AI is coming for travel. And most of the industry isn’t ready.
Traditional search still dominates — for now. But as Max Starkov pointed out, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and others are growing at breakneck speed. Traffic to AI platforms jumped 80%+ last year, and yet, we still think our outdated SEO tactics and keyword-stuffed hotel pages will save us?
As Tim Peter smartly wrote: “Google isn’t sending traffic, it’s building fences.” With AI summaries, zero-click answers, and Gemini taking center stage, your website isn’t the destination — it’s just one of many possible data sources.
And here’s the kicker:
• Booking.com is ahead — again.
• They’ve structured their content, optimized for AI, and already sit at the front of the class.
• They work hand-in-hand with Google, invest massively, and understand the playbook before it’s even published.
Meanwhile, most hotels and travel brands are still busy tweaking meta descriptions.
The gap between search engines and AI may still be 34x — but it’s closing fast.
Discovery is shifting. Trust is shifting. Visibility is shifting.
This is a wake-up call.
• If your content isn’t structured, cited, and everywhere AI looks, you’re already invisible.
• If your strategy relies on traffic that now ends in an answer box, you’re already missing out.
• If you’re not investing in AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimization), you’re not competing — you’re just showing up late.
Huge thanks to Max and Tim for keeping this conversation alive. And yes — I’m watching Booking.com raise its hand while the rest of the class pretends the lesson hasn’t started.
We don’t need to panic. We need to catch up. Fast. Together
#AIinTravel #TravelTech #Hospitality #DigitalStrategy #SearchVsAI #AIO #Bookingcom #ContentStrategy #TravelMarketing #FutureofSearch #ZeroClick #ChatGPT #Gemini #Claude #Perplexity