More than 90% of online travel conversations happen before the trip.
Fewer than 10% come once travelers are home. After sharing a photo or two and retelling a favorite story, most folks are already talking about where to go next.
Much of the pleasure of travel lies in the deciding. The trip is the smaller event. The months in front of it are the larger ones.
Which makes it strange that the travel industry is now encouraging us to hand that part to AI.
What we were hired to find
Before my career in academia, I ran a Chicago-based digital and word-of-mouth marketing agency. One of the leading online travel sites came to us with a request: help them understand where, how, and why people are talking about travel online, and what would encourage them to recommend their site over competitors.
We had specialized tools that let us collect and analyze what people were saying in blogs, social media, and other digital channels about travel almost anywhere in the world.
Almost all the commentary was about trips that had not happened yet. The planning phase. Where they were thinking of going. Whether ten days was enough. What was worth seeing once they got there, and what everyone said was worth seeing but wasn't. People were pouring hours into trips that were still months away. And they clearly got great pleasure from the planning.
Then the trip happened, and the conversation stopped.
A study from 1997
Researchers found the same thing before any of us were doing much posting online.
Terence Mitchell, a management professor at the University of Washington, and three colleagues followed people through a holiday in Europe, a Thanksgiving vacation, and a three-week bicycle ride through California, asking how everyone felt beforehand, during, and afterward.
Expectation beat the experience. Memory beat the experience. The trip itself came in last, dragged down by ordinary life refusing to stop.
The trip is where the material comes from. You cannot look forward to something you have no intention of doing, or remember a place you have never been.
The part being automated
Global Rescue, which surveys experienced international travelers, found AI use for trip planning rose from 22% in January 2026 to 36% by midsummer. Most of that involves destination research and itinerary planning; however, 79% say they would be uncomfortable letting AI book flights, hotels, or activities without their approval.
This year's industry forecast is for software that books and rebooks on your behalf while you get on with your life. Expedia puts the ambition plainly in its pitch to partners: people don't dream about bookings; they dream about moments.
They are right. That is exactly what people dream about, and it is the part now being compressed into four seconds. We were once hired to get people more involved in planning their travel. The business is now figuring out how to get them to do less of it.
What to keep
It's tempting to make travel planning as quick and easy as possible. Just know that giving it away costs you one of the best parts of the trip. There is a sensible version of this, and we use it ourselves. Turn over the visa rules, the connection times, and whether the museum is shut on Mondays. Nobody looks forward to deciphering a train timetable.
Keep the reading. The book about the place written by somebody who lived there, started in October for a trip in April.
Keep talking and asking. Write to the friend who spent a week somewhere and ask what you should not miss. People love being asked, and we all love sharing our hard-earned travel insights.
Book earlier than you need to. An early booking turns a vague wish into something with a date on it, and something with a date on it can be looked forward to for months.
You probably already have a trip on your calendar, months out and mostly unplanned. Whatever you felt just now, thinking about it, is the beginning of the trip.
