phocuswright.com

🏆 Phocuswright, founded in 1994, has observed the travel industry's evolution with internet technology. As of 2025, 39% of U.S. travelers use generative AI (GenAI) for travel planning, outpacing virtual/augmented reality. Nearly 50% of GenAI users involve it in leisure travel planning. Challenges for integrating GenAI with digital identity, ensuring personalized travel experiences, include trust, clean data, and infrastructure readiness. Major tech companies like Google and OpenAI drive AI-powered travel innovations. Phocuswright's "Travel Innovation and Technology Trends 2025" report highlights GenAI's impact on travel industry operations and experiences.

🏢 China's influence revitalized Northeast Asia's travel sector in 2024 after reopening borders in 2023. South Korea, Hong Kong, and Macau saw visitor economy boosts, while Taiwan lagged. China, South Korea, Japan aimed for 40 million mutual inbound arrivals by 2030 as of September. In November, China simplified travel between the mainland, Hong Kong, and Macau. Travel bookings in Northeast Asia surged 116% to $44.6 billion in 2023, forecasted to grow 15% to $51.3 billion in 2024, reaching $60.3 billion by 2027. Online bookings hit $21.3 billion in 2023 and could surpass $30 billion by 2026, with AI potentially accelerating growth.

📱 Travel companies are using GenAI for customer service, sales, marketing, and content creation. Google launched Agentspace in December 2024, while Salesforce released AgentForce 2.0 the same month, with CEO Marc Benioff envisioning one billion AI agents by 2026 and a market potential in the trillions. Nvidia's Jensen Huang also identified a multi trillion-dollar opportunity in January 2025. Autonomous agents are set to increase automation, possibly replacing human tasks while improving efficiency. AI in travel requires clean data, with Snowflake winning "Innovator of the Year" at The Phocuswright Conference 2024. Companies are appointing chief AI officers to manage the transition.