It’s not your Grandma’s Google Search anymore!

The Ole Seagull strongly believes that the way people search for travel and vacation information on the internet, as well as what they expect in response, is rapidly changing. The typical approach in the past was to enter an inquiry into “Google” and get a list of websites that Google says would answer your question.

A couple planning a trip to Branson might enter the inquiry, “I am going to Branson, Missouri, with my wife. We are in our 60s and want to see the five most popular shows. Please give me a list of the five that you think will best meet our needs.” First, the primary source of the answer to that inquiry was Google. Second, the responses were essentially a list of websites with “Sponsored Ads,” paid for, at the top, followed by organic listings sorted according to how Google evaluated the site and its content. You would then have to go through the list of sites to determine if the answer to your question was there.

Ignoring “Chat AI” for the moment, AI now affects even the basic Google search with an “AI Overview” at the top of its search results to search for travel. The Google result for the above inquiry was, in order, Sight & Sound Theatres, Clay Cooper Theatre, The Haygoods, Hughes Brothers Theatre and Dolly Parton’s Stampede. This was followed by a list of website links, such as ExploreBranson.com, Branson.com, and BransonTourismCenter.com, among others, any of which may or may not answer the specific inquiry.

“But Seagull, even if someone goes beyond the AI Overview to the list on Google, won’t they be influenced to one extent or another by the specific AI Overview to their question and give those shows an advantage?” “Surely that’s a rhetorical question!”

This becomes even more important when the increasing popularity of using AI Chatbots for obtaining travel information is considered, rather than relying on standard Google searches. The Old Seagull made that same inquiry to six of the more popular AI Chatbots: Claude 4 Sonnet, DeepSeek-R1, Google Gemini 2.0 Flash, GPT-4o, Grok and Perplexity. He then ranked each show according to its position, assigning a “5” for every time it was listed as number “1,” and decreasing the ranking to a “1” for every time it was listed as number “5.”

To an Ole Seagull, the results were surprising, with only a total of 14 of all of Branson’s shows appearing in results for all seven (7) of the AI Chatbots. Of those 14, only two, “The Haygoods” and “Presley’s Country Jubilee,” appeared on the list for five or more of the seven Chatbots. Out of a possible 35 points, only three, The Haygoods with 28, Presley’s Country Jubilee with 20, and The Clay Cooper Theatre with 10, scored 10 or higher.

“But two of Branson’s most popular shows, ‘Sight and Sound’ and ‘Dolly Parton’s Stampede’ didn’t score 10 or more.” “That’s true, and they are great entertainment experiences with a marketing budget that most Branson shows can’t even imagine.

“What are you saying, Seagull?” “It’s pretty simple, more and more folks are using AI and will at least be influenced by its results. You can have the best show in the world, but if folks don’t know about it, “good luck.” Increasingly, AI Chatbots is the way most people will initially become aware of shows due to their convenience and direct responses.