/* Aljaweea — footer "Cookie Preferences" link opens the Complianz banner.
* Original by Digency (19 Aug 2026); amended 8 Sep 2026, runbook 5.14:
* - e.preventDefault() so the href="#" no longer scrolls the page to the top;
* - calls Complianz's own cmplz_set_banner_status('show') and falls back to
* clicking the (hidden) Manage-consent button if that function is absent.
* Rollback: restore the original 12-line version recorded in the runbook. */
document.addEventListener('click', function (e) {
var link = e.target.closest('.cmplz-show-banner');
if (!link) { return; }
e.preventDefault();
if (typeof cmplz_set_banner_status === 'function') {
cmplz_set_banner_status('show');
} else {
document.querySelectorAll('.cmplz-manage-consent').forEach(function (btn) { btn.click(); });
}
});
The air travel sector is gradually changing as travellers use generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude during the early stages of trip planning.
Globally, these tools are becoming more influential in building itineraries, suggesting destinations, and analysing flight options. However, data on their adoption by Arab travellers is limited and relies mainly on broad regional indicators in digital transformation.
Phocuswright provides the data and insights travel leaders need to power great decisions.
Generative AI and Advanced Travel Planning
Phocuswright, a travel and tourism market research platform, reports that generative AI is increasingly shaping the pre-booking phase, especially in filtering travel options, comparing ticket prices, and analysing itineraries. However, there is no precise data yet on its direct impact on decisions such as selecting transit options or completing bookings.
The official logo for Skift Research, a premier provider of data and insights for the global travel industry.
AI’s Limit: The Booking Execution Gap
On a global level, Skift Research, which focuses on the travel and hospitality sector, confirmed that the use of generative AI tools is primarily concentrated in the inspiration and planning phases.
Meanwhile, the actual booking process continues to occur via traditional airline platforms or online travel agencies, reflecting an existing gap between generative recommendation and commercial execution.
Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking, shares insights during the 5th World Internet Conference. Photo: Shutterstock.
Unified Digital Travel Ecosystem
Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, noted in an interview with TIME magazine that the travel industry is moving towards integrating the search, planning, and booking experience into a single AI-powered ecosystem. This reflects a global shift in how users interact with digital travel services.
Airlines Reduced to Payment Gateways
Kajal Narasimha, Principal at ZS—a management consulting, technology, and analytics firm—explained that consumers now arrive at booking platforms with most decisions already made using generative AI tools.
As a result, airline websites are becoming final execution points rather than platforms for exploring options.
Regional AI Habits: Exploring vs Booking
Currently, consumers in Arab markets use generative AI tools mainly for search, preliminary planning, and flight comparison. They do not yet delegate bookings or financial transactions to these tools.
Deloitte Middle East (one of the world’s leading professional services firms) indicated that 58 per cent of consumers in the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regularly integrate these technologies to explore digital information in general.
In a related context, the global travel research platform Phocuswright confirmed that consumer usage across the rest of the Arab markets, such as North Africa and the Levant, is currently concentrated solely in exploration, price comparison, and language translation.
The Arabic Tokenisation Penalty
Despite these indicators, technical challenges continue to affect the accuracy of using generative AI in the Arab environment. Chief among these is the cost of processing Arabic within language models; technical research shows that Arabic natural language processing suffers from a Tokenisation Penalty, causing Arabic queries to consume 2-4 times as many tokens as English queries. This inefficiency increases latency and degrades context processing, potentially hindering the system’s speed and precision required to analyse complex flight data, such as transit conditions or connecting flights.
Despite a significant tokenization penalty for Arabic queries, AI adoption rates in the UAE and KSA have reached an impressive 58%.
Data Security in AI Bookings
Furthermore, the issue of cyber trust emerges as a decisive factor in Arab user behaviour; the hesitation to delegate the completion of sensitive financial transactions to generative tools is linked to broader security concerns about protecting personal and financial data.
This reservation is reflected in consumer usage patterns, as they mostly prefer to stop at the planning stage and refrain from granting algorithms full automated payment authorisations for flight bookings.
Instead, they return to airlines’ official websites and applications to complete financial transactions within a traditional, secure banking environment.
