For years, my travel planning process looked the same as everyone else’s.
Open Google. Search “best things to do in Edinburgh.” Read a handful of blog posts. Browse Tripadvisor reviews. Compare experiences on Viator and GetYourGuide. Eventually piece together an itinerary.
Recently, I realized I don’t do that anymore.
The first place I go is an LLM.
Not because it has better travel content than Google. It doesn’t.
The difference is that an LLM combines two things Google never could:
- Everything it knows about me.
- Everything it can find about the world.
That turns out to be incredibly powerful.
Personalization changes everything
When I ask for recommendations, I’m no longer asking generic questions. Instead, I ask things like:
“My parents are visiting Berlin. They’re in their late seventies, it’s going to be 37°C, we already have dinner reservations and a boat tour. What should we do during the day?”
Or:
“Plan a four-day trip to Scotland. I like whisky distilleries, great food, boutique hotels, and hiking, but my daughter is thirteen and needs activities she’ll enjoy too.”
No traditional travel website understands all of that context at once. An LLM can.
It can account for my travel style, who I’m traveling with, what I enjoy eating and drinking, the kinds of experiences I typically like, and roughly what I’m comfortable spending. It then combines that context with information from across the web to build recommendations tailored to the actual trip.
That is a fundamentally different experience from typing the same keywords into a search engine.
The travel stack is changing
What’s interesting is that I haven’t stopped using Tripadvisor or Viator. I’ve simply changed when I use them.
Every company still plays an important role. But the company—or system—making the recommendation increasingly owns the customer relationship.
For years, that first touchpoint was Google. Now, at least for me, it’s AI.
Why this matters for travel businesses
If you’re a tour operator, museum, restaurant, attraction, hotel, or local guide, this changes the marketing strategy.
Historically, success meant:
- Rank well in Google.
- Build great Tripadvisor reviews.
- List experiences on Viator and GetYourGuide.
Those things still matter. In fact, they may be more important than ever because LLMs rely on clear information, credible third-party references, and trusted reviews when forming recommendations.
But there is a new question every travel business should be asking:
Because if the recommendation never happens, the traveler may never reach the review page or booking marketplace.
Discoverability is changing
AI discoverability could become as important over the next decade as SEO became over the last two. Travel happens to be one of the first industries where the shift is easy to observe because planning naturally involves multiple preferences, people, constraints, and decisions.
The businesses that win won’t necessarily be the ones with the most polished website. They will be the ones AI systems can understand, trust, and confidently recommend for a specific traveler’s needs.
Because increasingly, travelers aren’t starting with a search.
They’re starting with a conversation.