How ChatGPT recommends outdoor activities (and how to influence it)

Someone sits down with their morning coffee, opens ChatGPT, and types “best guided fly fishing near Bozeman.” A few seconds later, they get a short list of three or four outfitters. No ten blue links. No scrolling. Just a handful of names and a brief explanation of why each one is worth booking.

Your business is either on that list or it isn’t. And right now, 45% of consumers are using AI tools like ChatGPT for exactly these kinds of local recommendations, up from 6% a year ago according to BrightLocal’s 2026 survey. That number is still climbing.

Here’s the thing though: ChatGPT doesn’t have some mysterious internal database of outdoor businesses. It pulls from the same public web that search engines use. Which means you can influence what it finds.

How ChatGPT actually picks businesses to recommend

ChatGPT doesn’t store a directory of local businesses. When someone asks for a recommendation, it runs a Bing search in real time, scans the top 20 to 30 results, and narrows down to 3 to 5 sources that look trustworthy. It favors pages with visible star ratings, clear business information, and content that isn’t locked behind a paywall.

This is different from traditional search in one way that matters a lot: there’s no page two. Google might put you at position seven, and you still get some clicks. ChatGPT either names you or it doesn’t. The shortlist is tiny.

A BrightLocal study of 800 local business searches in ChatGPT found that business websites make up 58% of all sources it cites. Business mentions on other sites account for 27%, and directories make up the remaining 15%. Forums like Reddit and Quora didn’t show up at all.

Your own website still matters the most. But what other sites say about you matters almost as much.

Make your website the kind ChatGPT wants to cite

ChatGPT is looking for pages that state facts clearly. Not marketing copy. Not taglines. Facts.

If you’re a rafting company, the page ChatGPT is most likely to pull from is the one that says “Half-day whitewater rafting on the Nantahala River, Class II-III rapids, all gear included, ages 8 and up, $75 per person.” That sentence has six distinct facts an AI can extract and repeat with confidence.

Compare that with “Experience the thrill of a lifetime on our unforgettable whitewater adventure.” ChatGPT can’t do anything with that. There’s nothing to extract.

Here’s what to put on your service pages, in plain language, near the top:

• What the activity is, where it takes place, what difficulty or skill level it suits, what’s included, the price range, age requirements, and season or availability

That’s one list, and it covers everything ChatGPT needs to build a recommendation around your business.

FAQ sections pull a lot of weight here. Write three to five questions your guests actually ask before booking. “Do I need my own gear?” “What happens if it rains?” “Is this okay for a ten-year-old?” Answer each one in two or three sentences. AI systems parse these question-answer pairs directly, and pages with FAQ content get cited more often because the format matches how people ask ChatGPT for advice.

Adding schema markup to your site helps too. LocalBusiness and FAQPage structured data tell AI systems exactly what your business is and what you offer, in a format they’re built to read. Content with proper schema has roughly 2.5 times the chance of appearing in AI-generated answers compared to unstructured pages.

Get your business profile into Bing’s index

ChatGPT pulls from Bing’s search results. If your business doesn’t exist in Bing’s index, ChatGPT can’t find you. Most outdoor businesses have a Google Business Profile but have never touched Bing Places.

The fix takes about five minutes. Bing Places now lets you sync your Google Business Profile with one click. Go to bingplaces.com, sign in, and import your existing Google profile. Your name, address, phone number, hours, photos, and description transfer over automatically.

This single step puts your business into the index ChatGPT draws from. If you’ve already done the work of building a strong Google Business Profile, you’re five minutes away from making that work count twice.

Once your Bing Places profile is live, keep it consistent. Make sure your business name, address, and phone number match what’s on your website and your Google profile exactly. AI systems cross-check information from multiple sources, and inconsistencies make them less likely to recommend you.

Earn mentions on the sites ChatGPT trusts

Your own website is the single biggest source ChatGPT draws from, but the second biggest category is mentions of your business on other sites. That 27% of sources comes from editorial content, listicles, and local guides that name your business.

Getting featured in a local tourism board’s “best outfitters” list or a regional outdoor magazine’s trip guide counts. So does a travel blog’s roundup of activities in your area. ChatGPT treats these as third-party validation.

The BrightLocal study found that Wikipedia accounts for 39% of business mention sources. You probably don’t have a Wikipedia page, and that’s fine. But it tells you what kind of mentions ChatGPT trusts most: established sites that have been around a while and have real editorial standards.

For directories, Three Best Rated showed up most often in ChatGPT’s sources (24% of all directory citations), followed by Expertise.com (18%) and TripAdvisor (8%). Yelp, Facebook, and Google Maps didn’t appear as directory sources in the study at all.

That doesn’t mean you should ignore those platforms. It means you should make sure you’re also listed on the directories ChatGPT is actually pulling from right now.

Use reviews to give ChatGPT something specific to say

ChatGPT reads review text. It doesn’t just count stars. A review that says “Great trip” gives the AI nothing to work with. A review that says “Our guide knew every rapid on the Gauley River, great trip for intermediate paddlers, the Class IV section was the highlight” gives ChatGPT three specific facts it can use when recommending you for a query about intermediate rafting on the Gauley.

You can’t write your guests’ reviews, but you can shape them. A post-trip follow-up that asks “What part of the trip stood out?” tends to produce the kind of detailed, specific reviews that both search engines and AI systems prefer. Our guide on getting more reviews covers the timing and messaging in detail.

Businesses with a strong presence on review platforms have roughly three times the chance of being cited by ChatGPT compared to businesses that rely on their website alone.

Why this traffic is worth the effort

AI-referred traffic is still a small slice of total visits for most outdoor businesses. But it’s growing fast, up 527% year over year according to Previsible’s traffic report, and the people it sends your way are unusually ready to book.

ChatGPT-referred visitors convert at roughly double the rate of organic search visitors. Someone who asks ChatGPT “best rafting company near Asheville for a family trip” and gets your name is further along in their decision than someone browsing a Google results page. The AI already did the vetting. The visitor is arriving with a recommendation in hand, not a list of options to sift through.

Travel and outdoor recreation businesses are already seeing 3 to 5% of total traffic from AI sources. A year ago that number was close to zero.

Start with what you already have

Most of this work isn’t new. If you’ve been writing clear service pages, keeping your Google Business Profile updated, earning real reviews, and building content that ranks, you already have the foundation ChatGPT needs to find you.

The specific steps that matter most right now: sync your Google Business Profile to Bing Places (five minutes), add FAQ sections to your top service pages (an afternoon), make sure your trip pages lead with facts instead of marketing language (a quick edit), and check that your name, address, and phone number are consistent everywhere they appear online.

ChatGPT picks from a small list. The outdoor businesses that show up clearly, consistently, and specifically across the web are the ones that make the cut.