Search Engine Journal drops travel specific data on outputs from AI search results

In an article this week titled “Are Google’s AI Travel Results Uncovering More Hidden Gems”, the team at Search Engine Journal dropped results of their research into this topic.

For reference, “Google’s Hidden Gems initiative is its effort to highlight genuine, first‑hand content from smaller corners of the web. It was first revealed in May 2023 and fully integrated into the core algorithm later that year, with official acknowledgment in mid-November 2023.”

The data showed opportunities for challenger brands. “The opportunity is clear: Content that is specific, genuine, and useful is getting noticed, even from smaller or lesser-known sites.”

On AI results specifically they said “AI-powered results seem to be more willing to include pages that deliver practical insights, first-hand experience, and niche relevance, even if they lack the traditional signals of authority.”

The bold and underlining here are mine - so you can quickly get the main point here.

The article urges brands to start “building out content that doesn’t just answer common queries but anticipates nuanced needs, inspires curiosity, and offers unique, first-hand insight.”

So how are you going to that at scale and within budget? Frankly, there is only one clear answer and that is to work with creators who are genuine and telling these firsthand stories.

Over the past 3 months we’ve actually rearchitected Videreo for exactly this purpose. Keep your eyes peeled for the imminent launch (here is a tiny sneak peek).

We can insert your brand into this storytelling and have your business flow through to being discovered by this content. Ask us how. You don’t need new budget - we can re-position a small part of your existing creator budget to run a test for you.

Read the full article to see the methodology and full results of the data - it is extremely compelling.

Videreo is the place for brands and creators to meet & create a new sales pipeline together.

This content is provided by the (interim) newsletter sponsor Videreo.com

Young Americans start to reject AI trip planning

A stunning report from YouGov this week told us that “the percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds who said they are comfortable with using AI for trip planning fell from 47% in 2024 to 34% in 2025.”

Other data showed men’s comfort level dropped from 39% to 34% and the next age group up had a similar drop with “25- to 34-year-olds, from 47% in 2024 to 38% in 2025”.

Quite randomly, confidence in older people went up!

The report didn’t offer any suggestions as to what is going on here so I’ll offer my own 😅 

AI Trip Planning isn’t very good.

The younger cohorts got into it first and have worked their way out the other side fastest. With the youngest and most voracious bunch of early adopters and digital natives being way ahead of everyone else on this.

Older people are just discovering it and are still in awe of the speed and the 80% OK info.

People want discovery, not dictation. They want flexibility and fluidity, not just fast. The kids are the canary in coal mine here.

We haven’t delivered the automobile here, we’ve delivered faster horses.

(Last week we reported that Airbnb are just now starting their Trip Planning journey…… 😱 )

Google is your new travel agent with AI Powered search on Google Flights

Lots of articles this week about Google’s next big move into travel but we first saw it from this post by James Byers who works in product at Google.

The big change here is the move to intent based search. If you are not across what that is I recommend listening in to the podcast I did with Anna Jaffe from Mobi last year.

The example in James’ post was “"5-7 days in October for a holiday where it's still warm, nonstop" from Zürich.”

He said: “Our AI knows a thing or two: you can search for cities with medieval castles, where James Bond movies were filmed, best places for pasta lovers, where to take romantic river cruises, homes of Premiere League football teams.”

There is a link to the Google announcement in James’ post also.

Keep an eye on Christian Watts’ LinkedIn as he has promised a video demo for everyone as it is currently only available in USA & Canada (and I think I saw somewhere, maybe India also).

I reshared James’ post on the day - so if you want the news when its breaking - you can follow or connect with me too.

AI could begin an era of consolidation

Ronnie Findlay this week dropped a great article in response to a post by Steve Endecott on LinkedIn that suggested Ryan Air should buy On The Beach and probably Love Holidays as well.

Whilst Steve zeroed in on the profitability per passenger between air and package travel, Ronnie took an AI lens to the scenario. “AI-driven transformation that will fundamentally restructure how travel is sold, bought, and experienced.”

Ronnie believes AI will split buyers into two distinct camps.

“On one side, you'll have those who require minimal human intervention, customers comfortable with AI agents handling their straightforward bookings, comparing prices, and executing transactions seamlessly”

“On the other side, you'll find customers seeking genuine expertise and human advice.”

Ronnie sees this as a death knell for OTA’s as “sophisticated middlemen in a world that's rapidly eliminating the need for middlemen.”

Ronnie sees winner like Visa “that already have the infrastructure, customer trust, and technological capabilities to deploy AI at scale.”

You might not innately trust AI, but you trust your credit card provider!

Both are excellent articles that capture the moment we are in, and I recommend reading both!

Out mending AI fences

Saw this post from Stuart McDonald this week where he was out checking the gate for AI crawlers was firmly shut.

And it seems it was maybe slightly ajar. “I only just realised that Cloudflare blocks GPTBot by default, but not ChatGPT-User. Depending on how feral you want to be this might make sense as GPTBot is the learning tool, while the other is the user search thing.”

Most interesting were the request rates for pages and the visitors who were sent. “In the last five days ChatGPT-User requested 70,000 pages and sent 388 visitors. In the same period, Google’s primary bot requested 10,000 pages and sent around 60,000 visitors. lolz”

Not sure if the lolz was sarcastic - but this is zero click search at work right here.

Buying flights is hard for everyone (including AI?)

LinkedIn contrarian Tom Goodwin this week turned his gaze to travel. 

“The hoards of people claiming "bots are going to buy it all for us" appear to have not used the internet for the last few years. Lets take "buying a flight”.

Tom told us about his struggles with 2FA, site navigation and then pesky add-ons as you move through the check out and change the price.

And then there is the pain of actually paying.

Of course, these things are true for us mere mortals which makes the story ring true (and funny).

But at least to me it seems pretty clear that Model Context Protocol fixes most of this and as we saw above, you’ll probably be buying it from Visa - so don’t see payments becoming an issue either.

Tom does say: “And maybe, just maybe, most people quite like buying flights, maybe it's the foreplay of holidays” and that bit at least could be true?

If you think someone (or everyone) you know or work with could grow from being more informed on the topic of ai + travel (or could use the training above) then please forward this email to them and they can click the button below:

Marketplace Spotlight: Intellias

Intellias are not just your technical implementation partner for your AI projects but also a company that gives a crap.

This week Intellias talked about the programs within their business that make a real difference in their company and in the world in general.

In 2024, Intellias launched IntelliWell, our care and well-being platform supporting teammates across 17 countries. We also introduced She Is Tech Hub, creating a safe and empowering space for women in tech.

They also released their full sustainability report which you can access here. It’s always better to do business with people who care!

If you have a B2B business underpinned by AI and looking for people to notice you, you can sign up to the marketplace for peanuts (top right corner, 5 mins, bring your logo).

I’ve priced for bootstrapped startups but also accepting larger companies too.

Sabre rolls out its full AI marketplace

Sabre are joining the AI rush!

“SabreMosaic™ Travel Marketplace, is a new platform designed to simplify travel retailing by uniting the industry’s most comprehensive range of content into a single, AI-enabled system.”

This bit in their release really hit home for me. “A recent global survey commissioned by Sabre found that more than 91 percent of travel agencies operate with four or more booking systems, and over half are managing seven or more.”

Having done quite a bit of consulting with retail agencies this year, I can confirm this is the truth.

Many are trying to use AI to stitch these disparate services together and I’ve been happy to help them with that - but my advice early in the consultation has also been - what are the chances we can just scrap all this clutter and start fresh?

I have previously chatted with Varun Gupta from Pathfindr on the podcast about this very subject.

Yes it is scary.

Yes cut overs are notorious for causing issues and bugs but is that better than living in purgatory for decades?

Slack Group!

Shorts

Podcasts and Sponsors

Podcasts now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

This week we with Amir Mohajer from HostAI on his wild startup ride, the company he ran in Iran and loads of other things!

New podcasts are now showing up on Spotify and Apple Podcasts first for your easy listening pleasure! Please subscribe there to get the good oil first. The chat with Amir is live there now.

Partner with Us

Looking for some AI help with your business (I’m currently working with 3 businesses and have room for 1 more); or

Trying to get something sourced or built and not sure where to start or looking for an objective opinion (I’ve built systems for retail travel agencies, agentic voucher to ticket solutions and lots more); or

Looking for exposure to a travel audience of C-suite decision makers for your AI solution (I’ve run sessions for dozens of companies); or

Looking for someone to speak at your conference on AI in Travel (I’m speaking at Arival in Washington DC and the Travel Trends AI (Virtual) Summit)

- please fill in this brief form (30 seconds)

Most clicked last week was the link to FORA’s acquisition of Legend!

That’s it - you’ve made it to the end of this edition. I’ll be putting the result of the most clicked post in next week’s edition so you can see where others are focusing. If I’ve missed something, you’ve got a tip or any feedback at all - you can simply reply to this email and it will come straight to me. I’m doing this for You so please don’t be shy to tell me what you think