- Adobe sees big growth in AI referrals to travel sites
- Rich, structured content is the best way to ensure AI engine visibility
- Hotels lead, airlines fall short of being fully accessible to LLMs
Combined traffic analytics and market research has led Adobe to observe a 194% year-over-year increase in traffic to US travel websites, and an even more astounding 2,215% increase since it first began tracking AI referrals in October 2024.
The data suggests that AI is being used for much more than research, as its applications span planning, recommendations, packaging and even budgeting.
With 86% of travelers believing AI has improved their travel planning experience, it’s clear that consumers are finding better recommendations, producing more personalized itineraries and accessing cheaper fares, making it a go-to for financially savvy consumers.
AI traffic to travel sites reveals an important trend
While AI traffic still converts about 28% worse than traditional traffic, Adobe says this is changing, with the gap narrowing by nearly 70% since October 2024. Now, AI-referred users spend 70% longer on sites, are 21% more engaged, and have 41% lower bounce rates, which translates into more purchase intent.
With this in mind, travel websites must capitalize on this new type of traffic by optimizing pages for LLMs. Adobe says “rich, structured content” is to thank for the levels of success hotel websites have already seen, but airline websites are lagging behind.
Adobe used its own AI Content Visibility Checker metrics to reveal that hotels and car rental companies perform best across both the homepage and product pages, but even then, about a third of the content is still unreadable by AI.
“As consumer adoption of AI tools accelerates, brands must ensure their digital presence is not only engaging for humans, but also fully accessible to machines,” the company summarized.
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