Executive summary:
Travellers today are practically spoiled for choice when it comes to potential travel destinations. With nearly the entire world at your fingertips, planning a vacation can be a rather complex process. Which hotel to book? How to get to your destination? What do you do once you get there? AI promises to streamline this process, enabling us to focus on what matters most: enjoying our time off.
- A study by travel tech company Amadeus reveals that 46% of companies consider generative AI a top priority for 2025.
- 35% of Britons would use AI for holiday planning, while 15% have already done so in the past, according to a survey by Kayak.
- Numerous travel companies have released AI-powered assistants that help travellers streamline their trip planning.
- Singapore and the UAE are among the countries trialling passportless immigration clearance.
- Some countries are also experimenting with AI-powered virtual influencers in an attempt to entice visitors to choose them as their next travel destination.
While it may be a while before we let AI fully take over this aspect of our lives as well, it’s clear that its role in the travel industry will continue to grow in the years to come. After all, vacations aren’t just about posting envy-inducing photos on social media. They’re about pressing the reset button on our overwhelmed brains and returning home with fresh perspectives. And if AI can help us maximise that precious time away from our desks, why shouldn’t we let it take the wheel?
There’s no better feeling than closing your laptop on the last day of work before going on vacation. That satisfying click might as well be accompanied by angels singing – it’s the sound of freedom, no matter how temporary. Vacations aren’t just indulgences, though; they’re essential maintenance for our overworked minds and bodies. Like cars needing regular oil changes, humans need to take breaks now and again to function properly. They help us decompress, reconnect with ourselves, and return to work with fresh perspectives and renewed energy. Study after study shows that regular breaks make us happier, healthier, and ironically, more productive when we return.
Nowadays, we’re practically spoiled for choice when it comes to potential travel destinations. Paris or Patagonia? All-inclusive resort or authentic local experience? Adventure or relaxation? The options are endless, which makes the process of planning surprisingly complex. You’ve got to choose a destination, find the perfect accommodation, arrange transportation, plan activities… the list goes on. Nothing screams “first-world problems” quite like having too many paradise options to choose from, right? Fortunately, this is where AI is stepping. AI is transforming how we plan, book, and experience travel, taking away all the guesswork, and enabling us to actually enjoy our hard-earned time away.
“What’s more important, though, in the future is a thing called agentic AI, and that’s an area where the computer is doing the work for you…instead of you having to be typing into the browser or the app all the information and going through it, it’s doing it for you.”
Glenn Fogel, chief executive of Booking.com
Travelling with AI
Not sure where to go for your next vacation? Can’t decide which hotel to book? Having difficulties planning your trip itinerary? Just ask AI for help.
So, how exactly can AI make your next vacation not just easier to plan, but actually more enjoyable? Think about the last time you planned a trip. Hours spent scrolling through destinations, comparing hotel prices, and trying to figure out what to do when you arrive. It’s exhausting work, and it adds needless stress to something supposed to make you relax. Well, AI can streamline every step of the travel planning process. For starters, it can help you narrow down where you actually want to go. By analysing your previous trips, preferences, and other factors, it can suggest destinations that perfectly match your travel needs. What’s more, it can help you uncover hidden gems you might never have discovered on your own – a perfect beach that isn’t in any guidebooks or a neighbourhood restaurant locals actually frequent – instead of suggesting obvious tourist hotspots everyone knows about.
Once you’ve settled on where to go, AI can sift through thousands of accommodation options in seconds to find the perfect place that matches both your tastes and your budget. Whether you’re looking for a family-friendly resort with all the bells and whistles, or a boutique hotel in the heart of the old town, these tools can narrow down options faster than you could ever manage manually. AI can also plan your entire trip itinerary for you, complete with sights to see and activities tailored to your interests. It can even optimise your schedule based on factors like opening hours, travel time between attractions, and predicted crowd levels. All you’d have to do is show up and enjoy yourself.
Streamlining the travel experience
Of course, it’s not just travellers who reap the benefits – so do travel companies. Beyond simply optimising their internal processes, AI enables travel companies to enhance their customers’ experiences in ways that simply weren’t possible before. They can anticipate their needs even before they’re expressed, proactively address potential disruptions, and even customise their experiences on the fly. And it appears that travel companies are well aware of the benefits AI can bring, with 46% considering generative AI their top priority for 2025, according to a study published by travel tech company Amadeus. Furthermore, 51% of travel leaders say that generative AI already has a significant presence in the travel industry, while 41% of travel companies say that they have the budget and resources in place to implement generative AI.
