Is Tripadvisor Reinventing Itself? Inside Its Pivot Away from Reviews
What happened?
In February 2026, Tripadvisor said AI overviews and other search changes were cutting its “flyby” traffic, and CFO Michael Noonan admitted that less than 10 percent of gross booking volume in the Experiences business is expected to come from free organic search by the end of 2026.
This reflects a longer-term shift in Tripadvisor’s reliance on search.
In 2019, the company reported about 463 million average monthly unique visitors, compared with about 130 million monthly unique users in 2023—a drop of about 72 percent that points to a much smaller audience even before the latest AI-related pressure.
More recently, Tripadvisor has stopped disclosing exact audience figures. Taken together, these signals suggest that while search remains a major traffic source, it is no longer a stable foundation.
Why is Tripadvisor losing traffic and users?
Because the way people search for travel information has changed.
Tripadvisor used to benefit when travelers searched on Google, clicked into reviews, and kept browsing. Now more people get quick answers directly in search results or AI summaries, so fewer of them click through to Tripadvisor.
Tripadvisor has said those search changes are already hurting the legacy business most exposed to that traffic. In Q4 2025, revenue in Hotels & Other fell 15 percent, while media and advertising revenue fell 17 percent to $30 million.
Can Tripadvisor still survive if its old model no longer works?
Yes, but not in the same way as before. Google and AI weakened Tripadvisor’s old model by making free search traffic less reliable. Travelers still want reviews, ideas, and trip-planning help, but they can now get those things from Google, maps, social media, hotel sites, and AI tools.
That means Tripadvisor’s future depends less on being the place people read before booking and more on being a place where bookings happen. The company is trying to rely less on free search traffic, build more direct demand, and use new AI tools to keep users inside its own ecosystem longer. This is why Tripadvisor’s next chapter looks much more tied to Viator and TheFork.
Why are Viator and TheFork suddenly so important?
Because they are the clearest pieces of Tripadvisor’s future.
Viator, Tripadvisor’s tours and activities business, has become one of the company’s main growth engines. Tripadvisor’s 2025 results showed that the Experiences segment, which is built around Viator, generated nearly 50 percent of total group revenue and about 30 percent of overall profit.
TheFork, the restaurant-booking business, is important because Tripadvisor has openly said it is exploring ways to monetize it.
Could Tripadvisor sell part of the business?
Yes. That possibility has been on the table for months. Tripadvisor has said it is exploring monetization of TheFork, and broader pressure around the company has repeatedly pointed to asset sales or other strategic alternatives, including the possibility of a full-company sale.
Starboard Value, an activist investor that built a roughly 9 percent stake in Tripadvisor, pushed for change after weak performance, a falling share price, and growing questions about whether the company’s mix of businesses was creating enough value.
Under a March deal with the investor, Tripadvisor added two directors to the board immediately and set up two more additions at the 2026 annual meeting, showing that investor demands are now shaping the company more directly.
That does not mean a sale is coming tomorrow. It means Tripadvisor is under pressure to prove that its current structure creates the most value. If it cannot, investors will keep pushing for a different one.
So, can Tripadvisor actually recover?
Yes, it can. But recovery probably will not look like a return to the old Tripadvisor. It will look like a more transaction-focused company that depends less on free search traffic and more on businesses where people actually book.
Tripadvisor is not dying in the literal sense. But the old model is clearly weakening, and the company now has to prove it can build a stronger future around bookings, not just traffic.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash