Survey: AI hallucinated journey locations for 1 in 6 customers

Oftentimes, to plan a trip, you Google where you want to go. Now it’s asking AI chatbots. Yet in a new study by travel concierge company Greetwell, 1 in 6 AI-using travelers were recommended a place, tour or activity that wasn’t real. More than half of AI users (55%) hit at least one bad recommendation of any kind.

AI is being adopted throughout all parts of life, and can plan trips in seconds with less effort on the searcher. Deloitte’s 2026 travel research shows that AI use for travel rose from 15% to 25% in a year.

So why is it sending travelers to places that don’t exist?

AI Is Great For Planning, Not So Much for Booking

The survey says that a little over half (53%) of respondents have used AI or tried AI for travel. But that trust vanishes when it comes to making actual reservations.

The human touch is still wanted. AI has many benefits when it comes to travel planning, which is still fragmented across traditional search. Yet when it comes to reliable recommendations, humans are still the better source of information.

Methodology

Greetwell commissioned an online survey in August 2026 of 1,000 U.S. adults. These adults took at least one overnight leisure trip in the past 12 months. Out of that base, 485 people used or tried AI for travel. That subgroup is the base for the accuracy and the trust-gap findings. Percentages in the study used respondent-level weights and may not sum to 100% due to rounding.

This story was produced by Greetwell and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

Copyright 2026 Stacker Media, LLC

This story was initially revealed September 15, 2026 at 5:00 AM.