With a billion people now using Artificial Intelligence daily, the way golf resorts operate, market themselves and are discovered by travellers has changed.
European Tour Destinations spoke with Ben Martin, Director at market intelligence firm HKS, and Heribert Rubiano, Sales Manager at Arabella Golf Resort Mallorca, one of its network venues, to explore what that shift looks like on the ground – and what forward-thinking destinations are doing about it.
AI as the ‘invisible operator’
For Ben Martin, the most powerful application of AI for golf resorts is one that guests never see. “What we should be striving towards is automating the predictable to allow us to humanise the exceptional,” he explained.
By identifying and offloading to AI the repetitive operational tasks that consume staff time – managing laundry schedules, processing orders, optimising bookings – resorts are redeploying their most talented staff from behind computer screens to the front lines of guest interaction.
“The goal is not to replace people, but to redeploy them where they add the most value,” continued Martin.”If we’re able to use AI to effectively manage such areas, it frees up staff who may actually be desperately good at communicating with other human beings and nurture that valuable personal communication.”
In an era of digital saturation, where guests arrive already exhausted by screens, video calls and messaging apps, the appetite for genuine human connection is growing. AI, Martin argues, can play a meaningful role in creating the conditions for that connection to happen.
Is SEO dead? The rise of AIO (AI Optimization)
Beyond operations, AI is changing the way travellers search for and select destinations.
Where once a traveller might type “restaurants near me,” they are increasingly asking fully formed, conversational questions: ‘I’d like a restaurant that is by the waterfront. I’ve got a party of 12. I’d like something a bit French, but a bit modern.’ Traditional search engines are not built to answer that kind of query. AI-powered platforms are.
“The old ways of doing Search Engine Optimisation are gone,” said Martin. “Your searchability must now be much more attuned to the world of AI. Nowadays, it’s all about providing the end-user with ultra-bespoke personalisation.”
For golf resorts, this means that how they are understood and categorised by AI is now more important than where they rank on a Google results page. The destinations that invest in clear, structured and high-quality digital content now will be the ones AI platforms serve to prospective guests.
The view from Arabella Golf Resort Mallorca
To understand how these shifts are playing out in practice, European Tour Destinations spoke with Heribert Rubiano, Sales Manager at Arabella Golf Resort Mallorca.
“The idea of AI as an ‘invisible operator’ resonates strongly with how we’re adopting it at Arabella,” said Rubiano.
“It’s becoming part of our operational infrastructure, something that sits in the background and helps everything run more efficiently. If it’s done well, it enhances the guest experience without them even noticing it’s there.”
At Arabella, AI is facilitating multilingual communications, allowing the team to respond quickly and clearly across the many languages spoken by guests. It is also being used to streamline internal reporting, information analysis and documentation.
On the commercial side, the resort is also evolving its approach to content and digital discoverability. “As more users rely on AI-driven platforms to plan their travel and golf experiences, it’s no longer just about ranking well on traditional search engines,” said Rubiano.
“Increasingly, it’s about how your resort is understood and recommended by AI. When someone asks where to play, you want to feature in the answer.”
Yet for all the operational efficiency AI brings, Rubiano is clear on where the real value of a golf resort remains. “AI can’t replace the connection with a guest,” he said. “It’s the small, personal touches – being welcomed at the front door or a starter sharing local insight about the course – that really define an experience. At the end of a trip, those are the moments guests remember, and the reason they come back.”
The opportunity for golf destinations
The message from both expert and operator is consistent: AI works best when it is positioned to amplify, rather than replace, the human experience.
For golf resorts, AI can unlock significant operational gains by handling the predictable and freeing staff to deliver the exceptional. Externally, it demands a new approach to how destinations present themselves digitally – one built for a world where AI is influencing how travellers decide where to go and where to play.
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