The acquisition model that built online travel is shifting. Google cost-per-clicks keep rising. AI assistants are capturing the discovery layer, summarizing reviews, prices, and itineraries before a traveller ever reaches a booking page. For most travel platforms, the economics of search-driven distribution are getting harder, not easier.
In response to these changes, TourRadar is launching Hosted Trips. The product gives creators and travel agents everything they need to convert their existing audiences and client bases into confirmed multi-day travel bookings through dedicated, bookable departures, powered by TourRadar’s booking and trust infrastructure: a curated departure page, integrated payments, operator fulfilment, and over 300,000 verified traveller reviews.
Travel agents want to travel with their customers. Creators want to take their followers on the trips they post about. Hosted Trips makes both possible. The host shares a link, fills a departure, and travels alongside the group while an expert operator guide runs the itinerary. TourRadar handles everything else.
As for why it matters, platforms whose moat was discovery and aggregation are finding it eroded by AI tools that summarize the same information instantly. Platforms with deeper operational layers are finding that AI amplifies their advantages rather than replacing them.
TourRadar sits on the operational side: payment orchestration across 2,500 operators in 160+ countries, multi-currency transactions, booking guarantees, and verified operator relationships. Behind that is cross-border financial infrastructure handling settlements, fraud protection, and regulatory requirements across every market. That infrastructure cannot be replicated by a creator with a Stripe account and a spreadsheet, or by an AI assistant summarizing reviews.
TourRadar’s internal data on user-generated content reinforces the thesis:
- Tours with Moments (short-form video from real trips) convert 29% higher than tours without
- 85% of bookings occur on tours that carry at least one verified traveler review. Travellers overwhelmingly choose listings backed by real feedback over those without.
- Mobile app users who view two or more Moments are twice as likely to book
Hosts add another layer of trust: travellers book with someone they already know and follow. In return, hosts earn commission from the travelers they bring, plus trailing commission from the content they create on trip.
As Travis Pittman, co-founder and CEO of TourRadar, explains it: “In a world where AI can summarize any review and surface any itinerary, what actually makes a travel platform valuable? We think the answer is two things working together. First, user-generated content from real people on real trips, because that is the only form of trust AI cannot manufacture. Second, the operational infrastructure that makes a booking possible: secure payments & settlements, trusted operators, and the systems that turn intent into a confirmed departure. You need both. Content without infrastructure is a social media post. Infrastructure without content is a booking engine nobody finds.”
Pittman continues: “We have spent more than a decade building that infrastructure. Hosted Trips puts it in the hands of anyone with an engaged audience or client base. Creators bring their social audiences. Travel agents bring their customers. They monetize through Hosted Trip bookings, then travel on real trips and create real content. As that content is shared and discovered, their monetization deepens – with listings featuring user-generated video converting 29 percent higher than listings without it.”
And he adds: “Last year we launched our MCP server to make our full inventory accessible to AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude. Hosted Trips is the human side of the equation. And we’re just getting started.”
Hosted Trips builds on TourRadar’s RISE Partner Program, launched in August 2025, which has onboarded more than 4,000 partners and generated over 5,000 Moments across the platform. RISE has paid out more than USD $175,000 in collaborations, flights, and travel credits, with the highest monthly commission earned by a single partner reaching USD $2,500. The first wave of fifteen Hosted Trips are already scheduled. CEO Travis Pittman will lead the first departure, a seven-day Iceland itinerary in March 2026 (tourradar.com/t/335347), to experience the product from the host’s perspective firsthand.
Go to www.tourradar.com .
