Prepared from: The Phocuswright Conference 2025, San Diego
Audience focus: Social search disruption, inbound tourism trends, brand visibility in AI, and marketing strategy evolution
Executive Summary
The Phocuswright Conference 2025 delivered an unambiguous signal to destination marketing organizations: the discovery layer through which travelers find and choose destinations is undergoing its most consequential structural shift since the rise of Google. Nearly 40% of U.S. travelers are now using AI platforms — ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity — to research and plan trips, and those platforms are actively influencing decisions on lodging, destination, dining, activities, and booking method. At the same time, traditional Google search and review sites are losing ground at the top of the travel purchase funnel. DMOs that built their digital strategies around SEO, Google Hotel Ads, and TripAdvisor rankings are now competing for visibility in environments they do not yet know how to measure.
The urgency is compounded by a parallel crisis in U.S. inbound tourism. Geoff Freeman, President and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, delivered the conference's most stark warning for policy advisors: the U.S. will be the only nation in the world to see a net decline in international arrivals in 2025, with 68 million visitors projected versus 79 million pre-pandemic. The decline is driven by a compound of factors — a proposed $250 visa integrity fee, fear of detention at the border, diplomatic friction with Canada (a 24% collapse in Canadian arrivals), the strong dollar, and severely reduced Brand USA funding after Congress cut approximately 80% of its public appropriation. For international DMOs, this represents a market-share opportunity; for U.S. destination marketers, it is an existential threat requiring coordinated advocacy alongside brand investment.
The conference also elevated a critical and largely unaddressed data problem for destination brands in the AI era. Bonafide, recognized as one of PhocusWire's Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2026, presented research showing that approximately one in four LLM responses about travel brands does not align with factual information — a 25% inaccuracy rate with direct commercial consequences. If an AI assistant cannot accurately describe a destination's offerings, the booking opportunity is lost entirely. Hotels and destinations that invest in structured, granular content — not just traditional web copy — will be the ones surfaces by AI engines. Those that do not will be invisible or, worse, misrepresented.
Social platforms are simultaneously reasserting their role in destination discovery, though in ways that demand a rethinking of platform strategy. TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube collectively presented data showing the enduring primacy of human, peer-generated content in travel decision-making. TikTok data shows 67% of users say the most important travel recommendation comes from a fellow traveler. YouTube reports that two-thirds of travelers watch travel videos before booking, with 95% of the top 4,000 travel channels run by individual creators rather than brands. Reddit users actively append "Reddit" to Google searches to find human counterpoints to AI-generated results, seeking granular, specific content like wait times at a specific restaurant on a specific day. DMOs that have shifted marketing spend toward polished brand content and away from authentic creator relationships are swimming against the current.
Key Findings
Finding 1: AI is Now Influencing Destination Decisions at Scale — and DMOs Have No Measurement Framework
Phocuswright's own consumer research, presented in the conference opening by the research team, found that nearly 4 in 10 U.S. travelers are now using platforms such as ChatGPT or Google's AI mode to research and plan trips. More critically, users report that AI query results have directly influenced their decisions on lodging, destination selection, dining, activities, and booking method. This means AI is not just a research tool — it is shaping which destinations get chosen.
James Byers, Group Product Manager for Travel at Google Search, elaborated on the mechanics during the "Travel Search in the AI Era" session. Travelers have shifted from submitting short, fragmented queries ("hotels Nashville") to richly contextual natural-language queries: "things to do in Asheville this week, I'm with friends, we're big foodies who like music and chill vibes." Google's AI Mode — now at over 75 million daily active users — decomposes these complex queries, runs parallel searches, and checks flights, hotels, weather, and transit data simultaneously. Critically, Byers noted that AI Mode can now factor in nuanced criteria like whether a pool is actually heated or proximity to hiking trails, by cross-referencing Maps data, reviews, and video content — not relying solely on structured feed data.
The implication: DMO visibility in AI search depends on the breadth and granularity of content available to those AI systems. A destination that has never had a Wikipedia article about its hiking trails, or whose visitor guides exist only as PDFs, is invisible in this new layer. Kristie Goshow (former CCO, Peregrine Hospitality) was explicit on this in the hotel panel: "Most hotel teams do not yet have tools to measure their visibility on generative AI platforms." The same is true for destinations.
