BrightEdge’s latest look at travel visibility in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews shows a familiar story: the biggest brands own the categories. But the same data reveals where smaller and specialist sites can still get cited.
The big-brand scoreboard
BrightEdge tracked share of voice, not classic rankings, because AI answers don’t link out the way a blue-link results page does. That measurement shows leading travel brands often mirror their category dominance.
- Airlines: American Airlines leads with 26.6% on Google AI Overviews and 25.3% on ChatGPT, ahead of United by 6.1 and 9.1 points.
- Cruise lines: Royal Caribbean leads both engines at 24.8% and 28.8%.
- Hotels: The leader splits by engine—Hilton takes Google at 28.3%, Marriott takes ChatGPT at 29.4%.
- Booking platforms: Expedia reaches 31.3% on Google versus Kayak’s 14.4%, a 2.2x gap.
The catch? Only 9% of tracked Google AI Overviews prompts had booking intent. Booking platforms appear in 78% of budget-related answers, compared with 17% of other answers. Expedia alone appears in 44% of those budget answers.
Where smaller brands can break in
BrightEdge found human, experience-led content performs better for inspiration queries. Platforms and organizations such as YouTube, Reddit and AAA are more prominent in those questions, while hotels and cruise lines show up more in comparison questions and booking platforms in direct booking-intent questions.
That’s a real opening. If you’re a travel blog, niche D2C brand or smaller operator, the game isn’t to outspend Expedia on price terms. It’s to own subjective, first-person, expertise-rich content that AI answers want to cite for inspiration and comparison.
What to do about it
Start by measuring your AI share of voice alongside normal rankings. Then build content for the query types where big brands are thin: inspiration and nuanced comparison. BrightEdge’s data suggests brand awareness and trust still shape what AI surfaces, because user behavior signals feed up the pipeline—so consistent, distinct content compounds.
The source’s advice to travel bloggers is blunt: beat Reddit with expertise, because Reddit has scale but not authoritativeness. Publish specific, first-hand reviews and comparisons that AI engines can use as a credible source.
Source: Search Engine Journal