The AI Hallucination Risk: The Arabic Data Gap
In addition, generative AI faces a challenge known as AI Hallucination—namely, the production of inaccurate information. This issue may be more pronounced in the context of air travel in the Arab region due to limited, up-to-date Arabic-language data on certain regional airports, visa policies, or geographical transit.
Arguably, generative AI is now reshaping air travel planning globally, while the mechanisms for its full implementation in the Arab world are still taking shape.
This development is driven by an advanced digital infrastructure in the Arab Gulf states but constrained by challenges related to linguistic accuracy, cyber trust, and logistical integration with official booking systems.
2026’s Top AI Travel Planners: Guide to Smart Itinerary Tools
2026 has witnessed a boom in AI tools for travel planning, as they have evolved from destination-suggestion engines into integrated personal assistants.
Whether you are looking for a tool that organises a visual itinerary on a map, tools that support the Arabic language, Halal meals, or even smart language models to solve logistical dilemmas and complex budgets, here is the comprehensive guide to the most prominent of these tools and their categorisations:
Discover the top AI tools for travel planning in 2026, ranging from all-in-one planners to specialized language models.
Stay informed. Get the latest aviation and space news from the Arab world on WhatsApp and Telegram as soon as it is published, or subscribe to our newsletter for a weekly round-up. You can also add us to your preferred sources to see more of our stories in Google Search.
We use cookies to run this site, to measure readership and to show the advertising that funds our journalism. In your region, non-essential cookies stay off until you accept them. Accept all, deny all, or choose by category. You can change your choice at any time via the Cookie Preferences link at the bottom of every page.
Functional Always active
Needed for the site to work: your language, your cookie choice, form security and the WordPress session. Always active.
Preferences
Remember settings you have chosen so that you do not have to set them again on your next visit.
Statistics
Google Analytics, to see which articles are read, from where and on which devices. IP addresses are shortened before storage.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
Advertising served by Google AdSense, embedded videos and social-media buttons, and measurement pixels for our own posts on social platforms.
We use cookies to run this site, to measure readership and to show the advertising that funds our journalism. They are active unless you deny them here. You can change your choice at any time via the Cookie Preferences link at the bottom of every page.
Functional Always active
Needed for the site to work: your language, your cookie choice, form security and the WordPress session. Always active.
Preferences
Remember settings you have chosen so that you do not have to set them again on your next visit.
Statistics
Google Analytics, to see which articles are read, from where and on which devices. IP addresses are shortened before storage.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
Advertising served by Google AdSense, embedded videos and social-media buttons, and measurement pixels for our own posts on social platforms.
var molongui_authorship_byline_params = {"byline_modifiers_enabled":"","byline_prefix":"","byline_suffix":"","byline_separator":",\u00a0","byline_last_separator":"\u00a0and\u00a0","byline_link_title":"View all posts by","byline_link_class":"","byline_dom_tree":"","byline_dom_prepend":"","byline_dom_append":"","byline_decoder":"v3","byline_data_url":"https://aljaweea.com/wp-json/molongui-authorship/v1/bylines","byline_rest_nonce":""};
//# sourceURL=molongui-authorship-byline-js-extra
var tie = {"is_rtl":"","ajaxurl":"https://aljaweea.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?lang=en","is_side_aside_light":"","is_taqyeem_active":"","is_sticky_video":"1","mobile_menu_top":"","mobile_menu_active":"area_1","mobile_menu_parent":"","lightbox_all":"true","lightbox_gallery":"true","lightbox_skin":"dark","lightbox_thumb":"horizontal","lightbox_arrows":"true","is_singular":"1","autoload_posts":"","reading_indicator":"true","lazyload":"","select_share":"","select_share_twitter":"true","select_share_facebook":"true","select_share_linkedin":"true","select_share_email":"true","facebook_app_id":"5303202981","twitter_username":"","responsive_tables":"true","ad_blocker_detector":"","sticky_behavior":"default","sticky_desktop":"true","sticky_mobile":"true","sticky_mobile_behavior":"default","ajax_loader":"\u003Cdiv class=\"loader-overlay\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"spinner-circle\"\u003E\u003C/div\u003E\u003C/div\u003E","type_to_search":"1","lang_no_results":"Nothing Found","sticky_share_mobile":"","sticky_share_post":"","sticky_share_post_menu":""};
//# sourceURL=tie-scripts-js-extra
let cmplzBlockedContent = document.querySelector('.cmplz-blocked-content-notice');
if ( cmplzBlockedContent) {
cmplzBlockedContent.addEventListener('click', function(event) {
event.stopPropagation();
});
}
//# sourceURL=cmplz-cookiebanner-js-after
/* Accessibility quick fixes (WCAG 2.2 AA test, 27 Oct 2026). Safe to switch off.
