For years, tourism businesses have learned to optimize their visibility on Google and across OTAs. But AI assistants are gradually changing the way travelers search for, compare and select their experiences.

A new question is now emerging: how can tourism businesses make sure they are among the options AI decides to recommend? Because tomorrow, being visible will no longer be enough. They will also need to be clear, credible and differentiated.

Travel No Longer Starts on Google Alone

For a long time, tourism visibility relied on a relatively clear balance: being present on Google, appearing on the major booking platforms, managing customer reviews, publishing attractive content and, ideally, generating a share of bookings directly. That balance is now beginning to change.

With the rise of AI assistants, travelers are no longer simply searching for information. They are gradually delegating part of the decision-making process. Tomorrow, instead of typing “quiet hotel in the Belgian Ardennes with a spa” into a search engine, they may ask an AI assistant: “Organize a relaxing weekend in Belgium with comfortable accommodations, a good restaurant, an authentic local experience and a reasonable budget.”

The difference is significant. In the first case, the traveler receives a list of results. In the second, they receive a selection that has already been filtered. In the tourism industry, being absent from that selection could become far more damaging than ranking poorly on Google.

OTAs Are Moving Into AI Interfaces

(OTA : Online Travel Agency - exemple : Booking.com, Expedia.com, LastMinute.com…)

Recent partnerships between major AI companies and OTAs confirm this evolution, and several leading players are already making strategic moves:

• Expedia partnered with Perplexity around Comet, Perplexity’s AI-powered browser.
• OpenAI had also named Expedia and Booking.com among the first partners available through apps integrated into ChatGPT.

OTAs already have an enormous advantage: they aggregate offers, prices, availability, reviews, photos, filters and behavioral data. AI systems need structured, comparable and actionable information in order to make recommendations.

In other words, OTAs are no longer simply booking platforms. They are gradually becoming providers of inventory, data and trust signals for AI interfaces.

For tourism businesses, the challenge is clear: dependence on OTAs may not decrease with the rise of AI. It may simply take a different form.

The Risk: Being Bypassed Before You Are Even Considered

The danger for a hotel, destination, museum, activity provider or tourism organization is not simply that the customer may book through a platform. It is that the customer may never reach the business at all.

When an AI assistant proposes three options, it does not display the entire market. It selects, summarizes, simplifies and prioritizes.

In this context, the businesses that are the hardest to understand may be the first to become invisible.

A poorly explained offer, an unstructured website, limited content, too few reviews, generic photos or inconsistent information across different channels can reduce the chances of being understood, referenced and recommended.

On the other hand, businesses that clearly document their offer, experiences, audiences, evidence and point of difference increase their chances of being included in these new recommendation systems.

The issue is therefore no longer just search visibility, but recommendability.

What This Means in Practice for Tourism Businesses

The first consequence is that the official website remains essential, but it can no longer serve as a simple showcase. It must become a clear, detailed and structured source capable of explaining exactly what the business offers, who it is designed for, the context in which it is relevant and the value it provides.

The second consequence is that OTA pages must be treated as strategic assets. Descriptions, photos, attributes, responses to reviews, pricing consistency and clarity of the offer become even more important when these platforms directly or indirectly feed AI-generated recommendations.

The third consequence is that owned content is becoming more valuable. Articles, local guides, FAQs, thematic pages, videos, testimonials, newsletters and editorial content create a body of evidence that platforms alone cannot always provide.

The fourth consequence is that reviews and UGC, or user-generated content, are becoming decisive trust signals. In an environment where AI summarizes information, human proof matters even more: recent reviews, genuine photos, customer stories, authentic videos and recommendations from specialized creators.

The fifth consequence is that the value proposition must become much clearer. A tourism business can no longer simply say that it is “well located,” “comfortable” or “authentic.” It must explain the underlying need or aspiration it addresses: peace and quiet, well-being, reconnection, immersion, family time, gastronomy, heritage, nature, hybrid work or an authentic local experience.

What Should Tourism Businesses Do?

The priority is not to chase every new AI tool, but to make the business easy for these systems to understand.

This means ensuring that the offer is understandable to a human while also being usable by a machine: up-to-date information, structured content and consistency across the official website, Google, OTAs, social media and review platforms.

It also means taking back control of the business’s narrative. When a tourism company or organization does not clearly communicate its own value, others will do it on its behalf: platforms, reviews, algorithms, comparison websites or AI systems.

Finally, this means avoiding a simplistic opposition between direct booking and OTAs. OTAs will probably remain essential partners. However, tourism businesses must prevent them from becoming their only gateway into AI environments.

The right strategy is to work on both fronts: optimizing visibility across third-party platforms while strengthening owned channels.

The New Challenge: Not Disappearing From the Answer

Tourism will not stop being sold through Google, OTAs or official websites. But it will increasingly be sold within broader recommendation environments, where AI acts as a filter between the traveler’s intention and the available options.

In this new landscape, the central question will no longer simply be:

“Are we visible?”

It will become:

“Are we clear, credible and differentiated enough to be recommended?”

Because tomorrow, the risk will not simply be appearing at the bottom of the page. It will be failing to appear in the answer at all.

In our new Trend Report “2035: Tourism’s Invisible Capital Beyond Growth” we analyze the shifts already reshaping the tourism industry: AI, OTAs, content, emerging traveler aspirations, visibility, experience and business opportunities. Want to explore the topic in greater depth? Reach out to us to access an English version of the report.