Statistics revealed that 53pc of U.S. consumers follow virtual influencers, so it was a matter of time before a tourism board recruited one of their own. Introducing Emma from Gerrnany, fluent in 100 languages, and clearly artificial when you watch her video. But for how long?
Emma—a project developed by the German National Tourism Board, which promotes Germany globally. They reflected on the rising influence of AI in tourism marketing in markets like the U.S. and Asia.
To remain competitive, they decided to create their own AI influencer, Emma, as a pioneering project on a limited budget. According to the German NGTO speaking at ITB Berlin, Emma serves as both an inspiration and an information source, managing her own Instagram channel and functioning as a chatbot on their website.
The strategy focused on providing reliable content through established data sources rather than the entire web.
Launched in October, Emma garnered considerable attention, achieving 650,000 video views in three days and extensive global media coverage. Other tourism businesses have also begun developing AI influencers, signaling a shift in customer engagement towards 24/7 access and diverse language options. Ankatrin emphasizes the importance of continued improvement and adaptation of Emma as they market Germany internationally.
The reaction in Germany was negative but the International clipping was not that negative. Ann Kathrin Harms, German National Tourist Board said Emma was never supposed to be used as marketing destination Germany in Germany for Germans.
Emma was followed by Schwarzwald-Marie from the Black Forest. Joachim Unterberger, Saint Elmo’s Tourismshared: when we began developing a character for the Black Forest, it was not specifically as an influencer. To give you an idea of our progress, we initially designed several character concepts and then selected one to develop consistently.
We faced challenges along the way, particularly because the traditional Black Forest attire, known for its distinctive bollen hood, lacked a suitable base model for accurate representation. We also collaborated with Puma to create custom sneakers specifically for the Black Forest. Ultimately, we successfully established consistency and dressed up our character, Black Forest-Marie.
What impresses me most about Emma is that she represents a significant first step in this space. While we’ve created Schwarzwald-Marie as a follow-up character, our goals differ. We aimed not to build an influencer but to reestablish a character we had prior.
During the development, we discovered new ideas for how to utilize this character. We’ll incorporate her into various campaigns, leveraging existing data, but our broader goal is to create a new type of user interface that fosters dialogue and information exchange for guests. This distinction is essential because we are an agency working with a regional brand, which leads to different informational needs compared to a national tourism organization.
We plan to use Marie for inspiration in campaigns, and later this year, we’ll launch a chatbot incorporating more information. Our overarching goal is to create an innovative front end while also establishing her as a brand ambassador, inspiring people to visit the Black Forest. Let’s explore this more in-depth.
Ann Kathrin Harms, German National Tourist Board shared: Are we replacing influencers? No, that’s not our goal. Emma is meant to complement our marketing efforts, not to substitute for human influencers. We continue to collaborate with traditional influencers and have had great success and positive experiences with them. Regarding the technical aspects of our project, while it may not have been perfect, we felt it was important to launch at the right time.
As Sasha Lobos noted during Tourism Day in Hamburg, this is a pioneering project, and while we may not always move forward perfectly, we are making progress. Our approach is to be brave and experiment, especially given our limited budget as a state-funded initiative. We are still learning through this process; after all, no one has all the answers about AI influencers.
When new initiatives are launched, it’s common for people to criticize, especially those who might feel threatened, like traditional influencers. The sentiment was predominantly negative, but I feel it was unjust. Ultimately, we are all trying to advance and explore new opportunities, and in the future, traditional influencers and AI characters may work together. There’s no reason to harbor negative opinions about this evolution.
The AI technology is evolving and developing so fast that sooner or later you won’t see any difference. it’s up to the corporations and the organizations to mark it as an AI character or AI content. But for the interaction with human beings, especially in a digital way, you won’t feel any difference.”
