A traveler opens ChatGPT on a Sunday night and types: "I want to take my two kids to Europe in October, flying out of Córdoba. What should I do? Which agency do you recommend?"
The answer brings two, maybe three names. If yours isn't there, you didn't come in seventh. You didn't come in at all. There is no page two where someone scrolls down and finds you.
More and more inquiries start this way, before they ever reach your WhatsApp. Your client already uses AI to plan the trip, as we wrote in your client arrives with an AI-made trip. The question now is a different one: when they ask for a name, why does the AI pick one agency and not another?
A list of ten versus two or three names
Google taught us a game with clear rules. There was a list, you fought for a spot, and if you couldn't reach the top, you paid to show up. Coming in sixth wasn't winning, but someone could still scroll down and pick you.
An AI doesn't rank a list. It reads everything it can find about the question and about the person asking. Then it builds an answer from what it trusts most, from what is most likely to be right. And today there is no way to pay your way into that recommendation.
That brings uncomfortable news for anyone who invested in a pretty website: ranking first on Google doesn't guarantee you get named. Analyses of thousands of answers keep landing in the same place: most pages cited by chat assistants are not in Google's top ten. It's a different game, with different rules.
The three things it checks before naming you
First, what others say about you. Most of what an AI reads about your agency wasn't written by you. It prioritizes reviews, ratings, articles that featured you, directories that list you and sites that link to you. Your website matters, but it looks at it later. First it looks for who vouches for you.
Second, whether the details match. If your agency is described the same way on your Google profile, in your association's directory, in an industry article and in fifty traveler reviews, that's strong confirmation for an AI. If your details differ from place to place, or you only exist on your own website, there's nothing to confirm. So it skips you.
Third, being specific. This is the part I like most, because it levels the field. Almost nobody asks an AI "which agency do you recommend" and stops there. They ask with context: who's traveling, from where, when, and what worries them. The AI looks for someone described for that exact person. A small agency that owns its niche beats a big one that claims to do everything. With Google, that was much harder.
With Google, being found was enough. With AI, you have to be someone worth citing.
Where each one looks
Not every AI reads in the same place, and that changes where you need to show up. This is what's known today about the most used ones:
| Assistant | Where it searches | What to take care of first |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini and Google's AI answers | Google Search and Google Maps data | Your Google Business Profile and its reviews |
| ChatGPT | A mix: its own index, Google, Bing and review sites like Tripadvisor | Matching details everywhere and reviews on more than one site |
| Copilot | Bing | Your Bing Places listing |
| Claude | Brave Search | Other sites linking to yours |
Based on what the platforms publish and what shows up in their answers, as of September 2026. It changes often: treat it as a map, not a fixed rule.
No verification date
The practical takeaway isn't to pick one. It's that there's no single door. That's why the second factor matters so much. If your details are the same on Google, on Bing, on your website and in directories, they all reach the same conclusion.
Which sources carry the most weight
Your Google profile and reviews. This is the foundation, especially for Gemini and Google's AI answers, which pull directly from Maps data. And since not every assistant searches Google, it's worth doing the same on Bing Places. Almost no agency has one. It takes half an hour and puts you in the search engine Copilot uses.
What others say about you. This is the most underused one. Industry press, your country's travel agency association directory, regional chambers, wholesaler listings, interviews and case studies published by suppliers. One article in a serious trade outlet adds more than it seems.
Your website. It has to exist, and it has to be readable. In most agencies we know, the offer lives on Instagram and nowhere else. Instagram shows up better in search engines today, but it's not what a model prefers to read. Without at least one public page with your offer in writing, you barely exist for an AI.
That's why we built Trama Link, a free public page with your catalog, prices and validity dates. It comes ready for Google and AI assistants to read. It's one way to solve it, and a well-built website of your own works too. What doesn't work is having neither.
Your social media, indirectly. An AI doesn't watch your reels or look at your photos: analyzing each one would be far too expensive. It reads your bio, your captions and the text in your posts. Think of it this way: the image is for the human, the text is for the AI. If your bio says "travel agency" and nothing else, you're not telling it anything.
Easy to read, easy to confirm
If I had to sum it up in one line: your agency needs to be easy for an AI to read and easy to confirm as trustworthy.
Easy to read means getting your offer out of formats that are only meant to be looked at. One page per product or destination, with real text: what's included, what isn't, the starting price and how long that price is valid. It helps to write it the way you'd answer a traveler, not like a brochure. Models prefer to find the answer already written.
Easy to confirm means your details never contradict each other. Same name, same address, same phone number and same links on Google, on Bing, on your website, in your association and in every directory. It's mostly admin work, but it matters. When details don't match, the AI loses confidence and goes with the agency that does match.
Then there are three levers worth the effort.
Reviews with text. Five stars with no comment say nothing, because the AI reads the content. "Excellent service" doesn't help either. "They planned our honeymoon in Greece and sorted out a flight change while we were there" positions you for a specific inquiry. Ask for them on WhatsApp when a traveler comes back happy, with a question that invites them to tell a story and the direct link. Something like:
"Hi Sofia, how was Greece? If you have two minutes, it would really help us if you shared in a review what trip you took and what helped you most on our end. Here's the direct link: [link to your profile]"
A niche of your own. As narrow as possible. The ski agency, the group trips to Brazil agency, the one that does graduation trips from Córdoba. Be the agency for something. AI assistants recommend for specific questions and have nowhere to place someone who posts everything.
