Artificial intelligence is changing the way people travel.

When AI replaces even the travel guidebook.

It is no coincidence that the United Nations Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) has chosen "The Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence Reshaping Tourism" as the central theme for World Tourism Day 2026.

A prime example is the case of Christophe Thiriet, 57, who manages a hotel chain in France. Instead of consulting travel guides as he used to, he used ChatGPT to plan a 7-day trip to Singapore with his 17-year-old son. Of the 12 attractions and restaurants suggested by the AI, he experienced approximately 80% without prior verification.

This trend isn't limited to individual travelers. According to Amadeus' Travel Trends 2026 survey, approximately 18% of travelers surveyed use AI to plan their trips. 36% use AI to suggest new, unexplored destinations. Over 63% of travelers are willing to spend more on personalized experiences.

On the business side, many large tourism and hotel groups are also proactively integrating AI into their operations. Accor Hotel Group has launched its All Concierge virtual assistant, supporting 11 languages. It plans to expand its services to include flight bookings, car rentals, and experiential activities through its network of 120 partners starting in 2027. Simultaneously, it is testing an AI-powered booking process in collaboration with Google.

Currently, around 400 travel businesses have integrated their applications into ChatGPT, with Booking, Expedia, Evaneos, and Accor being among the pioneering partners. Many businesses are also leveraging AI for tasks such as multilingual marketing, invoicing, customer statistics, room scheduling, and flexible pricing to optimize revenue.

Many risks are involved.

According to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, AI can help small tourism businesses improve service quality and open up new opportunities. However, without clear oversight and guidance, AI could also cause tourists to focus on only a few destinations and large platforms, while many other potential destinations are overlooked. He also warned that as AI-generated answers gradually become a "commercial space," visibility to tourists could be dominated by financial factors, giving an advantage to brands with strong financial resources.

The reality in France clearly illustrates this paradox: approximately 80% of French tourists only visit 20% of the country's territory. When asked general questions, AI tends to suggest the same popular destinations to everyone, inadvertently exacerbating overcrowding at already busy tourist spots, instead of helping to disperse the flow of tourists as some experts had hoped.

More notably, the reliability of information provided by AI is also a major concern. AI sometimes invents non-existent locations, gives incorrect opening hours, suggests illogical routes, or misjudges travel distances. In August, a serious incident occurred when three climbers on Mount Shasta (California, USA) had to be rescued at an altitude of over 4,000 meters after following an AI-generated map, with one person sustaining injuries.

Tourism experts also acknowledge that, despite the many benefits AI offers, humans are unlikely to be completely replaced in this service industry, which highly values ​​personal connection. Erwan Simon, a representative of the consulting firm GenIA, believes the tourism industry is at a major turning point, with AI as a driving force for change.

Meanwhile, Axel Auschitzky, a representative from the travel website Routard, noted that travelers now tend to combine multiple sources of information, rather than relying solely on a single AI tool.

In fact, there are still around 4,500 active travel agencies in France. The head of TUI France stated that many customers, after consulting with AI, still seek direct advice from agency staff for more in-depth support. Some experts also expressed concern that over-reliance on AI could diminish the enjoyment of the process of researching and preparing for a trip – an essential part of the experience for many travel enthusiasts.

Furthermore, AI is not a magic wand that can solve all the problems facing the tourism industry, such as fuel costs, climate change, or affordability. Currently, about 40% of French people do not take vacations each year. Operating AI systems themselves consumes significant amounts of electricity and water, adding to the sustainability challenges for an industry already under considerable environmental pressure.