Travel in 2026: Event wrap up

Global travel trends 

Phil Hunt, partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants, opened with a compelling overview of global travel trends and the structural growth that continues to drive the industry.

• Travel continues to outpace GDP growth.  Holidays remain one of the strongest discretionary spending categories, even during periods of economic uncertainty. People may cut back elsewhere, but they rarely sacrifice travel entirely.
• Long-term fundamentals remain robust.  Despite softer demand in 2025 (partly due to geopolitical and economic uncertainty), travel remains one of the most resilient consumer sectors.
• Affluent and younger consumers lead the recovery. The top 20% of households account for around 40% of international travel spend, and 18–35-year-olds represent the most upbeat and opportunity-rich demographic.
• Premiumisation is accelerating. Travellers are increasingly trading up to high-quality, experience-led holidays, favouring bespoke itineraries and meaningful stay experiences over material purchases.

• The domestic market is feeling the strain. Post-COVID, the resurgence of outbound travel has driven up prices for UK-based holidays, putting pressure on local destinations.

One of the key takeaways from Phil’s talk: travel is not just bouncing back, it’s maturing. Consumers are investing in experiences that enrich their lives, and brands that understand this emotional value are set to thrive. 

The AI shift: Redefining discovery and booking 

John Franklin, partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants explored how AIis rapidly reshaping the travel journey – from discovery to booking and beyond.

AI is influencing every stage of the consumer funnel in five major ways:

• Operational efficiency:  Streamlining back-end processes and yield optimisation. 
• Commercial performance:  Smarter pricing and revenue management through advanced algorithms.
• Customer discovery:  Generative AI tools now shape how people find and plan trips.
• Personalisation: Hyper granular filtering – AI agents can now book a “sunset-facing room near the beach and gets the sun at X time.” However, John noted a paradox: AI may make travel discovery easier but also less unique. When thousands of users ask AI for “hidden gems” or “authentic local stays,” the same destinations may get surfaced repeatedly, leading to overcrowded AI hotspots.
• Search behaviour: The zero-click trend is accelerating, with 69% of searches in 2025 ending without a click as users engage directly with AI responses. To stand out, brands must adapt their presence across channels. It’s no longer enough to rank in search; success will depend on showing up in discovery through AI and LLMs, alongside strong editorial, social, and paid exposure. 

Building a defensible travel brand in the AI era

As AI expands the possibilities for travel discovery, brands must focus on defensibility. Franklin outlined several strategic levers that will help travel companies maintain differentiation:  

• First-party data as power. Use owned data to add genuine value and deliver personalised experiences. 
• Trust and authenticity. Loyal customers and transparent communication will drive sustained engagement.
• Unique supply and content. Exclusive supply or inventory reduce vulnerability to AI-driven price comparisons.
• Conversational booking journeys. Go beyond filters and embrace interactive, dialogue-based interfaces that mirror the way consumers engage with AI tools.

In short, the brands best positioned for success will combine exclusive supply, owned distribution, trust, and brand scale, a formula that offers real protection against AI commoditisation. 

The travel marketing search landscape is being rebuilt from the ground up and in 2026, the path from destination dreaming to final booking is no longer a straight line.  

David’s talk dove into the surge of AI driven zero-click searches in the tourism sector and how travel brands need to pivot to an omnipresent strategy to stay relevant. 

Building a defensible travel brand in the AI era

Before we talk algorithms, we have to talk attention. In a market defined by decreasing demand and rising costs, standard content is a sunk cost. High-impact creative doesn’t just capture eyes, it generates the massive PR wins and brand signals that modern AI models crave to validate your authority. 

With 12 years of digital marketing experience, David has seen that the boldest ideas drive the biggest results. We’ve sent keys into space to give away a house for Good Move and put heart-rate monitors on dogs to prove the that dogs really do love their owners. These aren’t just stunts, they are relevant campaigns designed to feed the brand mention machines that AI now relies on. 

The new reality: The messy middle

According to YouGov 2026 data, 48% of travellers are feeling the pinch of rising expenses. This has led to a hyperactive consideration stage. Consumers aren’t just clicking the first link on Google anymore, they are researching more thoroughly than ever. 

The journey now bounces between social feeds, Reddit threads, traditional search and AI models. The linear funnel is dead, replaced by what Google calls the messy middle; a complex web of triggers and exploration that exists between the first spark of an idea and the final checkout. 

We’re witnessing a fundamental shift in how users consume information.  