Mentions outside your website. Press, associations, partnerships, supplier case studies. It's uncomfortable, because you have to go out and ask for it or pay for it. But it's exactly what moves the needle most.
SEO and GEO: what changes and what doesn't
The work of showing up in AI answers has started to be called GEO, short for generative engine optimization. It's a cousin of classic SEO, and it's worth being clear on the difference before you hire anyone.
| What changes | SEO (classic Google) | GEO (AI answers) |
|---|---|---|
| What you win | A spot in a list of ten results | A mention among two or three names |
| Where the work happens | Mostly on your website | Mostly off your website |
| What weighs most | Site structure, speed and links pointing to you | What others say, matching details and specificity |
| What you measure | Rankings and clicks, fairly stable | Mentions, which change from one question to the next |
| Can you pay for it | Yes, with ads separate from organic results | Not the recommendation: ads are separate |
No verification date
Measurement is where the trap is. In GEO, the same question asked twice on the same day can get two different answers. So if someone offers to "rank you number one on ChatGPT", they're selling smoke. It depends on far too much context.
And GEO doesn't replace SEO. They add up. A site that isn't properly indexed can't be cited by anyone, so the technical foundation stays the same. What changes is that being found is no longer enough. Now you have to be citable.
I ran into this testing Claude: without at least one external site linking to yours as a reference, it simply doesn't take you into account. It's not a rule written anywhere, it's what I saw in my tests. But it points in the same direction as everything above. Concrete details, outside sources, text worth citing and reviews, instead of just pretty pages.
The 90-day plan
I'm giving it to you with dates, because otherwise it stays an intention.
90-day plan to get AI assistants to recommend your agency
- 1
Week 1: find out where you stand
Open ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude and ask them ten questions a client of yours would ask, with your city and your product, without naming your agency. Write down which agencies show up and which don't. That's your baseline. Then ask about your agency directly and see what they say about you and where they got it.
- 2
Weeks 1 and 2: clean up your listings
Complete your Google Business Profile 100%: correct category, hours, photos, services and your agency license or registration number. Then create your Bing Places listing, the one nobody does. Use exactly the same name, address, phone and website on both and on your own site.
- 3
Weeks 2 to 4: turn your products into pages
Pick the six products you sell most and build a page for each one, with price, validity dates and as much detail as you can: what's included, what isn't and who it's for. Price and validity are what let an AI recommend you at the right moment.
- 4
Months 1 and 2: add 20 reviews with text
One per business day for a month. Ask for them on WhatsApp from travelers who already took their trip, with a question that gets them to share something specific and the direct link. Reply to every one with text, including the bad ones if they come.
- 5
Months 2 and 3: land three outside mentions
An article or interview in an industry outlet. Your listing in your association's directory, with a link to your website (ask them to add it). And a case study or mention with a wholesaler or supplier you work with. Three, at a minimum.
- 6
Day 90: measure again
Repeat the same ten questions from week one in the same assistants and compare. Don't expect to show up in all of them. Aim to show up in more than at the start, and above all in the questions about your niche.
What it costs to stay invisible
This cost doesn't show up in any report. Your spreadsheet, your CRM or your WhatsApp track the inquiries that came in and the ones that fell through. The one the AI sent to another agency never existed for you. You didn't lose it in the sale: you lost it before it started.
And it's one of the most valuable inquiries there is. It arrives with the destination, dates and group already figured out, and with a recommendation on top. On the other side is someone who has already decided to travel and only needed someone to buy from.
It also compounds. The agency that shows up gets the inquiry, makes the sale, collects the review and earns another mention. Next time, the AI has even more reasons to name it. The later you start, the bigger the gap you have to close.
Questions we always get
Can I pay to get ChatGPT to recommend my agency?
Not the recommendation itself. As of September 2026, ChatGPT shows ads only to users on its free plans and only in some countries, including Brazil and Mexico, and they're kept separate from the answer. Getting named is earned with what others say about you, matching details and specificity.
What is llms.txt and do I need it?
It's a file you upload to your website with an organized summary of the site, meant to be read by AI assistants. It's a cousin of robots.txt. It takes ten minutes and does no harm, but Google has said it doesn't need it for its AI answers. It's not where the difference is: what moves the needle happens off your website.
How long until I notice a change?
Listings and product pages can be sorted out in weeks. Reviews and outside mentions take longer, because they depend on other people. That's why the plan is 90 days long and ends by measuring again.
How do I know if an AI is recommending me?
Ask it the way a client would, without naming your agency, in several assistants and more than once. Answers change, so don't settle for a single test. Write down what comes up and repeat it every month.
Tonight, after you close, open ChatGPT and ask it what your best client would ask. With your city, your product and the time of year.
If your agency shows up, you know what to protect. If it doesn't, you already have your first task for the week.
Yaco Peralta
Co-founder & CEO, trama.
Construyendo trama. para que las agencias de viajes vuelvan a tener foco en la asesoría humana.
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