Presented as a revolutionary tool in many regards of practical life management, including planning a trip enabling more personalised accommodation bookings or destination searches, artificial intelligence is already used by a majority of travellers worldwide (73%).

Whether it’s predicting the price of a flight as accurately as possible for an upcoming period - as the Hopper app claims to do - or plotting an itinerary according to your preferences, which is the idea behind the Routeperfect app; recognising a historic monument by scanning it using your smartphone and the Blippar app; or finding a hotel whose beds are perfect for your body shape and sleeping preferences - the world of travel is putting artificial intelligence to work for a variety of purposes.

And the biggest companies are paying close attention to this game-changing technology; for instance, last year Booking launched a travel planner developed using machine learning models. Partly powered by ChatGPT, this tool offers destination and accommodation suggestions.

In the tourism sector, the main use of AI is in personalising travellers’ experiences as soon as they start planning their future getaway. A view shared by 28% of people worldwide, surveyed by eDreams booking platform Odigeo.

Artificial intelligence solutions are sometimes so intrinsic to tourism operators platforms that 50% of travellers don't always notice that a site or app uses AI.

Considered a potential threat to numerous jobs, including in tourism, such as travel agents, AI nevertheless appears to be an asset from the point of view of tourists. No less than 73% of travellers worldwide already use apps or pass through platforms that call on AI to enhance their travel experience.

And while a higher proportion of younger travelers are using it (86%), among those over 65, some 43% already use it - both figures that are certain to grow with time.

 - AFP Relaxnews