Around a decade ago, we introduced the Five Stages of Travel to help destinations understand how travelers move from inspiration to advocacy. That framework still holds true today. But the traveler has changed.
Here are three signals we're watching and what they could mean for destination marketers.
Before someone checks into a hotel, orders their first meal, or takes their first photo, they've already started experiencing your destination.
This week’s signals point to a bigger shift: travel demand is still strong, but the way people discover, evaluate, and act on that demand is getting more fragmented. Major events are driving movement. AI and prediction platforms are reshaping how people make decisions. And cultural moments are becoming travel infrastructure in disguise.
Spend enough time online and it's easy to believe the perfect vacation looks like Positano, Santorini, or Bali. But over the past few weeks, a different story has been showing up in the headlines.
When 90% of marketers use AI, it's tempting to assume we're witnessing the emergence of a massive competitive advantage. But when nearly everyone has access to the same tools, something interesting happens. The advantage shifts.
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At Advance Travel & Tourism, we believe the best partnerships start with understanding the realities destination organizations face every day. That’s one of the many reasons we’re excited to welcome Thomas Salley to the team as our newest Account Executive.
Visibility used to follow a familiar pattern: search, rankings, clicks, visits. That structure is starting to shift. AI doesn’t just retrieve pages. It assembles responses. Instead of presenting a list of links, it’s interpreting information and building answers. That changes how destinations appear—and whether they appear at all. Being present online is no longer the only requirement.
Clarity is starting to play a different role. Not just in messaging—but in visibility. As AI systems interpret and assemble information, they favor content that’s easy to understand and easy to use. That creates a subtle shift. Destinations compete on clarity and speed—who makes sense fastest gets the decision.
For a long time, more content meant more opportunity. More pages. More keywords. More chances to be found. That equation is starting to change. As AI systems interpret and prioritize information, visibility is concentrating around content that clearly aligns with intent. That shifts the role of volume.
There’s a shift happening beneath visibility. It’s not just about where you rank or how often you publish. It’s about whether you’re included at all. As AI systems assemble answers, they don’t surface everything. They select, summarize, and prioritize.
A gap is starting to form between destinations. Not based on budget. Not based on size. Based on how quickly they’re adapting to these changes. AI for Travel 2.0 highlights where that separation is starting to show—and why timing matters.
AI is changing how travelers discover and choose destinations. Not in one place – but across the entire journey. It’s influencing what gets surfaced, how options are compared, and how quickly decisions are made. That doesn’t require starting over. But it does require adjusting how marketing works.
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