Summer's coming. I'm probably not the only one daydreaming about lazy afternoons resting by the beach or out for a stroll in some remote corner of the world. And if you're anything like me, you've already started doing some research… With Google? Maybe not…

Most travellers aren't browsing. They're asking.

When someone types "Where should I stay in Lisbon for a long weekend?" into ChatGPT or Gemini, they're not comparing 47 hotel listings. They're delegating judgment. The decision is forming before they've clicked anything.

The question isn't whether AI will change travel discovery. It already has. The question is whether your brand is part of the answer AI gives, or just the thing it summarises without attribution.

TL;DR: 69% of UAE travellers use AI to book accommodation, and 60% trust AI to plan entire trips. AI referrals convert 24x better than traditional traffic (Airbnb: 0.5% of visits drive 12% of sign-ups). By 2030, 30% of travel bookings will be AI-executed. Travel brands must make their inventory AI-readable through schema markup, real-time APIs, and structured data, or risk becoming invisible at the moment of decision. This isn't about ranking anymore. It's about being recommended.

The Numbers Tell the Story

According to Marriott Bonvoy's 2026 Ticket to Travel Report, 69% of UAE travellers are comfortable using AI platforms to book accommodation. That's not a future trend. That's now.

More revealing: 77% of UAE travellers have already used AI to plan or research holidays. ChatGPT is the preferred tool for 76% of those users, followed by Gemini at 38%.

The UAE is ahead of the curve here. Globally, 60% of UAE travellers trust AI to plan every aspect of their trips, compared to 48% elsewhere.

But trust isn't the real story. Behaviour is.

When AI plans a trip, it doesn't browse Tripadvisor for 20 minutes. It doesn't scroll through five pages of search results. It evaluates, filters, and recommends in seconds. And if your brand isn't structured for AI to understand what you offer, when it's available, and why it's relevant, you won't be part of that conversation.

Airbnb Saw This Coming

Brian Chesky recently shared that AI referrals account for just 0.5% of Airbnb's visits, yet drive 12% of sign-ups.

Read that again. Half a percent of traffic. Twelve percent of conversions.

That's not a rounding error. That's a signal. AI-referred visitors convert at a dramatically higher rate because they're not browsing; they're deciding.

Airbnb's response? They're integrating AI deeper into their product so they stay in control of the experience rather than depending on whoever is doing the recommending. They're not fighting the shift. They're positioning for it.

Most travel brands in the UAE? Still optimising for search engines built for 2015.

What's Actually Changing

This isn't a search story. It's a consumer behaviour one.

The old model: browse, compare, decide.

The new model: ask, trust, book.

Discovery is now delegation

When someone asks an AI for a recommendation on where to stay, they're not looking for options. They're looking for a recommendation. The browsing layer, the comparison layer, the review-reading layer all of it collapses into a single conversational exchange.

IDC predicts that by 2030, 30% of travel bookings will be executed by AI agents. Not influenced by AI. Executed by AI.

That means the first interaction may never involve a human visiting your website. An AI agent will query multiple sources, assess availability and pricing, weigh preferences, and complete the booking autonomously.

Loyalty shifts from platform to AI

Expedia Rewards, Booking Genius, and hotel loyalty programmes, all of these were designed to keep travellers coming back to the platform.

But if travellers become loyal to their AI assistant rather than the OTA, and if that assistant can't access your loyalty data via API, your programme becomes invisible.

The relationship moves upstream. The AI owns it. You're just fulfilment.

What This Means for Your Brand

If your data is incomplete, outdated, or fragmented, you effectively disappear from the agent's decision set.

It's not about ranking anymore. It's about being understood through AI search optimisation.

You need to be AI-readable

AI models don't interpret your brand the way humans do. They parse structured data. They look for:

• Real-time availability and pricing feeds

• Schema markup that describes what you offer, where, and when

• Rich content that explains why you're relevant to a specific traveller

• APIs that allow seamless booking without friction

Without these, you're invisible. Not ranked lower. Invisible.

Personalisation becomes continuous

In an agentic world, personalisation isn't a marketing campaign. It's an operating model.

AI agents continuously interpret intent, context, and constraints. A traveller's preferences, budget sensitivity, loyalty status, dietary needs, and timing constraints all factor into decisions made in seconds.

Brands that rely on static segments or periodic email campaigns will struggle to keep up.

The OTA model is under threat

Online travel agencies built their empires by aggregating options and making it easy to compare. But when a generative engine surfaces only two hotel options, users don't browse dozens of OTA results.

Shorter dwell time gets misread by search algorithms as lower relevance, further reducing OTA visibility. The platforms that once controlled discovery are being bypassed entirely.

What You Can Actually Do About This

This isn't theoretical. Here's what travel brands in the UAE should be doing right now.

1. Make your inventory AI-accessible

Standardise your data. Implement schema markup (Hotel, Flight, LocalBusiness schemas) and maintain real-time availability and pricing feeds. Structured data enables AI models to parse attributes like location, amenities, and cancellation policies.

Open your APIs. Provide secure booking APIs that allow agents to complete reservations end-to-end. Without reliable APIs, AI systems will recommend competitors that offer seamless booking.

Maintain rich content. High-quality images, descriptions, and reviews remain vital. AI models use this content to justify recommendations and summarise highlights for users.

2. Ensure your loyalty programme travels with your guests

If your rewards programme and customer insights can't be accessed via API, they don't exist in an AI-led world.

Make your loyalty data portable. Allow AI agents to redeem benefits, check status, and apply preferences on behalf of travellers.

3. Rethink discoverability

You're no longer competing for a top ranking on a results page. You're competing for inclusion in an AI's shortlist.

That means:

• Your content needs to answer intent, not just target keywords

• Your brand positioning needs to be clear enough for an AI to summarise accurately

• Your differentiation needs to be explicit, not implied

4. Invest in conversational content

AI agents interpret goals, not keywords. Queries sound like "find me a boutique hotel with a rooftop pool near Barcelona beach," not "hotels Barcelona."

Your content should reflect how people actually talk about travel, not how they used to search for it.

The Real Question

Are you part of the answer AI gives, or just the thing it summarises?

Because when a traveller asks ChatGPT where to stay in Dubai, and your brand doesn't come up, it's not a ranking problem. It's an existence problem.

The shift from search to conversation is accelerating. The brands that prepare now, by making their data AI-readable, their loyalty programmes portable, and their positioning unmistakable, will thrive. Learn more about getting mentioned in AI answers.

Those who cling to the old model risk becoming invisible at the exact moment decisions are made.

The impressions are already disappearing. The question is what you're going to do about it.

Need help making your brand visible in AI answers? Work with an AI search optimisation agency in the UAE that understands the travel industry.