Instagram posts now to show up in Google results

SEO may not be dead, but it is certainly evolving and fast. With the new GEO (which no-one really knows much about) now breathing down its neck, Google, the place where SEO lands is making moves to keep itself relevant for as long as possible. One of the moves is to start indexing Instagram posts and display those in the search engine results page (SERP).

That space is starting to get really crowded. With AI overviews now taking up the top spot in most people’s searches, plus shopping results and maps and other pieces of information, it is pretty likely you’ll need to go digging if you want to find the old blue links that dominated our lives for 2 decades.

Of course, Google also has a horse in the GEO race too, with Gemini and it is expected that at some point in the near future, the Google homepage will switch over to AI mode as the default. And really, I think this is what the Instagram indexing is all about for these two strange bedfellows.

What makes this strange is that Google already has YouTube and Instagram already has Meta’s Llama AI. And unique content is a moat.

No one else really has a solution to yet to bring back video results as part of an LLM answer. And younger searchers have said pretty loudly, that is how they like their content delivered. Where is OpenAI going to get its video from to enrich its own experience for example?

What it means for businesses of all types in travel, is a new opportunity to get their brand above the fold in search results, and likely to show up in AI search results also. But there is a catch. You need good content on your Instagram and for many, that hasn’t been a priority for a long time - especially just organic posting.

At Videreo, we spoke to an airline not long before this announcement who told us they’d pretty much given up on the posting on their brand account and concentrated really only on paid posts where the ROI was more defined and predictable. I wonder if this now changes things? I think it should, and fast.

Of course, the long-standing issue remains. Creating content is not easy nor cheap. Especially in travel, where the content you want is on the other side of the planet.

Fortunately, an army of content creators stand ready to help and we stand ready help travel businesses and travel creators to find each other.

Videreo are about to launch our new product which allow brands to call for submissions from content creators to create content using Videreo’s tools that match the campaign objectives of the brand, be it a new route or product launch or a great deal you want to get out into the world.

The creator will add the brand as a collaborator on Instagram allowing the brand marketing team to review the content before deciding to accept or not. On acceptance, the content will show up on both the creator and the brand pages as organic posts and be ready for indexing through to Google SERPs for which it will already be optimized via using our tools. The process is simple, secure and transparent for sides.

Videreo is the place for brands and creators to meet & create a new sales pipeline together.

This content is provided by the (interim) newsletter sponsor Videreo.com

My AI Holiday

I thought it might be worth chronicling how my recent vacation across the Balkans intersected with AI as a traveller as way to understand how at least one person is (and isn’t) using AI when they are out and about.

Our route was from Montenegro to Istanbul overland. We traversed Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, Greece (Macedonia region), Bulgaria and then Istanbul.

My AI and tech stack was:

• An eSIM

• ChatGPT (personal paid version, App on phone)

• Mindtrip App

• Google App (including Google lens and translate)

• Google Maps

• Traveling.com

• FLIX Bus app

• XE for currency conversion

I didn’t use AI a lot in planning. We knew roughly what part of the world we wanted to explore. I looked at what my old company Intrepid did in the region as they are generally pretty good at finding some places that are a bit undercover and we added Lake Ohrid from this. We then used Rome2Rio to figure out how it might be possible to do this overland. That figured out 80% of the transport for us. My partner booked the accom because she enjoys doing that. It was a mix of Booking.com and Airbnb.

My daughter is vegetarian, my partner is vegetarian and gluten free. I eat anything but love eating local. This is usually the biggest problem for us when travelling and the main friction point. I’d say AI 90% solved this problem for us. The majority of that was ChatGPT, sometimes MindTrip. Generally, we ate extremely well and everyone was happy. The nature of the cultures we were travelling through also helped (lots of different ways to fry cheese!).

We had a couple parts of the journey that Rome2Rio couldn’t help with. One was Lake Ohrid to Thessaloniki. No public transport link was available. We just used Google Maps to find a train station just over the border in Greece (Florina) and ChatGPT found us a way to book online when a Google search said this wasn’t possible. ChatGPT also found us Traveling.com - which I’d never heard of, which offered a private transfer from Ohrid to Florina. We booked and hoped. By miracle, someone came and picked us up and drove us where we needed to go and arrived well in time for the train (which was replaced with a bus for 50% but we got there).

The other unbookable was the overnight train from Plovdiv in Bulgaria to Istanbul. Many sites and AI told us the train existed but no-one could offer a way to book without turning up in person. ChatGPT told me exactly which window I needed to go to book in Sofia train station and got all the info perfect.

When we arrived in Istanbul, ChatGPT also gave the exact wrong direction in which to catch a metro to get to the airport. I’d already done the route once, so I knew - but a first timer would’ve had a bad day.

We used the voice part of ChatGPT to fill us in on historical titbits everywhere we went. That piece was excellent.

My overall take: AI improved our experience and lowered the “not knowing” stress by a lot! We ate well. I’m a fan.

Google and Trip Advisor heavyweights use AI to unlock direct booking

Steve Kaufer, the Trip Advisor founder, is back with his next idea! Disrupt OTA’s with an AI powered direct booking tool! 😀 

Kaufer and ex head of Google Travel, Richard Holden “plans to feed hotel listings directly into AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. By establishing a direct pipeline between hotels and large language models (LLMs), DirectBooker aims to transform the way travelers discover and book accommodations.“

Kaufer also outlined the thesis in a post on his own LinkedIn and in a post on the company website.

The TL;DR is that already hotels offer special benefits to direct bookers, but not many people actually end up on their direct sites. Leveraging MCP tech, DirectBooker is looking to get these benefits mentioned when the LLM is describing the hotel, giving cause for the user to book there to get these extras - versus ending up on the OTA without them.

