Comprehensive Performance Report — Original research analyzing how 15 brands appear across ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, and Perplexity based on 235 AI responses and 2,024 citations.
Research Scope
This benchmark report analyzes how 15 major cruise brands appear in AI-powered search responses across ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, and Perplexity. Key findings reveal a significant gap between brand awareness (mention frequency) and brand prominence (position quality). Royal Caribbean dominates mention frequency (82 mentions, 11.1% share of voice) while Virgin Voyages and Regent Seven Seas lead in position quality. The research uncovered that YouTube and Cruise Critic together account for over 50% of all citations, representing both an opportunity and a risk for cruise brands seeking to control their AI narrative.
Quality of placement matters more than quantity of mentions. Virgin Voyages and Regent Seven Seas achieve the highest position scores despite appearing in fewer AI responses than competitors like Royal Caribbean. This paradox reveals that brands can win in AI visibility through strategic positioning rather than pure volume—a fundamental shift from traditional marketing metrics.
Virgin Voyages leads with a position score of 52.0, demonstrating that quality of placement matters more than quantity of mentions.
Strategic Implication: Brands focusing solely on mention frequency miss the strategic opportunity to own premium positions in AI responses.
youtube.com accounts for a significant share of all citations, representing both an opportunity and a dependency risk for cruise brands.
Strategic Implication: Brands not actively managing their presence on key citation sources are ceding narrative control to third parties.
Significant performance variance across ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity means brands can achieve quick wins by platform-specific optimization.
Strategic Implication: A unified AI visibility strategy across platforms is essential—point solutions leave value on the table.
3 brands are effectively "invisible" in AI responses despite strong traditional brand recognition, while 5 brands have emerged as AI visibility champions.
Strategic Implication: Traditional SEO and brand equity do not automatically translate to AI visibility—purpose-built strategies are required.
Three immediate actions will position your brand for AI visibility success:
Understand where your brand currently stands in AI visibility relative to competitors.
Focus on platforms and topics where small optimizations can yield significant visibility gains.
Develop content strategies specifically designed for AI citation and recommendation.
All cruise brands ranked by Position Score (higher is better), color-coded by strategic category. Position Score measures how prominently a destination appears when mentioned in AI responses.
Royal Caribbean appears in the most AI responses (highest share of voice), yet ranks lower by position score. Meanwhile, Virgin Voyages appears less frequently but achieves the highest position score (52.0), demonstrating that quality of placement matters more than quantity of mentions.
Complete ranking with position scores, share of voice, and total mentions for each brand analyzed.
Brands are sorted by platform variance (highest first). High variance indicates optimization opportunity—where small changes on underperforming platforms can yield significant gains.
Lindblad Expeditions shows the highest platform variance (±40 points), indicating inconsistent optimization across AI engines. In contrast, Princess Cruises has the most consistent performance (±3 points). High variance brands have a quick-win opportunity— analyzing what works on their strongest platform and replicating those strategies on weaker ones.
| Brand | Variance | ChatGPT | Google AI | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ⚠️ ±40 | 40 | 60 | 20 | |
| ⚠️ ±33 | 67 | 40 | 33 | |
| ⚠️ ±32 | 36 | 68 | 52 | |
| ⚠️ ±24 | 52 | 28 | 44 | |
| ⚠️ ±23 | 49 | 34 | 26 | |
| ⚠️ ±18 | 31 | 44 | 49 | |
| ±8 | 55 | 48 | 47 | |
| ±7 | 45 | 52 | 49 | |
| ±6 | 48 | 42 | 42 | |
| ±6 | 18 | 12 | 15 | |
| ✓ ±4 | 42 | 38 | 40 | |
| ✓ ±4 | 40 | 36 | 38 | |
| ✓ ±4 | 30 | 26 | 28 | |
| ✓ ±4 | 28 | 24 | 28 | |
| ✓ ±3 | 35 | 32 | 32 |
youtube.com accounts for approximately 15.8% of all third-party citations. Understanding citation sources reveals opportunities to shape your brand narrative.
youtube.com leads with 15.8% of citations, followed by cruisecritic.com and boards.cruisecritic.com. These three sources alone shape a significant portion of AI travel recommendations. Meanwhile, royalcaribbean.com leads brand citations at 85—demonstrating that strong owned-content SEO directly correlates with AI visibility. Destinations should prioritize getting featured on high-authority third-party sites.
Luxury Seeker queries show the highest visibility (56%), while Adventure Seeker queries have the lowest (38%). Some brands dominate specific segments while remaining invisible to others.
Luxury Seeker queries show the highest overall brand visibility (56% avg), led by Regent Seven Seas. In contrast, Adventure Seeker queries have the lowest visibility (38% avg)—indicating an underserved segment where strategic investment could yield disproportionate returns for brands willing to optimize their content.
Value Deals topics have the highest mention rate (88%), while Luxury Ultra-Luxury shows the highest visibility scores (58).
Value Deals topics have the highest mention rate (88%), dominated by Carnival Cruise Line. Meanwhile, Luxury Ultra-Luxury shows the highest visibility scores (58), indicating premium positioning opportunities. Brands should assess whether to compete in high-volume categories or dominate niche segments with less competition but higher position quality.
Our AI visibility benchmarks use a rigorous, reproducible methodology to ensure findings are actionable and defensible.
235 unique AI responses collected across multiple platforms, queries, and personas.
ChatGPT (OpenAI), Google AI Overview, and Perplexity—the three dominant consumer-facing AI assistants.
Weighted scoring: #1 position = 10 points, #2 = 9 points, through #10 = 1 point. Non-mentions = 0.
Percentage of all brand mentions in AI responses. Measures raw presence regardless of position.
Research conducted November 2025. AI responses reflect training data and real-time web access as of collection date.
Multiple query variations per topic/persona ensure representative sampling. Cross-platform validation reduces single-source bias.
Get a personalized analysis of how your brand performs across ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity— plus actionable recommendations to improve your visibility.