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Expedia drops report into AI + content

Expedia this week dropped a major new report into AI + content.

HospitalityNet reported that the key points from the report were:

Video Overwhelmingly Influences Travel Booking Decisions Over Static Images
Travelers See Value in AI-enhanced Content but Human Input is Still Critical
Younger Generations Feel the Most Emotive Towards Travel Content Compared to Older Generations

The report titled “The Science of Wanderlust research, uncovering what makes the perfect travel content to drive bookings in today’s world of AI. The study showcases how travelers feel, react and engage with travel-related content, finding six ingredients that spark the feeling of wanderlust – the emotional spark that drives travel decisions – to help brands inspire, connect and convert travelers.”

Those 6 elements are:

Video reigns supreme
Authenticity builds trust
Clear narratives drive engagement
Optimal pacing matters
AI enhancement, not replacement
Representation resonates

As Videreo is a business engaged in using diverse creator’s authentic video content + AI to drive engagement via a clear narrative and intent data back to our clients from every single campaign – this really resonates.

The report also highlighted that “Fully AI-generated influencers and landscapes sparked negative emotions, and viewers expressed unease, skepticism, and annoyance.”

This theme was picked up on at the Travel Trends AI Summit held this week. In the marketing segment, Liquid Spark’s Julie Thorner said its all about “video, video, video” but also reported that at the ATTA conference down in Chile the week before the broad consensus had been that, at least that part of the adventure travel industry, was going to give a wide berth to fully AI generated images and video due to the not insignificant risk of losing customer trust.

At Videreo we connect brands to vetted creators who have proven the ability to get their followers to take action, so you can both scale your video content and your business growth all in one action.

Contact me to learn how we can make this happen for you.

See the full Expedia report here.

This content is provided by the (interim) newsletter sponsor Videreo.com

Only 1 in 5 travel brands are fully committed to AI (when it comes to marketing)

It was a big week for reports. Another one from London Research dropped this week reported only one in 5 travel brands are using the AI tools to fully optimise their marketing.

"Only one in five travel marketers has fully adopted AI—a gap that represents both a challenge and an unprecedented opportunity," said Christiaan van der Waal, general manager data activation at Supermetrics and CEO at Relay42, which was involved in the study.”

Based on a survey of over 200 senior travel marketers the report “Titled Data and AI – The Twin Forces Shaping the Future of Travel Marketing, the report examines how travel companies—including airlines, hotels, airports, tour operators, and cruise lines—are advancing their marketing capabilities through sophisticated data management and AI adoption.”

The report focuses on those using predictive tools to enrich customer data to gain predictive insights and anticipate customer behaviour.

As someone out selling an AI powered marketing solution to marketers for a long-held problem (in our case, influencer measurement and ROI impact) I’d say we are seeing high enthusiasm for uptake when the solution is basically plug and play without other integration complexity.

My guess would be that there isn’t such simplicity in these data enrichment solutions and potentially the data is ready or easily available – another long held problem….

Marriott says AI adopting is up to 50%

In report drop number three for the week (there must be a big conference around the corner……. WTM says Hi ), Marriott released the 2026 EMEA Ticket to Travel Report, based on a survey of more than 22,000 adults across 11 key markets in the region.

The headline stat coming out of the reporting on the report was that the “proportion of travelers using AI has increased to 50%, up from 41% the previous year and 26% the year before. This surge is particularly pronounced among younger travelers. A striking 71% of individuals aged 18-24 have already used AI for travel planning, while 24% of those aged 25-34 report using AI on a regular basis. Even among older demographics, the adoption of AI is increasing. 29% of individuals aged 55-64 now use AI for organizing their trips, a marked increase from just 18% in the previous year.”

Whilst the AI travel planning businesses might jump on this stat – it could just mean they used ChatGPT once or twice as part of the overall process, which I think is now part of the natural flow of early adopters.

Whilst the use of AI was the headline, don’t sleep on niche passion travel which was what really stood out to me. “68% of travelers now plan their vacations around personal interests such as cultural events, sports, and adventure activities. This trend is particularly evident among Gen Z and Millennials, with more than 80% of Gen Z and 77% of Millennials saying they focus on personal passions when selecting a holiday.”

Once more for the people in the back: 77% & 80%. That’s a lot.

Companies and destinations that wake up to this fastest are going to have outsized outcomes for all their stakeholders. Niches alone are small. Niches combined are practically the whole ball game.

Using the new ChatGPT browser, Atlas

C.A. Clark from Miles Partnership this week posted a video of himself using the ChatGPT browser to complete travel related tasks.

If you haven’t tried the browser yourself, this is a fascinating watch.

