Being an intern is awesome
Being an intern is awesome, not only do I get to work a little bit less than if I had an actual job, I also get to soak up experience and knowledge with no pressure, cause I'm just an intern! The past couple weeks I've been thinking how I can bring more value to my mom’s company, as a nineteen year old college student, and I think I may have the answer - talk about how nineteen year old college students are traveling today. In broader terms, looking at the differences, nuances, tactics and trip planning tools that the younger generation of travelers are using in their travel lives. How do they align or differ from the older generations? Maybe I can ease your anxiety about AI within travel, or make it worse. Either way, the new generation of travelers has much to consume at their fingertips, so how are they using it?
When doing research for this blog, my main goal was to collect simple, useful statistics that aligned with my thesis of how Gen Z travels vs. other generations. My assumptions started with social media, and I was proven correct. More than 45 percent of travel ideas are hatched from TikToks, motivating my social media obsessed generation by showing them what they don't have, and convincing them that they need it. And 67 percent of Gen Z travelers choose a destination over another based on the destination's social media presence, which is kind of disgusting, if you ask me. I know the boomers reading this are a little angry and a tad bit confused, and reasonably so. This formula leads to overpopulation of popular social media destinations, which casts a cloud over other destinations' sunshine. After a town called Roccaraso (Italy) blew up on TikTok, a city of 1500 residents gained over 10,000 tourists in a single day in peak season. In Ibiza, influencer campaigns drove in too much traffic for the city to handle, leading to restrictions on camera access and vehicle transportation. Even some cities such as Barcelona and Venice have started to charge 5 euros just for stepping foot on their soil. However, there is a bright side to this which will make all the agents happy. Lesser known destinations, or in other words, TikTok virgin destinations, are much less populated, yet still gems. Leaving room for the talented Diane Sherers of the world to weasel their way into beautiful spots and send top end clients to almost tourist-free, incredible settings.
Over the past five years, AI has not only risen in usage dramatically around the world, but in the travel industry as well. Seventy five percent of Gen Z travelers use some sort of AI to plan or get inspiration for an upcoming trip. With Millennials, that percentage drops down to 70, and then down to 55 percent for people over the age of 55. However, for high end trips, and for family outings, that number drops down to 10 percent globally. In my research of this topic, a certain theory started to brew in the head of the intern. AI, as of now, helps the travel industry more than it hurts it. And I would argue that it is a much more beneficial tool for the industry than social media. Social media has tunnel vision, an influencer picks a spot, people see its trending, and they go. It creates no variety in destination, and limited viewpoints on the world, but also around culture. AI has every piece of information about traveling, allowing for a much more full circle approach when getting inspiration for a trip. There is no bias, fewer lies, and AI creates a much more thorough survey of the world's tourist destinations. Combine this with the overall usage of AI (globally) for trips in total being around 40-50 percent, and the use of social media for inspiration being 89 percent, it’s clear that both of these tools are already in wide use in the new generations’ travel planning. While certain AI sites can book and plan trips, most people just use it for inspiration and planning, effectively putting it on the exact same graph as social media, while being a more useful and helpful tool. While we don't know what the future holds, AI is helping people get a more global and overall sense of travel around the world, while social media targets destinations and over-populates them.
As Gen Z enters the world of travel, there are some observations that create a clear picture for what their travel values are. 75 percent of Gen Z travelers planned on taking a solo trip in 2024, highlighting a yearning for personal experience and growth. Value of money is the top priority for Gen Z travelers, with 47 percent of them selecting a destination based on price. Over 50 percent of them prefer to stay in eco-friendly hotels, or even choose camping to try and maximize their environmental efficiency when traveling. Over 70 percent of Gen Z travelers choose authentic experience and culture over luxury hotels when creating their travel plans, and that same percentage of people seek out local experiences when traveling, such as art, music festivals, or food. One thing is clear, Gen Z is in dire need of immersing themselves in the real world, and travel is one way to do it.
In a world filled with overly accessible commerce, a world turning into a melting pot of items that claim to make our lives easier, the younger generation gets sucked into a never ending loop that claims individuality and buries it inside of us. Travel, for our generation, can be a means to dig it up from its grave. Travel is an outlet, a one-way ticket to a more broader perspective on the world, you can't Postmates a trip, or Doordash culture. You have to experience it. As this new generation gets older, the deep yearning inside all of us, the yearning for experience, value and meaning, will become ever more prevalent. It will push us to sides of the world we can't order from our phone, release us from the stagnation that is currently spreading in our bones like a poison, and help our generation see the real. We are a crisis, an epidemic, that leaves us in our homes to rot away. This new generation is dying for real, and as it gets worse and worse, the outlet of travel will only become a more relevant and accessible way to find meaning, to find real. In a world full of AI and social media, run by big corporations trying to make us buy into their battles so they can benefit, the newer generation will have no choice but to desperately summon the true parts of themselves. Empathy, love, kindness, awe, wonder, and translate it into their own reality. And maybe, that reality can be reached through experience, through travel.
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Small Destinations Respond to the Impact of TikTok-Driven Tourism Surges | CommsTrader. 4 Feb. 2025, https://commstrader.com/travel/small-destinations-respond-to-the-impact-of-tiktok-driven-tourism-surges/.
Burgen, Stephen. “Balearics Hit Back at ‘Selfie Tourism’ as Sites Become Overwhelmed.” The Guardian, 19 May 2025. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/19/balearics-hit-back-at-selfie-tourism-as-sites-become-overwhelmed.
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“AI Travel Apps: The Tools Redefining How We Plan Our Trips.” Lifewire, https://www.lifewire.com/ai-travel-apps-11679719. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.
30+ Gen Z Travel Statistics & Trends | TravelPerk. https://www.travelperk.com/blog/gen-z-travel-statistics-trends/. Accessed 7 Jul. 2025.