American Airlines, Royal Caribbean and Expedia Dominate AI Travel Search

By Priya Raman

Expedia is 2.2 times more visible than Kayak in Google AI Overviews for travel queries, with a share of voice of 31.3% against Kayak's 14.4%. That gap, from new BrightEdge research, captures the core finding: the best-known travel brands dominate AI search answers, while smaller operators must fight for the remaining ground.

Which brands lead AI search?

BrightEdge's data shows American Airlines, Royal Caribbean and Expedia lead their categories on both Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT. Hotels split by engine: Hilton leads Google AI Overviews at 28.3%, while Marriott leads ChatGPT at 29.4%.

In airlines, American Airlines holds 26.6% visibility on Google AI Overviews and 25.3% on ChatGPT. Its lead over United runs 6.1 points on Google AI Overviews and 9.1 points on ChatGPT. Royal Caribbean tops cruise lines on both engines at 24.8% and 28.8%, with Carnival also showing higher visibility in the ChatGPT sample and Viking showing lower visibility.

What does this change for smaller travel sites?

The practical question for practitioners is where the openings sit. BrightEdge's data points to two.

First, inspiration queries. Platforms and organizations such as YouTube, Reddit and AAA appear more prominently in inspiration questions, where big brands dominate less. Results containing user-generated content and content with a human experience quality tend to perform better for these subjective queries. That creates space for Reddit and YouTube — and by extension for travel blogs and smaller sites that can add unique human insight and subjectivity.

Second, the query mix itself. Inspiration and comparison prompts account for most of BrightEdge's tracked panel, while only 9% of tracked Google AI Overviews prompts show booking intent. BrightEdge states: "Inspiration and comparison account for most of this panel, making them important areas for travel brands to measure visibility and competition."

Booking intent concentrates on platforms

Price-focused queries favor booking platforms heavily. Booking platforms appear in 78% of budget-related Google AI Overviews answers — those containing terms such as "cheap," "deal," "budget" or "last-minute" — compared with 17% of other answers. Expedia appears in 44% of the budget-related answers.

BrightEdge cautions that this is an observed association, not evidence that using these words causes a brand to appear. Still, the pattern suggests price-focused questions are an area booking platforms should track.

A further data point: 38% of booking-intent prompts on Google AI Overviews name a booking platform, against 12% of inspiration prompts. Hotels and cruise lines feature more heavily in comparison questions.

Share of voice, not rankings

AI search does not link out to sites the way classic search does. BrightEdge therefore calls these figures share of voice rather than rankings, measuring appearances among tracked AI answers because AI answers do not feature traditional ranking positions. The company notes that its category rankings cover hotels, airlines, booking platforms and cruise lines, and exclude non-travel platforms such as YouTube and Reddit.

The underlying dynamic will feel familiar. Queries that clearly belong to specific categories favor established brands, and classic search rankings — heavily influenced by user behavior signals — feed up the pipeline into AI chat answers. Breaking into any niche still turns on growing brand awareness and building trust.

The realistic path for smaller travel publishers is the door AI search has already left ajar: inspiration and subjectivity, the territory where Reddit currently ranks. UGC and platform rankings have historically been vulnerable to smart, aggressive content strategies — and expertise and authoritativeness have never been Reddit's strength.