Allies Against Invisibility: Rethinking the Relationship Between PR, Travel Writers and AI

Last month, I attended Skift Global Forum in New York to receive a 2026 Skift IDEA Award in Communications for my work, Allies Against Invisibility: PR and Travel Writers in the Age of AI Discovery.

The project grew out of a question I've been exploring for some time and that I've shared with you before: as AI increasingly shapes how travelers discover destinations, what can public relations do to help ensure that credible travel journalism remains part of that process?

My thinking has evolved through testing how AI platforms answer travel questions, examining the sources they cite, and exploring the role of structured data in making destination information easier for AI to understand.

Being visible online is not the same as being discoverable by AI. Or, to use the terms increasingly heard in the mainstream AI conversation: SEO is not the same as AEO.

And while schema markup can help AI interpret information, it cannot, on its own, guarantee that a destination or article will be recommended. Credible sources, relevant content, and established authority still matter. A lot.

This led me to consider another part of the equation: the relationship between PR professionals and travel writers or, looking at it from a different angle, the relationship between earned media coverage and the travel brand (hotel, destination, etc.) being featured.

Why? Because one thing we know is that reliable press coverage can contribute authority and credibility to the content AI platforms surface.

So how do we help those sources become even more useful and discoverable?

What if PR professionals and travel writers became allies in AI discovery?

Traditionally, the value of a PR placement has been measured by whether a story was published, where it appeared, and the audience it reached.

But what happens to that story after publication, when travelers increasingly turn to AI for inspiration and recommendations?

Travel writers bring something essential to this new environment: independent reporting, authentic storytelling, and editorial credibility. PR professionals bring a different kind of value: verified destination information, official sources, geographic context, and relationships that can help establish factual accuracy.

Much of that destination knowledge supports the reporting process but never makes it into the finished article. And once the story is published, that knowledge often remains disconnected from the content itself.

My project, the AI Visibility Companion for Travel Writers, explores one way to bridge that gap. I developed an AI schema tool to make this process accessible without requiring technical expertise.

The idea is to make verified, AI-readable destination information available to travel writers through schema markup that can be incorporated into individual articles without changing their editorial voice or compromising their independence.

The innovation isn't schema markup itself. It's the way this tool brings PR expertise into the editorial process, extending collaboration beyond the initial pitch, research, and publication.

From media coverage to lasting discoverability

I see this as an opportunity to rethink what a media placement can become.

A story should continue to serve readers long after its initial publication. As AI becomes another way people discover travel information, there is an opportunity to help trusted journalism remain understandable and discoverable in that environment, too.

This doesn't mean every article will be cited by AI, or that adding structured data guarantees visibility. My ongoing Lalaland experiment is testing precisely these questions, including the limitations of schema when it isn't supported by underlying SEO and broader authority.

What matters is understanding how the different elements work together: credible journalism, verified information, discoverable content, and structured data.

For destinations, this could mean a richer and more accurate presence across AI-driven travel discovery. For writers, it offers a practical way to support the discoverability of their work. And for PR professionals, it opens up a new way to contribute value beyond securing coverage.

The broader idea behind Allies Against Invisibility is simple: the future of travel PR isn't just about getting a story published. It's also about helping trusted journalism remain discoverable.

AI is changing how people find information, but it doesn't make credible human reporting less important. If anything, it gives us another reason to support it.