AI Search for Travel

When travelers ask AI where to go and what to do, is your brand in the answer?

The Challenge

Destination queries are moving to AI

When someone asks "things to do in Barcelona" or "best family resorts in Portugal," AI platforms give direct answers. The brands in those answers win consideration. The rest become invisible.

OTAs and aggregators dominate

AI platforms heavily cite TripAdvisor, Viator, GetYourGuide, and Booking.com. Direct suppliers, hotel groups, and DMOs often don't appear at all.

Reviews drive recommendations

AI systems pull from review sites, Reddit, and editorial publishers. Your own website content may not be in the citation set.

Every market is different

A query in German returns different recommendations than the same query in English. Most brands only track one market.

Same question. Different winners.

Each AI platform recommends different brands for the same travel query.

"Best things to do in Barcelona"
Platform Brand recommended Source type
Google AI Overview
Viator Editorial publisher
ChatGPT
GetYourGuide Review aggregator
Claude
TripAdvisor User reviews
Gemini
Airbnb Experiences Product listings

Your brand? Not in the answer.

85%
of AI citations are third-party sources
67%
of travel queries trigger AI answers
4
platforms with different recommendations
6
markets we track with native-language prompts

How We Help Travel Brands

Visibility intelligence built for how travelers actually search.

Destination Visibility Tracking

Track how your brand appears for "things to do in [destination]" queries across AI platforms.

50+ destinations tracked

OTA Competitive Analysis

See how you compare to Viator, GetYourGuide, TripAdvisor, and direct competitors.

Benchmark against top 10 OTAs

Tour & Experience Optimization

Understand which of your products get recommended, which don't, and why.

Product-level visibility data

Multi-Market Monitoring

Track visibility in UK, US, Germany, France, and more with native-language prompts.

6 markets, local language

What We're Seeing in Travel AI Search

1

85% of AI citations come from third parties, not brand websites. In travel, this means TripAdvisor, editorial publishers, and Reddit dominate.

2

"Best [activity] in [destination]" queries almost always return OTA recommendations over direct suppliers.

3

Review volume and recency matter. AI platforms favor sources with fresh, high-volume user content.

4

Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT cite different sources for the same travel query. Optimising for one doesn't guarantee visibility in the other.

Built by Someone Who Knows Travel

SearchIntel is founded by Paul Byrne, who has worked with travel brands including American Express, American Airlines, and Octopus Travel, bringing 20 years of search strategy experience to the sector.

Travel AI Visibility Research

We publish quarterly analysis of AI visibility in the travel sector. The Travel AI Visibility Index tracks which brands are winning recommendations across destinations and experience categories.

Travel AI
Visibility Index
Q1 2026

Travel AI Visibility Index

Available

Sector-level analysis of brand visibility across AI search platforms in the travel and experiences sector. Covers destinations, OTAs, and experience categories.

View the report

Coming soon:

  • Destination-level deep dives (Barcelona, Lisbon, London)
  • OTA citation source analysis
  • Multi-market visibility comparison (EN vs DE vs FR)

Find out where travelers are discovering your competitors instead of you.

Book a travel-focused demo and see how your brand compares across AI search.

Book a call