What agentic AI is
An ordinary AI assistant answers a question. An agentic AI is given a goal and acts to achieve it. It plans the steps, uses tools such as search, calendars, booking systems and payment, checks what comes back and carries on until the job is done, asking the person to approve the important moments. In travel, the goal might be four nights in Malta in October, a direct flight and a fixed budget. The agent researches, compares, proposes and, once the traveller agrees, books. In a March to April 2026 Ipsos survey of 2,001 US adults for Allianz Partners, 37% of US travellers already said they use AI to plan trips, as reported in trade press. Agents are the next step, and they choose between sources on one test: which can I identify, verify and act on. The name matters too, which is why we explain the power of Visit + Destination names.
From search to ask
Travel planning used to begin with a search box and a page of links. It now begins with a question put to an assistant, in the traveller's own words: where should we go in October, where should we stay, how do we get there. The reply is assembled from whatever the assistant can read and trust. A destination, hotel or airline that is not clearly and accurately present in that reply is absent from the decision. Our AI platform is built for that moment, with a concierge on every destination that answers from approved material.
From ask to agent
The next step is already visible. A personal agent takes the brief, such as Malta, four nights, this budget, a direct flight, and goes away to compare, plan and propose, then books once the traveller agrees. An agent does not browse for pleasure. It looks for sources it can verify and inventory it can act on, which makes the quality of a destination's data a commercial matter. We build the destination layer agents read: sourced facts, dated pages, structured data and machine-readable files, on Visit + Destination names that travellers and agents already resolve. The names are in our portfolio.
From links to actions
Reading is not enough. An agent has to check availability, hold a room or a seat, take payment under the traveller's authority and confirm. That needs a booking path the partner controls. On VisitMalta.co.uk hotels appear only when they are live in the approved inventory, and the flights are KM Malta's. Price and inventory stay with the partner, whether that is a hotel's own booking engine, an airline or an OTA or travel partner. The same controlled path is what we are opening to agents, so that one can use it as easily as a person.
From trust me to proof
When an agent chooses between two sources, it favours the one that is current, attributable and consistent. Every specific claim on our platforms comes from supplied evidence with the source recorded, and pages show when they were last reviewed. That discipline is slower than mass-producing copy, and in an agent-led market it is the advantage. For a tourist board or government, it means the destination's approved voice is the one agents read first.
From the booking to the whole journey
Agents will not stop at the booking. They will check the traveller in, watch for disruption, rebook and answer questions on arrival. Our film ends on that moment: your AI agent has checked you in for your flight. Each of those steps needs trusted destination context, and each is a chance for a partner to be part of the journey rather than only the transaction. Hotels and airlines both have a defined place in it.
From intermediaries to direct
A traveller's agent has no loyalty to a listing site. It goes where the best, most reliable answer is. Intermediaries have long charged hotels and airlines a commission, commonly cited at 15% to 25% of the booking value for the largest platforms. Neither publishes a rate card, so the real figure varies by contract and is not one we can vouch for in any one case. A destination platform that answers the traveller directly and connects them to the partner shortens that path, and the partner keeps the guest relationship and the rate.
What the wider industry is saying
We are not alone in this view. Travelport, which supplies the technology behind travel retail, describes AI as reshaping travel end to end, and says that discovery has changed while booking has not, at least not yet. Its chief technology officer, Andrew Jordan, puts the gap plainly: AI magnifies discovery, but infrastructure determines what can actually be delivered and sold. Travelport reports that 40% of consumers worldwide were already using an AI tool such as ChatGPT for travel planning (Statista, 2025), and, citing separate surveys, that 68% of TikTok users say it helps them choose what to do in travel and 59% of Gen Z travellers booked a trip directly because of it.
The same analysis is candid about the hard part. AI is probabilistic, so its answers can be inaccurate, while booking demands precision and certainty about price, availability and payment. Travelport points to Sembo, which turns a request such as two weeks in Florida for a family of four into a trip that can be booked in real time because it draws on live availability. It also notes a partnership with Cognizant and Anthropic, the company behind Claude, to connect systems that can reason and plan with platforms that can transact. Trust is rising with familiarity: a G24 survey found that 51% of people aged 18 to 34 trust AI, against 48% of those aged 35 to 54 and 38% of those aged 55 and over. Travelport also expects people to stay in the loop for complex and bespoke trips and when things go wrong.
Specialist AI platforms for travel companies describe the same pattern. A guest or traveller messages on the channel they already use and gets an instant answer in their own language, checked against the company's own content and live prices. The assistant quotes real rates, builds a day-by-day itinerary, offers the right extras at the right moment, takes payment direct so no commission goes to an intermediary, and hands anything it should not decide to a person, flagging gaps in its knowledge instead of inventing an answer.
What it means for destinations
Put together, the message is consistent. Discovery is moving to AI quickly, and the businesses that win will combine intelligent systems with accurate, trusted data and a booking path that works in the real world. That is the layer we build. A tourist board that gives AI a sourced, current and official version of the destination, on a name travellers and assistants already trust, is far more likely to be the answer than one that leaves it to guesswork. A hotel that can be found and booked direct, without commission, keeps more of every booking. And because AI is probabilistic, our concierge answers only from approved material and says so when it does not know.
Questions travellers now ask
What is an AI travel agent?
A digital assistant that researches, plans and increasingly books a trip for you, comparing hotels, flights and activities in seconds and tailoring its suggestions to your preferences and budget.
How is it different from a traditional travel agent?
It is available at any hour, handles thousands of options at once and adapts as your preferences change, without waiting time. For complex, bespoke or high-touch trips, and when something goes wrong, many travellers will still want a person.
Can an AI travel planner save money?
It can compare many options at once, spot cheaper dates or nearby alternatives, and, where a hotel can be booked direct, avoid the intermediary commission that is otherwise built into the price.
What can it do with an itinerary?
It can build a day-by-day plan in minutes, balancing your interests, pace and logistics, and adjust it as plans change. The quality of the plan depends on the quality of the destination information behind it, which is why sourced destination guides matter.
Where Visit Travel Group fits
We are the destination layer: one network of Visit + Destination brands, each turned into a platform that people and agents can both use, operated by CostelloGlobalTechnology.com. We say plainly what is built and what is being built. VisitMalta is live, with an AI concierge, a verified hotel inventory and a national airline partner. VisitMiami is in build, and we are at WTE Miami on 27 to 28 October 2026 meeting the partners who make commercial sense alongside us. The concierge on this site answers from our own knowledge base. You can read more about who we are on the About page.
Work with us
If you run a destination, a hotel, an airline or a travel business, the agent-led market is arriving whether or not you are ready for it. Tell us who you are on the contact page, and we will talk through the destination, the scope and the structure that fits.
Last reviewed 4 October 2026