Finding 2: The LLM Accuracy Problem is a Commercial Risk for Destination Brands
Layton Han, CEO of Bonafide.ai (PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2026), presented research showing that approximately one in four LLM responses does not align with a travel brand's factual information. He demonstrated this with a concrete case: Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong offers a premium limousine service, but Google Gemini was unaware of it and omitted it from relevant responses — costing the hotel potential bookings.
Han's core argument is that travelers query LLMs very differently than search engines: they ask granular, specific, personalized questions that demand instantaneous answers. LLMs often lack this level of detail, have outdated information, or cannot retrieve it — making this a data and content problem, not a model capability problem.
Bonafide reports its platform improves LLM alignment by up to 40%, which Han equates directly to a 40% improvement in booking opportunity. The implication for destinations is direct: if a DMO cannot ensure that AI systems accurately represent its destination's offerings — seasonal events, accessibility features, niche experiences, infrastructure details — it is losing a substantial portion of the consideration set in every AI-assisted trip planning session.
Finding 3: Social Search is Undergoing a Structural Shift That Favors Authentic Destination Storytelling
The "Social Search, Viral Inspiration" panel with Reddit (Eric DeLange), TikTok (David Hoctor), and YouTube (Travis Katz) surfaced data that should recalibrate how DMOs allocate social investment.
YouTube data shows 70% of travel advertiser impressions are now coming from living room (TV) viewing — meaning YouTube on the television set is now a dominant travel inspiration channel. Short form serves upper-funnel discovery, but 53% of YouTube travel advertiser conversions come from videos longer than 90 seconds, with more than half of that from videos over five minutes. Long, immersive destination storytelling converts at higher rates than short-form clips.
TikTok's demographic evolution undermines the assumption that it is solely a Gen Z channel. Over half of TikTok's 200 million daily U.S. users are now over 35, with the 25–44 demographic growing fastest. TikTok also launched TikTok Travel Ads in 2025, with a three-pillar commercial strategy: "See" (discovery via Spark Ads), "Search" (keyword-targeted search ads), and "Book" (frictionless commerce integrations). Destinations that are not running keyword-targeted search campaigns on TikTok are missing a growing booking-intent audience.
Reddit offers a distinct but high-value channel. DeLange noted that Reddit users actively append "Reddit" to Google searches specifically to find human counterpoints to AI-generated results — seeking specificity, depth, and lived experience. Reddit's keyword targeting within active travel conversations is a largely untapped channel for destination brands.
Mariano Dima, Chairman of Civitatis, reinforced in the "Leveling Up" panel that micro-influencer partnerships (2,000–3,000 followers) have strong measurable correlation with revenue — and that authenticity and curation, not volume, are the winning formula in experiences and destination discovery.
Finding 4: The Collapse of U.S. Inbound Tourism is a Policy and Marketing Crisis
Geoff Freeman's session — "Travel, Trust and America's Welcome" — was the single most important session for U.S. destination marketers and tourism policy advisors. The data points are alarming:
The U.S. will be the only nation in the world to see a net decline in international arrivals in 2025.
68 million visitors are projected for 2025, versus 79 million pre-pandemic in 2019 — 4 million fewer than the prior year.
Canadian arrivals have collapsed 24%, driven by politically personal responses to U.S. rhetoric.
International travelers are now mentally preparing for a U.S. visit the way many prepare for travel to authoritarian states — wiping devices and taking precautions before entry.
Congress cut approximately $80 million — roughly 80% — of Brand USA's public funding, redirecting it to move the Space Shuttle Discovery to Houston.
The proposed $250 "visa integrity fee" would make the U.S. the second most expensive country to enter in the world, after Bhutan. A Brazilian family of four would pay $1,000 just for the privilege of entry.
Freeman frames the core issue not as a marketing problem but as a welcome problem: "More destination marketing alone won't solve it — the message travelers need to hear is that they are genuinely welcome." Bipartisan legislation to restore Brand USA funding has been introduced, but the outcome is uncertain.
Finding 5: Multimodal and Sustainable Travel Trends Are Redirecting Visitor Flows to Secondary Destinations
Wendy Olson Killion, CEO of Rome2rio, presented a compelling data story about the "mobility reset" in travel. Rome2rio processes over one billion searches annually; 45% of those searches return a multimodal result. Surface travel is dominant, particularly for trips under 90 miles. This shift is attributed to regulatory pressures (especially in Europe), changing traveler values around sustainability, and a genuine cultural resurgence of train travel — with Killion noting celebrities like Dua Lipa and Anna Kendrick posting train travel content as evidence that rail is "no longer just practical — it's cool."