In some sectors brands are seeing as much as a 65% increase in zero-click searches last year.

Why? Because AI Overviews and LLMs like Gemini and ChatGPT are answering queries directly in platform. The user gets the answer they need without ever touching your website. 

This poses a significant threat to brands that rely solely on click-heavy strategies. However, it also presents a massive opportunity: 

• The challenge: You can no longer bank on site traffic alone to build trust. 
• The opportunity: By aligning your marketing efforts and multiplying high signal content, you can make sure your brand is the one the AI chooses to cite. 

The “appearing everywhere” strategy

If click-through rates to your site are dipping, you need to stop fighting for the click and start winning the brand awareness game. Modern marketing is about omnipresence; appearing everywhere, all at once. 

Here is your stack of importance: 

• Reputation first: Reviews are your conversion engine and as we heard throughout every session, trust is the ultimate currency. If these are poor, no amount of visibility will save you. 
• Social networks: This is where the modern buyer’s journey usually begins. It’s no longer just social; it’s a search engine for inspiration. 
• Search engines: Still massive but evolving into answer engines. You need to have the answer, not just a link. 
• AI models: LLMs are the new personal assistants, and whilst these contribute a fairly small amount of traffic in comparison to other channels this is growing every day. With the integration of several AI models into mobile OS layers, LLMs  will soon be the primary discovery gatekeeper. 

The golden rule for AI: Brand mentions are the #1 ranking factor for LLMs. If the internet isn’t talking about you, AI cannot recommend you. You don’t just need SEO, you need AI optimisation.

Your 6 step playbook for 2026

To win in this landscape, you need a systematic approach to your content and technical health: 

1. Audit search intent 2.0: Don’t just look at keywords, look at result types. Are your top terms being swallowed by AIOs or Reddit threads? If a query is being answered directly by Google, your goal shifts from getting the click to being the cited source within that answer.
2. Conduct an LLM audit: Use tools like Ahrefs, Perplexity or dedicated AI health checkers to see how your brand (and your competitors) are being summarised. Ask Gemini or ChatGPT: “What are the top-rated holiday cottages in Cornwall for families?” If you’re not in that list, you have a brand mention opportunity.
3. Optimise information architecture for AI: Write for the answer engine. Structure your data using clear headings and FAQ schemas that anticipate the next question. If a user asks an AI about “Corfu weather in June,” your content should proactively answer “and here is what you should pack” . This keeps your brand part of the continuous AI conversation.
4. Commit to multi-format content: Every long form article should be repurposed into a YouTube Short or TikTok, and vice versa. With video rich results now dominating 90% of mobile results, if you don’t have a visual version of your advice, you’re invisible to Gen Z and Alpha travellers.
5. Analyse social sentiment as product R&D: Move beyond likes and track sentiment. Use social listening to find the ‘why’ behind the feedback. If travellers are complaining about hidden fees in your sector, create content to deliver more transparency on these fees. Use this data to optimise your product offerings before the negative sentiment becomes an AI summarised disadvantage for your brand.
6. Track brand impact via entity association: Shift your focus from traditional link-building to entity association. AI doesn’t just see links, it sees relationships. Make sure your brand is consistently mentioned alongside high authority entities (i.e. being cited by tourism boards or mentioned in the alongside industry experts).  

In short, to stay visible in 2026, your content must hit five specific marks: 

• Site & topical authority: Be the expert in your niche. 
• Freshness: Keep data current. 
• Technical soundness: Schema markup is now vital for AI to read your site.
• Reviews & social buzz: If you aren’t on TikTok or YouTube Shorts, you’re invisible to a huge segment of your audience.

Be everywhere, be trusted and be memorable. 

The closing panel highlighted how innovation and trust will reshape competition in travel:

• Legacy vs. disruptor brands. Established operators hold market share but lag in technology adoption. Agile new entrants can capture loyalty by delivering intuitive, AI-enabled customer experiences.
• Private equity remains cautious.  Investment in Martech and travel startups will hinge on evidence of strong returns, as PE houses take a wait-and-see approach.
• AI-ready consumers.  When trust and UX are strong, consumers are comfortable booking directly through AI agents, suggesting a rapid behavioural shift on the horizon.
• Monetising trust.  Positive reviews and reliability directly correlate with financial success; brands that build and sustain trust can monetise uncertainty.
• The rise of niche players. While LLMs may default to ranking large brands, smaller travel businesses that serve distinct audiences or experiences could finally have a competitive window.