1 skip link · 2 form autofill · 3 language switcher name · 4 dark-mode button name and state
5 mobile menu state and focus · 6 heading levels for screen readers · 7 author photos
8 form errors linked to fields · 9 "opens in a new tab" for screen readers · 10 main content area */
(function () {
var isAr = (document.documentElement.lang || '').toLowerCase().indexOf('ar') === 0;
var T = isAr
? { skip: 'تخطَّ إلى المحتوى الرئيسي', dark: 'الوضع المظلم', newTab: ' (يُفتح في علامة تبويب جديدة)' }
: { skip: 'Skip to main content', dark: 'Dark mode', newTab: ' (opens in a new tab)' };function visible(el) {
if (!el) { return false; }
var r = el.getBoundingClientRect(), s = getComputedStyle(el);
return r.width > 0 && r.height > 0 && s.visibility !== 'hidden' && s.display !== 'none' && r.right > 0 && r.left < window.innerWidth;
}function run() {
/* 1. Skip link (WCAG 2.4.1): jumps to the first block after the site header */
var header = document.getElementById('theme-header');
var target = header ? header.nextElementSibling : null;
while (target && (target.tagName === 'SCRIPT' || target.tagName === 'STYLE')) { target = target.nextElementSibling; }
if (target && !document.querySelector('.aj-skip-link')) {
if (!target.id) { target.id = 'aj-main'; }
if (!target.hasAttribute('tabindex')) { target.setAttribute('tabindex', '-1'); }
var a = document.createElement('a');
a.className = 'aj-skip-link';
a.href = '#' + target.id;
a.textContent = T.skip;
a.addEventListener('click', function () { setTimeout(function () { target.focus({ preventScroll: true }); }, 0); });
document.body.insertBefore(a, document.body.firstChild);
}/* 10. Main content area (WCAG 1.3.1): pages with none (the home pages) get one */
if (target && !document.querySelector('main, [role="main"]') && !target.querySelector('footer, #footer')) {
target.setAttribute('role', 'main');
}/* 2. Form autofill (WCAG 1.3.5) */
var inputs = document.querySelectorAll('form input');
for (var i = 0; i < inputs.length; i++) {
var el = inputs[i];
if (el.getAttribute('autocomplete')) { continue; }
var n = (el.name || '').toLowerCase();
var l = ((el.labels && el.labels[0] && el.labels[0].textContent) || el.getAttribute('aria-label') || el.placeholder || '').toLowerCase().trim();
var v = null;
if (el.type === 'email') { v = 'email'; }
else if (el.type === 'tel' || (/phone|هاتف|جوال/.test(l) && !/mail|بريد/.test(l))) { v = 'tel'; }
else if (/first_name/.test(n)) { v = 'given-name'; }
else if (/last_name/.test(n)) { v = 'family-name'; }
else if (el.type === 'text' && /^(name|full name|الاسم|الإسم)\b/.test(l)) { v = 'name'; }
else if (el.type === 'url') { v = 'url'; }
if (v) { el.setAttribute('autocomplete', v); }
}/* 3. Language switcher (WCAG 2.4.4, 3.1.2): name the target language in that language */
var sw = document.querySelectorAll('a.lang-toggle');
for (var s = 0; s < sw.length; s++) {
var toAr = /\/ar(\/|$)/.test(sw[s].getAttribute('href') || '');
var name = toAr ? 'العربية' : 'English';
sw[s].setAttribute('aria-label', name);
sw[s].setAttribute('title', name);
sw[s].setAttribute('lang', toAr ? 'ar' : 'en');
sw[s].setAttribute('hreflang', toAr ? 'ar' : 'en');
var ims = sw[s].querySelectorAll('img');
for (var k = 0; k < ims.length; k++) { ims[k].setAttribute('alt', ''); }
}/* 4. Dark-mode button (WCAG 4.1.2): clear name, behaves as a toggle button that reports on/off */
var skins = document.querySelectorAll('a.change-skin');
function isDark() { return document.documentElement.classList.contains('dark-skin'); }
function syncSkin() { for (var q = 0; q < skins.length; q++) { skins[q].setAttribute('aria-pressed', isDark() ? 'true' : 'false'); } }
for (var d = 0; d < skins.length; d++) {
skins[d].setAttribute('role', 'button');
