AI assistants name a destination when the pages they retrieve describe it clearly and consistently. A 2026 study by Mindtrip, Sabre, Sojern and MMGY Intelligence found that 40% of U.S. travelers have discovered a destination through AI and 29% have changed their travel plans because of an AI recommendation. Destination PR now shapes what those answers say.
How many travelers use AI to choose where to go?
More than half of U.S. travelers have used AI to plan a trip, according to the AI Readiness Report from Mindtrip, a study conducted by MMGY Intelligence for Mindtrip, Sabre and Sojern. The study surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. leisure travelers in April 2026 and found that 54% had used AI to plan travel.
Global Rescue's survey of experienced international travelers points the same way. The share using AI to plan international trips rose from 22% in January 2026 to 36% in a survey fielded June 30 to July 6, per Global Rescue's traveler survey. The two samples differ, so the totals differ, but both show use rising.
Why are destinations behind their own travelers on AI?
Only 22% of destination marketing organizations (DMOs) offer AI trip planning on their websites, and 26% have a documented AI strategy, the same Mindtrip report found. In that study, 72% of DMO leaders said organizations that fail to adopt AI within two years risk becoming irrelevant in destination discovery.
A trip planner on a destination's own website helps visitors who have already arrived there. Destination PR works earlier, because it shapes the pages an AI assistant reads when a traveler asks where to go. 5W's earlier look at how ChatGPT is changing trip planning covers the hotel side of the same shift.
What do travelers ask AI to do first?
Travelers most often use AI to research itineraries (42%), compare flights, hotels and tours (32%) and find destination ideas (32%), according to the Mindtrip study. Each of those three tasks draws on a different kind of page, which is why one website cannot cover them all.
An itinerary question pulls guides and creator content. A comparison question pulls hotel, tour and attraction listings. A destination-ideas question pulls travel press and official tourism pages.
Which sources shape what AI says about a place?
The destinations described clearly in several independent sources are the ones an AI assistant is most likely to name, because retrieval systems select from pages that repeat the same facts. 5W's Airlines and Hotels AI Visibility Index offers directional evidence from a neighboring travel category. Brands with sustained tier-1 press coverage outranked brands that relied mainly on paid media, and loyalty program size did not predict citation share. 5W labels those figures as estimates.
For place-based data, see 5W's Luxury Island AI Visibility Index, the 50-State Hotel AI Map and the Travel edition of the Retrieval Index. Hospitality teams can see how 5W approaches this work on its hospitality digital marketing agency page.
The table below maps each source type to what a destination should publish and the traveler question it feeds. Placing the press and listing rows is the work behind digital PR services.
| Source type | What to publish | Traveler question it feeds |
|---|---|---|
| Official tourism website | Dated seasonal guides, event calendars, prices, accessibility details | When is the best time to visit this place? |
| National and regional travel press | One specific, dated story angle each quarter, such as a new opening or festival | What is new in this place this year? |
| Local news and event listings | Exact event dates, closures, road and ferry changes | What is happening here this weekend? |
| Hotel, tour and attraction listings | Matching names, hours and descriptions on every listing | Where should a family stay here? |
| Creator and guide content | Itineraries built around real local businesses | What is a three-day itinerary for this place? |
How do you check what AI says about your destination?
Ask the same 10 to 20 traveler questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, then record which places and sources each answer names. Write the questions by trip type: family, couples, budget, luxury, weekend and winter.
- Record whether the destination appears in each answer.
- Record which pages each assistant cites.
- Record every wrong fact, such as an old date, price or closure.
Repeat the check monthly so changes can be tied to what was published. Florida destinations can compare city-level approaches in Florida PR by city.
Illustrative scenario: a coastal town finds an assistant repeating last year's festival dates. The fix has three parts. Correct the official event page, update the local listings that repeat the dates, then pitch regional press with the new dates so fresh coverage exists to retrieve.
Where does crisis response fit in destination PR?
Crisis response belongs at the start of destination PR planning, because a hurricane, wildfire or closure leads travelers to ask whether a place is safe to visit. A destination that publishes dated status updates on its official site gives assistants a current page to retrieve instead of older coverage.
Agreeing on the approval path and the budget before an incident saves days when one happens. Crisis PR retainers and emergency rates explains how agencies price that work.
CONCLUSION
Destination PR now means keeping the same accurate, dated facts in the independent sources that AI assistants retrieve, and a tourism team that audits those sources this month can work with 5W on the pages and press that fill the gaps.
