AI Tourism Innovator Weekly Digest #43: Actionable AI Insights for Travel Tech & Tourism Brands

Hey Travel-Tech & Tourism Pros,

Upcoming LinkedIn Live: 27 November, 5 PM UK

Title: How Travel Tech and Travel Brands Can Win Together in 2026

Why this session:

Travel tech wants better B2B leads. Travel brands want tools that save time and money. In this live session, I’ll show how both sides can win together with clearer messaging, smarter content, and simple moves you can use in 2026.

I work as a bridge between travel tech solution providers and tourism decision-makers, helping tech explain value in plain language and helping brands choose tools that actually move the needle.

What you’ll learn

For travel tech companies:

• How to explain your product in simple, relevant language

• How to use content and LinkedIn to warm up better B2B leads

• What tourism decision-makers want to see before they book a demo or pilot

For travel brands:

• How to choose tools that really save time and money

• How to compare platforms without getting lost in features

• A straightforward way to make faster, safer decisions about new solutions

I’ll also share a new project designed to bring travel tech and travel brands closer together, and open four collaboration slots for late 2025 / early 2026 for companies that want help with content, positioning, and B2B lead generation.

Format: 30 minutes live, practical and focused, plus time for questions.

Save your seat

Click Attend here ➝ https://www.linkedin.com/events/7396146252272353282/

1. Google rolls out AI travel planning in Search and global “Flight Deals”

Source & Date: Google Keyword Blog - Nov 17, 2025

What’s happening:

Google added new AI travel features inside Search’s AI Mode. Canvas now lets users describe the trip they want and build full itineraries in a side panel using live data from Google Flights, hotels, Maps, photos, reviews, and web content. At the same time, Google is expanding AI-powered “Flight Deals” from a small pilot to more than 200 countries and territories, helping flexible travellers find cheap destinations through conversational queries.

Why it matters:

Search is turning into a trip-design and trip-shopping layer. If your content and inventory aren’t structured and present in the right feeds, AI-driven planning flows will route demand around you.

Actionable insight:

For travel tech: prioritise your integrations with Google (Flights, Hotel Centre, feeds, schema). For tourism brands and DMOs: standardise product descriptions, images, and FAQs so AI systems can reuse them cleanly in itineraries and cards.

💡 Prompt: “Create a content and data checklist for a [tour operator / DMO / hotel group] so their offers are fully ready for Google’s AI Mode travel planning and Flight Deals.”

2. TUI partners with Mindtrip and Nezasa to make AI trip ideas directly bookable

Source & Date: TUI Group - Nov 7, 2025

What’s happening:

TUI has entered a strategic partnership with AI-powered travel platform Mindtrip. Users chat with Mindtrip to get personalised trip ideas, then hit a “Book with TUI” button that turns those AI-generated plans into bookable packages. Nezasa’s TripBuilder engine maps AI itineraries to live TUI inventory so the packages can be priced and fulfilled in real time.

Why it matters:

This is a working example of the model “AI front-end + packaging engine + big inventory”. Inspiration, planning, and booking are now live in one flow. That’s the direction the rest of the industry is moving.

Actionable insight:

For travel tech: decide where you sit in this stack. Can your platform be the “fulfilment brain” that turns AI ideas into real inventory? For travel brands and DMOs: list which AI planners or packaging engines your products should plug into in 2026 (Mindtrip-style tools, B2B packagers, or both).

💡 Prompt: “Outline a 1-page concept for a three-way partnership between an AI trip planner, a packaging engine, and a regional DMO to turn inspiration into bookable themed itineraries.”

3. Sabre launches Concierge IQ, a generative-AI assistant for airlines (Virgin Australia first)

Source & Date: Sabre - Nov 21, 2025

What’s happening:

Sabre has introduced Concierge IQ, a generative AI-powered assistant for airlines that lets passengers plan, book, and manage trips in a single conversational interface. It covers flights, hotels, ancillaries, and third-party offers, with built-in upsell and loyalty logic. Travellers can use it via web, airline apps, or channels like WhatsApp, and it also handles disruptions such as rebooking and baggage tracking. Virgin Australia is the first airline to adopt the solution.

Why it matters:

This is a pure-play travel-tech product built for end-to-end airline retailing. For airlines, it promises higher conversion and better service at lower manual cost. For other vendors and brands, it’s a strong signal that conversational, agentic experiences will sit at the centre of airline-owned channels.

Actionable insight:

For travel tech: if airlines are your ICP, you now have to show how your product co-exists with tools like Concierge IQ (inventory, ancillaries, data, loyalty, disruption flows), not fight them. For tourism brands: think about how your ground services, hotels, and activities could be surfaced inside airline-owned AI assistants as offers tied to route, status, and disruption events.

💡 Prompt: “Write a short integration concept showing how our [tour/transfer/hotel] product could be offered through an airline’s AI assistant like Concierge IQ, based on route, status, and disruption triggers.”

4. Boop turns real trips into shoppable AI itineraries for travel creators

Source & Date: TechCrunch - Nov 18, 2025

What’s happening:

New app Boop captures a traveller’s route using location and photo metadata (with consent), then turns that into a reusable, bookable itinerary. Other users can copy and adapt the route, while creators can monetise their trips. Boop aims to plug into major booking players like Expedia, Booking.com, Marriott, and Viator so these itineraries can be transacted in-app.

Why it matters:

This mixes social proof, creator content, and AI in a way standard OTAs struggle to match. It’s a clear move toward creator-led distribution, where itineraries are assets and AI does the heavy lifting in adapting them.