skins[d].setAttribute('aria-label', T.dark);
skins[d].setAttribute('title', T.dark);
skins[d].addEventListener('click', function () { setTimeout(syncSkin, 300); });
skins[d].addEventListener('keydown', function (e) { if (e.key === ' ') { e.preventDefault(); this.click(); } });
}
syncSkin();/* 5. Mobile menu (WCAG 4.1.2, 2.4.3): report open/closed, move focus in on open and back on close */
var btn = document.getElementById('mobile-menu-icon');
var panel = document.querySelector('.side-aside');
if (btn && panel) {
btn.setAttribute('role', 'button');
btn.setAttribute('aria-expanded', 'false');
if (!panel.id) { panel.id = 'aj-mobile-menu'; }
btn.setAttribute('aria-controls', panel.id);
var check = function (moveFocus) {
setTimeout(function () {
var open = visible(panel);
btn.setAttribute('aria-expanded', open ? 'true' : 'false');
if (open && moveFocus) {
var first = panel.querySelector('a[href]:not(.close-side-aside), button');
if (first) { first.focus(); }
}
if (!open && moveFocus === 'back') { btn.focus(); }
}, 450);
};
btn.addEventListener('click', function () { check(true); });
var closers = panel.querySelectorAll('.close-side-aside');
for (var c = 0; c < closers.length; c++) { closers[c].addEventListener('click', function () { check('back'); }); }
document.addEventListener('keydown', function (e) {
if (e.key === 'Escape' && btn.getAttribute('aria-expanded') === 'true') {
setTimeout(function () {
/* the theme closes the menu on Escape in English but not in Arabic */
var x = panel.querySelector('.close-side-aside');
if (visible(panel) && x) { x.click(); }
check('back');
}, 150);
}
});
}/* 6. Heading levels (WCAG 1.3.1): no jumps for screen readers; looks unchanged */
var hs = document.querySelectorAll('h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6');
var prev = 0, hasH1 = !!document.querySelector('h1');
for (var h = 0; h < hs.length; h++) {
if (!visible(hs[h]) && !hs[h].closest('.side-aside')) { continue; }
var lvl = parseInt(hs[h].tagName.charAt(1), 10);
var eff = lvl;
if (!hasH1 && prev === 0) { eff = 1; }
else if (prev && lvl > prev + 1) { eff = prev + 1; }
if (eff !== lvl) { hs[h].setAttribute('aria-level', String(eff)); }
prev = eff;
}/* 7. Author photos: describe a linked photo by the author's name (it is the link's name); otherwise decorative */
var boxes = document.querySelectorAll('.about-author, .author-box, .m-a-box, .molongui-author-box');
for (var b = 0; b < boxes.length; b++) {
var pics = boxes[b].querySelectorAll('img');
for (var p = 0; p < pics.length; p++) {
var lk = pics[p].closest('a[href]');
var who = '';
if (lk) {
var byline = document.querySelector('a.author-name[href="' + lk.getAttribute('href') + '"]');
var strong = boxes[b].querySelector('.m-a-box-bio strong, [itemprop="name"]');
who = ((byline && byline.textContent) || (strong && strong.textContent) || '').trim();
}
if (lk && !who) { continue; } /* name not found: keep the existing description so the link keeps a name */
pics[p].setAttribute('alt', who);
}
}/* 9. "Opens in a new tab" for screen-reader users (W3C technique G201) */
var blanks = document.querySelectorAll('a[target="_blank"]');
for (var t = 0; t < blanks.length; t++) {
if (blanks[t].querySelector('.aj-newtab')) { continue; }
var sr = document.createElement('span');
sr.className = 'screen-reader-text aj-newtab';
sr.textContent = T.newTab;
blanks[t].appendChild(sr);
if (blanks[t].hasAttribute('aria-label')) { blanks[t].setAttribute('aria-label', blanks[t].getAttribute('aria-label') + T.newTab); }
}
}/* 8. Form errors (WCAG 3.3.1): link each error message to its field when it appears */
function linkErrors(root) {
var errs = (root || document).querySelectorAll('.ff-el-group .error, .ff-el-group .text-danger');
