Make the Travel AI Threat a Benefit

There’s a lot of fear about AI these days. It’s disrupting the travel sector at a faster pace and most small travel companies likely don’t have a plan to deal with it.

The rising competition is a data center full of high speed, advanced servers collecting data on travelers, identifying their needs, customizing responses and travel packages, and anticipating their next choice.

How can you manage this threat and make it work for you, so your business is viable for 5 more years? We explore that here!

Small Travel Companies Still Not Embracing AI

FocusWright’s 2025 survey of Canadian travel agencies showed disinterest in Generative AI – whether for trip packaging, booking or marketing materials. From marketing content, to publication, and customizable itinerary shopping, to automating customer engagement and bookkeeping, AI solutions are delivering a nice set of benefits you might need.

Here’s the summary:

You might have big mental reservations about using AI, but the threat of it won’t go away. You’ll need to act at some point soon.

Do Big Drops in the Economy Reflect AI Worries?

Last Feb to May, the travel market was hit by economic uncertainty, but this year the issue might be more about AI incursion into the travel business. Because it’s not understood or explained well, SMB travel agencies may not be adjusting to become sustainable.

And it’s more than just ChatGPT and Google AIO.  It’s AI in general, in how it impacts discovery of companies, services, offers and trips and the flow of travelers online.  Deeper on this issue too, is that some believe the Web is disappearing, to be replaced by these siloed, all inclusive, all consuming private AI platforms. This is scary.

Because travel is cited as one of the most AI-replaceable industries.

Stocks on the NASDAQ and S&P dropped this week because AI companies are spending too much money without a specific pay back date. Big investors might be under pressure to invest in something else and selling off their AI stocks. But where is travel investible? Which travel companies will survive?

There is the other issue about AI unemployment but for travel destinations and tourism agencies, that can be a problem solver.  AI likely is and could be a bigger profit driver, with fewer employees. There is opportunity for you to improve your business.

So far, for travel businesses, AI is working, and it’s taking profit away from big companies such as Expedia and Booking.com. You can see in the chart how they’re faring so far this year.  ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini are gaining traction to make traditional travel companies big or small disappear.

They want to monetize more of the big travel company’s free traffic, for billions more in profit.

How is This Death Spiral Happening?

It’s because AI is killing generic marketing, systematically. Big or small, travel companies are facing the inability to reach their audiences and even keep their current customers.

With Google, ChatGPT and Facebook using it, there’s nowhere for small companies to get into the awareness layer.

And it’s not that AI replaces travel advisors. Instead, these platforms are identifying and intercepting high-intent customers before a relationship, emotional connection, or brand trust can even begin. There is a path for some small travel companies to fight off the big zero click tech AI incursion, but they’ll need to be more conscious of how to do that. I’ve developed an AI-incursion resistant marketing strategy for agencies. It could help.

AI threatens small travel companies because it can quietly remove them from the discovery process. You’ve likely seen this already in your web/SEO and sales stats and you’re wondering where the bleeding is. Is remarketing working for you still?

When They Type in Your Company Name

Companies are losing on “branded searches.”  These are your customers or are those who have heard about your brand. They’re checking you out.  When they use AI services, the response or AI overview answers their question and more, so that travel shopper doesn’t need to click through to your travel company’s website.  This results in fewer email captures, fewer direct calls, fewer retargeting audiences, and fewer behavioral signals to view.

If you’re relying on big agency lead providers, you’ll be unhappy to know, their customer base will erode, along with their brand power. AI companies will pre-intercept the best leads and harvest them themselves. The opportunity is too easy and lucrative for them to pass on.

That description provided in the AI search overview reads generic without your company’s branded tone of voice, so the travel shopper loses some of their intent to buy from you. AI adds in information that could erode the value of your travel brand (e.g., comparisons, reviews, news, poorly worded descriptions).

Here’s what Gemini says about the Virtuoso brand and value proposition, adding in “usually, typically, often” in the description. It’s not the usual Virtuoso branded elegance, but a generic description that removes the luxury feel, feeling more like Expedia.

Searching for your company name is a common consumer activity.  Unless you provide the most credible, trusted and high-quality content experience, consistent with GEO principles, your company will not be visible in AI search engines.

And a “Brand name search” is usually the final trust checkpoint before booking. If this stage becomes fully “AI-mediated,” the direct relationship between brand curiosity and your website experience weakens. Small agencies depend heavily on this direct trust-building moment to receive calls or online bookings.

Type in your travel company name into Gemini and see what it returns.

And with fewer website visits, Google picks up fewer signals about your site being valuable and trusted. Your rankings and traffic fall.

The AI travel shopping erosion happens daily. Even the major OTAs are in trouble as you can see in the stock chart, even if they’ve incorporated AI in their operations, they’re in trouble as well, if travelers are heavily engaged with AI chatbot conversations.

We’re used to online search being a high-intent persuasion event.