Actionable insight:

For travel tech: think about a “creator object” in your data model, an itinerary, with steps, timings, POIs, and bookable inventory attached. For brands & DMOs: identify a handful of local creators or guides whose routes could become your “hero itineraries” that AI assistants and apps can recommend.

💡 Prompt: “Create a data schema for a ‘creator itinerary’ that a travel platform could feed into AI trip planners and booking flows.”

5. Amenitiz raises $45M to grow AI tools for independent hotels across Europe

Source & Date: Skift - Nov 11, 2025

What’s happening:

Barcelona-based hospitality tech platform Amenitiz raised $45M in Series B funding to scale its all-in-one management system and AI-driven tools for independent hotels in Europe. The platform already serves 15,000+ properties and offers products like PriceAdvisor (AI revenue management) and AmenitizBoost (Google Hotel Ads and metasearch campaigns designed for small properties). The new funding will accelerate AI product development and European expansion.

Why it matters:

Most AI headlines fixate on big chains and OTAs, but the real volume of rooms in Europe sits with independents. Amenitiz is betting that AI can help small hotels close the tech gap fast, especially in pricing, distribution, and direct bookings.

Actionable insight:

For travel tech: this validates a clear positioning, “AI for independents, not just chains.” If you serve small properties, sharpen your message around simplicity, time saved, and direct revenue, not dashboards and buzzwords. For tourism brands & DMOs: consider partnerships with platforms like Amenitiz to run regional pilots (e.g., dynamic pricing + metasearch campaigns for a group of independent hotels in your destination).

💡 Prompt: “Draft a 2-page proposal for a DMO × [hotel SaaS] pilot that uses AI pricing and metasearch tools to boost direct bookings for independent hotels in one region over 6 months.”

6. JTB survey: 80% of heavy AI users rely on it for travel decisions

Source & Date: JTB Tourism Research & Consulting - Nov 18, 2025

What’s happening:

A new JTB study on generative AI and travel behaviour shows that among frequent AI users, 77.8% have used it for travel, and around 80% use it for local food and route suggestions during trips. People describe AI as a “high-level information search tool”, “trusted advisor”, or even a “reliable friend”, but still worry about accuracy and over-dependence.

Why it matters:

AI is already a mainstream trip companion, especially for younger travellers. If your content is not in formats AI systems can safely use, it simply won’t show up in the answers travellers see.

Actionable insight:

For travel tech: design your product with AI-as-copilot in mind. Let users ask vague questions and respond with structured, bookable options from your inventory. For brands & DMOs: build a clean FAQ and Q&A library around your destination or product. Those structured answers are exactly what AI assistants will draw from, directly or via search.

💡 Prompt: “List the 20 most common pre-trip and on-trip questions for a [destination/tour brand], and rewrite them as short Q&A blocks optimised for AI assistants.”

7. AI Opener for Destinations: 2026 season for DMO-focused AI learning

Source & Date: AI Opener for Destinations - November 2025

What’s happening:

The AI Opener for Destinations programme announced its 2026 season, adding industry sessions, Super Sessions, DMO core-function tracks, and a “Builders’ Club” for hands-on AI projects. It already gathers 300+ destination professionals across Europe and North America, sharing practical use cases in analytics, content, forecasting, and governance.

Why it matters:

DMOs and NTOs are moving from experiments to structured capability-building. Suppliers that want to keep working with them will need a clearer story on data, ethics, and implementation.

Actionable insight:

For travel tech: prepare an AI onboarding kit for destinations, with 3–5 concrete use cases, sample prompts, KPIs, and risk notes. For DMOs: pick one AI learning track for 2026 and tie it to 2–3 measurable pilots (e.g., content production, demand forecasting, or service automation).

💡 Prompt: “Draft a simple AI learning roadmap for a mid-size DMO covering skills, tools, policies, and 3 pilot projects over 12 months.”

8. Georgian Tourism Summit 2025: AI workshops for hospitality and destinations

Source & Date: Georgian Tourism Summit Agenda - Nov 20–21, 2025

What’s happening:

At the Georgian Tourism Summit in Batumi, several sessions focus directly on AI. Data Appeal is running “AI Meets Georgian Hospitality” using its D/AI Coach platform to analyse reviews and reputation data, plus a preview of D/AI Destinations for Batumi. Another session, “How to leverage data and AI for better management of hospitality businesses and destinations,” targets both hoteliers and DMOs. A panel titled “AI in Tourism, A Different Mind of Travel” rounds out the programme.

Why it matters:

Regional summits now treat AI as a practical tool, not a side topic. The focus is on concrete use: review analytics, pricing, demand signals, and destination planning.

Actionable insight:

For travel tech: use regional events to run live clinics with local data, not generic demos. Show one decision you can change (price, offer, staffing) using AI insights from the last 30 days. For brands & DMOs: adopt a weekly “data habit”: block 30 minutes to review AI-generated reviews or demand insights, then commit to one small operational or marketing change based on that.

💡 Prompt: “Design a 60-minute workshop outline showing hoteliers how to use AI review analytics to adjust operations, pricing, and marketing for the next quarter.”

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That said, I see this as a great opportunity for all of us to connect, share ideas, and capitalize on these exciting changes in tourism. 

After all, more minds are better than one! 🙌

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Here are 3 ways I can help your travel tech platform or tourism brand win more business with AI-powered strategies:

Thanks for reading and innovating with me!

Kind regards, Ivan Ivanovic - AI Tourism Innovator | Visit my website