- One in ten of more than 1,700 Irish tourist attractions are made invisible by AI
- A further 43pc of attractions are barely visible
- Tourists get the same five places named in 75pc of answers
- 19pc of castles and ruins are never named by AI
- Attractions missing from AI recommendations include Farmleigh House and Timoleague Franciscan Friary
New research from Searchable has found that AI chatbots make one in ten of Ireland’s tourist attractions invisible when visitors ask for travel recommendations. The AI Tourism Report for Ireland involved asking ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Google AI Mode more than 76,000 times for attraction recommendations across every Irish county and attraction category. The research discovered how often tourists are pushed towards the same places and how many attractions AI never names.
One in ten of more than 1,700 notable Irish tourist attractions are made invisible by AI, based on more than 76,000 questions asked. A further 43pc of attractions are barely visible, meaning they were named in fewer than 10pc of answers to traveller requests for recommendations. Tourists who ask AI chatbots for travel recommendations in an Irish county get the same five places named in 75pc of answers. AI’s travel recommendation biases remain across all types of attraction: 19pc of Ireland’s castles and ruins are never named by AI, along with 29pc of monuments, 11pc of archaeological sites and 6pc of nature spots. Even when asking for hidden gems, the same five attractions are repeated in 52pc of answers. This bias repeats in every county, ranging from 65pc of answers in Wicklow to 87pc in Galway repeating the same five attractions. Attractions missing from AI recommendations include Farmleigh House and Estate in Dublin, Timoleague Franciscan Friary in County Cork, and St Mary’s Cathedral in Killarney.
Chris Donnelly shared “AI chatbots are reading a select pool of online sources and turning them into the same repetitive recommendations. Most local businesses will struggle to understand what those sources are, or why they’re not being recommended, even for attraction requests that relate to them.”
