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We spent the past few months talking to operators about where they actually are with AI — what they're using, what's working, and what still feels like noise.
We combined that with Arival's research across 5,664 operators worldwide and turned it into a free report: the Travel Experience Trend Tracker Spring 2026, "AI that works". A starting point and some steps you can act on now. Here’s what’s new:
Why AI is different for experience operators
People choose a tour because it matches something specific about them, and AI is getting much better at that kind of matching.
That matters because travelers are already using AI to find things to do. 53% use it for destination research, 33% specifically to discover experiences, and 74% rate AI as very or extremely helpful for trip planning — more trusted than friends, colleagues, or influencers.
Traffic from AI search also converts better: those visitors have a 45% lower bounce rate than people arriving from other sources, according to Adobe Analytics.
Takeaway: Listings that AI can read, complete with accurate category tags, location specifics, and clear highlights, are the ones that get recommended.
How tour operators use AI
In our survey, we found that 19% of tour operators are actively using AI, 33% are testing it, 20% have researched it without acting yet, and 3% tried it and stepped back. 25% haven't used it at all.
Content is where adoption is highest. 76% of operators are already using AI to write listings, and social captions, website copy, and internal documents follow. The challenge is that a lot of operators feel stuck after the first experiment. 35% say the pace of change is overwhelming, and 56% say they'd do more if they just had a clear, simple starting point.
What the data says about profitable operators using AI
The most interesting finding in the research is the correlation between profitability and AI use.
Operators with margins above 20% are 25% more likely to be actively using AI than those who aren't profitable. Among profitable operators, 50% say AI is very effective for their business. Among unprofitable ones, that number drops to 38%.
Worth noting: it's probably not that AI makes operators profitable. Operators who already run a tight, growth-focused business tend to get more out of any tool.
But the gap is real, and it's growing. 64% of operators are using AI more than they were a year ago. The ones who are getting comfortable with it now will have a head start when the tools get better.
A three-area playbook to get started
The free report covers three parts of your business: content and marketing, operations, and feedback and reviews. Each has three levels: Start, Build, and Scale, so you can pick up wherever makes sense for you.
1) Content and marketing: make your listings work harder
At the basic level, AI can rewrite your existing listing copy in minutes. Paste your tour description into ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude, tell it who your ideal guest is, ask it to rewrite. Then ask it to flag anything confusing, like unclear timings or an ambiguous meeting point.
Once that feels normal, write a one-page brand voice guide with AI's help: your tone, who you're speaking to, and what you'd never say. Paste it at the start of every prompt from then on, and your content will start sounding consistent.
Further down the road, the focus shifts to visibility. AI search visitors are growing fast, and structured listings with clear categories, location data, and FAQs are the ones showing up in AI-generated answers. Incomplete listings don't appear.
Over 60% of operators on GetYourGuide already use our built-in AI Content Creator that uses the GetYourGuide best practices to write high-performing listings for you.
2) Operations: get the repetitive stuff off your desk
Guest communications eat a huge amount of time. Start by identifying the five questions guests ask most often, write good answers with AI, and save them as reusable templates. Your GetYourGuide Messages inbox also has AI-suggested replies built in.
From there, pick one internal process that depends entirely on you explaining it in person: a guide briefing, a booking confirmation, or staff onboarding. Tell AI how it works and ask it to write a clear step-by-step document. It takes an afternoon and saves hours every time someone new joins.
3) Feedback and reviews: use AI to understand what guests are actually telling you
Reviews contain real signals about your experience. AI can help you read patterns across them, not just draft responses. Ask it to summarize your last 50 reviews and flag what keeps coming up. You'll often spot something you hadn't noticed, a recurring question about the meeting point, a guide who keeps getting named, or a moment guests consistently mention.
From there, use those patterns to improve your listing, brief your guides, or write better pre-trip information. The feedback was always there. AI just makes it faster to read.
The report includes detailed prompts and tool suggestions for each level. Download it for the full playbook.
Download the report
Experiences are, by definition, human. A well-run tour is well-run because of the people, the knowledge, and the care. No tool changes that. What AI can do is take some of the surrounding work — the admin, the content, the follow-up — off your plate. What you do with that time is up to you.
The Travel Experience Trend Tracker Spring 2026 is free. Get your copy here.
Sources: Arival Global Operator Landscape, 4th Ed., January 2026 (n=5,664); GetYourGuide proprietary research, March 2026 (n=505); Adobe Analytics, March 2025; Bain & Company.
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