AI revolution storm is sweeping through the US stock market's tourism and leisure sector! Online booking platforms are suffering a massacre, while hotel stocks are skyrocketing against the trend.

Concerns about the disruption risk of artificial intelligence (AI) have caused significant differentiation in the travel and leisure industry - online travel platform stocks have plummeted, while traditional hotel operators' stocks have surged. Data shows that TripAdvisor, Inc. (TRIPUS) stocks have plummeted by 29% this year, hitting a historic low after underperforming in this week's financial report; Booking Holdings (BKNG.US) and Amadeus IT Group SA stocks have fallen by 22% respectively this year. Citigroup analysts have also downgraded their rating for Amadeus IT Group SA, stating that due to the increasing risk of AI disruption, they expect this European travel technology provider to have a difficult time achieving significant returns in the short term. In contrast, Marriott International (MAR.US) stocks have soared by 14% this year, and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT.US) stocks have risen by 12%. Analysts have raised their target price for Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. after its financial report was released on February 11. The sell-off trend of some travel stocks accelerated in early February as investors fled companies considered vulnerable to the impact of AI disruption. This sell-off, initially triggered by new tools released by Anthropic, has spread to the IT services, wealth management, real estate platforms, and logistics sectors. On Tuesday, a little-known startup company named Altruist Corp launched a tax strategy tool that helps financial advisors customize personalized strategies for clients, leading to a sharp drop of over 7% in the stocks of companies like Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW.US), Raymond James Financial, Inc. (RJF.US), and LPL Financial (LPLA.US). By Thursday, concerns among traders about the wider use of AI tools potentially impacting office space demand led to a sharp drop in commercial real estate stocks - major commercial real estate service companies like CBRE Group, Inc. Class A (CBRE.US) fell by 8.8%, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) fell by 7.6%, Highgate Global fell by 12%, Newmark Group (NMRK.US) fell by 4.2%; an index tracking stocks of office real estate companies fell by 4.2%. REITs analyst Jeffrey Lanbaum said, "Concerns about a decline in office demand due to increased AI applications have been around for a while, it's not a new issue. However, we are seeing these concerns spreading to actual office space providers." The sectors potentially sold off due to AI disruption risk are the latest epitome of the market's "sell first, ask questions later" mentality. With billions of dollars of AI investments beginning to commercial products, anxiety about its potential to disrupt entire industries is escalating. Gabelli Funds manager John Belton said, "Any company with potential disruption risk is being indiscriminately sold off." In recent years, AI breakthroughs have been a focus on Wall Street, with tech stocks leading the way. While this wave pushed stock indices to historic highs, questions have always remained: is this a bubble about to burst, or the key force that will spark a productivity revolution and reshape the landscape of American businesses? However, since early last week, a series of AI product deployments have triggered a sharp change in market sentiment. Investors are no longer focused on picking AI winners, but are rapidly exiting, avoiding any company even with a hint of replacement risk. Will Rhind, CEO of Graniteshares consultancy, admitted, "Last year's logic was that we all believed in AI, but we were still looking for use cases. And as we continued to discover that AI applications are becoming increasingly powerful and compelling, disruption followed." Some traditional sectors have been spared from this sell-off triggered by AI disruption risk. The Dow Jones Transportation Average, which has long lagged behind major U.S. indices, has recently outperformed the S&P 500 by 13 percentage points in the past month and a half, nearing its largest gain since the financial crisis. The index includes industry giants such as CSX Corporation (CSX.US), FedEx Corporation (FDX.US), Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL.US), and United Airlines (UAL.US), and its strong economic data and trend of reducing holdings of tech giants have propelled the index's surge. The demand for diversified investments by U.S. stock investors has increased the attractiveness of the "traditional economy" sector. Previously, concerns about the disruptive impact of AI and the huge capital expenditure plans of mega-data center operators for this technology led investors to withdraw from the tech field and move to other areas. Manufacturing data further strengthened this trend, bringing optimistic signals to investors seeking safer investments. Sameer Samana, Global Equity and Real Asset Head at Wells Fargo & Company Investment Research Institute, said, "This sector is most sensitive to economic conditions because higher economic activity means goods need to flow domestically (and globally)." Investors sought alternative investments to AI-related stocks, and the strong economic conditions "further strengthened the positive investment logic." In addition, the transportation industry belongs to the "anti-AI" sector, as investors increasingly tend to acquire companies whose primary functions cannot be replicated by AI technology. As for the software industry, which has long been plagued by anxiety over being ousted by AI, Byron Deeter, a partner at the renowned Wall Street investment firm Bessemer Venture Partners, believes that the recent severe sell-off turbulence experienced by global software stocks, especially U.S. software stocks, provides investors with a rare "buying opportunity at low prices," and claims that the software and SaaS sectors are "severely oversold." Despite a sharp decline in software stocks this week, Byron Deeter believes that the market turmoil is creating favorable conditions for savvy investors to profit. He also warned that there will be "significant differentiation" among software companies with different growth prospects and fundamental expectations, rather than a unified market-wide bounce back rhythm.