I run my business on AI. I teach it for a living. And I will not use AI-generated photos or videos to market my trips. That's a listening decision, and it only looks like a contradiction. When AI imagery started flooding travel marketing, I asked my clients how it landed. The answer was blunt: it feels like a fraud. You're showing me pictures of a place as you imagine it, not as you'll deliver it.
“I don't want to look like AI. I want it to look like me.”
In luxury, the photo is the promise
A travel photo is a claim, and your guests will hold you to it. This view, this suite, this table. My clients are paying precisely for the gap between marketing and reality to be zero. A generated image, however gorgeous, is a claim about something that never happened. The audience can increasingly tell, and the moment they wonder whether your photos are real, they wonder what else isn't.
Claire's own numbers
The framework, step by step
- 1
Destination and property marketing
real photography only. Shoot your trips like the asset they are: every departure should come home with next year's campaign.
- 2
AI behind the camera
not in it: brainstorming shot lists, drafting captions, editing schedules, all of it, gladly.
- 3
Know YOUR audience
mine reads AI imagery as dishonesty, so the answer is no. If you use any AI-assisted visuals, they'd better be indistinguishable from honest, which in
Claire's own framework from this essay, in the order she teaches it.
Source: Claire B. Soares, from her own travel business and live trainings.
My working rules
- Destination and property marketing: real photography only. Shoot your trips like the asset they are: every departure should come home with next year's campaign.
- AI behind the camera, not in it: brainstorming shot lists, drafting captions, editing schedules, all of it, gladly.
- Know YOUR audience: mine reads AI imagery as dishonesty, so the answer is no. If you use any AI-assisted visuals, they'd better be indistinguishable from honest, which in travel marketing mostly means don't.
The AI-education world won't love this take, and that's fine. Being pro-AI doesn't mean AI everywhere, it means knowing exactly where it creates value and where it burns trust. In luxury travel marketing, it burns trust.
Common Questions
Should travel brands use AI-generated images?
Claire's position is no for destination and property marketing, because a travel photo is a promise about a real place. She uses AI extensively behind the camera instead.
Why do luxury clients react badly to AI imagery?
Because they are paying for the gap between marketing and reality to be zero. Once a client wonders whether your photos are real, they start wondering what else is not.
Where is AI appropriate in travel marketing?
Brainstorming shot lists, drafting captions, planning content calendars, and repurposing one asset into many. AI behind the camera, never inside the frame.
Written By
Claire B. Soares
Claire B. Soares is the founder of Travel AI University, a 6x Condé Nast Traveler Top Travel Specialist, and a Certified AI Consultant with a B.S. in Computer Science. A top 10% enterprise sales executive, she sold $3.4B+ in enterprise software to Google, Microsoft, IBM, Boeing, the federal government, and the DoD, then built $16M+ in luxury travel sales.
About Claire
