Generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) is rapidly changing how travelers plan their trips—reshaping how travel brands are surfaced online.
During an interview in the PhocusWire studio at Phocuswright Europe in Barcelona this week, John Matson, chief revenue officer of Propellic and Carlo del Mistro, founder of Stiplo, discussed the evolving landscape of AI visibility.
According to del Mistro, whose company helps hotels increase direct bookings, general managers or owners often reach out for help after discovering that their hotel doesn’t appear in ChatGPT results.
“I think there is quite a bit of misunderstanding of what exactly drives the visibility,” he said. “We are at the point [that] SEO was 15 to 20 years ago, where nobody really knows what drives it, and even if you know, it changes constantly."
Matson agreed that AI visibility tracking is in its early stages, making it difficult to say that a given method is “empirically good.”
However, there are realistic things companies can do now to optimize their brand alignment in generative search, he said. “We’re able to do statistically relevant measurement to say, “Yes, we've moved the needle for you in this category for this type of prompt.’”
Generative engine optimization (GEO) efforts are becoming increasingly important as AI plays a larger role in travel discovery.
Although gen AI platforms like ChatGPT and Claude represent a relatively small source of referrals to hotel websites, del Mistro said that share is growing exponentially.
“Conversion is also higher because the people arriving have already effectively done research so they’re better qualified,” he said.
Matson and del Mistro agreed that even as the importance of GEO grows, search engine optimization (SEO) continues to play an important role.
“I think a massive component of AI visibility is still SEO, but it really depends also on which large language model (LLM) you’re using,” del Mistro said. LLMs may weigh search rankings differently depending on whether they are aligned with a particular search engine.
On the question of how AI will impact the balance of power between suppliers and OTAs, Matson said he is “bullish on suppliers in this era.”
Suppliers have an advantage because “they can create new products off of things that are physically in the world,” he said. As a result, they maintain first-party relationships with travelers and have access to first-party data.
The interview also covered how destinations can influence AI recommendations, the importance of metadata, what to look for in an AI visibility partner, why websites still matter and more.
See below for the full conversation with PhocusWire’s Linda Fox.
Travel and visibility on AI platforms