No universal winner
No travel brand appeared in all nine observed responses. The highest observed frequency was four of nine, reached by seven brands.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH • UK TRAVEL + BARBADOS
AI travel discovery is not one consistent shortlist.
We ran the same three Barbados and Caribbean travel searches across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Nine observed responses surfaced 29 distinct travel brands — and no brand appeared in every result.
THE SNAPSHOT
DISTINCT BRANDS SURFACED
29/9 responses
The point is not that 29 is a score. It shows how fragmented the observed recommendations were across platform and intent. Only two brands appeared at least once on all three platforms across the three searches.
| Observed frequency | Brands |
|---|---|
| 4 of 9 responses | Trailfinders; Kuoni; TUI; Carrier; Inspiring Travel; British Airways Holidays; Virgin Atlantic Holidays |
| 3 of 9 responses | Elegant Resorts; Caribtours; Kenwood Travel |
| 2 of 9 responses | Turquoise Holidays; Travelbag; Scott Dunn; Southall Travel; Destination2; Caribbean Inspired |
| 1 of 9 responses | Simply Caribbean Luxury Holidays; Caribbean Global Destinations; Caribbee; Audley Travel; Cox & Kings; Blue Bay Travel; Abercrombie & Kent; SN Travel; Co-op Travel; Hays Travel; Prestbury Travel; Tropical Sky; Destinology |
Presence was counted at most once per brand in each observed response. Obvious naming variants were normalized, for example “TUI UK” to “TUI” and “ITC Inspiring Travel” to “Inspiring Travel.” This is a directional snapshot, not a scientific ranking, market-share estimate or endorsement of any company.
WHAT WE OBSERVED
The shortlist changed when the question or platform changed.
That matters because a travel brand can have strong real-world expertise and still be surfaced inconsistently. Visibility is not simply “are we in AI?” It depends on the buyer intent being expressed, the platform answering and the public signals available to that system at that moment.
Intent changed the mix
The luxury-Barbados prompt shifted the observed shortlist toward brands such as Carrier, Elegant Resorts, Inspiring Travel, Caribtours and other premium specialists.
Platform mattered
Across all three prompts, ChatGPT surfaced 12 distinct brands, Gemini 15 and Perplexity 15. Only Carrier and TUI appeared at least once on all three platforms.
Specialists can surface
The results were not limited to the largest travel groups. Smaller or more focused names such as Caribbean Inspired, Simply Caribbean Luxury Holidays, SN Travel and Prestbury Travel also appeared.
Expertise was unevenly recognized
Caribbean-focused brands appeared in some specialist or luxury contexts but disappeared in others. A strong niche proposition did not automatically translate into consistent cross-platform discovery.
One test is not enough
A single prompt on a single AI platform can give a misleading picture of visibility. A useful audit needs multiple buyer intents, multiple systems and a preserved baseline for later comparison.
THE THREE QUESTIONS
Same wording across all three platforms.
We deliberately kept the prompt set small. The goal was not statistical inference. It was to observe how three distinct buyer intents changed the travel brands surfaced across three major AI systems.
Broad Barbados discovery
“Which UK travel companies are recommended for a Barbados holiday?”
Luxury Barbados intent
“Which UK travel agencies are best known for luxury Barbados holidays?”
Caribbean specialist intent
“Which UK travel companies specialize in Caribbean holidays including Barbados?”
METHOD
Simple controls. Clear limitations.
On 3 October 2026, each prompt was run once in a fresh conversation on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Search/web access was enabled where available. Impact Framework was not mentioned. Responses were not regenerated and no follow-up questions were used. We recorded the brands visible in the original responses and normalized obvious naming variants for counting.
Fresh conversations
Each observation started from a new conversation to reduce contamination from prior prompts in the same chat.
No retries
We kept the first observed response rather than regenerating until a preferred brand appeared.
Directional, not statistical
AI outputs can change with time, model version, location, personalization, available sources and stochastic generation. Nine observations cannot establish market share or a permanent ranking.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR TRAVEL BUSINESSES
Being excellent is not the same as being consistently discoverable.
The practical question is not whether your brand appears somewhere once. It is whether relevant buyer-intent searches consistently surface and accurately describe your business across the systems your customers may use — and whether the public signals supporting that visibility can be strengthened.
What an audit should investigate
- Which buyer-intent searches surface your brand today
- Which competitors are selected when you are absent
- How each system describes your expertise and positioning
- Which sources and third-party signals support those descriptions
- Technical, content, entity and authority gaps worth fixing first
- Whether comparable remeasurement shows a meaningful change
THE RECEIPTS
All nine original observations.
These screenshots document what was visible in the original responses. They are evidence of the observed outputs on the collection date, not independent verification that every factual statement made by an AI system about each travel company was correct.
ChatGPT — broad Barbados discovery
Prompt 01. Observed 3 October 2026.
Gemini — broad Barbados discovery
Prompt 01. Observed 3 October 2026.
Perplexity — broad Barbados discovery
Prompt 01. Observed 3 October 2026.
ChatGPT — luxury Barbados
Prompt 02. Observed 3 October 2026.
Gemini — luxury Barbados
Prompt 02. Observed 3 October 2026.
Perplexity — luxury Barbados
Prompt 02. Observed 3 October 2026.
ChatGPT — Caribbean specialists
Prompt 03. Observed 3 October 2026.
Gemini — Caribbean specialists
Prompt 03. Observed 3 October 2026.
Perplexity — Caribbean specialists
Prompt 03. Observed 3 October 2026.
WHAT WE ARE NOT CLAIMING
This snapshot shows observed visibility. Nothing more.
We are not claiming that appearance in these responses caused traffic, enquiries or bookings; that the brands surfaced are objectively the best travel companies; that a brand missing from a response has poor marketing; or that the same responses will appear for every user. The value of the snapshot is diagnostic: it demonstrates that discovery varies by intent and platform, and creates a repeatable way to investigate why.
AI VISIBILITY AUDIT
Want to know which travel searches surface your brand — and which surface your competitors instead?
Impact Framework benchmarks relevant buyer-intent searches, diagnoses technical, content, entity and third-party authority gaps, prioritizes what to fix and establishes a remeasurement plan.
Audit My Travel BrandRESEARCH USE TERMS
Using this research
Impact Framework's original research compilation, methodology, analysis and presentation may be cited or summarized with clear attribution to Impact Framework and a link to this page. Republishing, repackaging or selling the dataset or research materials in substantially complete form requires prior written permission.
Third-party platform names, responses and interfaces remain subject to their respective rights and terms.