01 TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY · AI COMMERCE INDEX

AI Travel Dashboard

AI-referred traffic is up 22×, and models are most willing to name specific brands on travel and lodging questions. AI is already recommending hotels by name.

01Traffic Growth

+2,215%

AI-referred traffic to travel sites, cumulative growth since Oct 2024

Adobe Digital Insights, 2026-05

02YoY Momentum

+539%

YoY AI-referred traffic, 2025 holiday season, second of five sectors

Adobe (published 2026-01) · retail +693%

03Traveler NPS

86%

of travelers say AI improved their trip planning

Adobe consumer survey, n=5,000+, 2026-03

04Citation Density

3.4×

how often ChatGPT cites sources on travel and lodging questions vs. all sectors

Similarweb, 2026-05 · 23% vs. 6.8% across all sectors

05Sector Ranking

Travel is the second-fastest-growing sector

YoY growth in AI-referred traffic, 2025 holiday season · Adobe (published 2026-01)

06Brand Visibility

AI already recommends hotel brands by name

Top 10 domains by GPT-5.2 citation rate · AI Hotel Landscape 2026
(2,500 prompts × 6 models = 19,579 runs across 25 destinations)

Hotel brand sites OTA / aggregator Reference / media

53%

of travelers would accept a travel option AI recommends. AI advice now shapes the decisionExpedia Group, n=5,700+ (US/UK/India), 2026-04

+70%

longer time on page for AI-referred visits than non-AI visits, the highest of three sectors measured — travelers use AI for in-depth planningAdobe, 2026-05

43%

of Gen Z shop with AI, versus 18% of Baby Boomers — the core travel audience is changingIpsos, 15 countries, n=8,500, 2026

May 2025

Visa, Google, OpenAI, Mastercard and Stripe have all launched agentic payments. The infrastructure took shape in 14 monthsCompany announcements

02 PAGE 02 · WHAT TRAVELERS DO WITH AI

From inspiration to budget, AI now shapes every stage of trip planning

07Usage Landscape

How travelers use AI

Adobe (n=5,000+, 2026-03) and Expedia Group (n=5,700+ US/UK/India, 2026-04)

08Page Readability

AI can already read hotel product pages

AI readability score by page type · Adobe Digital Insights, 2026-07

09Generational Shift

The core travel audience is changing

Share of consumers who shop with AI · Ipsos, 15 countries, n=8,500, 2026

10New Front Door NEW

AI search is travel’s new front door, but only 6% of hotels get through it

Skift, “Skift Data + AI Summit 2026: 10 Insights From Travel’s AI Frontlines,” 2026-07-01 (Curacity × Skift)

When AI recommends a hotel,

82%

of the content it cites comes from OTAs and established editorial media — hotels’ own websites rarely make it into AI’s citation pool

Curacity vendor data, published by Skift [E]

Yet of hotels worldwide, only

appear consistently in AI answers — the demand is there; supply has not yet made it into the answers

Curacity vendor data, published by Skift [E]

On the traveler side,

62%

of travelers worldwide are already familiar with AI trip-planning tools. Demand far exceeds the supply AI can see

Skift Research, “State of Travel 2026,” 2026-08-11 [V]

Skift describes AI search as hotels’ new “front door” and a new distribution channel, and notes that it is collapsing marketing, revenue management, distribution and PR into a single discipline.

03 PAGE 03 · HOW FAR AI CAN BOOK

Travelers already plan with AI, but most AI still sends them back to a website to book

11Booking DepthNEW

Of 19 AI travel assistants, only 8 can take payment in the conversation

AltexSoft survey, 3 Nov 2026 · general-purpose AI, leisure planners, travel-brand assistants and corporate travel [V]

Most capabilities are limited to specific products, markets or partners. None of them books fully on its own: travelers still review the itinerary and approve the payment. Corporate travel assistants (SAP Concur × Amex GBT, Egencia, Navan) are the most transactional.

12Official MCPs

16 official travel MCP servers, and no stays server can book in the chat

Share that can complete a booking in the conversation, by category · AltexSoft, Nov 2026 [V]

13Booking Intent

Visitors sent by AI are closer to booking

Share of visitors who reach the hotel booking engine · Amadeus, 2026 [E]

Adobe: AI-referred traffic to US travel sites was up 194% year over year in May 2026 [V]

56%

of US leisure travelers used AI for planning, booking or in-destination help in the past 12 monthsPhocuswright 2026, cited by AltexSoft

11%

of hotel companies have AI agents that can price in real time and complete a booking. The transaction layer is still emptyAven Hospitality × h2c, published by Skift, Jun 2026 [E]

66%

of travelers would not yet trust AI to buy or book for them. Trust comes from transactions that can be tracedExpedia survey, cited by AltexSoft

30%

of travel bookings will be executed by AI agents by 2030 (forecast)IDC, cited by AltexSoft

14Platform DoorsNEW

The AI platforms have opened their travel doors, and the directories are filling up

AltexSoft review of platform directories, Oct–Nov 2026 [V]

In the ChatGPT directory,

360+

travel-related apps, from hotel chains and OTAs to vacation rentals and metasearch (as of 1 Oct 2026)

AltexSoft [V]

Of 140+ Claude travel connectors, only about

carry Anthropic's Verified status. Quality and security review is the new bar

AltexSoft [V]

Launch partners for direct hotel booking in Google AI Mode

Live for US English users since Aug 2026, paid with Google Pay; the hotel or OTA stays merchant of record

AltexSoft [V]

The doors are open, but most hotel-side solutions still stop at search › redirect. Supply that can book, take payment and handle changes inside the conversation is still scarce.