Beyond Search — Rethinking Destination Discoverability

Beyond Search — Rethinking Destination Discoverability MMGY research, presented by David Kenworthy at U.S. Travel's ESTO 2026 in Philadelphia. Based on 1,628 prompts, 17,272 fan-out searches and 24,878 traced citations across 22 destination marketing organisations.

10.6 searches run behind every destination question.

1,115 bot searches for "official site" — the demand for you, by name.

43.5% of fan-out searches check a rival destination you did not pick.

36.3% of answers never read the live web at all — they come from training memory.

Your own site earns 1.4% of citations before a model names you, and 29.1% after.

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