Hello fellow travelers! James here, lead travel planner at C.R. Referrals Travel. I had a few thoughts about the topic of AI and travel this week. I have been working in tourism here in Costa Rica for about 25 years. I have been planning customized trips for travelers for the last 18 years. My love of travel, of adventure, and of sharing that with others, has been rewarding beyond words for me, a dream job.
I always thought that if you do something in life that puts a smile on other people’s faces, it is a job worth doing. Giving travelers opportunities to have unique experiences, those are memories they will cherish for a lifetime, and it is the most rewarding part of my job. Those smiling faces and those memories I know they carry.
Does AI care about your trip? Not in the slightest, at best it can fake it, and that will always be true.
AI hit the scene 3 years ago now (how time does fly). As AI comes to take the jobs of many workers throughout many different industries, travel, as is so often the case, is one of those on the chopping block. Anyone who works in travel can see the changes, dynamic pricing everywhere with hotels, trip creation and booking by virtual agents, all powered by AI…
I have followed AI since the start, studying its strengths and its weaknesses. As with most technologies of this nature, I have no problem with the existence of it, my problem is what people choose to do with it. AI as it applies to many of the jobs it is taking is simple greed on the part of corporate interests. Profit and growth at all costs are all they understand. They see it as an opportunity to make more money while selling it to the public “that it will make your life easier”. Again, I have no problem with AI, just with how it is used. You cross the line when hundreds of thousands of people start to lose their jobs and the diplomas that people went to school for, went into debt for, are now all useless…
If they want to use AI to cure cancer, great! If they want to unlock the mysteries of the universe, solve real world issues, then I am all for it. But if your only goal is to maximize your own profits, at the expense of human jobs, well that is about as ugly as a situation can get. I have many-many expletives I would like to use on that specific aspect, but I will keep it clean. The backlash against AI in some areas should be fierce.
So here is the good news as this all applies to travel planners. Thankfully, a travel planner’s job is pretty safe and always will be in my opinion. Human beats machine here on many fronts. Can an AI create a trip, make reservations, and do it quickly? Quicker than the average travel planner? Short answer, yes, it can, and it will continue to improve in those areas… Can it do trip research? Yes, it can.
Although they can do all of those things quickly, it is exactly the thing it lacks that will always be the AI’s Achilles heel. For lack of a better word, it lacks a soul. It lacks what it is to be human, to truly have a conscience and to feel, to experience the living world, to truly understand those experiences. It will never know how it felt, and the memories and feelings that we hold of those moments.
It does not understand how important vacation time is, that families sometimes save for years to take an international trip, and how important it is that every detail is taken care of. Knowing the drivers personally, knowing the guides, knowing your clients are in the best of hands, that is the human element. The AI has never stayed at the hotels, we have. The AI has never experienced the activities, that is what a dedicated travel planner does. It will never have these experiences, these memories, and so it cannot ever really compete with a dedicated travel planners’ expertise for that reason.
Up to this point, all AI can do is regurgitate information, it has no original thought, it has to borrow all it is and all it knows from humans. A virtual AI planner will never know what it is like to go white water rafting down a river in the rainforest, feeling the spray of the cold water on your face, or what that rainforest even smells like, the freshness of it, being surrounded by that much life! If it can never truly experience anything in a tactile way, how can it even come close to competing?
It knows everything, and nothing at all…
Getting into support, an AI will never be able to offer the same level of support. It cannot ever truly understand the panic in the voice of a traveler who has missed a connecting flight and will not know how to fix things on the fly in real time the way a human can.
When I create a trip, I am also imagining myself doing it. This is why it all comes together the way it does. Each trip I plan for someone, is special to me. I am remembering myself doing that activity, visiting the towns, the landscapes, the hotels, I am on a vacation in my mind as I create… I am often smiling when I am creating a trip design because of my memories and knowing how much fun my travelers are going to have on their trip. The knowledge and feelings are what sets any good travel planner apart from the AI planner. We genuinely care about the experiences of the traveler, and we make connections that a machine will never be able to achieve.
Having said all of this, our industry is under attack, some travel companies will make it, and some will not. It is up to each individual to decide if supporting small businesses is a priority, or if lining the pockets of corporations and the already rich is the way to go, make the right choice.
In a world where we are separated by so many different things, they cannot take our humanity, unless we let them. They are trying to do that right now, take all that we are, and all we have ever been, and condense it into one algorithm, until they do not need what they consider excess humans at all.
Be well fellow travelers, until the writing bug bites me again, I wish you all well on your journeys.