Social Media Never Cracked Travel Booking. Agentic AI Could Face a Similar Problem

As a new wave of AI-powered platforms promises to automate trip-planning and booking, there’s a long history worth paying attention to. For more than a decade, travel brands have tried — and failed — to turn social media into a place to book vacations.

Consumers spend hours every day on social platforms, but they still overwhelmingly book trips via online travel agencies like Booking.com and Expedia, or directly with airlines and hotels.

As far back as 2010, Delta Air Lines put a booking widget on Facebook. And some thought Kayak would disrupt travel booking when it started to take bookings instead of handing off to partner websites. The efforts never took hold.

Even Google abandoned its Book on Google feature for flights and hotels several years ago after low adoption from both partners and travelers. That happened despite Google having an edge: Google users, especially those using its google.com/travel portal, tend to be closer to booking tha