Travel planning hasn’t suddenly turned upside down. It’s just quietly shifted, and the pace of that shift is picking up.
According to ABTA’s Holiday Habits 2025–26 report, the number of UK adults using AI for holiday inspiration has doubled in the past year, rising from 4% to 8%, with nearly 1 in 5 25 to 34 year olds now turning to AI tools for trip ideas. Still early days, but the direction of travel feels fairly obvious.
Where a trip once started with a predictable Google search, it now often begins somewhere else entirely. Someone might ask an AI tool to plan a five-day Highland itinerary. They might scroll TikTok and suddenly decide a hidden beach belongs on their bucket list. Or fall down a Reddit thread comparing tour experiences before they ever reach your website.
For Tour Group Operators, that shift matters. Not because AI is replacing your expertise, but because it’s shaping how people discover you and influencing decisions long before anyone is ready to click book.
The goal isn’t to outsmart AI. It’s simply to understand how visibility is evolving and make sure the expertise you already have is showing up where people are actually looking.
Discoverability is happening in more places than you think
Search no longer lives neatly inside a search engine.
Google’s AI Overviews are summarising information directly in results pages, often answering queries without requiring users to click through to a website. This feeds into a broader trend known as zero click search, where a user’s question is answered on the results page itself.
Recent industry studies suggest that 60% Google searches now end without a click. On mobile, that figure is even higher. In other words, a significant proportion of users are gathering information, forming opinions and shortlisting options without ever visiting a site. That doesn’t mean they’re not influenced. It means influence is happening earlier and sometimes invisibly
At the same time, TikTok and YouTube are playing a much bigger role in travel research than many organisations realise. For younger travellers especially, social platforms are often part inspiration, part search engine. Recent UK data shows that more than 70% of TikTok users discover new destinations on the platform, and over half say they’ve visited or booked somewhere after seeing it featured. Travel inspiration is just as likely to come from a feed as it is from a results page.
Layer onto that the rise of generative AI tools, which are producing structured summaries of destinations, itineraries and tour recommendations. Helpful, yes. But testing by VisitScotland has shown these summaries often lack local nuance, seasonality and responsible tourism context. The places with the most content and strongest authority signals tend to dominate. Smaller, more considered experiences can struggle for visibility
Zero click behaviour combined with AI summaries changes the dynamic. Your brand might be shaping a traveller’s shortlist without ever recording a session in Google Analytics.
That’s where your knowledge becomes important. Lived experience, clearly structured and consistently referenced online, adds depth that automated summaries simply can’t replicate
What this means for you
- Check how your brand appears across AI tools and social platforms, not just Google
- Look at what’s missing in those summaries
- Create content that adds context, clarity and local insight
- Make it easy for your expertise to be surfaced and referenced
Good SEO is still your backbone
If this all sounds like a complete reset, don’t worry, it isn’t!
Strong SEO fundamentals are still doing the heavy lifting. Clear site structure, intent led keyword research, technically sound pages and authoritative backlinks all remain essential. In many cases, AI systems are pulling from well-structured SEO content in the first place
As Craig Edwardson, our Lead Digital Consultant, often says
“The core principles haven’t changed. Search engines and AI systems still rely on clarity, structure and authority. If your content is well organised and genuinely useful, you’re already giving yourself the best chance of being surfaced.
This isn’t about throwing everything out. It’s about refining what you already have so it performs in a slightly more complex environment
What this means for you
- Keep investing in keyword research aligned to real traveller questions
- Publish detailed content that answers specific queries
- Structure pages clearly with headings and FAQs
- Keep practical information such as pricing and seasonal availability up to date
The human advantage is only getting stronger
AI is brilliant at summarising information. Context, nuance and local judgement are another story.
It doesn’t instinctively know when a landscape is fragile or when a route needs redirecting during peak season unless someone has explicitly documented that nuance. It often prioritises the most written about landmarks, not necessarily the most appropriate experiences.
Tour Group Operators understand the rhythm of a place. You know when to adapt an itinerary. You understand responsible visitor flow. You bring judgement and sensitivity that structured data alone cannot replicate.
In a world of neat summaries and quick answers, depth and authenticity start to stand out.
Video is where your expertise becomes visible
Short form video has quietly become part of how travellers research and shortlist experiences. For many audiences, TikTok and YouTube are used as research tools as much as entertainment platforms, and UK data consistently shows that video drives stronger engagement than static content.
The reassuring part is that this doesn’t mean assembling a full production crew.
Some of the strongest performing tourism content is filmed on location, often on a phone, with a guide simply talking about what makes the experience special. Authentic tends to win.
As our Senior Marketing Account Manager Eve, puts it:
“You don’t need a production crew to show what makes your experience special. A clear explanation from a guide, filmed on a phone, often performs better because it feels real. If you’ve been running tours for twenty years, that experience is your content.
We’re seeing this work well across the sector. Rabbie’s Tours regularly showcases guides speaking on location and sharing stories. The Hairy Coo leans into personality led content.
It’s not about glossy production. It’s about visible credibility
What this means for you
- Film guides sharing insights in real settings
- Capture behind the scenes decisions and preparation
- Repurpose longer footage into short clips
- Prioritise authenticity over polish
PR still matters, perhaps more than ever
There’s been a lot of discussion recently about the relationship between PR and AI visibility. It might sound like another shiny marketing buzzword, but the reality is fairly simple.
AI systems tend to lean on sources that are already credible and well referenced. If your brand appears regularly in reputable publications, collaborates with destination organisations or provides expert commentary, those signals start to add up.
The kind of PR that has always built reputation is now quietly doing double duty. It helps people trust you and helps machines notice you.
So yes, PR is still about reputation. But increasingly, it’s also about discoverability, because when someone asks an AI tool where to go or who to book with, the brands already showing up in trusted places tend to be the ones that get mentioned.
What this means for you
- Invest in digital PR and thought leadership
- Collaborate with DMOs and partners
- Strengthen consistent brand mentions across trusted platforms
- Keep an eye on where and how your brand is referenced
The Takeaway
AI driven travel planning is already shaping how travellers shortlist and compare experiences. The operators who will navigate this well aren’t the ones trying to race technology. They’re the ones adapting measurement, strengthening authority and confidently showing up as the experts they already are
Discoverability now extends beyond clicks. Influence extends beyond rankings and differentiation increasingly comes down to authenticity and credibility
For Tour Group Operators, that isn’t something new to invent. It’s something you’ve been building for years. If you’d like to explore what this shift could mean for your visibility, we’d be very happy to have a chat.
