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The Inside Scoop on Source Distribution Patterns in AI Search Platforms
What you think you know about AI’s go-to sources for travel information might not hold true. Here’s what Limy data says.
Yahel Oren
Data Scientist
Aug 27, 2025
Spotlight: The Travel Industry
You may have read article after article about how major AI search platforms prefer blogs, Wikipedia, and Reddit as sources of information for generating answers. While that might be a fair generalization, the reality is way more nuanced. These sources are distributed differently depending on several factors such as geographic region, industry, and the specific AI engine in use.
Here, we share with you Limy’s own U.S. data on source distribution for the travel industry, for OpenAI, Gemini, and Perplexity. The data allows us to understand what each engine seeks as well as how brands can optimize their content and overall AEO strategy for AI Search. Let’s take a stab at OpenAI first.
Distribution of Top Sources in OpenAI’s Answers
Travel sector: Your Existing Blogs Can Turn Into a Gold Mine
When we look at OpenAI’s source distribution, we see blogs’ presence at 34.1%, that is, more than one in every three sources.
This is great news for an industry where blogs are a big deal and most sites use them as tools to attract users. They offer much appreciated, boots-on-the-ground information for travelers, and now, the same posts can also offer detailed destination info that OpenAI loves to pull from, if the posts are optimized for LLMs. Travel businesses can easily edit existing blog posts to make them AI-friendly, and add new posts based on users’ AI search prompts. (Limy can help you with both).
Our data shows Reddit standing at 21.7%, Wikipedia at 15.1%, News at 9.9%. This means, one out of every five OpenAI sources is Reddit – that is big. What’s important to note here is that while presence is important, the quality of that presence is equally important. Have users been pleased with your service or are they badmouthing your brand? AI picks up on both positive and negative sentiment, and uses it to form answers.
Note that Reddit, Wikipedia and News together make up almost 50% – exponentially more than Kayak, Google, Tripadvisor, and Wall Street Journal together. One reason might be that sites like TripAdvisor offer gated, paid content. If your brand offers ungated public content, and you want this content to instantly be available to potential users, you might want to focus your efforts on AI-optimized blog post creation, building positive sentiment on Reddit, accurate information on Wikipedia, and if possible, news coverage.
What we're noticing is that OpenAI tends to focus more on clarity and ease of understanding rather than relying on industry authority. Blogs and Reddit being more influential as sources than a well-known metasearch engine like Kayak, really confirms this trend.
Let’s look at Gemini now.
Distribution of Top Sources in Gemini’s Answers
Travel sector: Ultra-strong bias toward blogs
Right away, at first glance, the pie chart looks different. Here, blogs dominate with an impressive 62.8%.
With Gemini, blogs don’t just lead; they’re heading toward a near-monopoly. That’s incredibly important for travel brands to know if they want their content to appear in Gemini’s answers.
We can say that Gemini has an ultra-strong bias toward citing blog posts. Travel brands, take note! Especially if you thought no one was reading long-form blog content anymore. Someone is, and that someone has superhuman powers to scan and understand everything you publish in a second.
Next comes Google at 12.5%, higher than for OpenAI, followed by Expedia at 9.7%, which, if you recall, is nonexistent for OpenAI. Then there’s Kayak at 5.2%, double its presence for OpenAI. Reddit is nowhere to be found. All these show us that the source distribution data for Gemini is very different from that of OpenAI.
What does all this mean? It means, a single AI search optimization strategy won’t work for all platforms. For travel brands, focusing on blogs is an incredibly smart first step, but it’s not the only one.
Let’s take a look at Perplexity now.
Distribution of Top Sources in Perplexity’s Answers
Travel sector: Blogs dominating; Reddit back in the picture
Having looked at both OpenAI and Gemini, we expected blogs to have a strong foothold here too. Interestingly, the 41.1% reference rate is seven points above OpenAI’s, but over 20% below Gemini’s, putting it somewhat in the middle.
What’s fascinating here is Reddit’s “comeback” at 22%, comparable to 21.7% in OpenAI. This suggests that Gemini is the only AI search engine that doesn’t rely on Reddit for answers in the travel sector.
Even more interesting is TripAdvisor showing up at 18.3%. This is thanks to the January 2025 collaboration agreement between Tripadvisor Group and Perplexity, “designed to improve how travelers plan their journeys.” Depending on your brand and your goals, this information can be an important piece of your optimization puzzle.
Like TripAdvisor, industry-leading sites like Expedia and Kayak feature more prominently on Perplexity than other engines. Here, Wikipedia tanks at a super-low 0.6%.
What Do Source Distribution Patterns in AI Search Answers Mean for the Travel Sector and Travel Brands?
Getting to know how AI search engines decide which sources to trust is important if you want your brand to stand out in AI search results. After all, this is the fastest-growing way people are discovering travel info these days.
Our data from the U.S. travel sector shows that blogs are the clear winners, especially on Gemini, where over 60% of references come from blog content. Meanwhile, OpenAI uses a mix of blogs, Reddit, and Wikipedia, which underlines the importance of having a varied content approach.
If you want your brand to be mentioned across all three platforms, focusing on creating high-quality blog content is a smart move. For OpenAI and Perplexity, it’s key to build positive sentiment on Reddit. And for Perplexity, keeping an eye on what TripAdvisor says about you can make a difference.
If we were to offer generalized advice, we’d say: travel brands that want to be featured as part of AI answers should focus on optimizing their blog posts for AI and maintaining a strong and positive presence on Reddit, Wikipedia, and TripAdvisor.
Staying on top of these source trends can help you refine your AI search strategies, making sure you’re not just visible but also favored by AI-powered platforms. The key to success is understanding these patterns and using them to your advantage.
Yahel Oren
Data Scientist