The strategic implication for DMOs is significant. Rome2rio's partnership with Visit Brazil used an interactive multimodal map to promote lesser-discovered regions and secondary cities beyond Rio and São Paulo. Killion calls this "dispersion by design" — using mobility data and storytelling together to direct traveler interest toward under-visited areas.
For DMOs managing overtourism in primary cities, or seeking to grow visitation to secondary and rural destinations, integrating with multimodal search platforms and surfacing surface transport options in LLM-compatible content formats represents an underutilized strategy.
Finding 6: High-Spending "Indulgent Explorer" Travelers Are Resilient — and Rely Heavily on Offline Channels
Alicia Schmid, Director of Research at Phocuswright, presented consumer segmentation data with significant implications for destination positioning and channel strategy. The "indulgent explorer" cohort — defined by high per-person, per-day spend — takes an average of 4.7 trips per year, with 40% taking at least one trip of 14 or more days annually. They are significantly more likely to take international trips and show preference for exclusive experiences, adventure travel, and wellness.
Critically: six of the seven top research and planning resources for this cohort are offline. They prefer calls to travel suppliers, travel advisors, and print media. OTAs appear mid-list. These travelers use advisors because of trust, high spend, and the desire for white-glove service and package bookings — they are twice as likely to book packages.
Schmid also noted that in economic downturns, higher-income travelers like indulgent explorers are comparatively insulated: "Higher equity brands will gain share in a down economy." For destinations that have invested in premium positioning, current economic uncertainty is an opportunity to capture this resilient segment — particularly through travel advisor relationships and package-oriented trade marketing.
Finding 7: Agentic AI is Emerging as a New Distribution Channel — With Direct Implications for Destination Visibility
Multiple sessions converged on the emergence of agentic AI as a new booking and discovery channel that DMOs must understand now. Google's James Byers announced that on the Monday of the conference, Google launched a test enabling end-to-end hotel booking directly within AI Mode, in partnership with Booking.com, Choice Hotels, Expedia, IHG, Marriott, and Wyndham. Byers described 2026 as a year of learning about what users actually want from agentic booking.
Booking Holdings CSO Rob Ransom confirmed Booking.com launched an app inside ChatGPT's app store built via Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling travelers to search inventory and complete transactions directly within ChatGPT. Adam Harris, CEO of Cloudbeds, described referral traffic from LLMs to Cloudbeds properties as "growing exponentially," with the super-majority going direct — predicting that within five years, consumers will interact with brands directly through AI rather than through websites.
DirectBooker CEO Sanjay Vakil reported signing contracts with six of the top ten hotel chains globally for a low-cost API pipe connecting hotel chains directly to AI discovery platforms, bypassing OTAs. Hotels are enthusiastic because they can finally distribute granular content — hot tub temperatures, pet weight limits, member-only rates — that OTAs never captured and that AI engines now actively surface.
For DMOs, the parallel question is: which AI discovery platforms index destination-level content, and what content format do they require? Destinations that publish content through open, AI-readable formats — structured data, knowledge graph-compatible descriptions, MCP-compatible APIs — will be discoverable in these emerging agentic channels.
Finding 8: The Loyalty and Discovery Battle is Shifting Toward Non-Travel Brands — and Younger Travelers Are Defecting
Phocuswright research presented in the "Everyone's Trying to Sell Travel" panel showed that younger travelers (Gen Z and millennials) report greater loyalty to non-travel brands than to travel brands, driven by the perceived exclusivity and inaccessibility of traditional travel loyalty tiers for lower-spending younger customers. Jason Wynn (CEO, Chase Travel) noted that 65% of new card acquisitions for Chase are millennials and Gen Z — a cohort demonstrating resilience to macro downturns and declining loyalty to traditional travel brands.
Madeline List's loyalty research reinforced this finding: the primary reasons travelers "cheat" on their preferred brand include better pricing, better product fit — and novelty. "The desire to simply try something new appears as a top driver across airlines, hotels, and OTAs, making it the most insidious threat to loyalty because it reflects not dissatisfaction but restlessness."