When discussing the most common use cases for generative AI within the travel sector, digital assistance for travellers during booking led the way at 53%, with recommendations for activities or venues in second place at 48%. Other notable responses include content generation at 47%, helping staff to better serve customers with 45%, and collecting and condensing post-travel feedback with 45%. Travellers themselves also seem to be open to the idea of using AI to streamline travel planning. According to a new survey by travel search tool Kayak, 35% of Britons would use AI for holiday planning, and 15% have already done so. When asked to reveal how they used AI, 42% said they used it to choose destinations, while a similar percentage said they used it to book flights. Another 30% of respondents said they used AI to find accommodation.
But while the use cases outlined above can undoubtedly help travellers find what they are looking for faster, they may only scratch the surface of AI’s true potential. “What’s more important, though, in the future is a thing called agentic AI, and that’s an area where the computer is doing the work for you,” explains Glenn Fogel, chief executive of Booking.com. “So instead of you having to be typing into the browser or the app all the information and going through it, it’s doing it for you.” By 2030, AI travel assistants could become so sophisticated that they will be able to anticipate our needs and make holiday decisions without even being prompted.
AI-powered travel planning
AI can make planning a trip a breeze, suggesting possible destinations, finding suitable hotels and flights, and even generating a trip itinerary.
We can already see glimpses of what this future might look like. Expedia Group, one of the world’s leading travel technology companies, announced the launch of its AI-powered travel assistant named Romie. Part travel agent, part concierge, and part personal assistant, it’s designed to help travellers manage every step of their trip, from start to finish. You simply add Romie to your group chat, where it will monitor the conversation and offer suggestions that will help you plan the perfect trip. It can help you find the ideal hotel and the most suitable flight, recommend restaurants that serve food you might like, or suggest fun activities to do. Should something unexpected happen at any point during the trip, it will quickly provide alternative suggestions.
In the event of a disruption, Romie will automatically update your itinerary to keep everyone in the group chat informed about where you’re going or what you’re doing next. Over time, as it learns more about your preferences and what you like to do, the AI will be able to provide you with an even more personalised travel experience. “We believe in re-imagining the traveller experience, and then using the latest in AI to bring it to life, and with Romie, we’ve done just that,” says Rathi Murthy, chief technology officer at Expedia Group. “We created an AI assistant with hyper-personalisation in mind so that travellers can choose when they want Romie’s help on their own terms. Romie can assist throughout dreaming, planning and travelling or even when things don’t go as planned, all while getting more intelligent as the traveller interacts.”
Similarly, Chinese online travel platform Fliggy released its own AI assistant designed to help travellers streamline their trip planning. Named AskMe, the AI assistant is powered by multiple intelligent agents, which enables it to understand and process complex travel requests and mimic a human travel consultant’s workflow. When a user enters a query, AskMe automatically searches through Fliggy’s live pricing engine to find flights, hotels, travel routes, attractions, and travel services that match the user’s needs and requirements. It then compiles all of this information into a personalised travel itinerary accompanied by rich visual elements like images or interactive maps. If any part of the itinerary is not to the user’s liking, they can adjust the parameters in real time with a single click of the button, at which point the AI assistant will instantly regenerate the entire itinerary.
Reimagining the airport experience
Airports are nobody’s idea of a good time. Could AI help transform these chaotic spaces into something more manageable and maybe – dare we say it – even pleasant?
From the moment you start planning your trip to the second you finally arrive at your destination, the airport experience remains one of the biggest headaches for most travellers. What makes airports particularly frustrating is the combination of high stress and low control. You’re often rushing to make tight connections while navigating unfamiliar spaces, all while carrying luggage and possibly trying to corral your travel companions like a herd of cats. The worst part is that most of these pain points seem entirely unnecessary in our otherwise digitally streamlined world. Fortunately, that may be about to change thanks to AI.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialised agency of the United Nations responsible for the guidelines governing civil aviation worldwide, recently announced plans to replace traditional airline check-ins and boarding passes with a new digital travel credential (DTC). Expected to be rolled out globally within the next three years, the DTC will enable travellers to check in at the airport using facial recognition technology, effectively eliminating the need for physical ID documents and credentials. Travellers first need to download a “journey pass” onto their phones, containing all of their relevant flight and personal information, including a digital version of their passport. The next time they walk into an airport, a facial recognition system will automatically verify their identity and inform the carrier of their arrival, taking one extra bit of hassle out of the travel experience.
