The short answer
AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity recommend the tours they can understand from text. OTA listings spell out price, duration, meeting point, inclusions and reviews. Most operator websites keep those details inside a booking widget, where AI can't read them. Write the facts on your page as plain text, add structured data, and AI has a reason to name you.
Travelers are asking AI first
More travelers now start planning by asking an AI tool a question instead of typing keywords into Google. They ask things like "family kayak tour near Falmouth" or "best food tour in Lisbon for a rainy day".
The answer isn't ten blue links. It's a short list of named options, usually with a link each. Being on that list is the new version of ranking on page one. And when your tour isn't on it, the traveler books whatever is.
What AI can and can't read on your website
AI tools build their answers from text they can retrieve and understand. A typical tour page gives them a headline, a photo, a paragraph of description and a booking widget.
The widget is the problem. Prices, times and availability often load inside it, separately from your page, so they never become part of the text AI reads. From the outside, your tour has a name and a nice description, and very little else.
An OTA listing is the opposite. Every fact a traveler might ask about is written out, in the same place, on every listing.
Your tour page
3 of 11
Price, duration and departure times. Meeting point, inclusions, reviews and more are missing.
The OTA listing
11 of 11
Every booking fact written out, plus Product markup in the code.
What we found on 1,879 tour pages
We checked 739 tour operator websites for the 11 facts travelers most often ask about before booking. 498 had English tour pages we could read, 1,879 pages in all. The typical tour page showed just 3 of the 11.
19%
show the meeting point
21%
show cancellation terms
11%
show reviews
9%
have Product markup
When the facts aren't on your page, AI fills the gap from wherever they are written down. Usually that's Viator, GetYourGuide or Tripadvisor. Every booking that follows from that answer costs you 20 to 30% in commission, on a traveler who was looking for exactly your tour.
How to make your tours readable by AI
The fix doesn't touch your booking system. Your FareHarbor, Bókun or Rezdy widget stays exactly where it is. You add two things around it, on every tour page.
1. A tour facts block
Write the facts out as plain text, above or beside the widget, in short lines a traveler can scan:
- Duration and start times
- Meeting point, with the address
- What's included, and what isn't
- Group size and age suitability
- Languages
- Cancellation terms
- Price, or "from" price
Use the same wording as in your booking system, so the facts match everywhere they appear.
2. Structured data
Add Schema.org Product markup to the page, including the price. It's a small block of code that tells search engines and AI tools, in a format they can't misread, what your tour is and what it costs.
{
"@type": "Product",
"name": "Family Sea Kayak Tour, Falmouth",
"offers": {
"price": "45",
"priceCurrency": "GBP"
}
}3. Use the words travelers search for
Put the tour's name, the activity and the place in the page text and the heading. "Family sea kayak tour in Falmouth" gives AI far more to work with than "Our Signature Experience". It's one of the first things worth checking: whether your tour names appear in the page text at all, or only inside the widget.
How to check where you stand
- Ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity the question a traveler would ask. Not your business name.
- Note who gets named, and which links the answer uses.
- Open your own tour page and count how many of the 11 facts are written on it.
- In Google Analytics, look for visits referred from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and gemini.google.com. Most operators currently see zero.
Rather have it checked for you?
Get a free AI visibility snapshot, checked by hand, within two business days.
What this won't do
It won't outrank Viator overnight. OTAs have years of authority and thousands of reviews behind them. Reviews and mentions on other sites matter for AI visibility too, and those take time.
But the facts on your own tour pages are the part you fully control. They're also the cheapest part to fix, and the one most operators haven't touched yet.
FAQ
Is this the same as SEO?
It overlaps. Clear page text and structured data help Google too, but the main aim here is AI answers in tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.
Will adding text change my booking widget?
No. The widget stays exactly as it is. The new blocks sit around it.
How long until AI starts naming my tours?
There's no fixed timeline. AI tools refresh what they know at different speeds. Re-run the same traveler questions every few weeks and watch the referrals in Google Analytics.
Stéphane Gaspar
Founder of Asaiko. Close to a decade building websites, now focused on helping tour operators get found by AI and booked directly, on FareHarbor, Bókun and Rezdy.