For destinations, this means the traditional approach of converting first-time visitors into repeat visitors faces structural headwinds from novelty-seeking behavior among younger travelers. Destination marketing strategies that invest in revealing unexplored layers — new neighborhoods, seasonal experiences, hidden cultural offerings — may be more effective at retaining and recapturing this audience than traditional loyalty mechanics.
Strategic Implications
The discovery model has bifurcated. Destinations now need to maintain visibility in two parallel systems: the traditional search and social ecosystem (Google, Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit) and the emerging AI discovery layer (ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, voice agents). These require fundamentally different content strategies. AI systems need granular, structured, factual content — not just compelling brand copy. Traditional platforms reward authentic, human-generated storytelling.
Measurement frameworks are broken. DMOs that measure success through Google Analytics traffic and OTA referrals are flying blind in the AI era. As Kristie Goshow noted, most organizations "do not yet have tools to measure their visibility on generative AI platforms." Building a measurement capability — tracking how destinations appear in AI-generated travel responses — is a foundational requirement before any content investment can be validated.
Content strategy must shift from brand messaging to knowledge infrastructure. The LLM alignment data from Bonafide is the most actionable finding for destination content teams: the gap between what AI systems say about a destination and what is actually true is large and commercially costly. Building a comprehensive, regularly updated knowledge base — covering granular destination details in a format that LLMs can ingest and cite — is now a core marketing function, not a web publishing task.
The offline channel for high-value travelers is underinvested. Phocuswright's indulgent explorer research shows that the highest-spending segment relies primarily on offline channels — travel advisors, supplier calls, print media. DMOs that have defunded trade and advisor marketing programs in favor of digital spend are underinvesting where the money is. Rebuilding relationships with luxury travel advisors and trade networks is both urgent and counterintuitive in a digital-first environment.
For U.S. destinations, advocacy is now a core marketing function. Freeman's data makes clear that Brand USA funding cuts, the proposed visa fee, and border anxiety are doing more damage to U.S. inbound tourism than any lack of destination marketing creative. DMOs and tourism boards that do not have active government relations programs need to treat the restoration of Brand USA funding and defeat of the visa fee as strategic priorities, not peripheral concerns.
Social platform strategies need a creator-authenticity reboot. The data from Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube collectively confirms that travelers distrust brand-produced content relative to human, peer-generated content. A TikTok strategy built primarily on branded production and celebrity partnerships will underperform against one built on authentic micro-creator relationships, granular local content, and keyword-targeted search campaigns.
Action Items
Immediate priorities (next 90 days):
Commission an AI visibility audit. Survey how your destination appears across ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity for the top 20 intent queries your target audiences would submit. Document inaccuracies, gaps, and competitive positioning. This is the baseline you need before any AI content investment can be scoped or measured.
Engage Brand USA on funding restoration advocacy. The bipartisan restoration bill is live. DMOs with federal relationships should deploy them now. An $80 million cut to the primary U.S. destination marketing vehicle is a direct threat to every U.S. destination's international arrivals — coordinate with the U.S. Travel Association's lobbying effort.
Audit your LLM-facing content infrastructure. Identify all granular destination information that exists only in PDFs, print brochures, or proprietary databases — seasonal events calendars, transport options, accessibility features, niche experiences, entry requirements. This content is invisible to AI systems. Prioritize its digitization and publication in structured, machine-readable formats.
Activate TikTok Search Ads for destination keywords. TikTok's Search Ads product is now live and allows keyword targeting within active travel conversations. With the 25–44 demographic growing fastest on the platform, this is no longer a Gen Z-only channel. Test budget allocation against your current Google Search spend and benchmark cost-per-engagement.
Medium-term priorities (3–12 months):
Restructure creator investment toward micro-influencer programs. Based on Civitatis's data — strong revenue correlation with 2,000–3,000 follower creators — and YouTube's finding that 95% of the top travel channels are run by individuals, not brands — reallocate a portion of influencer spend from macro/celebrity to authentic local creators. Build a destination ambassador program anchored in genuine resident and visitor voices.
Develop a "dispersion by design" multimodal content strategy. Partner with Rome2rio or equivalent multimodal platforms to create interactive maps that showcase secondary destinations and surface transport connections. For destinations managing overtourism, this is both a visitor management tool and a new discovery surface. For secondary destinations, it is an access demonstration that can directly drive booking intent.
