Every six months, GetYourGuide publishes its Travel Experience Trend Tracker – a report that takes the pulse of the global experiences industry. And Spring 2026’s edition lands with a clear message: AI is no longer a conversation about the future.

It’s already here. Your travellers are using it. Your competitors are testing it. And the operators pulling ahead? They’re building it into how they work every single day.

Here are the five things we think every experience operator needs to take away from this report.

1. Your travellers are discovering experiences through AI and most operators aren’t ready for it

Here’s the shift that should grab your attention: 53% of travelers now use AI tools for destination research, and 33% specifically use it to discover experiences. Meanwhile, 69% used at least one AI tool when planning their most recent trip – rating it more helpful than friends, colleagues, or influencers.

But here’s the nuance. Only 17% actually book through AI. Discovery happens in AI. Conversion still happens on platform.

What that means for you: the opportunity isn’t to compete with AI. It’s to be found by it. If your listings are incomplete, inconsistent, or poorly structured, AI tools won’t surface you – full stop. Well-formatted listings with clear inclusions, accurate location data, strong highlights, and real social proof are what AI systems use to decide what to recommend.

The operators who structure their content for AI discovery now will have a serious head start.

2. The most profitable operators are the most likely to be using AI

This one’s worth sitting with. According to GetYourGuide’s research, profitable operators – those with margins above 20% – are about 25% more likely to be actively using AI compared to non-profitable ones.

It gets more interesting: 50% of profitable operators say AI is “very effective” for their business. Among non-profitable operators? That number drops to 38%.

The report is careful not to draw a simple cause-and-effect here. But the correlation is hard to ignore. The operators most engaged with AI aren’t just experimenting – they’re extracting real value from it: saving time on content, improving their listings, streamlining guest communications, and making faster, smarter decisions.

If you’ve been holding off on AI because it feels risky or too complex, the data suggests the bigger risk is in waiting.

3. AI adoption is accelerating – and operators of every size are getting on board

A year ago, “using AI” often meant one person on the team playing around with ChatGPT. That’s changing fast.

1 in 2 operators are now using or testing AI. And crucially, 64% are using AI more than they were a year ago. Across every operator size – from small independents to large enterprises – adoption is climbing year on year.

The most common use case? Content. 76% of operators are already using AI to write their product listings. Social captions, internal documents, marketing plans, and guest communications are all picking up fast behind it.

This isn’t a tech trend for big players with big budgets. Operators running walking tours, day trips, cooking classes, and food tours are using the same free tools – ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini – to do in minutes what used to take hours. The barrier to starting has never been lower.

4. Content creation is just the start – the real win is making your listings AI-readable

Most operators using AI are starting where the payoff is most obvious: writing and rewriting content faster. And the impact is real – 84% of operators see positive results on product descriptions, 81% on web and blog content, and 74% on SEO.

But the report pushes operators to think beyond speed. The bigger opportunity is what GetYourGuide calls Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) – structuring your listings so that AI tools can actually extract, trust, and recommend your content when a traveler asks an LLM where to go or what to do.

Think of it this way: SEO is about ranking on a results page. AEO is about being the answer an AI gives. That requires clean structure, concise highlights, accurate locations, consistent categories, and scannable FAQs.

Listings that AI can’t read simply won’t be recommended. The operators who treat their content as a data asset – not just marketing copy – are the ones who’ll get found.

5. The operators winning at AI aren’t using better tools. They have a better mindset.

This might be the most important takeaway in the whole report – and the most honest.

44% of operators say they’ve been given inaccurate or misleading information by AI. The most common mistakes? Vague prompts, blind trust in outputs, no human sign-off before content reaches guests, and jumping into AI without knowing what problem they’re actually solving.

The operators getting the most out of AI aren’t just trying more tools. They’re using AI more intentionally – building it into their regular workflows, connecting it across their business, sharing wins and prompts with their team, and always keeping a human in the loop before anything reaches a guest, a listing, or a channel.

The report frames it as a shift: from experimenter (“I’ll try AI when there’s time”) to leader (“AI is part of how we work”). That shift isn’t technical. It’s a decision.

Start with one clear task. Write a better prompt. Check the output. Improve it. Make it a habit.

What this means for operators using Bókun

The findings in this report line up with what we see every day among operators on our platform. The ones growing fastest aren’t necessarily the biggest – they’re the most connected and the most consistent.

That means showing up on every channel where travellers are searching. Keeping listings accurate and complete. Responding to reviews quickly. And using every tool available – including AI – to do more without burning out.

As a GetYourGuide Premium Connectivity Partner, Bókun keeps your availability synced and your products live across the channels that matter. The AI-readable content? That part’s yours to own. But we’ll make sure it gets in front of the right people.

Ready to connect your experiences to more travellers? Try Bókun free – no credit card needed.

 

Source: GetYourGuide Travel Experience Trend Tracker, Spring 2026. Research based on 5,664 operator responses from the Arival Global Operator Landscape 4th Edition, plus GetYourGuide proprietary research (n=505, March 2026).

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