The last time I used a travel agent to book a trip was 15 years ago at a Flight Centre in Wellington. I walked in off the street yearning for a holiday getaway, visions of warm ocean swells and ancient temples in my head.
The young, inexperienced agent served only one useful purpose that day. She gave me a brochure for Intrepid Travel, which featured small group trips to destinations all over Europe. I ended up booking a seven-day tour in Turkey, which turned out to be one of the best holidays of my life, with a great stay in Istanbul and trips to Troy, Ephesus, Pamukkale and an emotional visit to Gallipoli.
But when it came to booking the flights, the agent suggested an awkward route. I found a more straightforward path and gave her the details to book along with the group tour. Since then, I’ve booked all my travel myself, leaning heavily on the travel features built into Google for research and usually booking through airlines and hotels directly, or an aggregator site such as Booking.com or Expedia.
It can be time-consuming, and I feel like I’m not getting the full picture of the available options. Can artificial intelligence help? Travel firms such as Skyscanner and Trip.com are trying to find out, building AI travel-planning chatbots into their apps to help customers book flights, hotels and rental cars.
TripGenie, an AI travel assistant, will spin up a tailored itinerary in seconds, complete with recommended activities, booking links, maps and even photos. I’ve found AI travel-planning assistants to be strong on hotels and sightseeing, but less effective at dealing with the complexities of flights.
They are also very US-centric, though the better ones personalise trip recommendations, curating options based on your previous travels, city of embarkation, stated interests and preferred currency.
One area where AI has great potential to help is quickly pointing out the quieter travel spots so you can avoid the crowds. That’s because many bots are based on AI engines such as ChatGPT, which scrape information from review sites such as Tripadvisor and social networks such as Reddit, where travellers dispense off-the-beaten-track tips.
Booking.com released research last month suggesting New Zealand travellers are enthusiastic about using AI for planning and booking travel. But just 3% of respondents fully trust AI, and 6% said they would feel comfortable letting AI make independent decisions on their behalf. Kiwi travellers are a discerning bunch, according to the research, preferring to maintain some control and to fact-check AI outputs.
That’s the approach to take when you see an AI-powered travel assistant pop up. They can help you lay the groundwork by speeding up trip research and planning. But AI can’t replace a veteran travel agent’s intuition or the personalised advice of a local.
I used imean.AI to plan a hypothetical long weekend in Queenstown built around wine tasting. But I had to keep prompting it to broaden its suggestions for wineries to visit. It was clear I knew more about Central Otago wine hot spots than it did.
These assistants will get smarter. AI never naps. It could be really useful in providing fare predictors, deal-finders and dynamic pricing tools that help pin down the best value for your budget.
While travelling, AI could track your trip progress, sending real-time updates on gate changes, weather alerts or local events the moment you need them. All of that is possible. So, too, is leaving the AI agent to actually book the trip on your behalf, simply messaging you to confirm the payment.
But if you’ve used ChatGPT or Grok, you know AI isn’t infallible. Do some backup research to make sure the algorithms aren’t sending you on the trip from hell.