Rebuild trade and travel advisor engagement for the high-spend segment. The indulgent explorer data is a direct mandate: this segment is resilient in downturns, takes 4.7 trips per year, prefers offline channels, and is twice as likely to book packages. Identify your top 50–100 luxury travel advisor relationships and invest in dedicated FAM programs, direct supplier calls, and bespoke package development for this audience.
Establish an MCP and structured data publishing capability. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is emerging as the interoperability standard for AI agent access to travel data, cited by Amadeus, Booking.com, Yanolja, BoomPop, and DirectBooker across the conference. DMOs should engage their technology partners and national tourism technology infrastructure to understand how destination content can be published in MCP-compatible formats, ensuring discoverability as agentic booking agents proliferate.
Monitor and respond to the U.S. visa integrity fee. If the $250 visa fee is implemented, U.S. destinations should model the demand impact on their key source markets (the Brazilian family-of-four example is illustrative but replicable for any source market). Prepare advocacy materials showing revenue and jobs impact for Congressional outreach. Non-U.S. destination marketers should identify U.S. source market share opportunities if U.S. entry costs rise materially.
Design novelty-forward content programs for younger travelers. Given that novelty-seeking is the "most insidious" driver of brand switching among Gen Z and millennials, consider regular content series that reveal unexplored layers of familiar destinations — new neighborhoods, seasonal experiences, off-the-beaten-path itineraries. Position discovery as ongoing rather than treating first-time visitors as the primary conversion target.
Sessions to Watch
1. "Travel, Trust and America's Welcome with U.S. Travel Association CEO Geoff Freeman"
Essential viewing for any U.S.-focused DMO or tourism policy advisor: the most comprehensive analysis of the inbound tourism crisis, the Brand USA funding collapse, the visa fee threat, and what "welcome" actually means as a policy position.
2. "Social Search, Viral Inspiration with Reddit, TikTok, YouTube"
The definitive current-state briefing on how social platforms are evolving as destination discovery channels — including TikTok Travel Ads, YouTube's living room shift, Reddit's human-trust dynamics, and data on creator versus brand content effectiveness.
3. "Travel Search in the AI Era According to Google"
James Byers explains precisely how Google AI Mode processes complex destination queries, what grounding data it draws on, and what travel brands must do to maintain feed quality and content depth to remain visible. Directly actionable for DMO digital teams.
4. "Bonafide — a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2026"
Layton Han's pitch is the clearest articulation of the LLM alignment problem for travel brands — the 25% inaccuracy rate, the commercial consequences, and the content strategy required to fix it. Any DMO head of content should watch this.
5. "Payments to Priorities — The U.S. Traveler Mindset in 2025" (Phocuswright Research)
Alicia Schmid's segmentation of indulgent explorers — high spend, offline channel preference, package orientation, macro-resilience — is the most actionable consumer data for destinations pursuing the premium international traveler segment.
6. "Rome2Rio — 2025 Changemaker"
Wendy Olson Killion's presentation of "dispersion by design" — using multimodal mobility data to redirect travelers toward secondary destinations — is a practical blueprint for any DMO managing overtourism or trying to build visitation in underserved regions.
7. "How to Compete for the Modern Hotel Guest"
The panel with Accor, citizenM, Cloudbeds, and Peregrine Hospitality contains the most grounded discussion of AI's practical impact on hospitality distribution — including Adam Harris's data on exponential LLM referral traffic, Kristie Goshow on the absence of AI visibility measurement tools, and Lennert de Jong on direct ChatGPT booking for a small Austrian ski property. A good orientation to what AI distribution changes mean at the property level, which directly affects destination competitiveness.
8. "Welcome to The Phocuswright Conference" (Opening Session)
The conference-opening research overview delivers the cleanest statistical summary of global travel market size ($1.8 trillion gross bookings by 2027), Asia-Pacific and India growth trajectories, AI adoption rates among travel executives (83%), and the 40% of U.S. travelers now using AI for trip planning. Use this as a briefing document for internal stakeholders who need the headline numbers.
*This brief was prepared from session recordings and summaries from The Phocuswright Conference 2025, San Diego. All data points and attributed statements reflect content presented at the conference.*