The limits of artificial intelligence in travel planning

Travel Weekly

2 days ago

Is AI coming for tour operator and travel advisor jobs?
That's the question Wayfairer Travel CEO Jay Stevens sought to answer when he tasked ChatGPT with planning his trip to Japan in December.
Jay Stevens
Amid the buzz around AI becoming more advanced and introducing trip-planning tools, Stevens wanted to utilize the technology to assess "business risk." He prompted ChatGPT to plan the itinerary for his Japan ski trip and found that the technology excelled at some tasks, like finding the best onsens, but failed at others, like leaving him stranded after misinterpreting a bus schedule.
Wayfairer is an England-based tour operator that specializes in bespoke travel. Stevens said one of the biggest risks to his company's model would be if AI can "do what we do and people don't have to pay for it."
It's a fair consideration at a time in which entities like Google are pushing its AI-powered trip-planning capabilities and a handful of travel-focused AI tools are popping up.
Stevens found that ChatGPT, the only AI tool he used to coordinate his Japan trip, failed when he arrived on a train from Tokyo to Yamagata, a rural prefecture, late at night. The last leg of his trip involved walking to a bus station, where things went awry. ChatGPT had messed up with the bus schedule, leaving Stevens without a way to his hotel (he eventually made it by hailing a taxi.)
"So at 11 minutes past 11, it's snowing, so I'm covered in snow and starting to feel a bit cold," he said.
Stevens said that in rural Japan, where data points aren't as available, ChatGPT didn't have enough data to provide accurate information.
"Once you get outside of big data, you're into smaller data, it can find whatever it wants to find and start believing in it, which it clearly does," he said.
Jay Stevens visited Appi Kogen ski resort on his trip. Photo Credit: Jay Stevens
Things went awry a second time in Yamagata when Stevens relied on ChatGPT to plan a visit to an onsen, which left him stranded yet again when it didn't account for the lack of taxis and rideshares operating late at night in the rural area.
The onsen was spectacular, he said, pointing out a strength in ChatGPT's recommendation, but it lost steam when planning the transit side of the trip. He was 20 minutes into what would have been a cold and snowy 2-hour walk when a stranger offered him a ride.
When asked about Stevens' experience, a ChatGPT spokesperson said transportation schedules are among things users should verify.
"While ChatGPT can be a great resource for trip planning, like finding restaurant recommendations, building sample itineraries or surfacing fun activity ideas, we always recommend double-checking important details like transportation schedules, ticket availability and local logistics directly with official sources," said Leah Seay Anise, a spokesperson for ChatGPT parent company OpenAI. "This is especially key for anything that changes often, like bus times or event hours."
Pitfalls of GenAI tools
Stevens' experience with scheduling errors mirrors that of a New York Times columnist who put AI to the test for planning a New York trip and found that ChatGPT messed up walking times and recommended Broadway show times that did not exist.
That particular pitfall of generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, is because they rely on a knowledge base built on previously published information, said Christopher Anderson, a professor at the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration who teaches a course on AI opportunities in hospitality. The ability to look forward, like for scheduling excursions or making reservations, is still in its infancy.
"We're still at the cusp of generative AI being able to look at a website, decide what it needs to do and then take those actions," he said.
Anna Abelson, an adjunct instructor at New York University's Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality who focuses on tourism and niche travel, said GenAI can be useful for inspiring trip ideas and some planning, but "you should use it as an assistant and not an expert."
Even though the technology can quickly sort through mountains of data and produce fast recommendations, it lacks the human touch that is a hallmark of travel advisors, she said.
"The human touch should still be part of the travel planning and experiences," she said. "There is definitely a unique value of human connection and experience that cannot be replaced with anything else."