SEO has left the party: How travel marketing could change

With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), search engine optimization—or at least SEO as we know it—has been effectively kicked out of the party. And it's a “reality” that the travel sector is being forced to confront.

Mario Gavira, vice president of growth and brand for Kiwi.com, who has been vocal about the future as it relates to AI and agentic AI, said the industry has to adapt.

“Our content strategy, linking strategy has to change to adapt to the new reality,” Gavira said. “But that's the first step. Now we have to test—will these AI agents really become a new acquisition channel? Will it be only search? Will it be end-to-end transactions? Will people be willing to allow the agent to actually finish a transaction on behalf of the customer?”

Right now, it’s all unknown. The key, according to Gavira, is preparing for all possible shifts.

“The organic part of the traffic will probably shrink massively,” Gavira said. “However ... the AI answer engines will still, obviously, mention certain providers or certain brands whenever a customer does a prompt for a specific need, right?”

What brands need to focus on is how to become visible in those results.

Amanda Moore, vice president of performance marketing for Preferred Travel Group, added that with the changing environment and the decline of SEO, public relations and personas are back on the table. But it remains to be seen how paid search will be factored in going forward.

“I think the way we think of paid search is just going to evolve in terms of its definition,” Moore said.

Still, there has to be a place for those marketing dollars.

“Think about the costs of these [large language] models,” Gavira said. “Obviously, Google, for instance, who now has this search machine that is the cash cow of the whole company, they will definitely not give away that chunk of revenue.”

Google, he said, has a “clear playbook,” and he believes it will use sponsored links in AI mode.

“They have started to put the sponsored links already in AI Overviews, they will do it in AI mode as well,” he said. “So in a sense, the question will be more: How do you run your campaigns? Where previously you were targeting keywords, now you might target personas. You might target the intent of individual users, because obviously, also that prompt will give much more intent information as to what you are actually searching for.”

The two also opened up about how their roles have changed in recent year as technology has advanced, with AI having a profound impact on their workflows. Further, they touched on travel’s commercial model, the resurgence of public relations and more.

Watch or listen to the full discussion with PhocusWire senior reporter Morgan Hines below: