Google is NOT going anywhere

Google’s Q1 2026 results are in and they tell a compelling story: Google is not going anywhere, on the contrary!

• Revenue grew in Q1 and reached $109B, an 22% increase YoY.
  
  
• Search accelerated yet again to +19% (seems it's not dead at all!)
  
  
• Net gains from external technology equity investments (Anthropic & SpaceX) reached $37.7B.

These results contradict media posts and articles declaring the end of the search engines and even headlines like “R.I.P. Search” due to the rise of AI Search via AI platforms ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc. 

Some marketing experts herald the end of Google's monopoly on search and claim that traditional search marketing in hospitality is becoming obsolete.

Let’s not get carried away. The rumors about the inevitable end of the “traditional” search engines like Google at the hands of AI Search are highly exaggerated.

AI Search was on the rise over the past year, but still received 34 times LESS visits than traditional search engines. 

Interestingly, based on SEMrush data, ChatGPT and other AI platforms adoption did not reduce Google Search usage. On the contrary, there was even an increase in average Google Search usage after ChatGPT adoption.This supports the expansion hypotheses, meaning people did not substitute their typical Googling with ChatGPT-ing.

Google uses its Gemini AI to provide answers in its Answer Box in its SERPs. Today, nearly 60% of Google searches end up as zero-click queries i.e. people find enough information in the Gemini AI-powered Answer Box and do not need to click on any of the organic or sponsored links. Yet, Google search revenues are up 19% over the same period last year.

All of the above means only one thing: hoteliers and travel businesses should not abandon their traditional search marketing! Search marketing on Google and all of its formats: Google Ads (GA), Google Hotel Ads (GHA), organic listings (SEO) consistently contributes to over 50% of hotel website bookings. 

In the same time, hoteliers and travel businesses should not ignore the rising AI Search. Hoteliers must: 

• invest in good old-fashioned SEO to get your website appear high in the rankings of relevant search results
  
  
• invest in AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) to get your property’s expertise and unique value proposition extracted in the answer boxes and AI overviews ( ex. on Google’s Gemini).
  
  
• invest in GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) to have your property cited by name and featured in the AI trip planning recommendations (ex. on ChatGPT).
  
  
• invest in Online Reputation Management (ORM) technology and program to monitor customer reviews and promptly respond in a relevant way to both negative and positive reviews and fix customer service problems.

In the same time, ask the your CRS, Channel Managers and cloud PMS vendors to plug directly into Google’s UCP or to AI platforms like ChatGPT via MCP or A2A, allowing travellers to search and book rooms.

Want to understand how your hotel or travel brand is performing across Google Search, AI Search and direct bookings?

Book a complimentary Digital Growth Call with Fastrack Digital and we’ll walk you through:

• Where your biggest opportunities are
• How visible your brand is across Google and AI platforms
• What’s holding back direct bookings and revenue growth
• Practical next steps to improve performance
  
  

Book your free growth call today.