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The way people choose a holiday is shifting, and it's shifting fastest among the youngest guests. They don't just pick a place to sleep. They pick what they're going to do. And more and more, they ask an AI assistant instead of a search bar.
For a holiday park that mostly sells nights, that gap keeps getting wider.
Key takeaways
- For most travelers, activities and experiences are a fixed part of the holiday budget, and younger guests plan more of them.
- Researching and planning a trip with AI is becoming normal, in the Netherlands too.
- A reservation system sells nights. It was never built to understand what guests want to do.
- The answer isn't a new reservation system. It's an experience layer on top of the one you have.
Doing beats sleeping
In Tripadvisor's 2025 Summer Travel Index, 83% of travelers surveyed said activities and experiences are an important part of their vacation budget. Gen Z is also more likely to plan six or more activities than older travelers: 14% versus 9% on average (Tripadvisor, 2025). The survey covers American travelers, but many parks see the same pattern in their own guests.
Planning with AI is going mainstream
How people plan is changing too. In October 2025, OpenAI launched apps in ChatGPT, with Booking.com and Expedia among the first travel partners. Users can now search and compare places to stay in the middle of a conversation (OpenAI, 2025). The first rollout was outside the EU, but the direction is clear: a growing share of guests start their holiday with a question, not a search query.
The shift is visible in the Netherlands too. 26% of Dutch people now use AI to plan their holidays, twice as many as a year earlier, led by younger generations (ANWB, 2026). The habit is spreading, and it's opening a gap between what guests expect and what most parks offer digitally.
Why this matters for your park
Most holiday parks run on systems that do one thing well: sell nights. A reservation system is excellent at availability, rates and bookings. But it was never designed to understand what a guest wants, hold a conversation or suggest the right activity at the right moment.
Once the booking is confirmed, the conversation often goes quiet. That's exactly when this generation expects it to start: what to do today, where to go tomorrow, where to eat tonight.
An experience layer, not a rip-and-replace
The good news: the gap isn't in your reservation system, so you don't need to replace it. The gap is in the layer above it. The part that talks to guests, understands what they want and activates the right experience through your website, your app and WhatsApp.
Done well, that layer turns "we have 40 activities" into "this is the activity you'll get the most out of today, given the weather and your kids' ages." That's the language this generation already hears everywhere else in their lives.
Your youngest guests already plan their lives on a screen that talks back. What does your park sound like when they ask it a question?
Sources
Raymond Pennings Raymond is Guest Experience & Strategy at GleeGuide and a long-time experience entrepreneur. He connects guest experience, commercial value and technology, and is the first point of contact for parks and hotels exploring AI and experiential commerce.
