China and South Korea Keep Pace With Many Asian Markets as AI Travel Adoption Challenges Traditional Agents

Written By: Ankita Neogi Khan

Ankita Neogi Khan

With over 15 years of experience in digital media, I bring a strong foundation in language, journalism, and storytelling to travel reporting. A graduate in English (Honours) from Presidency College with a Master's in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Calcutta, I began my career as a content curator before transitioning into travel journalism. I specialise in aviation, tourism trends, destination news, and industry insights, combining meticulous research, accuracy, and compelling storytelling to deliver credible, engaging, and insightful content for a global audience.

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September 11, 2026 09:58 GMT+5:30

Asia’s travel economy is entering a new phase as artificial intelligence moves from inspiration to itinerary planning and booking decisions. China and India currently lead the world in AI-assisted travel inspiration, with 44% and 42% of travellers using AI chat tools respectively. Across Asia Pacific, 49% of travellers use AI to discover destinations and travel ideas. The transformation is also reaching travel companies, with 79% of APAC travel businesses already using AI. Yet adoption remains uneven, and human agents retain an edge in complex, high-value journeys. The emerging picture is therefore not an AI-versus-agent showdown. It is a rapid shift towards hybrid travel planning, where algorithms handle discovery while people still provide judgement, reassurance and accountability.

Asia’s Travel Discovery Engine Is Changing

The most revealing shift is happening before travellers even reach a booking page. Booking.com’s 2026 Travel Trends research found that China and India are the strongest markets for AI chat tools in travel inspiration. Usage reached 44% in China and 42% in India, far exceeding many Western markets.

However, AI has not displaced established discovery channels. Chinese and Indian travellers also showed exceptionally high use of social media, search engines and travel booking websites. That suggests AI is becoming another layer in the research journey rather than a clean replacement for existing channels.

The broader Asia-Pacific picture reinforces that interpretation. Visa’s 2026 Global Travel Intentions research found that 49% of regional travellers use AI to discover destinations and ideas. Another 41% use it to collect reviews and recommendations, while 35% use it to discover local tours and experiences.

The numbers reveal an important distinction. Travellers are embracing AI most strongly at the front end of the journey, where choices are abundant and information is fragmented. Booking remains a more consequential step, where price accuracy, cancellation terms and trust become critical.

India Turns AI Curiosity Into Intent

India has emerged as one of the clearest examples of accelerating adoption. Agoda’s 2026 Travel Outlook found that 33% of Indian travellers already use AI for travel planning, while 68% said they were likely to use it for their next trip. That creates a substantial gap between present behaviour and future intent.

The intended applications are also unusually broad. Some 38% want AI to recommend local attractions and activities, while 37% want personalised itineraries. Destination suggestions attracted 29% of respondents, followed by dining recommendations at 23% and budget management at 22%.

Trust remains comparatively resilient. Agoda found that 53% of Indian respondents trust AI-generated travel information, while another 36% remain neutral. Only 12% expressed distrust. That means the technology is moving beyond novelty for a substantial part of India’s digitally active travel audience.

India’s public tourism infrastructure is also exploring this transition. A 2025 parliamentary response from the Ministry of Tourism noted that states and Union Territories are being encouraged to incorporate technology into tourism projects. The ministry specifically referenced AI-enabled visitor experiences, including virtual guides, crowd prediction and multilingual chatbots.

For travellers, that matters because the next stage may involve destination-level AI, rather than simply asking a general chatbot for an itinerary. Official tourism information, transport conditions and attraction data could increasingly feed personalised travel assistance.

Vietnam Leads the Regional Adoption Race

Vietnam presents one of the strongest adoption signals among the Asian markets covered by Agoda’s comparable research. 81% of Vietnamese travellers said they were likely to use AI to plan their next trip, making Vietnam the strongest market in that survey. Yet trust remains more cautious, with 28% trusting AI-generated information, 59% neutral and 13% distrustful.

That contrast is particularly revealing. High usage does not automatically mean high confidence. Travellers can find AI useful while still checking its recommendations against other sources. Vietnam’s national tourism authorities have themselves highlighted AI’s growing role in planning and the need for digital tourism ecosystems.

The country’s digital direction is also becoming more institutionalised. Vietnam’s 2026–2030 digital economy programme identifies data and AI as important foundations for development. Tourism is among the sectors expected to expand digital applications and personalised visitor experiences.

That creates a potentially important model for emerging destinations. AI can help lesser-known attractions reach travellers who might never have encountered them through conventional destination marketing.

Southeast Asia Builds A Wider AI Footprint

Vietnam is not alone. Indonesia and Thailand each recorded 69% of respondents saying they were likely to use AI for their next trip in Agoda’s 2026 Travel Outlook research. Malaysia followed at 59%, while South Korea reached 62%.

The country comparison shows why a single Asian ranking can be misleading. Thailand’s AI-ready travellers also showed strong trust, with 57% trusting AI-generated information. Indonesia recorded 50% trust and only 6% distrust. Malaysia had 36% trust and 52% neutrality.

These figures come from the same Agoda survey framework, making them particularly useful for comparison. They also expose a striking divide between AI intent and AI confidence across Asian markets.

Thailand is meanwhile moving beyond consumer experimentation. The Tourism Authority of Thailand launched an enhanced Amazing Thailand app in 2026 with AI-driven assistance. The national platform is designed to support visitors while strengthening destination competitiveness and digital tourism delivery.

TAT has also expanded cooperation around travel intelligence and digital platforms. Its work with Agoda focuses on traveller insights, targeted marketing and emerging destinations. A separate three-year partnership with AirAsia MOVE aims to connect traveller data with destination promotion across Thailand.

