Anew Hotels & Resorts Explores How AI Is Redefining Holiday Planning In 2026

Madri van der Westhuizen, Campaign & Social Media Manager, Anew Hotels & Resorts.

In 2026, planning a trip looks a bit different: a person can simply input a few prompts into an AI platform, which then generates a detailed itinerary within milliseconds.

Personally, for me, AI is an extraordinary time saver. It has revolutionised the way I work, and it can organise my thoughts, summarise long documents, and offer suggestions in seconds that would in the past have taken me days to consider. It is a tool I appreciate for its remarkable efficiency.

AI has quietly, but insistently, taken over almost every corner of our lives, but when AI is planning your next holiday, I have to ask, are you really in control?

AI has become the new travel agent

I recently read an article on BBC.com that relates to my point perfectly. The article divulges that the travel association ABTA found that around 8% of travellers now use AI for trip planning, up from 4% in 2024, with younger travellers leading the trend.

And to make this trend “easier”, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has partnered with platforms like Booking.com and Expedia, allowing travellers to plan and book holidays directly through the chatbot. On paper, this all sounds wonderfully efficient. In practice, this convenience comes at a cost.

Now, when you ask one of these platforms for the best place to stay, for instance, in Italy, the answer is no longer independent. It is filtered through algorithms and commercial partnerships, prioritising what performs best, and not what suits you. Popularity, paid promotion, and data patterns shape the results.

Oh boy, when AI gets it wrong, it does so with surprising confidence!

According to another recent BBC article, some travellers have been directed (through the use and recommendations of AI) to destinations that don’t actually exist.

Some users even receive suggestions that are simply unfeasible, such as a marathon route across northern Italy to Japan, or that there is an Eiffel Tower in Beijing… A survey from 2024 by Sainsbury Bank in the UK found that 37% of travellers who relied on AI for trip planning said it could not provide enough information, while around 33% reported that AI-generated recommendations included false or misleading details.

What looks like a perfectly curated itinerary just for you is riddled with blind spots. And if you don’t realise it in time, you run the risk of scrambling for logistics in a city you don’t know and trying to fix things potentially in a language you don’t understand.

Holidays need intentional randomness and disruption

Some of the most rewarding experiences do not even have a digital footprint. The small family-run canopy tour, the lively local shisanyama spot, the roadside fruit stall. They do not make the top search results on Google. They exist in local conversation with the barista at the hotel, and in local knowledge steeped in word-of-mouth recommendations.

Absolutely, AI gives you a base, but it cannot give your holiday a heartbeat. Lean too heavily on it, and you risk just ticking boxes rather than living the place, the people and what makes it an experience. A holiday is meant to disrupt your routine, to take you somewhere new, both physically and mentally.

AI, for all its brilliance, thrives on predictability. It cannot give you the unpredictable. It will not push you to try archery for the first time, go quad biking even if you are terrified, or end up playing paintball with strangers who become friends and give you a fun story to tell at your next meeting as to why you have a bruise on your left knee.

Why we still need the personal touch

Over-personalisation strips travel of serendipitous moments. The moments where you get lost, stumble upon a hidden café, or meet someone who changes your day. These cannot be coded into an algorithm. Miss a turn-off, and AI will calmly recalculate the journey (thank goodness), but often you need to get a little lost in real life to live an adventure, giving you a moment that no prompt could ever have captured.

I love AI. It is a brilliant productivity tool, a definite partner in my daily work. But when it comes to travel, true travel itineraries need to combine AI suggestions with human curiosity, personal research, and a willingness to explore off the beaten path. Let’s bring back the magic of truly exploring when travelling.