storytelling should not become a marketing caricature of the culture itself.
There is also an important commercial opportunity here. The more clearly we communicate what is distinctive about our communities and experiences, the more reasons we give visitors to explore beyond traditional tourism spaces, stay longer, spend locally and connect with more parts of the tourism ecosystem.
The Caribbean does not suffer from a shortage of stories.
Our challenge is ensuring that those stories are accurately told, digitally visible and connected to experiences that visitors can actually discover and enjoy.
5. The Future Belongs to Discoverable Storytellers
What advice would you give tourism businesses on becoming "discoverable storytellers" in this new landscape where visibility and emotional resonance must go hand in hand?
I would begin with one principle: Be human enough to be felt, but clear enough to be found.
Do not sacrifice authenticity in an attempt to satisfy an algorithm. Equally, do not assume that authenticity alone guarantees visibility.
Know what you want to be known for. Identify the stories that genuinely differentiate your business or destination. Tell those stories consistently across your digital ecosystem, and make sure the factual information supporting them is accurate.
Think about the questions a traveller might ask Google, an AI assistant or another travel platform when they are planning a trip. Would your business appear as a credible answer?
If someone asked, "Where can I experience authentic local food near my hotel?", "What cultural experiences can I do with my family?", or "Where can I hear local music while visiting?", would the digital information available about your business allow a platform to confidently recommend you?
That is the new discoverability challenge.
For years, tourism marketing concentrated heavily on reaching audiences. Increasingly, we also have to think about whether machines can find us, understand us and confidently recommend us to those audiences.
That is why I believe the future belongs to discoverable storytellers.
The winners will not necessarily be the destinations or businesses producing the greatest volume of content. They will be those that combine authentic storytelling, trustworthy information and strong digital foundations so that when travellers are looking for the experiences they offer, they can be discovered and, ultimately, chosen.
The All India Resort Development Association is a self-regulated, independent advisory dedicated to the timeshare and vacation ownership industry. AIRDA’s primary members are resort owners, who benefit from AIRDA’s constructive sharing of ideas and strategies on the running and promotion of timeshare. All members are governed by a common Code of Conduct - AIRDA works closely with member resorts to cut a clean image in the industry and offer fair value to end customers.
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Image Credits: Image-01- Carla-Cupid-Jones. Other images from Pexels: pexels-glenn-langhorst-120487-16170214 * pexels-gryziu-30826591 * pexels-igor-starkov-233202-1117467 * pexels-kenrick-baksh-1757630-5376665 * pexels-heru-vision-289677440-13468261. Images used in this article are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of any specific products, services, or offers from our members or affiliates.
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