Janelle Visser

Think back to one of your most memorable travel experiences: how many people were you with? If you’re like most travelers, your best memories will likely be those made in a small group, those that felt the most personal. According to the latest Arival research, travelers increasingly remember — and seek out — experiences with smaller, even private, groups.

Most of the talk around AI in travel experiences recently has been on its impact on discovery — people using AI to find things to do and plan their trips. However, it’s quickly coming for the next step: booking. For some, it’s already there. A new Google integration with Viator is making Viator’s catalogue of tour, activity and attraction products available for booking directly in the Gemini AI chat interface.

The travel industry has been buzzing about self-guided tours for several years. Arival has identified dozens of self-guided tour platforms, new startups continue to enter the market and AI only accelerates entrepreneur interest in the category. But while self-guided tech continues to evolve, where travelers are actually using self-guided experiences is perhaps more interesting — and somewhat unexpected. For traditional self-guided walking tours, demand has been fairly stable.