A study led by AI AI-first digital marketing agency specialised in travel and tourism, Propellic, has revealed that fewer than 10% of bookings observed in Google AI Mode were made through OTAs, compared with 56% completed directly with hotels or activity suppliers.
This is one of the main conclusions of the research, which analysed 300+ booking journeys, 71,000 words of transcripts[1], and thousands of clicks and actions in real-world travel planning scenarios in Google AI Mode, showing that the future competitiveness of OTAs depends on investing in a strong GEO strategy with AI-ready content and booking incentives.
“Generative AI is now the new competitor to OTAs,” says Paul Teddy, Senior Director of Operations at Propellic. “While direct booking sites have an inherent advantage, it can easily be lost without proper GEO best practices. This represents an opportunity to achieve disproportionate ROI with a relatively small budget.”
The study also observed that optimising Google Business Profiles to appear above the fold and provide essential information for travelers is becoming critical as search shifts to AI mode. When users clicked on a local pack or inline link that opened a Google Business Profile card in the right panel, they engaged with websites, reviews, prices, and photos.
Google is embedding these mini-local packs directly within AI-generated responses, and users are interacting with them before even reaching traditional search results. This means a Google Business Profile now functions as the primary storefront for a hotel or business, surpassing the traditional role of the website.
As Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai said, AI Mode is the future of Google search. In fact, AI Mode has already pushed the 10-blue links down the page and taken over the travel planning process. Information is gathered and decisions are made in AI Mode. The only task that requires the user to leave AI is booking (for now).
“For decades, travel marketing mapped campaigns to ‘dreaming, planning, booking,’” says Brennen Bliss, CEO and Founder at Propellic. “LLMs blur the phases of the traditional funnel into one environment. The new competition is about controlling the collapsed funnel inside the AI ecosystem. Whoever owns that interaction wins the traveller.”
