New guide from tourism experts Joseph Mellors While AI tools often reuse popular destinations when it comes to vacation suggestions, they argue that offering more specific or exotic criteria can make a big difference.
When you ask an AI service like ChatGPT or Google Gemini to recommend your next summer vacation destination, they'll happily provide you with a list of exciting destinations. However, many of them will be very familiar.
Paris, Venice, Santorini, and Barcelona could all appear as the AI algorithm guides you to the same old locations. The illusion of personalized advice is why people are less likely to question it, and why AI risks exacerbating overtourism.
And the use of AI for holiday inspiration is rapidly increasing. A recent study found that the number of travelers has doubled in the past year, with younger travelers being the most frequented travelers. Nearly one in five Brits aged 25 to 34 now use AI tools to plan their trips.
In my own research, I analyzed ChatGPT's travel recommendations and found that it gravitates towards the most commonly visited destinations by default. Lesser known or more sustainable locations tend to only be shown to travelers if they explicitly ask.
This could easily exacerbate overtourism, which is testing the limits of many residents in already well-visited places. In Mallorca, locals have called for restrictions on flights and vacation rentals, while Venice has introduced day trip fees to deal with tourist pressure.
With millions of vacationers planning using the same online filters and tips, AI will rapidly increase that pressure. These algorithms are trained based on what's getting the most attention online (reviews, blogs, social media hashtags), so they can quickly zero in on what's already popular.
And if travelers simply accepted the default, the outcome would be much the same, placing even more strain on places already under pressure.
However, consumers are not completely helpless either. With a little more intention, AI research can create a variety of attractive destinations.
My research shows that discerning travelers should start by asking better, more searching questions. Common prompts such as “Best beaches in Europe” or “Beautiful cities” lead directly to the same result.
Instead, ask yourself, “What towns are overlooked by most guides but can be reached by train?” Or, “Where can I go in July that isn’t a major tourist destination?”
Hit the system, ask follow-up questions, and scroll past the first few results. That's where things often come as a surprise.
You can also change the timing. AI tends to focus on peak seasons. This is because peak season is when the most online reviews are posted and the most travel content is published.
Asking about off-peak months is an easy way to break through this built-in bias, so say an Italian lake in October or a Greek island in May.
Or ask the AI to dig a little deeper into its source material. AI relies heavily on English-language content, favoring international hotspots, but you can also find independent travel blogs and local tourism co-ops.
Type in things like “Spanish blogs about Asturias” or “community-run agritourism in Slovenia” and you might find some useful information off the beaten track. This is the kind of thing that can really unlock the huge potential benefits of AI and its capabilities.
A road less traveled
It also easily helps you compare the cost and timing of different travel options and assess the carbon footprint of your trip. You will have to dig a little to get through the surface layer.
After all, these systems are designed to provide the most obvious and well-documented suggestions, not diversity or sustainability. (However, the same technology could easily be coded slightly differently, for example to show rail travel before planes, or to prioritize locally run independent businesses.)
So while the convenience of AI is appealing, it's also predictable. When vacation plans can be copied and pasted from Instagram, it's easy to forget your sense of adventure.
Consider using AI as a starting point rather than the final word. Guidebooks, local media, and conversations with residents bring back the unpredictability that makes travel so memorable.
Travelers can use AI as a tool for discovery, not congestion, by asking sharper questions, shifting timing, checking footprints, and seeking local voices. Every prompt is a signal telling the system what's important.
Next time you ask ChatGPT where to go, be a little more difficult. Test, discuss and use your extraordinary abilities to find new places, or settle for the same crowded itinerary as everyone else.
Author Joseph Mellors is a Research Fellow in Management and Marketing at the University of Westminster, UK.
This article was republished from conversation Under Creative Commons License. First edition published October 2025.
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