David Kenworthy
VP Product & Innovation, MMGY
Productization, discoverability, AI.
MMGY research across destinations, ski resorts and attractions, 2026.
Everything you'll see today is our own measurement. Run this year. 22 destinations. Every ski region in North America.
One paragraph. For one person.
474 to 742
words in a typical AI answer. One paragraph per destination.
your paragraph
Memory is reputation
mean destination visibility by model, % of answers
Knowledge cutoffs, verified Aug 2026
 GPT-5.6 | 16 Feb 2026 |
| GPT-5.5 | 1 Dec 2025 |
 Claude Sonnet 5 | 31 Jan 2026 |
| Claude Fable 5 | Jan 2026 |
MMGY destination study, 2026.
Salesperson, then investigator
Salesperson
category questions
- Sells you a shortlist
- Hunts "best of" lists, 9 in 10 questions
- Leans on awards and proof
- 97% positive. Can't criticise.
Investigator
named questions
- Checks the specifics
- Goes to official and primary sources
- Cost, conditions, logistics, problems
- 80% positive. Will surface negatives.
MMGY destination study, 2026.
Winter: the ambassador knows your name
98%
of Colorado ski answers name Breckenridge
54%
of winter searches contain "ski"
38%
of winter searches name a specific resort
32%
of resort-owned winter citations are the homepage
The activity is a given. The only question is where.
MMGY winter ski study, Jan 2026, 299 prompts, 5 models. Search vocabulary and page types: MMGY summer ski study, May 2026.
Summer: the ambassador knows the park's name
share of every place the models named, Rocky Mountain region
88% → 48%
answers naming a ski resort, winter to summer
123
mentions. Rocky Mountain National Park, the most-named place in the whole study.
The resorts didn't move. The room got crowded.
MMGY summer ski study, May 2026. 345 prompts, 5 models, 75 answers per region per season.
Breckenridge, specifically
pull-through: of summer answers naming the destination, share also naming the resort
57
summer answers named Breckenridge the town
4
named the resort alongside it
MMGY summer ski study, May 2026. Pull-through figures directional; ordering stable.
The asset is the entity
when the asset is named, how often the resort is named too
A unique, named thing gets discovered.
Generic summer operations do not.
Put your name inside the asset.
MMGY summer ski study, May 2026. Asset analysis, directional.
In summer, the DMO is the distribution channel
11.4% → 3.0%
ski media share of citations, winter to summer. OnTheSnow 76 to 28. SkiResort.info 49 to 0.
colorado.com
The most-cited DMO site in the entire summer study. #10 domain overall, behind nps.gov, TripAdvisor and Wikipedia.
A 2014 blog post about Colorado family summer activities is still being cited in 2026.
MMGY summer ski study, May 2026. 9,900 site references across 3,109 domains.
Swim lanes aren't a metaphor
strongest and weakest lane, same destination, same week
MMGY destination study, 2026.
Briefing the ambassadorTrust.
Taste.
Ownability.
What only you can supply
- Access and logistics
- Honest cost and seasonality
- Live status: openings, closures, conditions
- Facilities data
- Neighbourhood and itinerary knowledge
- A local's point of view
11 of 23
DMOs where accessibility is the #1 factor the models cite. Including Colorado Tourism, Visit Denver and Snowmass.
The model can only weigh what it can find stated.
MMGY destination study, 2026.