Opportunity
As the national destination marketing organization for the United States, Brand USA faces an enormous challenge: inspiring international travelers to discover thousands of destinations, attractions and experiences across 50 states and five territories.
Traditional destination websites rely heavily on editorial content, but even the largest content teams can only showcase a fraction of what a country has to offer.
With travelers increasingly turning to AI to explore destinations and plan trips, Brand USA saw an opportunity to rethink the destination website entirely.
What if travelers could discover and plan a trip anywhere in the United States, starting with their own interests and questions rather than navigating a predetermined set of pages?
Key priorities included:
• Expanding discovery beyond iconic destinations to showcase more of the country
• Creating a personalized, conversational experience throughout the website
• Moving travelers seamlessly from inspiration to trip planning
• Turning traveler conversations into actionable intelligence for marketing decisions
• Maintaining editorial accuracy and brand integrity at a national scale
Strategy
Brand USA partnered with Mindtrip and Miles Partnership to reimagine how international travelers discover and explore the United States through AI-powered trip planning.
The partnership began with the launch of the America the Beautiful experience in 2025, and has since expanded across Brand USA's flagship website, VisitTheUSA.com.
Rather than adding a standalone chatbot to an existing website, Brand USA integrated Mindtrip's AI throughout VisitTheUSA.com, reimagining the entire website experience around conversational discovery and planning.
Today, AI is woven into the homepage, interactive national map, trip inspiration and destination content, creating one connected experience. Travelers can begin with a broad interest, discover relevant destinations, explore what's nearby and build personalized itineraries through conversation.
Mindtrip's extensive travel knowledge base also expands discovery beyond the limits of Brand USA's editorial content, helping travelers find smaller towns, lesser-known attractions and local businesses they might otherwise overlook. The experience is available in multiple languages to serve international audiences.
Mindtrip's AI prioritizes Brand USA's editorial content and verified destination information, while helping travelers discover relevant places and experiences across the country. Brand USA maintains editorial control over its content, with ongoing testing and refinement helping ensure recommendations are accurate, relevant and geographically diverse.
Brand USA also uses traveler intelligence drawn from AI conversations to better understand what international visitors are looking for. More than 40 structured data fields capture insights ranging from budgets and trip duration to traveler interests, timing and visa-related questions.
Those conversations also give Brand USA a clearer picture of what international travelers want to know. These insights now inform market-specific content and campaign decisions, making the website a continuous source of traveler intelligence, as well as inspiration and planning.
Impact
In the first five full months following the national website's transition (April–August 2026), Brand USA saw significant adoption and engagement among international travelers.
Key Results:
• 247,212 unique international travelers activated the AI
Travelers are using the experience to explore their options and build personalized itineraries. Along the way, destinations and tourism businesses across the country are appearing in those planning conversations.
• 247,212 unique international travelers activated the AI
• 46,062 travelers actively engaged with AI
• 17,307 personalized itineraries created
• 3.8 million business mentions
• 2 minutes and 50 seconds average engaged session duration.
Travelers are using the experience to explore their options and build personalized itineraries. Along the way, destinations and tourism businesses across the country are appearing in those planning conversations.
"
AI trip planning represents a pivotal shift in how we connect with travelers — meeting them where they are, with the personalized, intuitive support they now expect. We are thrilled to partner with Mindtrip and bring this capability to the masses in ways that showcase the rich diversity of U.S. destinations, making them more accessible, more inspiring, and more aligned with how people actually plan their journeys today.
Janette Roush
Senior Vice President, Innovation & Chief AI Officer, Brand USA
Beyond engagement, Brand USA gained a new source of traveler intelligence. Alongside seeing which pages travelers visit, the team can now understand the questions they ask, the places they’re curious about and the needs shaping their plans.
These conversations help Brand USA spot emerging interests, uncover content gaps and shape future marketing decisions.
What This Means
Brand USA's transformation shows how AI can redefine the role of a destination website, expanding it from a source of inspiration into a place for personalized discovery, trip planning and actionable traveler intelligence.
For other destination marketing organizations, this opens up new possibilities: helping travelers discover more of the places they represent, connecting local businesses with potential visitors and understanding what shapes travel decisions.
By integrating AI throughout VisitTheUSA.com, Brand USA has created a model for how destination websites can evolve to better serve both travelers and the places they represent.
Ready to Reimagine Your Destination Website?
Discover how Mindtrip can turn traveler inspiration into personalized plans, meaningful connections with local businesses and actionable traveler intelligence.
