Vanishing Digital Search: What AI Means for Most Tourism and Leisure Businesses
Search isn’t gone—but it’s changing fast. And the way visitors discover small businesses may never be the same.
The warning signs rarely come all at once.
Maybe your bookings dropped slightly. Or your web traffic dipped for no clear reason. Maybe people show up and say, “We almost missed you—we only found you because of the brochure at the hotel.”
That’s not a coincidence. It’s the early signal of something bigger.
Across the tourism sector, the traditional idea of online discovery—the kind driven by search—is beginning to erode. And for small businesses, especially attractions, activities, day tours, and local experiences, the consequences are already showing.
What’s happening is simple to describe but harder to adapt to: AI is changing how people find things. And it’s pushing many businesses out of view.
AI Search Doesn’t Just Answer Questions—It Replaces the Journey
Over the past year, search engines have started to behave very differently. Instead of only listing links to explore, they now offer AI-generated summaries right at the top of the page.
These summaries simply provide a tightly packaged answer, often scraped from dozens of websites—most of which go uncredited and unseen.
This is efficient for the user. But it can be devastating for visibility.
Industry analysts, including Similarweb and Sparktoro, estimate that more than half of all searches now end without a click to any website. Some categories, such as news and travel-related queries, are seeing even sharper declines—because users are increasingly satisfied with the AI summary alone.
People still “search.” But what they’re doing now is reading, not choosing.
And if your business isn’t mentioned by name in that automated overview—or if it’s too small to rank highly in AI training data—you’re not even part of the result.
Small Businesses Are the Ones Being Filtered Out
AI-generated answers tend to favor:
- Big brands
- Popular content
- Aggregated or centralized platforms
- Businesses with high authority
That means if you’re a small, local operator relying on organic search, your discoverability is at risk of shrinking fast.
Worse, you won’t always know. You’ll still see impressions. You might still show up on page two or three.
But in a world where the first thing people see is “the answer,” they’ve already moved on before they get to you.
This is what makes AI so different from traditional SEO challenges. It doesn’t just reorder the results—it pre-empts the choice.
Brochures Aren’t Just Back—They’re Vital
While digital visibility narrows, one form of discovery is proving resilient—and increasingly effective: the printed visitor brochure.
Brochures don’t compete for page rank. They don’t rely on clicks. They don’t have to be translated by AI. They simply sit where the visitor is—physically and visibly—and offer something enticing.
And visitors respond.
According to the 2025 Visitor International Survey of over 5,300 travelers across 12 countries:
- 72% of travelers use brochures during their trip
Among those who use them: - 93% say brochures introduced them to places they wouldn’t have searched for online
- 91% were influenced to visit a place of interest
- 88% used their mobile to act—by booking, buying, planning, or looking up more online
- 84% kept brochures for the duration of their trip
That’s REAL engagement—with materials that are selected by choice, trusted, and retained.
And it’s happening where digital couldn’t reach before—and definitely can’t reach now: in the moment of decision.
Brochures Help You Be Discovered Online Too
Brochures don’t just drive in-person visits. They fuel online action—and solve one of the biggest problems in today’s AI-driven web: how to get found by name.
A brochure gives the visitor exactly what to search for online—the right name, the right cues, the right expectation.
It guarantees you show up in search when the visitor is ready to act, because they’re searching with intent and specificity.
88% of brochure users use their mobile to go online after reading a brochure—whether to plan, book, buy, or learn more.
In a digital environment where generic discovery is fading fast, print makes you findable.
Don’t Wait for the Algorithm to Choose You
We’re not saying digital is over. But it is evolving—and fast.
Search is becoming more about summarizing than exploring, more about what’s already popular than what’s worth discovering.
That puts tourism businesses at real risk of becoming invisible in a space they once relied on.
But not offline.
Brochures still meet the visitor face-to-face. They’re trusted, remembered, and acted on.
And crucially, they introduce people to businesses they didn’t even know they needed to search for.
Act While You’re Still Discoverable
If AI search continues in this direction—as all signals suggest it will—then brochures aren’t just a nice extra. They’re your visibility insurance.
Distribute smart. Distribute close. Be where the visitor already is.
Because when people stop searching, you still have to start showing up.