Pretty smart but they are not alone here with others like Kismet also doing similar things.

“The startup’s technology leverages the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which enables more effective data delivery to large language models. This approach aims to provide richer, more tailored hotel information during AI-driven travel searches, encouraging direct bookings rather than referrals to OTAs.”

The company has raised $2M in pre seed funds already based on the team alone.

Delta uses AI to decide flight prices

Delta is moving to have AI decide the best price for you for 20% of all of its flight bookings. ““A super analyst” working “24 hours a day, 7 days a week” to optimize airfares is how Delta president Glen Hauenstein described its AI initiative to investors.”

Dynamic pricing has been around for a long time and according to the article “On a flight with 200 passengers, it wouldn’t be unusual for them to have paid 150 different prices.” AI will likely be able to do this job more accurately.

Whilst this should end up with more profitability for the airline, it doesn’t just mean higher prices. Filling the plane up is generally more important than just adding some extra $$ onto each seat.

And yet there is outrage. “Democratic Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego—a potential 2028 presidential contender—encapsulated this view, calling it “predatory pricing” and vowing he “won’t let them get away with this.”

Transparency on what a seat costs died long ago. This seems a big nothing burger and a ideal and obvious use case for AI that will move into all types of travel.

The biggest surprise in the article was just how cheap flights are right now by informing “inflation-adjusted airfares are 41% cheaper than 10 years ago. And June 2025 was the second-cheapest month ever for inflation-adjusted airfares.” Wow!

(Is this being driven by the silent boycott on travel to the US affecting the demand and supply curve?)

Translation > AGI

Banyan Group founder this week suggested that the biggest revolution in travel (maybe ever) will not be the coming of the super intelligence of AGI but the ability of everyone on earth to communicate with one another.

“Such frictionless conversations, Banyan Group founder Kwon Ping Ho says, will "open up the boundaries of travel in a big, big way."“

“"When you get instant translation, that's going to make people go into so many areas they normally wouldn't go," he added. "People can go to the remotest village in Japan or Indonesia and not feel strange at all."

I like this view of the world. Of course, don’t be surprised when sometimes you also begin to understand that maybe those villages might not actually want you there either.

Singapore Tourism signs partnership with OpenAI

News this week that STB had signed a partnership with OpenAI.

According to the article “With the new collaboration with OpenAI, STB will accelerate the adoption of Advanced AI across the tourism sector through OpenAI's capabilities in a bid to enhance visitor experiences and improve organisational and industry productivity.”

The end results of this collaboration coud be “deliver tailored recommendations, multilingual assistance, and enabling immersive storytelling that creates uniquely memorable experiences.”

If you think someone (or everyone) you know or work with could grow from being more informed on the topic of ai + travel (or could use the training above) then please forward this email to them and they can click the button below:

Marketplace Spotlight: COAX

COAX Founder Ivan Verkalets this week sounded the warning or opportunity around the relationship between Cloudfare and the AI companies.

“Starting July 1st, every new Cloudflare domain blocks AI crawlers unless explicitly allowed. With Cloudflare powering 20% of global internet traffic, this changes the AI-data relationship.”

The crawlers can be allowed back in after paying a toll. If you think your unique data has value, you now have more than just a choice to allow or block crawlers - but also to allow and be paid a fair amount for this exchange in training data.

Do you want to show up in LLM results or is data your core moat? It’s a tricky one everyone needs to navigate.

Follow Ivan for more key insights.

If you have a B2B business underpinned by AI and looking for people to notice you, you can sign up to the marketplace for peanuts (top right corner, 5 mins, bring your logo).

I’ve priced for bootstrapped startups but also accepting larger companies too.

AI can keep us safer when we travel

Phocuswire this week reported on how AI can make travel safer by predicting future events, not just reporting what has already occurred.

“Tomorrow’s approach sounds more like: “Unrest is likely next week in this district. Let’s adjust your itinerary before things escalate.””

The article also talks to how AI could use a persons particular circumstances as part of the criteria around the safety advice it gives. “A city marked “low risk” for the average traveler might still be dangerous for someone who is trans, part of a religious minority or carrying identity markers that could draw unwanted attention at borders or during interactions with local authorities.”

I see a way that this could also help travel in some destinations. During the ebola crisis, people pretty much stopped travelling to Africa - all of it! This despite the areas of outbreak being pretty much confined to specific areas. People don’t know what they don’t know - so this type of tech can not only keep people safe but also protect the industry from unnecessary paranoia.

Slack Group!

Shorts

Every week a lot of stuff is left on the cutting room floor. I thought maybe I’ll just lest those here for anyone interested in digging more:

• Booking.com stats around AI usage

• Global Rescue Summer 2025 Traveller Safety and Sentiment Survey

• Marriott Bonvoy stats on AI usage

Podcasts and Sponsors

Podcasts now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

New podcasts are now showing up on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for your easy listening pleasure!

3 brand new podcasts were released whilst I was out on holidays! Did you catch them all?

We chatted to Gabby Gonzalez-Bux from Tango about what personalisation really means in travel, talked open source with Stu Waldron of the Open Travel Alliance and broke down AI overviews with Seth Borko of Skift & Jared Alster of Dune7.

We are back recording lots more great AI conversations for you.

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Most clicked last week was the link to Microsoft’s demo of their conversational booking helper.

That’s it - you’ve made it to the end of this edition. I’ll be putting the result of the most clicked post in next week’s edition so you can see where others are focusing. If I’ve missed something, you’ve got a tip or any feedback at all - you can simply reply to this email and it will come straight to me. I’m doing this for You so please don’t be shy to tell me what you think