Every year, Google brings together its largest travel advertisers in EMEA for Think Travel. This year’s event took place in Dublin, under the theme “Now boarding, what’s next?”. The message was clear: the AI era in travel has arrived, and advertisers who get their data, feeds and AI Max setup right will win.
We were there. Here are the key takeaways from Google Think Travel 2026, and what you can do with them tomorrow as a hotel, holiday park, tour operator or attraction.
Table of contents
Discovery and booking are merging
The common thread of the day: inspiration and decision are turning into a single moment. Google wants brands to spark the dream on YouTube and then make booking effortless on Search, built on strong data and AI Max.
Google calls today’s traveller the “super empowered traveller”. The numbers show why:
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Monthly AI Overviews users | 2.5 billion+ |
| Monthly AI Mode users | 1 billion+ |
| Query length in AI Mode vs classic search | 2 to 3x longer |
| Consumers worldwide using YouTube daily | 60% |
| Long-form sponsored video viewership kept into month two | 65%+ |
Those longer, conversational searches are good news: according to Google, clicks from them convert better.
Two things decide who wins
1. Data strength. A robust measurement setup, connected first-party data and as many signals as possible. As Google put it: garbage in, garbage out. The better your data, the better the AI works for you.
2. AI Max. AI Max matches your ads to any relevant query, adapts the ad copy to the search and sends users to the most relevant landing page. That is how you capture the longer queries that keep growing.
Google positions YouTube as the inspiration layer on top. It ranks first for ad attention compared with streaming, social and linear TV, and its content stays relevant for a long time.
The main product announcements
- Search campaigns for travel. Combines Search and travel formats (booking links, travel promotion ads) into one campaign under AI Max, with smart bidding, keyword targeting, auction insights and data-driven attribution. Live for car rentals, vacation rentals, events and things to do. Hotels are coming soon.
- Feeds everywhere. Feeds power Search, AI Mode and Gemini. Google calls pricing, availability and property data “essential AI fuel”, with a strict price accuracy policy. Live and expanding.
- Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). The technical route to agentic checkout: completing a booking inside Gemini. Feeds drive discovery, UCP handles the transaction. In development.
- Demand Gen with travel feeds. Travel-specific inventory on YouTube Shorts and connected TV, proven to lift hotel conversions. Live for hotels, with things to do next.
- Google Tag Gateway. Moves tracking into a first-party setup. Live.
- Enhanced conversions. Uses hashed first-party data to recover conversions when cookies are missing. Live.
What Accor and Iberostar showed
Accor (Mercure) with Publicis
Accor was present at the end of the customer journey but missed the inspiration phase. The approach: YouTube to create demand, Demand Gen with feeds to keep users engaged, and Performance Max, Search and Apps to convert, all measured as one journey.
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Unique users reached | 8.2 million |
| Video completion rate | 73% |
| Brand awareness | +9% |
| Search uplift | +18% |
| Booking likelihood when exposed to 2+ campaign types | 3x higher |
Next up for Accor: geo experiments to prove incrementality, building towards a scalable playbook for all its brands.
Iberostar
Iberostar faced a familiar problem: brand search is profitable, but it cannot fix occupancy. It only moves existing demand around, or as it was put on stage, “moving apples from one basket to another”.
The approach: generic destination keywords with AI Max and target ROAS bidding.
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| CTR | +18% |
| Profitability | +30% |
| CPC | Much lower |
| Conversion value for the destination | +6% |
Iberostar is now taking the same approach to new destinations such as Aruba, Zanzibar and Jamaica.
More insights worth knowing
- The connection economy. Kenneth Cukier (The Economist) showed that people increasingly pay for relationships and connection. As AI takes over routine tasks, human touchpoints build loyalty and word of mouth.
- Fan-out queries. AI Mode splits one query into dozens, sometimes more than 100 sub-queries. Strong web content and optimised search assets increase the chance of being surfaced, also by agents. We covered this earlier in Your customer picks their holiday via ChatGPT, do they book there too?
- Budgets. Replace fixed budgets with guardrails: target CPA or ROAS, breakeven points, lifetime value, new versus returning customers. If every customer is profitable at a given cost, a cap only limits growth.
- YouTube creative. Start with a clear audience, think mobile first for Shorts, and reuse existing media or sponsorship assets, extended with AI variations.
7 things you can do now
- Put feed quality first. Accurate pricing, availability and property data drive your visibility across Search, AI Mode, Gemini and Demand Gen.
- Test AI Max on generic, non-brand campaigns, especially if you have occupancy gaps. Iberostar is a strong reference.
- Explore Search campaigns for travel if you work in vacation rentals or things to do, where they are already live.
- Plan Search, Demand Gen and YouTube as one connected journey. Exposure to multiple formats sharply increases booking likelihood.
- Add Google Tag Gateway and enhanced conversions to the checklist for every account.
- Consider moving from fixed budgets to ROAS or CPA guardrails where margins allow.
- Keep an eye on agentic booking. UCP and checkout in Gemini will make feed and landing page quality even more important.
Ready for what's next?
Google Think Travel 2026 made one thing clear: brands that want to be visible in 2027 start now with data, feeds and a journey that connects inspiration and booking. The technology is ready. The difference lies in how well you set it up.
Curious what AI Max, feeds and Demand Gen could do for your brand? We’re happy to review your Google accounts with you.
Source: Red Online Marketing’s own notes from Google Think Travel 2026, Dublin.
