On Feb. 21 in Nanchuan, Chongqing, a performer dressed as the God of Wealth mascot interacts with children. (Photo/Chongqing Daily)
Chongqing - Major travel platforms reported a sharp surge in AI-driven bookings over the Spring Festival holiday, with orders for cultural and tourism products jumping more than 800% from pre-holiday levels and AI-assisted scenic ticket purchases soaring 24-fold.
Platforms said AI has shifted from being an auxiliary tool to influencing travel decisions, while reshaping traffic distribution and marketing logic in the sector.
“During this year’s Spring Festival holiday, orders for catering, flights, and hotels placed through AI saw explosive growth,” a person from Fliggy, a Chinese travel platform under Alibaba, said. Fliggy AI, launched in March last year, integrates the DeepSeek-R1 and Tongyi Qwen models and can generate personalized routes while enabling one-click booking for flights and tickets. The company said Hangzhou, Shanghai, Chongqing, Wuhan, and Zhengzhou were among the most popular destinations for AI-assisted hotel bookings.
Data from DeepTrip, the travel agent of Tongcheng Travel, showed that transportation-related queries accounted for about 57.4 percent of user questions, followed by attraction-related inquiries at about 20 percent and local Spring Festival customs at about 12.9 percent. Trip.com Group said the proportion of users planning trips with AI in 2025 increased by 270 percent.
For example, after entering a request for a three-day spring flower-viewing trip with a budget of 3,000 yuan (about 438 U.S. dollars) on an online travel platform, a user received a complete itinerary within seconds, including booking links for flights, hotels, attractions, and dining, along with clothing suggestions and travel tips. “The plan even thoughtfully included clothing suggestions, photography equipment, and safety precautions,” she said. “It was incredibly convenient.”
As AI becomes a new traffic gateway, marketing strategies are adjusting. Research cited by industry observers shows that on some AI platforms, the top three scenic spots on an answer page account for more than 80 percent of bookings, while those not included in recommendations see average traffic declines of about two-thirds.
“Changing traditional conceptions and carrying out scientific data feeding is the key,” said Li Yongming, president of the Chongqing Tourism and Culture Academy. He said the traditional chain of advertising, click generation, and conversion is being disrupted.
Zhang Dawei, a regional manager from Trip.com Group, said the core of being recommended by AI is becoming “the most trustworthy answer” in the system’s assessment. This includes structuring information on transportation, accommodation, itineraries, and costs into clear Q&A formats, using high-frequency keywords to improve capture rates, citing official or third-party data to enhance credibility, and ensuring consistent distribution across multiple platforms.
At the local level, Chongqing has accelerated the integration of AI and cultural tourism. Nan’an District recently released an opportunity list of AI-empowered cultural tourism projects. Youyang District also held a digital cultural tourism launch event to showcase the integration of AI technology with local tourism resources.
“In Chongqing, the Digital Chongqing framework and artificial intelligence empower each other, providing a broad space for AI development,” an official with the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Culture and Tourism Development said. “AI is irreversibly changing the tourism industry,” the official added.