Hey there,

For the past couple of years we kept getting the same calls from customers...

"What's going on with our traffic?"

"What's happening with Google?"

"What's happening with direct bookings?"

And honestly, I couldn't answer that question with conviction. And no one else seemed to be able to either.

Everything we read about the shift happening in online marketing was abstract or too generalized. Even the studies published in our industry were primarily focused on large enterprises spending $10-20K per month for a single SEO service. 

Nobody was studying what's actually happening on the ground for independent tour and activity operators. You needed a different playbook.

So we did the research and analysis ourselves.

As far as I know, we're the only ones who could even do this type of research in our industry. We're the only provider who serves standardized websites with first-party data who could run something like this. 

Well... there is another, but they're too busy trying to rake you over the money coals to actually work on something that could be helpful for the industry as a whole. 

For 6 months we tracked ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. 530 real traveler questions. 34 real operators. Over 400,000 AI answers.

Nothing like this has ever been published for our industry. No one else has this data.

Well... it's now live for you to read. Free, no email gate:

Read the 2026 AI Visibility Report →

The short version:

• Search visits per operator website fell roughly 41% in 2 years.

• Ranking #1 on Google is no longer enough. Only 17% of the pages AI cited appeared in the top 20 of the Google search we tested.
• AI has its own rules for picking who it recommends. And now we know what a lot of them are.

One more thing... [shameless plug warning], but I'm way too proud of this one not to share it...

While we were in the data, we looked at how Gondola websites compare to their direct competitors in their own markets.

For 74% of the brands we tracked, the Gondola-powered operators were the #1 most cited business website in its local market, beating out every other local competitor. 

And 90% ranked in the top 3 of all local competitors across all the AI prompts we tracked.

If you're a Gondola customer: thank you. This is what all of this work has been for.

If you're not, well... now you know what you're up against.

I believe operators will win over the OTAs long term. But you need the right technology, and you need to be set up correctly to win.

That's why we did this. It's why I gained 20 pounds and my hair is turning gray.

I'm trying to figure out how we actually help you get more direct bookings.

That's the whole thing. That's why this report exists.

Read the 2026 AI Visibility Report →

What to do about all of this

We're also doing a follow-up webinar on Tuesday, September 1.

The report tells you what's happening in the market.

The webinar is about what to do with it: how to implement these learnings in your business so you can stay front and center in AI results, keep your SEO growing, and build a healthier direct booking business.

Save your seat →

Go read it. Tell me what you think.

— Vitaliy