Adido CEO Andy Headington offers advice to travel businesses in how to improve their listings in AI recommendations
"Your website looks the part: fresh content, standout visuals, and a smooth user experience. So, why doesn't it show up when people ask ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI tools for recommendations?
It's a question we're hearing more often from travel brands. As always, there's no single answer, but one thing is clear. The way people find and compare travel options is changing. Travellers aren't always clicking through five or six websites to gather information in the way they once did. For some searches, they're now being shown summarised answers, suggested sources and comparison-style information long before they land on a website.
That doesn't mean SEO has stopped mattering—far from it. Much of what's now being called GEO, or AI generative engine optimisation, is really just SEO done properly: crawlable pages, useful content, clear structure, trusted expertise and a brand that's easy to understand. The difference is that your content now needs to answer not just the original question, but the natural follow-up questions AI tools are likely to explore.
Anticipate follow-up questions
Holiday planning is full of follow-up questions. Someone searching for the 'best time to visit Costa Rica' may also want to know about wildlife, regional differences, school holiday prices, and so on.
In simple terms, AI tools can look beyond the original search and explore related questions to build a fuller answer. That means content needs to cover a topic properly. A destination page should answer the obvious question, then help with the decisions that naturally come next. The best approach is to build genuinely useful pages that help travellers compare, plan and decide.
AI and Google
One of the biggest misconceptions is that if you rank on page one, you'll automatically appear in AI-generated answers. That is not the case. AI tools don't simply copy the top organic results.
Depending on the platform and query, they may pull together information from a wider set of sources, including websites, business profiles, review platforms, travel publications and forums. AI Tools are looking for information that is specific, well-structured and easy to verify. A paragraph saying a destination has 'something for everyone' isn't enough. A section explaining that a region suits families with older children, works best from May to October, needs seven-to-10 nights and is suited to a beach stay, is far more beneficial.
Consistency is also paramount. If a website says you're a tailor-made luxury travel specialist, your Google Business Profile say you're a tour operator, your social bio talks mainly about honeymoons and your third-party listings describe you as a general travel agency, the picture can become blurred.
If you're a specialist in tailor-made Latin America holidays, for example, or strongest on cruises in the Med, say that clearly and consistently. AI systems won't recommend you confidently if they can't figure out what you are.
What to do next
For small travel businesses, improving GEO doesn't mean overhauling your entire website. Start with these five actions:
- Define your specialism clearly and consistently: make sure your website, Google Business Profile, social channels and third-party listings all give the same clear picture of what you sell, who you serve and where your expertise lies.
- Focus on your most valuable pages: prioritise the destinations, tours, cruise types or holiday styles that generate the most enquiries, ensuring each page answers the main question quickly—and covers the natural follow-up questions travellers may have.
- Replace generic copy with useful detail: Include specifics such as the best time to travel, ideal trip length, likely budget, who the holiday suits, what is included and how similar options compare.
- Demonstrate genuine expertise and trustworthiness: add named expert advice, first-hand recommendations, detailed customer reviews, author profiles and evidence to support claims about your experience or specialist knowledge.
- Keep your information accurate: regularly update prices, entry requirements, routes and seasonal advice.
The fundamentals haven't changed nearly as much as people think. Brands that are clear about who they are, what they offer and why travellers should trust them have always performed well in search. AI is simply making those qualities even more valuable."
