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Travel planning is changing worldwide.
AI is becoming part of the visitor research journey—not replacing search, but adding another way for people to ask questions, compare possibilities and narrow their choices.
The trend is particularly strong in the United States and is also gathering pace in Great Britain, France and Germany—four of Ireland’s principal overseas source markets.
Adoption varies by country, age and confidence with technology, but the direction is clear. Consumer use of AI for travel research is growing rapidly.
In late 2025, 39% of active US travellers were using AI to research or plan trips, up from 28% a year earlier. More than one in five UK travellers were doing the same, while adoption in France and Germany remained below 20% but was growing.
For Irish tourism businesses, this matters because the questions visitors ask are becoming more specific.
Instead of searching only for “things to do in Ireland”, a visitor might ask:
What can we do near Killarney if it rains? Which experience near Galway would suit a family with teenagers? Where could we stop between Dublin and the west coast without making a major detour?
The business most likely to feature in the answer will not necessarily be the one making the boldest claim. It will be the one whose information makes it a convincing fit for the question.
AI is also becoming increasingly relevant in the home market. In 2025, 42% of Irish internet users had used generative AI during the previous three months. Of those users, 69% had used it for private purposes.
Irish visitors will continue to use Google and other search engines. Increasingly, however, AI will be another way of finding out information.
There is no technical shortcut to appearing in an AI-generated answer. No special AI tag, file or piece of markup can guarantee that a business will be included.
Google’s advice is reassuringly familiar: create useful and distinctive content, organise it clearly, provide a good page experience and use high-quality images and video when they improve the information. The established foundations still matter. Pages must be accessible to search systems, current, accurate and trustworthy.
The practical message for tourism businesses is simple:
Be clear about what you offer. Show the real experience. Explain who it is for, where it is, how long it takes, what it costs and what the visitor should do next.
Language that could describe almost any attraction or experience is unlikely to help.
“An unforgettable day out for all the family” may sound appealing, but it does not tell a visitor whether the experience is right for them.
A more useful description would be:
A 90-minute guided visit suitable for children aged six and over, with free parking and indoor and outdoor elements. Booking is advised at weekends.
That short description answers several questions at once. It explains what is involved, who it suits, how long it takes, what practical arrangements apply and what visitors should do before arriving.
Good visitor information should answer ordinary questions before they have to be asked:
The answers should also be consistent across all the business’s communications.
Visitors may arrive in a city, town or county with broad ideas about what they want to do, but many decisions are made once they are here—when they begin looking at what is nearby and what to do next.
Visitor brochures are powerful at this stage. They introduce businesses and experiences visitors may not know about, while keeping well-known attractions and planned activities top of mind. They provide a timely prompt when visitors are close by and ready to act.
International research involving more than 5,300 travellers found that 93% of brochure users discovered an activity or place they might not otherwise have searched for online. This points to the wider power of in-destination information to inspire, remind and influence decisions.
Visitor Brochures and guides also supports AI and online discovery. By providing specific names, places and ideas, it prompts more focused searches. Eighty-eight per cent of brochure users went online after reading something of interest for further information, directions, availability or booking.
Print creates discovery, prompts action and drives visitors online.
Print and digital work together. In-destination print creates awareness, keeps experiences top of mind and gives visitors specific ideas to explore. Digital channels provide the detail, directions, availability and booking options needed to act.
Once print captures a visitor’s interest, it should provide a clear route to find out more, book or simply visit—through a website, QR code, phone number or clear directions.
AI is becoming another way in which visitors ask travel questions—across the world, in Ireland’s principal overseas markets and at home.
The businesses best placed to benefit will make themselves a credible, specific and easy-to-act-on answer.
But visitors cannot search for an experience they do not yet know exists. Well-placed visitor brochures and guides can make that first introduction. They can reveal an attraction, activity or place at exactly the moment a visitor is open to discovering it.
From there, the route to action must be clear—through a website, QR code, phone number, directions, reception or the door.
Be findable before the trip. Be visible during it. Wherever discovery happens, make the next step easy.
Sources: Phocuswright, Travel Forward: Data, Insights and Trends for 2026; Central Statistics Office, Household Digital Consumer Behaviour 2025; Google Search Central, Optimising Your Website for Generative AI Features; Visitor International, Research 2025.
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