VisitBritain Rides AI Wave in Campaign Featuring Accent Game

VisitBritain is jumping on the artificial intelligence bandwagon.

As part of its multimillion dollar campaign targeting American travelers, the national tourism agency created a game that leverages AI voice technology to test regional English accents as part of its ‘Fake (Br)it Till You Make It’ campaign.

Users are invited to try the various accents, which AI scores, as well as share their scores on social media. VisitBritain believes the content can push test takers from inspiration to booking. Skift highlighted how generative AI — technology that includes the creation of images, audio and video — was poised to give travel marketing a reboot in a 2023 Megatrend.

“In developing this new campaign, we wanted to do something different to cut through with our audience and engage them to keep Britain top-of-mind,” said VisitBritain Executive Vice President Paul Gauger, with the organization looking to encourage international travelers to visit destinations besides London.

“We created bespoke AI speech technology that can judge Americans’ impressions of accents across Great Britain: Geordie, Scouse, Essex, Welsh, and Glaswegian.”

The VisitBritain campaign is also using other contemporary marketing strategies, including influencers.

“A small number of influencers helped us to test the game and recorded themselves. This content was rolled out after the official campaign launch to continue word-of-mouth adoption and social engagement,” Gauger said.

VisitBritain isn’t the only tourism agency experimenting with AI. VisitDenmark recently used deep fake artificial intelligence and AI-generated scripts in an animated video that shows iconic tourist attractions like the Mona Lisa and the Statue of Liberty speaking to travelers. Meanwhile, the Jordan Tourism Board leveraged AI to portray experiences seemingly from another planet but accessible to visitors in Jordan.