European travelers favor speed over personalization, but trust in AI lags

By Olivia Hart

Fewer than one in four travelers in the U.K., France and Germany completely or mostly trust AI-generated travel results, according to Phocuswright research. The survey of 1,554 leisure travelers forms the basis of “Europe’s Trust Economy: Confidence as Travel’s Newest Competitive Advantage.”

Speed earns more consent than personalization

Speed, rather than personalization, produced the clearest willingness to share data among U.K. travelers. Forty-five percent are comfortable with travel companies storing travel documents and ID details to speed up check-in, while 47% accept storing profile and contact details for faster checkout.

The U.K. showed greater comfort with data sharing overall than France and Germany. By comparison, 37% of U.K. travelers are comfortable with search, browsing and purchase history being used to personalize their experience, compared with 31% in France and 28% in Germany.

Across the three countries, fewer than half of travelers are comfortable with a travel company storing their ID. Comfort falls further when that data feeds personalization the traveler cannot see, and even the highest disclosed acceptance level, 47%, remains below a majority.

What does this change for travel companies?

Operators need to exchange information for a visible benefit and explain the terms of that exchange. Pete Comeau, managing director of Phocuswright, put the principle plainly: “Ask for data only when the traveler can see what they get back, and show your work when AI makes a recommendation.”

For an airline, that can mean tying passport storage to a faster check-in rather than open-ended profiling. For other travel sellers, it means showing how stored details shape an offer and making recommendations easy to inspect.

The survey records stated comfort, not booking conversion, revenue or operating costs. It therefore supports a trust strategy, not a quantified return on data collection.

AI advice outpaces traveler trust

The findings also put distance between what AI can do and what travelers will accept. As agents begin searching and booking on travelers’ behalf, fewer than one in four people in each surveyed market completely or mostly trust AI-generated results.

Travelers want AI to organize options and explain trade-offs, yet still expect to verify, compare and override its recommendations. That makes explanation and user control central to service design.

German travelers showed more caution about data, while France posted the lowest trust among the three countries in each of the top four planning sources: friends and family, travel agents, traveler reviews and YouTube videos. Only 25% of French travelers trust traveler reviews, compared with 35% in the U.K.

The trust test moves to booking

Comeau’s forecast is direct: “The companies travelers trust with their data will be the ones that win the booking.” He said the conference will put that question to platforms, airlines, hotel groups and investors.

The Phocuswright Conference 2026 runs Nov. 17-19 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, under the theme “Pressures. Power. Pivots.” Its program will examine how AI agents, platform power and control of traveler identity reshape travel discovery, distribution and sales.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Omri Morgenshtern, CEO of Agoda.
• Brigit Zimmerman, CEO of Priceline.
• Bryan Batista, CEO of Skyscanner.
• John Mangelaars, CEO of Travelport.
• Matthew Upchurch, chairman and CEO of Virtuoso.
• Alfonso Paredes of Expedia Group.
• Chris Wilroy of Hilton.
• Evan Konwiser of American Express Global Business Travel.
• Senior leaders from Google, TikTok, United Airlines, the US Travel Association and other organizations.

As agents move from organizing options into booking, travel sellers will need to make both the data exchange and each recommendation’s reasoning visible. That transparency will shape whether traveler consent follows the booking.