The State of AI Visibility for Travel in 2026

The travel industry has no shortage of survey data on AI. Surveys tell you what people say they do, which is rarely the same as what they do. So we watched instead.

Over a week, US travelers planned real trips with AI on their own devices while we recorded their screens and listened to them think out loud. Five activities covered the journey end to end: choosing a destination, researching hotels, building a multi-day itinerary, finding day tours, and the handoff to booking. We didn’t ask anyone what they thought of AI. We asked them to plan a trip.

One of the findings: AI pointed 71% of travelers direct to the operator, and 68% said they preferred booking direct anyway. Our 2025 research found the same, but that study only covered Google AI Mode. This year travelers used ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode, and the result held.

We will walk through all eight findings, and for each one what to do first.