As CA said: “Instead of searching for things and then jumping between tabs, I find I’m presenting my problem or objective and expecting Chat to just figure it out, and (mostly!) it does…..I provided some loose requirements for a trip and Atlas went off and did what probably would have taken me days of research.”

This of course leans into the age-old debate of whether travel planning is a chore or part of the pleasure of the travel experience. As the tools get better – we’ll get closer to an answer on this.

GroupNAO drop report around destinations who are building AI strategies

GroupNAO, the organisation that has run the AI Opener training programs for DMO’s in Europe and the USA, have given you, dear reader, early access to their report into whether destinations are building a strategy around their AI usage.

This seems timely given the headline report in last week’s newsletter around the “AI sprawl” phenomena.

The headline result is not a good one for destinations with only 16% of organisations report having an AI strategy in place.

Follow GroupNAO on their LinkedIn as they start communicating more depth into these findings and what you can do about it if you are a destination without a a strategy from November 3rd.

Google begins full rollout of ads into AI overviews

In the marketing panel at the Travel Trends AI Summit, something Ashley Cohen said caught my ear.

Cohen mentioned that ads in AI overviews were now rolling out in Canada after the initial trial in the US. So clearly people are clicking them and brands are happy to pay for them (although if you use performance MAX – you can’t opt out and also probably don’t know where your ad was exactly shown).

Maybe this is OK for overviews because they are basically a summary of a Google search where we are used to fighting our way through ads to find a blue link we like. I presume they are labeled as an ad but haven’t yet to see anyone post and example (I’ve put a call out).

But if ads slip into our intellectual conversations we are having with our friend Gemini – does that just break everything?

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Marketplace Spotlight: Tripian

Jeff Kischuk from Tripian moderated one of the panels at the Travel Trends AI Summit this week.

He told us that AI has “gone past its cool phase” in travel

Travel legend, Terry Jones who was also on the panel said that AI was “smoking hot”.

Jeff talked about his passion for data and in particular proprietary data and how that is critical to making a difference if you want to seamlessly connect the traveller to the very best experiences.

The panels will find their way onto YouTube over time if you weren’t able to join the conference itself.

If you have a B2B business underpinned by AI and looking for people to notice you, you can sign up to the marketplace for peanuts (top right corner, 5 mins, bring your logo).

I’ve priced for bootstrapped startups but also accepting larger companies too.

Trip Advisor integrates with ChatGPT

A couple of weeks after Expedia and Booking were announced as ChatGPT partners inside the ChatGPT interface – Trip Advisor have made a big announcement that they are next!

“The deep integration of ChatGPT will allow travelers to receive tailored suggestions about where to go, where to stay, and what to do, making it far easier to navigate the overwhelming choices available in today’s digital travel space. As the travel industry increasingly turns to AI for deeper personalization, Tripadvisor is positioning itself as a frontrunner by embedding such technology within the popular ChatGPT app.”

Is this another move towards ChatGPT being the new homepage for travel (and everything else)?

Slack Group!

Podcasts and Sponsors

Podcasts now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

New podcasts are now showing up on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for your easy listening pleasure!

This week we caught up with wonderful Claire Robinson in France. What Claire is building is so relevant to so many of the conversations from the past few days because Claire in an uber planner who fills spreadsheets with intricate detail around her own travels. For her this is what she needs to be satisfied that her planning process has been complete. As a scientist by background – she is building the tools to make this intense level of detail easier for others through building her own data sets with real humans in the field.

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Most clicked last week was the link to Sabre’s report on Chat as the new Influencer.

That’s it – you’ve made it to the end of this edition. I’ll be putting the result of the most clicked post in next week’s edition so you can see where others are focusing. If I’ve missed something, you’ve got a tip or any feedback at all – you can simply reply to this email and it will come straight to me. I’m doing this for You so please don’t be shy to tell me what you think

Glossary

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Artificial intelligence leverages computers and machines to mimic the problem-solving and decision-making capabilities of the human mind. (source IBM)

Generative AI (GAI) is a type of AI powered by machine learning (ML) models that are trained on vast amounts of data and are used to produce new content, such as photos, text, code, images, and 3D renderings. (Source Amazon)

Large Language Model (LLM) is a specialized type of artificial intelligence (AI) that has been trained on vast amounts of text to understand existing content and generate original content.

ChatGPT – Open AI’s LLM; sometimes referred to by its series number GPT3; GPT3.5 or GPT4. These are used by Microsoft & Bing.

Gemini – Google’s suite of LLM.

If wanting to go even deeper into the AI lexicon – check out this handy guide created by Peter Syme for the tours & activity sector