AIR APAC works with the Tourism Promotion Organization for Global Cities (TPO), a network of city governments. We test what AI assistants tell travellers about each participating city. Each city receives its own private report at no cost.
In 2026, AIR APAC is working with a group of TPO member cities in Asia Pacific. The work has three parts.
We asked AI assistants the same general travel questions a visitor might ask, without naming any city in the question. We then recorded whether each city appeared and which sources the answer relied on. The questions and counting rules were fixed before any answers were collected.
Being visible to AI is useful only if it serves the city. We compared what AI assistants say about each city with what the city wants to be known for. In TPO's terms, the aim is tourism that leaves value for residents, the local economy, and the future, not only more visitors.
Participating cities were offered a private session with AIR APAC to review their findings and discuss next steps. Each city decides how to act on its findings.
The research looks at what AI assistants say when a traveller asks a general travel question. It records whether a city appears in the answer and which sources the answer relies on.
A traveller asks an AI assistant for a quiet place to spend a weekend in Asia. The assistant names some cities and gives reasons. The research records whether your city is among them and which web pages the assistant used to describe it.
Each participating city receives its own AI Representation Report. It is written for the city’s own team to read. Read what the report holds.
AIR APAC charges member cities nothing for this work and sells them nothing through it.
Each city’s report goes only to its nominated contact, through the TPO Secretariat. No city sees another city’s results. The 2026 group is complete. Member cities can ask TPO or AIR APAC about taking part in future work. The TPO Secretariat sent each 2026 city its own report on 12 October 2026.
The 2026 research asked questions in English to ChatGPT and Perplexity only, not to Naver, Kakao, Baidu, Doubao or WeChat.
For TPO membership, write to the TPO Secretariat. For the AI visibility work, write to hello@airapac.org.
We do not publish which cities take part. Each city receives only its own results. We never publish city scores or compare named cities in public. A city's finding becomes public only if that city gives separate written consent.
This collaboration provides research and learning for cities. Read our independence rules.
AIR Academy offers a free course for city tourism officers on using AI at the tourism desk. See the Level 1 course.
If your city is a TPO member, contact TPO or AIR APAC to ask about research into how AI assistants describe it to travellers.
TPO coordinates participation and private consultations, so start with your TPO contact. If you cannot reach your TPO contact, write to AIR APAC and include your city and your question.
TPO is a multilateral, member-based intergovernmental organisation for urban tourism. Its members are city governments. It is a UN Tourism affiliate member.
TPO helps its member cities learn from each other and build the skills their tourism teams need. Its current work asks a harder question than how many visitors a city receives. It asks whether tourism makes the city a better place to live.
TPO describes five stages in how cities have thought about tourism. Each stage is defined by the main question it asks.
| Stage | Name | The question it asks |
|---|---|---|
| Tourism 1.0 | More tourism | How many visitors? |
| Tourism 2.0 | Experience | How good was the visit? |
| Tourism 3.0 | Sustainability | How can tourism do less harm? |
| Tourism 4.0 | Intelligence | How can tourism become smarter? |
| Tourism 5.0 | Good tourism | How can tourism make the city better? |
Good tourism, the fifth stage, judges tourism by what it leaves behind.