(Credit: Ron Buskirk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
You may want a vacation from AI, but first, Google would like you to try using AI to plan your vacation. The company's annual search trends for summer travel tout rising interest in leveraging AI tools to plan trips—and tip expanded availability of some of its own AI travel features.
A blog post published Friday on search trends reported a 350% growth in search interest for “AI travel assistant” and “AI concierge” since 2025, and a 315% jump in queries about using AI to book flights over the last month alone.
Another post highlighted Google’s efforts to provide those travel tools; it suggests using the Canvas feature of its AI Mode search to customize an itinerary based on your description of an ideal stay in a place. As with any AI chatbot, you should not accept those answers uncritically.
Once you’re there, Google recommends employing the new Gemini-powered Ask Maps feature to find restaurants and then book reservations without leaving Google Maps if you’re in the US or India. You can also get to that feature in your browser via AI mode in those two countries; in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the UK, it’s an AI Mode-only option).
And if you realize you forgot to pack something, Google notes that you can use AI Mode and its Duplex automated-calling tool to ask if nearby stores have it in stock. (As a frequent traveler, I’m pretty sure the closest drug store to your hotel will, in fact, have deodorant and toothpaste.)
Finally, this post advertises an upgrade to one non-AI travel tool: the hotel price-tracking feature that it rolled out in the US last year can now monitor rates at individual properties around the world, not just at the city level.
A Month-Long Stay in St. Maarten, Anyone?
Google also lists the top 10 international and domestic destinations with the most search growth in Google Flights queries compared with a year ago. St. Maarten tops the international list, but not for its first-class planespotting available on the beach just in front of Princess Juliana International Airport. Instead, Google’s search data suggest people were most interested in ziplining on that Caribbean island.
In the US, Kansas City topped Google’s list; in the last month, its search data showed the Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium and the Regnier Family Wonderscope Children's Museum drawing the most interest. Sensibly, people searched for BBQ options there, too.
Finally, it covers broader interests Google discerned from travel queries, some of them contradictory: Search interest in both solo travel and group travel reached record highs. And we’re more interested than ever in “slow travel”—meaning an extended sojourn somewhere, with a “month-long hotel stay” and “month-long yoga retreat”, the past month’s top month-long queries. We have to ask: a month-long vacation? In this economy?
Editors’ Note: We updated this post to clarify descriptions of Google’s hotel- and restaurant-booking tools.