In 2024, tourism generated 10.9 trillion dollars, nearly 10 percent of global GDP, and is projected to reach 16.5 trillion dollars by 2035. AI in the tourism market is expected to grow from 3.4 billion dollars in 2024 to 13.9 billion dollars by 2030; destinations face a clear choice, evolve with coordinated AI adoption or risk fragmentation, inefficiency, and diminished traveler satisfaction.
Released ahead of the inaugural TOURISE Summit in Riyadh this November 11 to 13, 2025, the white paper offers a roadmap for public and private sector leaders to apply AI across five key dimensions: experience, operations, sustainability, wellbeing, and economic opportunity. The goal is to help destinations across the entire tourism ecosystem act now, scale responsibly, and remain human-centered.
A Coordinated Model for the Future of Travel
Agentic Tourism introduces a system of autonomous AI agents governed by people and shared standards. These agents are designed to deliver measurable impact. They aim to reduce wait times, boost satisfaction scores, increase eco-friendly bookings, and unlock new economic value. The model includes five agent archetypes:
- Experience Maximizer curates and adapts itineraries in real time, managing disruptions and enhancing personalization.
- Operations Optimizer balances staff, assets, and services to improve efficiency and reduce bottlenecks.
- Regeneration Guardian surfaces environmental and social impacts to promote responsible travel choices.
- Wellness Agent uses contextual data to support traveler health, comfort, and safety.
- Opportunity Connector matches visitors' interests to local networks, events, and collaborators to create economic value.
The white paper serves as a strategic playbook, helping tourism destinations, governments, operators, platforms, and communities implement these innovations without losing the human touch that defines meaningful travel.
"Agentic Tourism is not just a model. It is a movement and those who adopt it first will shape the trajectory of future sector disruption," said His Excellency Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Minister of Tourism and Chairman of the Board of TOURISE, "AI empowers every country to embrace an era that uplifts both established and emerging destinations, ensuring inclusive access for all. To accelerate innovation across tourism and its converging sectors, TOURISE will continue to collaborate with industry experts on a series of white papers presenting actionable data and high-impact research to address the sector's most pressing challenges."
"Tourism's next chapter will be championed by destinations that orchestrate technology around people, not the other way around," said Martín Migoya, CEO and Co-Founder atGlobant, "Agentic Tourism provides a blueprint to digitize end-to-end digital experiences so hosts, travel operators, and destinations can transform isolated innovations into interconnected, adaptive and meaningful interactions at every journey."
