Where Do AI Travel Planners Get Their Information?
In my last post, I talked about how search behavior has “grown up”—and how tools like TikTok, ChatGPT, and voice assistants are now part of trip planning by default.
This time, I want to pull back the curtain on a question I get all the time: When travelers turn to an AI trip planner like ChatGPT or Gemini to plan their next trip, where does that information actually come from?
Far more often than many realize, AI travel planners pull information directly from CVB, DMO, and attraction websites, completely without human intervention. That means destination websites are no longer just for human visitors; they also serve bots that gather data. And those bots are now helping decide where people go.
The Hidden Backbone Behind AI Trip Planning
Research from Miles Partnership and Destination Analysts shows only about 20% of U.S. travelers used an official destination website at some point in the past year. One-third used at least one DMO resource while travel planning, while two-thirds used none at all.
At the same time, behavior is shifting quickly towards AI. A 2025 Amadeus survey found:
- 34% of U.S. travelers now use social media for trip ideas (a 21% jump in just one year)
- 17% already consult AI tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity
- GenAI is now used for travel inspiration more than newspapers (12%) or traditional travel agents (16%)
It’s easy to look at those numbers and conclude your website doesn’t matter much anymore.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. The information that bots pull from destination websites is quietly providing the backbone of data that AI trip planners rely on—shaping itineraries, day trips, and sightseeing suggestions without most visitors (or DMOs) ever realizing it.
Oak Park’s Visibility Challenge: Beating the Chicago Default
You can see it in search today.
Ask an AI trip planner what to do in Oak Park, Illinois, and you might get Navy Pier, the Bean, and other Chicago icons instead of the historic charm Oak Park is known for. That’s because the internet can’t “see” Oak Park clearly, and it treats it as a Chicago spillover. A simple Oak Park day trip becomes full of a Chicago-heavy itinerary with a commute, and Oak Park loses the time, spend, and attention it should have captured.
That’s what happens when your official content isn’t clear, rich, and easy for AI to interpret.
So we optimized Explore Oak Park & Beyond’s site around specific travel experiences such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Studio, Hemingway’s Birthplace, neighborhood hidden gems, and organized it in ways humans and bots can both understand.
Now, when AI trip planners build an Oak Park itinerary, they surface Oak Park’s own assets instead of defaulting to the next city over, Chicago. Oak Park shows up as a destination in its own right, not just a Chicago side note.
Why DMO Websites Matter More Than You Think
Online trip planning used to mean:
- Scrolling endless search results
- Comparing hotel prices tab by tab
- Piecing together sightseeing ideas from blogs, lists, and reviews
Now, tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity can spit out a customized itinerary in seconds. Weekend getaway plans and complete family road trips are provided without a traveler ever opening a new tab.
According to Amadeus, Baby Boomers are actually the fastest-growing users of AI trip tools, with adoption up 60% year-over-year. This signals a shift from Gen Z alone to travelers of all ages expecting AI to support their trip research and planning.
But here’s the thing:
AI trip planners are only as accurate as your website is.
When your official details are accurate, complete, and structured, AI can build itineraries that actually reflect your destination.
When they’re outdated or generic, the “perfect trip” is stitched together from whatever else the AI can find, whether or not it represents your place correctly.
In the same Amadeus study, 27% of travelers said AI had given them inaccurate information, forcing them to double-check elsewhere.
Still, sixty-eight percent of U.S. travelers say they would pay a one-time fee for an AI travel assistant to plan a personalized trip. If they are willing to pay for AI-built personalized itineraries, they are also likely to trust them.
That raises the stakes.
What AI Trip Planners Look For
AI trip planners don’t “think” like travelers. They assemble answers from patterns in what’s published. So, if it’s not published in a way AI can use, it might as well not exist.
Here’s what these systems actively look for on your site:
Practical information
Not just addresses and hours, but seasonal schedules, accessibility details, parking guidance, and sample itineraries. A Google listing can tell someone a museum is open; a DMO can show the best time of day to visit, where to grab coffee nearby, and which exhibits are family friendly. Curated itineraries become ready-made building blocks for AI.
Experiential context
AI needs to know why something matters and for whom. A strong DMO site connects attractions to travel styles: architecture tours for design enthusiasts, kid-friendly festivals, scenic drives for foliage chasers, brewery trails for weekend couples. That context makes your content more useful to niche audiences and more likely to be pulled into their perfect itineraries.
Formatting signals
On your website, schema markup, consistent headings, FAQs, and structured sections all help AI “see” your content as more than a wall of text. These signals act like signposts, telling AI what’s important, where to find it, and how to reuse it in an answer.
Put together, these elements turn your website into a training center for how AI should talk about your destination.
Here’s Where the Road Splits
AI is already shaping how people discover and book trips. That part is not optional.
What is optional is whether your destination is easy for these tools to understand, or easy to ignore.
You can bury your head in the sand, or you can work with a team that already lives in this space, understands how AI trip planners read your site, and knows how to turn that into real visitor growth (ahem).
That is why we created the AI Visibility Score. It is a free assessment that shows how your destination appears in AI powered search today, where you are strong, and where you are invisible. More importantly, it gives us a starting point for a real conversation about how to fix it.
If you want AI to talk about your destination the way you would, that work starts now. The AI Visibility Score is how we begin.
FAQs
Why do official destination websites matter if most travelers don’t visit them?
Because bots do. Even though only about 20% of U.S. travelers visit a CVB or DMO site directly, those sites provide much of the structured, trustworthy information that AI trip planners like ChatGPT and Gemini rely on.
How is AI changing the way people plan trips?
AI trip planners turn what used to be hours of research into a single prompt, pulling from whatever accurate, structured information they can find including your DMO website and listings.
What happens if my destination’s details are missing or outdated?
AI doesn’t leave blanks. It fills gaps with whatever information it can find. That means your destination can end up misrepresented or replaced by other easily found information in AI-built itineraries.
How can I find out how my destination is represented in AI trip planning today?
That’s what the AI Visibility Score is for. It reveals where you’re visible, where you’re invisible, and the quickest fixes to help AI trip planners represent your destination accurately.