Finland has been testing the DTC for over a year now through a pilot programme, and it was met with near-unanimous approval from participating travellers. Singapore has implemented a similar system at Changi Airport in September 2024. Currently available only to Singapore residents, it enables travellers to clear immigration by simply scanning their face at the automated lane, rather than having to present their passport. The entire process now takes just 10 seconds on average, according to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA). As for foreign travellers, they can only use the system when leaving the country. However, Singapore’s immigration officials expect passportless clearance to be made available to almost everyone by early 2026.
Your face is your passport
Earlier this year, Dubai International Airport rolled out a new passport control initiative called Unlimited Smart Travel, which goes one step further by enabling select travellers to complete the immigration procedure without having to stop for identity verification at all. Available only to departing passengers using the First and Business Class lounges for the time being, the new system relies on multiple cameras strategically positioned around the lounge areas to automatically identify individuals as they move through the space, enabling them to complete the immigration procedure by simply walking through a Smart Tunnel equipped with biometric recognition system. Thanks to its ability to recognise up to 10 people at the same time, the system also enables them to pass through in groups, rather than having to wait their turn, dramatically cutting down on queue times.
Another likely key enabler of the airport of tomorrow is the autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV). China already has taken the lead in this race – back in April, state aviation company Ehang became the first ever to receive a certificate for operating a pilotless aerial vehicle that can carry humans. Fully electric and equipped with 16 propellers, the vehicle can carry two passengers and has a maximum range of 30 kilometres. It can reach speeds of up to 130 kilometres per hour and will initially be used to transport tourists along designated routes in cities like Guangzhou and Hefei. According to He Tianxing, vice president of Ehang, the company’s ‘flying taxi’ service could be available as early as June this year, with other domestic and international locations on the cards in the near future.
What AI can do for tourist destinations
From AI personas that give dead animals a voice to virtual influencers, AI is transforming how people experience tourist destinations.
No article about how AI is shaking up the world of travel would be complete without a look at the destinations themselves. For example, Zoo Atlanta introduced an AI-powered Animal Assistant which uses natural language processing to answer questions about animals present at the zoo and help visitors locate specific exhibits they are interested in. Cambridge University’s Museum of Zoology, on the other hand, is using AI to bring dead animals back to life – in a manner of speaking. In a collaboration with Nature Perspectives, a company that uses AI to “enable meaningful conversations with the natural world”, the museum has equipped several animal exhibits, including a cockroach, a stuffed red panda, a dodo, a platypus, and a whale skeleton, with AI personas and voices that enable them to have “conversations” with visitors.
Now, when a visitor enters the museum, they will be able to ask these exhibits all sorts of questions about their natural habitats and the difficulties they faced while they were alive through their phone. The exhibits can “speak” 20 different languages and, depending on the age of the person asking the questions, can adjust their tone and language accordingly. “Museums are using AI in a lot of different ways, but we think this is the first application where we’re speaking from the object’s point of view,” says Jack Ashby, the museum’s assistant director. “Part of the experiment is to see whether, by giving these animals their own voices, people think differently about them. Can we change the public perception of a cockroach by giving it a voice?”
In an attempt to entice visitors and get them to choose them as their next travel destination, some countries are also turning to virtual influencers. For example, Germany’s tourism board recently launched an AI travel influencer named Emma. Available on Instagram and the German National Tourist Board website, Emma can answer questions in 20 different languages and is designed to offer people advice on sights to see and things to do while in Germany. While the use of virtual influencers makes sense from a business perspective, Emma’s launch was unfortunately met with a lot of criticism from the public. “In a world where you really have to be careful about fake news, fake images, and fake voices, this is the worst possible way to promote digitisation,” says Kirstin Hertel-Dietrich, a tour guide in Würzburg, Germany.
Learnings
So, what’s the big takeaway here? The truth is that we all live for that moment when we can finally take a break from the daily grind and go on that hard-earned vacation. But the irony hasn’t been lost on us that getting to that moment often involves hours of digital drudgery comparing flights, scrolling through hotel reviews, and trying to figure out if that “hidden gem” tourist attraction is truly worth visiting. Thankfully, AI can now help us take some pain out of the whole process.
Whether it’s an AI assistant tagging along in your group chat or facial recognition systems that let you glide through immigration like you own the place, technology is finally addressing the parts of travel that nobody really enjoys. Sure, there’s something profoundly ironic about using more tech to help us escape from our tech-saturated lives. But if it means more time actually enjoying those precious vacation days instead of wasting them on logistics, what’s the harm? After all, vacations aren’t just luxuries – they’re essential maintenance for our overworked brains and bodies. And now, it seems, AI is making sure we can get to that maintenance appointment with minimal fuss.
