Day One · 02 December · Leadership programme

Leadership
in the Age
of AI.

An invite-only working day for Chief Executives and senior leadership teams of national, regional and city DMOs, including Chief Marketing Officers and strategy and digital leads.

DateTuesday 02 December 2026
LocationDublin, Ireland
FormatInvite-only · 30 to 40 participants
ConventionHeld under Chatham House Rules
HostFáilte Ireland
About the day

AI is changing what makes a destination chosen. The consumer is forming impressions, trust and shortlists inside systems the DMO does not control, and the cost of the capability that used to separate large and small organisations is collapsing. The leadership question is not whether to engage. It is whether destination leaders are bold enough to rethink what their brand strategy and their marketing organisation are for.

01
Competitive

How AI is changing where and how destinations are chosen, and what that means when competitiveness is decided partly inside systems the destination does not own.

02
Organisational

How AI is collapsing the cost of capability, where competitive advantage now sits as scale and budget matter less, and which marketing activities it makes redundant.

Sessions are structured to work through both in depth, with time for candid peer exchange. The day is hosted by Fáilte Ireland and facilitated by the Digital Tourism Think Tank, taking place during Ireland's EU Council Presidency.

The central provocation

The hardest thing AI asks of a destination leader is the courage to dismantle what no longer works, including parts of your own organisation.

Programme output

The day is designed to constitute the Global Tourism Council for AI Governance and Leadership.

Participants are invited to form a focused leadership coalition representing destination leadership at the national, regional and city level. The Council is intended to issue the Dublin Declaration on AI in Tourism and to establish a Global Tourism Code of Practice on AI.

The Council is convened as a focused leadership coalition, working a layer below established intergovernmental bodies to translate principle into practice at destination level.

Proposed · FDB 2026
Global Tourism Council
for AI Governance
and Leadership.
01Dublin Declaration on AI in Tourism
02Global Tourism Code of Practice on AI
03Active through 2027, reporting on Day Two
Programme
08:30
Networking breakfast
An informal networking breakfast as participants arrive, before the working day begins.
09:30
Opening: the AI decisions that will define 2027
Fáilte Ireland welcomes participants and DTTT sets the context for the year ahead: where AI moved in 2026, which leadership decisions are becoming critical as 2027 approaches, and how the day is structured to move from discussion to documented conclusions.
Caroline Bocquel, CEO · Fáilte Ireland
Nick Hall, CEO · Digital Tourism Think Tank
10:00
Who is setting your organisation's AI direction?
Oliver Csendes brings deep practical expertise in destination AI strategy and the organisational questions it raises. His provocation puts a single challenge to the room: whether destination leaders are actively shaping how AI positions their destination, or whether those terms are being determined by platforms, vendors and the systems already in place.
Provocation
Oliver Csendes · Former CEO, Visit Hungary
11:00
Transparency, disclosure and capability: the leadership questions
What does it mean for a DMO to be transparent about AI in its work? What should disclosure look like, and for whom? How does leadership build the organisational capability to act on these questions? This session explores these questions through the AI Transparency Framework, drawing on practice from DMOs already working through them.
Discussion
Nick Hall, CEO · Digital Tourism Think Tank
11:30
Working sessions
Two concurrent working sessions, each 75 minutes. Participants are pre-assigned by relevance to the session theme. Each session produces a set of documented conclusions that feed directly into the day's published outputs.
Session A
AI readiness and organisational leadership
What AI requires of a destination leadership team, where capability advantage now sits as scale and budget matter less, and which activities a marketing organisation should stop doing.
Session B
AI and destination competitiveness
How AI is reshaping where visitors go and how they choose, and what it means when content and campaigns reach an intermediary before they reach the traveller. This is where competitiveness is now won and lost.
13:00
Business lunch
A working lunch that carries the morning's discussion forward, before the room reconvenes to reflect on what has emerged.
14:30
Technology platform briefing
An intelligence briefing on what the major AI and search platforms are building and observing in travel and destination discovery.
Intelligence briefing
15:15
The European policy landscape
A structured contribution on the regulatory and investment landscape around AI from a European institutional or government perspective.
Policy
15:45
Synthesis and shared conclusions
DTTT facilitates a structured synthesis of the day's work, producing the documented conclusions that form the published outputs.
Policy output
16:30
Winter in Dublin
An introduction to Fáilte Ireland's Winter in Dublin campaign, with a short contribution from Visit Dublin on the role of product and experience development in the city's strategy, followed by time to experience it before the X. Awards.
19:30
X. Awards
Transition to the X. Awards evening. The first AI-Positive Industry Awards.
Before you arrive
The EU AI Act readiness assessment.
Participants complete a fifteen-question readiness assessment before the day. A public-facing companion to Day One.
Who should attend
Chief Executives and senior leaders of national, regional, city and state DMOs who hold a direct mandate for their organisation's direction on AI.
Published outputs

The day produces a set of papers built for destination leaders: a shared position on AI they can take to their own boards and governments, and practical instruments they can apply at home.

Because the sector speaks with one voice, these outputs are also intended to reach policymakers, institutions and technology leaders shaping how AI impacts the global tourism landscape.

Declaration
Dublin Declaration on AI in Tourism
FDB 2026
A shared statement of principle that destination leaders can take to their own boards and governments.
Code of Practice
Global Tourism Code of Practice on AI
FDB 2026
A proposed operating standard for the sector, built on the AI Transparency Framework.
Report
State of Destination AI Report
FDB 2026
A comprehensive synthesis of the day, distributed across the industry.
Briefing
Executive Briefing Summary
FDB 2026
Concise, formal, designed to be read by policy audiences.

The day gives destination leaders a shared position on AI and practical instruments they can apply within their own organisations.

Places on the leadership day are by personal invitation only. To discuss participation, please get in touch.