Which Travel Brands Lead AI Search This Holiday Season?

Holiday travelers are using AI to explore destinations, compare options and research bookings. For travel brands, visibility increasingly depends on which questions people ask and which AI engine answers them.

BrightEdge analyzed US holiday travel questions across Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT, comparing airlines, hotels, cruise lines and booking platforms against direct competitors.

American Airlines, Royal Caribbean and Expedia lead their categories on both engines. The hotel rankings are closer: Hilton leads on Google AI Overviews, while Marriott leads on ChatGPT.

The full report examines those differences and shows where travel companies appear across inspiration, comparison, booking-intent and budget-related questions.

Key Findings in This Report

• Hotel leadership changes by engine. Hilton leads Google AI Overviews at 28.3%, while Marriott leads ChatGPT at 29.4%.
• Expedia has more than twice Kayak’s visibility on Google AI Overviews. Expedia leads booking platforms at 31.3%, compared with Kayak at 14.4%. Its margin is narrower on ChatGPT.
• Booking platforms appear more frequently in booking-intent questions. They feature in 12% of inspiration prompts, 25% of comparison prompts and 38% of booking-intent prompts in the tracked Google AI Overviews sample.
• Budget-related questions show a different pattern. Booking platforms appear in 78% of budget-related Google AI Overviews answers, compared with 17% of other answers.

Download the Full Report

Explore the full category rankings, Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT comparisons, holiday travel planning patterns and practical recommendations for travel marketers.

Source: BrightEdge AI Hyper Cube, US English holiday travel prompts, August to September 2026. Category rankings measure volume-weighted visibility among brands in the same category. Intent and budget findings use a separate, prompt-based measure. Results describe observed visibility, not bookings or market share. The two AI engines were measured with different prompt sets.

Further Resources

Holiday Travel AI Search: October 2026 Announcement: Read the BrightEdge press announcement on the brands leading AI-powered holiday travel planning.

Agentic Commerce Research: Explore how AI is changing shopping, discovery and brand visibility.

BrightEdge AI Hyper Cube: See how brands appear across AI search answers and compare competitive visibility.