Why I Think About Press Releases Differently Now That AI Is in the Room

Recently, I started testing what AI says when travelers ask about my clients: things to do, where to go, what makes them special. My destination clients came up. That part was reassuring.

What surprised me was the sources AI was citing. Not the features in Condé Nast Traveler. Not the Travel + Leisure placements I’d worked hard to secure. Instead, bloggers I’d never heard of. Small sites. First-person posts written in plain, simple language.

To be fair, this isn't only an AI phenomenon. Search the same question on Google, and you'll find the same pattern. AI has simply made it impossible to ignore, by collapsing all those results into a single answer with no second chances for the sources left out. And the stakes are rising fast. According to Phocuswright, nearly four in ten U.S. travelers have now used generative AI when researching trips, an 11-point increase in just one year.

But that raised a question I didn’t have a clear answer to: should I keep pitching Condé Nast, or focus more on bloggers instead?

Why AI Favors Bloggers Over Tier 1 Media

I’ve been paying close attention to the content that AI keeps surfacing. I can’t explain it with certainty yet, but I’ve noticed a clear pattern: the content AI favors tends to be:

• Written in first person (“I spent 5 days in Slovenia and here’s what I did”)

• Structured around specific questions travelers actually ask (“best things to do,” “how many days do I need,” “is it worth it”)

• Simple and direct — no editorial polish, no narrative flourishes

• Factual and specific, with practical details like costs, timing, and logistics

  
  

Condé Nast Traveler writes beautifully, for human readers who appreciate editorial voice and authority. Bloggers write “10 things to do in Slovenia in 5 days” in plain language that maps almost exactly to how a traveler types a question into an AI. That’s why they’re winning in this channel.

So, should You Stop Pitching Tier 1 Media?

No, but the reason you pitch them needs to evolve.

Tier 1 placements still build credibility, influence travel trade decisions, and contribute to the body of content that trains future AI models. They matter. But if AI visibility is part of your goal, and increasingly it should be, then a Condé Nast feature alone is not enough.

What I’m now thinking about for each placement:

• Is there a blog post on my site or my client’s site that mirrors this placement in simpler, question-based language?

• Is the destination’s digital presence (Google Places, website schema, FAQs) structured so AI can read and cite it accurately?

• Am I also building relationships with bloggers who write in the format AI prefers?

  
  

The goal isn’t to replace what works. It’s to add a layer that accounts for how travelers are now starting their research.

One Question to Sit With

Search your destination on ChatGPT or Perplexity right now. Ask something a real traveler would ask. Look at the sources it cites. Are any of them yours?

Final Note: If you’re exploring how to make your content more AI-readable, I’ve developed a simple schema tool to help brands structure their information more effectively: pcpublicrelations.com/aischematool