In the past, travel brands optimized for SEO, social, or storytelling.
Now, they need to optimize for AI.
Whether it’s ChatGPT, Google’s AI Mode or Perplexity, AI is now the first (and often final) touchpoint for travellers.
When someone asks ChatGPT “What’s the best beach destination in Southeast Asia?” or uses Google’s AI Mode to plan a European city break, they’re not seeing your carefully crafted Instagram posts or optimized website content.
They’re seeing whatever information AI tools can easily summarize.
This creates a massive blind spot for travel marketers. Your brand might dominate social media, but if your content isn’t structured for AI consumption, you’re invisible in the fastest-growing discovery channel.
That means every part of your travel experience needs to be AI-readable, AI-relevant, and AI-summarized:
• Your brand voice needs to show up clearly in AI answers
• Your experiences need to be described with clarity
• Your imagery needs metadata that AI tools can scan
This has been a shift coming for quite some time.
Over a year ago, the team at Beautiful Destinations noticed this, and it contributed to our intentional shift from inspirational content to educational content that teaches the audience and answers real questions.
Educational content is what consumers remember and what AI surfaces first. Lean into that!
