World Tourism Day 2026 arrives as artificial intelligence moves from travel-industry experiment to commercial infrastructure.

This year’s official theme, “Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism,” is timely. AI is already changing how travellers search, compare, plan and increasingly book trips. Google is bringing hotel booking, flight-price tracking and conversational trip planning into AI Mode, while Expedia Group is investing heavily in AI-powered discovery and B2B distribution.

Against that backdrop, B2B travel-tech PR specialist Belvera Partners brought together three executives from different corners of the travel ecosystem: Catt McLeod, Vice President of Elegant Hotels of the World, part of HotelREZ Hotels & Resorts; Ivonne Arriola, Managing Director of Connect by PriceTravel Holding; and Daniel Pino, Co-Founder and CEO of Aloja.

The interesting question was no longer whether AI will affect travel. It was where the value moves when AI starts sitting between the traveller and the supplier.

Discovery is being rewritten

Travel has spent more than two decades shifting from traditional intermediaries toward online platforms and direct digital booking. AI is accelerating that shift again, but this time the interface itself is changing.

“Historically, only professional travel bookers were able to book hotels, travel and tourism experiences,” said McLeod. “Now, end guests and travellers can do that too. That is for me the biggest change.”

READ MORE: AI in Hotel Distribution: How Agentic Hospitality Empowers Direct Bookings

The next step is more significant. Travellers increasingly do not need to search dozens of websites manually. They can describe what they want and let an AI system filter options for them.

Google says search interest in “AI travel assistant” and “AI concierge” grew 350% over the past year. In August, it added hotel booking directly inside AI Mode in Search in the US, alongside flight-price tracking and live inventory from travel partners.

That changes the distribution equation. Being listed somewhere is no longer enough. Hotels, activities, airlines and travel platforms increasingly need their products, pricing and content to be understandable by the systems doing the recommending.

READ MORE: Hotels Risk Losing Bookings in the Age of AI Search

“AI will transform almost everything around travel except the actual experience,” said Pino. “Everything else, how we book, discover and how profitable companies are is just about to change.”

The commercial layer

For Aloja, which works on dynamic pricing for tours and activities, the impact is particularly relevant. Experiences remain one of travel’s more fragmented categories, where inventory, pricing and distribution are often less standardised than hotels or flights.

AI can make that inventory easier to discover, but it can also expose weak pricing, poor content and disconnected systems faster.

“AI is accelerating the pace at which the accessibility of available information is being processed and the way that it is being used to personalize the experience for the customer,”

said Arriola.

READ MORE: Smaller, Shorter, Smarter: The New Rules of Day Tours in Europe and the U.S.

That is already becoming visible among larger travel platforms. Expedia Group is building AI tools to help partners improve content, identify commercial issues and plug inventory into conversational experiences. It has also acquired AI-native trip planner Layla, extending its AI strategy from inspiration through booking and support.

For suppliers, this creates both an opportunity and a warning. AI may reduce friction, but it could also strengthen the platforms with the best data, strongest APIs and deepest inventory relationships.

Trust still decides the booking

The panel also pushed back against the idea that faster AI adoption is automatically better.

“We need governance and the fact is that, at this point, AI has advanced much more than regulations,” said Arriola. “Slowing down AI development would allow us to catch up. AI is great, but it must be regulated, used responsibly and with humans in the loop overseeing the progress it makes.”

The trust gap is already visible. Expedia Group’s 2026 research found that travellers are increasingly comfortable using AI for planning, but 68% still prefer booking with a trusted travel brand rather than an AI chatbot or agent.

READ MORE: How Travelers Worldwide Feel About AI: Key Findings from Booking.com’s Global Report

That matters because travel is full of exceptions. AI can recommend a hotel or activity, but when cancellations, refunds or disruptions appear, travellers still want accountability.

McLeod also pointed to unequal access.

“We need to ensure that we are bringing everybody with us and not leaving behind the less developed regions or focusing on the wrong thing,”

she said.

That aligns with the UN’s World Tourism Day message, which warns that poorly managed AI could funnel demand toward the same places and platforms while leaving smaller businesses and emerging destinations behind.

Conclusion

The strongest takeaway is that travel’s AI shift is becoming a distribution story as much as a technology story.

Google and Expedia are already competing to become interfaces through which travellers discover and transact. Other travel brands are building their own AI layers to protect the customer relationship.

But not every travel company needs another chatbot. For smaller operators, clean inventory, structured content, accurate pricing, reliable APIs and strong direct-booking fundamentals may deliver more value than chasing the latest AI feature.

“Travel discovery and travel booking have already changed and is happening faster than we can digest,” Pino concluded.

The companies most exposed are therefore not necessarily those without sophisticated AI. They are the ones whose products cannot be found, understood, trusted or booked easily by the new systems deciding what travellers see.