September 27 is World Tourism Day, established in 1980 by the United Nations World Tourism Organization General Assembly. This year, World Tourism Day will explore how AI can help create smarter, more inclusive, and sustainable tourism by enhancing decision-making, strengthening the skills of small and medium-sized enterprises, and improving the way destinations are experienced and managed.
AI is already fully integrated into the world of tourism and has gone mainstream in the travel industry: travelers plan their trips through digital platforms and, increasingly, by asking artificial intelligence: Where should I stay? What should I see? Where should I go? For example, more than half of active U.S. travelers now use AI to plan, book, or manage their trips, according to a Phocuswright study. The report shows that 56% of U.S. travelers used AI for at least one travel-related task in the past 12 months, up from 43% in the second half of 2025 and just 33% in the first half. AI responds based on information available online, and there is a risk that only certain entities will benefit from this transformation and decide how to shape travel. In fact, AI responses are becoming a commercial space, and once visibility can be purchased, the largest brands will buy it. For this reason, it is essential that tourism SMEs and destinations in rural areas also be able to contribute to providing equitable and sustainable solutions. For example, in the EU, Germany had the highest share of accommodation businesses already using AI, according to the study “The Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Tourism Sector.” Overall, 2 out of 10 German companies surveyed reported using AI, whereas in Italy and Spain, the figures were only 8% and 4%, respectively. Customer chatbots (58%) and dynamic pricing (52%) are the most popular applications among accommodation businesses in the EU, followed by customer review management (47%) and content marketing (45%). This is also why the European Union is encouraging tourism SMEs to embrace digital transformation by acquiring new skills - for example, by participating in projects such as Detour, an EU-funded initiative under the SMP COSME Program dedicated to developing sustainable and resilient tourism ecosystems along rural and historical routes in the Mediterranean - including by gaining knowledge and expertise in digital tools. For example, AI could be used to develop digital tourist card systems that bring together small and medium-sized enterprises along the long trails: in this way, smaller businesses can join forces to become stronger. Long routes and inland areas, too, therefore have the opportunity to use AI for their own economic sustainability, and it is therefore essential that businesses understand this tool and know how to use it. It is a very important challenge, but what was once thought to be the future is already the present.
