Curating trust for an AI future: an interview with Janette Roush on the evolving roles of NTOs and DMOs

Purpose This contribution inaugurates the Journal of Tourism Futures’ new practice-oriented section, designed to strengthen dialogue between research and practice. Through an expert interview, Bernadett Papp (Senior Researcher at the European Tourism Futures Institute, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences) and Janette Roush (Senior Vice President of Innovation and Chief AI Officer at Brand USA) explore how AI is transforming destination management and marketing, the evolving roles of NTOs and DMOs and the questions these developments raise for both researchers and practitioners. Design/methodology/approach An expert interview was held on June 12, 2026. Findings Janette highlights a shift from viewing AI as a discrete tool to understanding it as an embedded operating system for work, with NTOs and DMOs increasingly acting as coordinators of trusted information streams, validators of experiences and AI trainers for the wider tourism ecosystem. She also identifies provenance and transparency as key concerns and points to emerging research questions about the value travellers place on the sources of AI-generated recommendations. Originality/value This viewpoint offers researchers an opportunity to engage with the complexities of practice through the reflections of Janette, whose experience invites us to reconsider how AI is reshaping the ways destinations are promoted, managed, governed and experienced.