Young travelers transitioning to AI trip planning in Southeast Asia

By 2027, the Southeast Asia travel market will total $73 billion in bookings, according to Phocuswright’s latest research report Southeast Asia Travel Market Report 2023-2027.

Southeast Asia's booking pathway is online, increasingly mobile and with a high potential to be influenced and/or disrupted by artificial intelligence agents and applications.

As Southeast Asia confronts new supply and demand dynamics, the role of machine learning and generative artificial intelligence tools in a region that prides itself on quick adoption of nascent technologies is a hot industry talking point. The steep upward trajectory of online penetration, which is set to rise from 62% in 2023 to 74% in 2027, hides complex trends that are unfolding across the region's polarizing demographics.  

Young travelers are already transitioning to AI trip-planning and concierge apps and crypto payments. On-demand is everything, and travel booking tools must keep pace with ever-more diverse drivers of decision making and a me-first mindset forged from voracious use of lifestyle services apps.

The outlook for travel distribution reflects these factors. In 2026, online gross travel bookings are forecast to pass $50 billion for the first time, and will surpass $54 billion by 2027.

Branded e-payments and social commerce also form part of mobile-centric daily life. Many of these innovations are influenced by Chinese mobile consumer technology, and although the speed of transition toward cashless economies doesn't yet match Shanghai or Beijing, the pace is stepping up.

Mobile share of online bookings is forecast to exceed 50% for the first time in 2026. Projected mobile gross bookings of $29.2 billion in 2027 would be more than four times greater than in 2022.

Widespread use of mobile apps and, increasingly generative AI tools, influences the ways young people access and consume travel content, and the speed with which they make booking decisions.

Travel suppliers and intermediaries know on-demand bookers expect high-quality service, including fast, touchless transactions using the same e-payment formats they use daily online and offline.