Rapid adoption, uneven confidence
Phocuswright describes AI's adoption in travel planning as "travel's fastest behavioral shift in a decade." In November 2025, 58% of travelers used AI somewhere in their lives, while 39% used it to research or plan travel. Millennials accounted for the majority of those users, followed closely by Gen Z.
By September 2026, AI's role extended beyond answering planning questions. Among travelers using the technology, 44% had researched hotels and activities with it, and 32% had trusted it to book accommodations, airfare or other parts of a trip.
A separate measure captures willingness rather than completed bookings. Phocuswright's March 2026 report, "The AI Surge: Travel's Fastest Behavioral Shift in a Decade," found that 44% of travelers would book within an AI platform, while 40% would authorize an AI assistant to arrange flights and hotels for them. Both shares had increased year over year, according to findings summarized in July 2026.
Adoption does not mean unquestioning confidence. Friends and family led the sources travelers trusted for travel information, at 64%, ahead of reviews at 49% and travel advisors at 46%. Only 36% expressed "significant trust" in AI-generated results, placing them in the lowest category alongside advertising and social media. About 40% of AI-using travelers also said the technology failed to supply information suited to their budgets and the kind of trip they wanted.
Different generations, different uses
The share of travelers who had used AI for planning reached 74% among Millennials and 72% among Gen Z, compared with 50% for Gen X and 27% for Baby Boomers. Younger users more often developed their travel choices through an ongoing conversation with an AI tool. Gen X and Baby Boomers tended instead to submit a single question, treating it more like a search engine.
AI-using travelers also tended to be male, higher-income and more highly educated. The male skew contrasts with the industry's long-standing observation that women make the vast majority of travel-planning decisions.
The digital market AI is entering
AI follows a quarter century in which computers and the internet changed both travel research and the businesses selling trips. Travelers gained access to destination information and accounts from visitors, expatriates and residents, while booking increasingly moved beyond physical agencies to online travel agencies and independent advisors.
Expedia, Booking.com and other online travel agencies became major competitors for bookings that advisors had previously contested mainly with one another and with suppliers. U.S. OTA gross bookings exceeded $101 billion in 2023, crossing $100 billion for the first time.
The market still spans several channels. Phocuswright, Northstar Travel Group's travel research arm, put OTAs' share of U.S. gross booking dollars at 20% in 2025. Online bookings made directly with suppliers represented 44%, and offline bookings accounted for 36%.
Social media added another route from discovery to purchase. A 2024 Phocuswright report found that one in five travelers used social media for travel and that 25% of trip planners consulted an influencer. Those rates were higher among Gen Z, with frequent and higher-spending travelers also more inclined to consult influencers.
Among travelers following travel content creators, 41% sought inspiration. The report also found that 67% of travelers placed influencers third in helpfulness for travel advice, behind friends and family and OTAs. Brand partnerships, follower discount codes and in-app booking on platforms such as TikTok have given social media a role in purchasing as well as discovery.
Advisors adopt AI as platforms test new models
Digital competition has not eliminated travel advisors. Websites, lead generation and social media marketing give them ways to reach clients, even as they compete with convenient OTA and supplier-direct booking options.
ASTA figures cited in Luxury Travel Advisor's September 2026 State of the Travel Advisor survey put the U.S. advisor workforce at 310,000 in 2025, compared with 190,000 the previous year. Industry revenue was projected to reach $134 billion in 2026, a 17% increase since 2023. Among surveyed advisors, 79% were already using AI in their businesses, and 57% expected it to increase the value of good advisors rather than replace them.
Suppliers and booking platforms are also incorporating AI through partnerships and their own systems, including chatbots, booking assistants and tools that allow AI agents to make reservations. But their approaches are not uniform.
According to Skift, Expedia Group had abandoned its all-in-one AI concierge Romie by September 2026 after concluding that the end-to-end chatbot model was impractical. It shifted to a "multi-agent architecture," in which specialized AI agents work together, and acquired Berlin-based trip-planning startup Layla to support the change. Layla reportedly had roughly 25 employees.
On October 28, 2026, Expedia Group announced more than 30 new or enhanced features across Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo. These included Activity Planner, a conversational tool for organizing itineraries around activities, restaurants and events; Natural Language Search for Vrbo and Hotels.com; Hotels.com's AI Compare tool; and an AI Voice Agent providing customer support on Vrbo.
Booking Holdings was pursuing five consumer-facing AI efforts in parallel as of September 2026, Skift reported. Three involved planning tools at Priceline, Agoda and Booking.com. The other two were internal startups operating as independent greenfield companies: Lola.com, led by Kayak co-founders Steve Hafner and Paul English, and an unnamed West Coast venture.
Priceline's revamped agentic assistant, Penny, had delivered Booking Holdings' strongest early AI results. Executives reported gains in customer satisfaction, engagement and conversion, although CEO Glenn Fogel stressed that the findings came from a "very small sample."
Environmental costs and the terms of adoption
AI's expansion also raises questions about its environmental footprint, an issue becoming part of the political debate over the technology. A June 3, 2026, report from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health projected that data centers powering AI worldwide would use 945 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2030, compared with an estimated 448 TWh in 2025.
The report projected an associated water footprint equivalent to the basic annual domestic water needs of all 1.3 billion people in Sub-Saharan Africa, along with a land footprint exceeding 14,500 square kilometers.
How tourism should adopt and implement AI was also the theme of World Tourism Day 2026, marked by the UN World Tourism Organization in late September. The question comes as Northstar Travel Group's 25th-anniversary project examines the industry's evolution since 2001 and the changes that could shape its next quarter century.
"Technology must serve humanity," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. "Tourism workers, local communities and emerging destinations must help shape what comes next. This requires investing in digital skills, widening access to technology, and ensuring innovation benefits the people and places that make tourism possible. Let us build a digital future for tourism that is open, inclusive and human – and harness these new tools to drive sustainable development for all."