for (var e = 0; e < errs.length; e++) {
var grp = errs[e].closest('.ff-el-group');
var field = grp ? grp.querySelector('input:not([type=hidden]), select, textarea') : null;
if (!field) { continue; }
if (!errs[e].id) { errs[e].id = 'aj-err-' + Math.random().toString(36).slice(2, 9); }
var ids = (field.getAttribute('aria-describedby') || '').split(' ').filter(Boolean);
if (ids.indexOf(errs[e].id) === -1) { ids.push(errs[e].id); field.setAttribute('aria-describedby', ids.join(' ')); }
}
}
function watchForms() {
var forms = document.querySelectorAll('form.frm-fluent-form');
if (!window.MutationObserver) { return; }
for (var f = 0; f < forms.length; f++) {
new MutationObserver(function () { linkErrors(); }).observe(forms[f], { childList: true, subtree: true });
}
}function start() { run(); watchForms(); }
if (document.readyState === 'loading') { document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', start); } else { start(); }
})();
/* Aljaweea newsletter form (form 10): on Arabic pages, pre-select the Arabic edition.
2 Nov 2026 (Claude, runbook 8.82). Decision D-05 asks for the page language to be pre-selected through
the WPML translation of the field's default value; WPML does not offer that value for translation,
so this is the flagged fallback. The stored values stay "English" / "العربية" for the FluentCRM tag routing.
Rollback: set this snippet to Draft (the Arabic page then pre-selects English). */
(function () {
function run() {
if (!/^ar/i.test(document.documentElement.lang || '')) { return; }
var radios = document.querySelectorAll('form.fluent_form_10 input[type="radio"][name="dropdown"]');
for (var i = 0; i < radios.length; i++) {
if (radios[i].value === 'العربية') { radios[i].checked = true; radios[i].dispatchEvent(new Event('change', { bubbles: true })); }
}
}
/* Runs whether or not the page has finished loading (Breeze may delay scripts). */
if (document.readyState === 'loading') { document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', run); } else { run(); }
})();
/* Aljaweea forms: let Fluent Forms show its own error messages.
2 Nov 2026 (Claude, runbook 8.86; finding V-1 of the 8.85 test). Without this, the browser's own email check
stops the form when an address has no "@" and shows the browser's pop-up in the browser's language (English on
Arabic pages for most visitors), so our message from the forms standard (1.4) never appears.
"novalidate" switches off only the browser's own check: Fluent Forms still checks every field in the browser
and again on the server, so a badly formed address is still refused - now with our wording, in the page language.
Rollback: set this snippet to Draft. */
(function () {
function run() {
var forms = document.querySelectorAll('form.frm-fluent-form');
for (var i = 0; i < forms.length; i++) { forms[i].setAttribute('novalidate', 'novalidate'); }
}
/* Runs whether or not the page has finished loading (Breeze may delay scripts). */
if (document.readyState === 'loading') { document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', run); } else { run(); }
})();
ai_front = {"insertion_before":"BEFORE","insertion_after":"AFTER","insertion_prepend":"PREPEND CONTENT","insertion_append":"APPEND CONTENT","insertion_replace_content":"REPLACE CONTENT","insertion_replace_element":"REPLACE ELEMENT","visible":"VISIBLE","hidden":"HIDDEN","fallback":"FALLBACK","automatically_placed":"Automatically placed by AdSense Auto ads code","cancel":"Cancel","use":"Use","add":"Add","parent":"Parent","cancel_element_selection":"Cancel element selection","select_parent_element":"Select parent element","css_selector":"CSS selector","use_current_selector":"Use current selector","element":"ELEMENT","path":"PATH","selector":"SELECTOR"};
