How to Get Your Tour or Activity Recommended by ChatGPT

Ask ChatGPT for the best guided tour in your region and it won’t give you ten blue links. It writes an answer, names a handful of operators and often points to a few booking platforms. If you aren’t one of the names, the traveller never meets you.

So how do you get your tour or activity recommended by ChatGPT? The honest answer is that nobody can promise a mention, because the tools decide who they name. But you can make your business easier for them to understand, trust and repeat. This guide covers how.

What “recommended by ChatGPT” actually means

When a traveller asks an AI tool for tour ideas, the tool writes a reply. That reply might name specific operators, describe what they offer and sometimes link to a source. Being “recommended” means your business is named in that reply, ideally with a link to your own site.

That’s different from ranking on Google. A search result shows ten options and lets the traveller choose. An AI answer often shows two or three and moves on. The competition for those spots is tighter, which is why it’s worth understanding.

How AI tools decide who to name

Nobody outside the companies knows exactly how these tools choose, and it changes often. In general terms, they draw on what they learned in training and, when they search the web, on pages and sources they can find at the time. That gives us some sensible principles.

• They need clear facts. If your site says plainly what you offer, where, for how long and for whom, there’s more for a tool to work with.
• They look for consistency. The same name, description and details across your site, your Google profile and your listings read as one clear business.
• They lean on third-party proof. Reviews and mentions on sites other than your own carry weight.
• They respond to useful content. Pages that answer real questions are easier to quote.

None of this is a trick. It’s the same groundwork that helps with search, aimed at a different kind of answer.

Step 1: See where you stand today

Before changing anything, test it. Open ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI results and ask the questions a traveller would ask.

• “What’s the best [activity] in [your region]?”
• “Who should I book for [activity] in [your town]?”
• “I’m visiting [your region] for three days. What should I book?”

Note whether you’re named, how you’re described, and what the answer links to. Run each question more than once, because answers vary. We’ve set out a repeatable method in our tourism AI visibility report, which you can copy for your own business.

Step 2: Put clear facts on your own website

Make each experience page easy to read for a person and a machine.

• A short, plain description of what it is and who it suits.
• Duration, start time, meeting point, group size, season and what’s included.
• A price, or price from, so the page isn’t vague.
• Safety information, accessibility and what to bring.
• An FAQ answering the questions guests really ask, in plain language.

Add structured data (schema) for your business, your experiences and your FAQs, so the facts are marked up clearly. It’s a standard part of our AEO work, which is included in every SEO plan.

Step 3: Make your details consistent everywhere

Check that your business name, address, phone number, website and description match across your site, your Google Business Profile, directories and booking platforms. Small mismatches make you look like several different businesses, or none.

Step 4: Earn genuine reviews

Reviews are some of the strongest third-party proof you can have. Ask every guest while the trip is fresh, make it easy to leave one, and reply to every review. Detailed reviews that mention the experience and the place help people and machines understand what you do. Never buy or fake reviews.

Step 5: Get mentioned by sources AI trusts

Mentions on other sites help. That might be a regional tourism site, a travel blog, local news, a trusted directory or a feature in a magazine. They don’t need to be huge. They need to be real, relevant and credible, and they should describe you accurately. This is the digital PR side of GEO for tourism operators.

Step 6: Publish content worth quoting

Write honest guides that answer what travellers ask: when to go, what to wear, who an experience suits, how it compares to the alternatives. Content that is specific, accurate and useful is easier for a tool to quote. Avoid padding. A short, clear answer beats a long, vague one.

Step 7: Make sure the answer can lead to you

If the strongest information about your business sits on a booking platform, that’s where an AI answer can point. Build up your own website, your profile and your reviews so the answer has a reason to link to you. If it does, the traveller can book direct and you keep the booking. See how direct bookings work.

What to expect

This is a longer game than paid ads. It builds slowly, as references and authority accumulate, and results vary. It also isn’t a replacement for solid SEO and a good website. If those aren’t in place, start there.

Common mistakes when chasing AI recommendations

• Stuffing pages with keywords. AI tools read meaning, not keyword counts, and so do travellers. Write for people.
• Publishing thin, generic pages in bulk. A hundred vague pages are worth less than ten clear, accurate ones about experiences you actually run.
• Buying or faking reviews and mentions. It breaks platform rules, and a made-up trail of praise is easy for people to spot.
• Letting your details drift. Different opening hours, descriptions or names on different sites make you harder to trust.
• Forgetting your own website. If your site is thin or hard to read, an answer has little reason to point to you.
• Expecting overnight results. This builds over months, alongside your normal marketing.

How to track whether it’s working

Keep it simple. Re-run your test questions once a month on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI results, and log the date, the wording, whether you were named and what the answer linked to. Over a few months you’ll see whether you’re appearing more often.

Also watch your own numbers. Some AI tools send visitors to your site, and your analytics may show them as a referral source, though how much detail you see varies. Ask guests how they found you at booking, and add AI tools as an answer. None of these is perfect, but together they show the direction of travel.

If you’d like to know how you show up now, get in touch and I’ll run the questions for your business and tell you plainly what the tools say. Or explore the digital marketing for tourism operators hub for everything we do.

Want to know whether AI tools actually name you? Our AI search visibility guide shows how to check, what helps and what doesn’t, and the Google and AI search update tracker lists the changes as they happen, with sources.