Japan Shows Why Adoption Needs Context

Japan provides the most useful counterweight to the regional acceleration. Agoda found that only 29% of Japanese travellers were likely to use AI for their next trip, while 44% said they were unlikely to do so. Just 28% trusted AI-generated information, while 53% remained neutral and 20% expressed distrust.

Yet this does not mean Japan is technologically disconnected from AI travel. Criteo’s July 2026 travel research found that 48% of Japanese travellers used AI when identifying possible destinations, while 45% used it for overall trip planning. AI use for flight booking was only 19%.

The apparent contradiction comes from methodology and question design. One study measures likelihood to use AI on a future trip, while another examines specific planning activities. Together, they suggest Japanese travellers may be experimenting with AI while remaining more cautious about relying on it for consequential decisions.

That is an important lesson for the wider industry. AI usage should never be treated as a single metric. Discovery, planning, booking and autonomous action represent different levels of adoption.

South Korea Bridges Planning And Action

South Korea sits closer to the faster-moving end of the spectrum. Agoda found that 62% of South Korean travellers were likely to use AI for their next trip. However, only 38% trusted AI-generated information, while 49% remained neutral.

That combination points towards a hybrid behaviour. Travellers appear willing to use AI as a planning assistant without necessarily surrendering final judgement to it.

Criteo’s broader 2026 research also shows that AI’s strongest influence remains around discovery and planning. Globally, 40% of travellers use AI to explore destinations, 41% use it to plan activities and nearly 30% use it for full-trip planning.

The lesson for hotels, airlines and destination marketers is straightforward. Being visible inside AI-assisted discovery may become as important as ranking well in traditional search.

Travel Companies Are Moving Even Faster

Consumer adoption is only half of the transformation. The industry’s own technological shift may prove more consequential.

Expedia Group’s 2026 APAC research found that 79% of travel businesses already use AI, while 97% plan to use it in the future. The applications span customer service, content, pricing and other commercial functions.

That includes the very businesses traditionally positioned between travellers and suppliers. Expedia’s research specifically covers airlines, hotels and travel agencies alongside other travel businesses. AI is therefore entering the distribution system itself.

Agoda’s own products illustrate the progression. Its AI-powered Booking Form Bot was introduced to answer last-minute booking questions during checkout. Agoda says internal research found 28% of users return to property pages from the booking page to re-check details.

The significance is subtle but important. AI is no longer restricted to dreaming up a holiday. It is beginning to address transactional friction, including cancellation rules, promotional eligibility and price questions.

Human Agents Still Own The Hard Problems

The evidence does not support a straightforward collapse of traditional travel agencies. Instead, AI appears strongest where the traveller faces information overload, while humans remain valuable when mistakes carry greater financial or emotional consequences.

This creates a different future for agents. Rather than competing with AI over basic research, agencies can concentrate on complexity, access, negotiation, expertise and accountability.

That may actually strengthen the premium end of the agency market. Travellers can use AI to narrow choices, then pay specialists to execute journeys where the cost of failure is high.

The New Traveller Will Mix Both Systems

For travellers, the most sensible response is not to choose between an algorithm and an agent. AI can rapidly generate options, identify lesser-known destinations and organise large amounts of information. However, travellers should independently verify visa requirements, cancellation conditions, operating schedules and safety information.

This is especially important because AI can produce confident but incorrect information. Official immigration authorities, tourism boards, airlines and airports should remain the final reference for operational requirements.

Travellers can also use AI more effectively by giving it constraints. Budget, travel dates, mobility needs, preferred pace, dietary requirements and interests produce more useful recommendations than vague prompts.

The best workflow is therefore AI for breadth, trusted sources for verification and humans for complexity.

Asia’s Adoption Map Is Not A Race

The evidence points towards several distinct AI travel markets rather than one regional winner.

The rankings should therefore be read as behavioural signals rather than a definitive league table. Survey populations, questions and collection methods differ, while consumer intent can change rapidly.

What is already clear is that AI travel adoption in Asia is moving beyond a novelty phase. The most important shift is not that travellers have discovered chatbots. It is that AI is becoming woven into the wider travel decision journey.

The Booking Page Is The Next Battleground

The next phase will likely be decided at the point where inspiration meets money. Criteo’s 2026 research shows that AI already influences discovery and planning, while its Japanese findings show a much smaller role in flight booking.

That gap represents the industry’s biggest opportunity. Travel companies must convince customers that AI recommendations are not only personalised, but also accurate, commercially transparent and safe to act upon.

The emerging model is therefore neither purely automated nor traditionally agent-led. Asia is moving towards an augmented travel journey, where AI handles the cognitive workload and humans intervene when judgement matters most.

For travellers, that could mean faster research, more personalised itineraries and greater access to overlooked destinations. For travel businesses, it means the competition will increasingly begin before a customer reaches a traditional booking website.

The decisive question is no longer whether AI will replace travel agents. It is which parts of the travel agent’s role travellers will still value enough to retain a human.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Which Asian countries are adopting AI for travel fastest?

China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand show particularly strong AI travel adoption or future-use intent.

2. How are travellers using AI for trip planning?

Travellers mainly use AI for destination ideas, personalised itineraries, attraction recommendations, reviews and activity discovery.

3. Is AI replacing traditional travel agents?

Not yet. AI handles routine planning well, while agents remain valuable for complex, luxury and high-stakes journeys.

4. Do Asian travellers trust AI-generated travel information?

Trust varies sharply by market. Many travellers use AI while still verifying its recommendations through trusted sources.

5. What does AI mean for the future of travel?

Travel is moving towards a hybrid model, with AI handling research and personalisation while humans provide expertise and accountability.