AI SEO Statistics: Tour Guides (2026-07 edition)

Reading the 120 answers model by model shows how differently the three assistants treat the same tour guides questions. On the most consequential behavior — whether to send the buyer to a professional at all — the rate ranged from 62.5% (ChatGPT) down to 52.5% (Gemini), a 10-point gap on an identical question set.

Across the 40 tour guides answers it produced, ChatGPT recommended hiring a professional in 62.5% of them and suggested a DIY approach first 7.5% of the time. It named a specific provider in 20% of answers (about 1.2 distinct providers per answer) and included price or cost information 12.5% of the time. ChatGPT asked a clarifying question before answering in 52.5% of cases, warned about red flags or scams in 12.5%, and told the buyer to verify credentials in 30%, averaging 443 words per answer. On the remaining cues it told the buyer to check reviews in 35%, pointed to case studies or a portfolio in 7.5%, and framed the choice around local proximity in 22.5%; a selection-criteria checklist appeared in 47.5% of its answers and a recommendation to gather multiple quotes in 5%.

Across the 40 tour guides answers it produced, Claude recommended hiring a professional in 55% of them and suggested a DIY approach first 2.5% of the time. It named a specific provider in 12.5% of answers (about 0.5 distinct providers per answer) and included price or cost information 22.5% of the time. Claude asked a clarifying question before answering in 67.5% of cases, warned about red flags or scams in 22.5%, and told the buyer to verify credentials in 20%, averaging 265 words per answer. On the remaining cues it told the buyer to check reviews in 30%, pointed to case studies or a portfolio in 2.5%, and framed the choice around local proximity in 32.5%; a selection-criteria checklist appeared in 47.5% of its answers and a recommendation to gather multiple quotes in 7.5%.

Across the 40 tour guides answers it produced, Gemini recommended hiring a professional in 52.5% of them and suggested a DIY approach first 2.5% of the time. It named a specific provider in 37.5% of answers (about 1.4 distinct providers per answer) and included price or cost information 17.5% of the time. Gemini asked a clarifying question before answering in 0% of cases, warned about red flags or scams in 17.5%, and told the buyer to verify credentials in 17.5%, averaging 277 words per answer. On the remaining cues it told the buyer to check reviews in 10%, pointed to case studies or a portfolio in 2.5%, and framed the choice around local proximity in 17.5%; a selection-criteria checklist appeared in 32.5% of its answers and a recommendation to gather multiple quotes in 0%.

Taken together, ChatGPT is the assistant most likely to route a tour guides buyer to a professional (62.5%) and Gemini the least (52.5%). ChatGPT produced the longest answers, at 443 words on average. Specific providers were named most often by Gemini (37.5%) — even there, roughly one answer in 3 carried a name.

On other behaviors the three models move almost in lockstep — the points of near-consensus for tour guides, where all three landed within a few points of each other:

• Suggests a DIY approach first: 2.5%–7.5% across all three (a 5-point spread).
• Mentions case studies or portfolio: 2.5%–7.5% across all three (a 5-point spread).
• Recommends multiple quotes: 0%–7.5% across all three (a 8-point spread).
• Recommends hiring a professional: 52.5%–62.5% across all three (a 10-point spread).

Measured question by question, the three assistants coded a response the same way most consistently on "suggests a DIY approach first" (identical coding in 90% of questions) and least consistently on "asks a clarifying question" (20%).

Beyond whether to hire, the rubric codes how carefully each assistant protects the tour guides buyer once a decision is made. Telling the buyer to check reviews or ratings appeared in 25% of answers on average. Verifying credentials or certifications appeared in 22.5%. Warning about red flags or scams appeared in 17.5%.

On structuring the decision, a selection-criteria checklist showed up in 42.5% of answers on average and a recommendation to gather multiple quotes in 4.2%. The single least-reproduced protective signal for tour guides is "recommends multiple quotes" at 4.2% on average — the clearest opening for content that supplies it, since the models are not yet reliably surfacing that guidance on their own.

The 40 questions behind every percentage on this page were drawn from real tour guides (hospitality; buyer hiring decisions for this specific service) buyer journeys. Each was put to all 3 models once, with identical wording, so the rates above describe how the assistants handled this exact tour guides question set — not a general prior or a hand-picked subset. The full list is shown earlier on this page; the coded percentages are what those specific questions produced.