Travel and artificial intelligence between perfect itineraries and the need for humanity

One in five young people between the ages of 25 and 34 now choose artificial intelligence to plan a trip, favouring the immediacy of building itineraries, defining stopovers and booking flights according to their desires. A growing trend, confirmed by the latest report by the British association Abta, according to which 18% of young adults use tools such as ChatGPT to organise their holidays, and by the initiatives of the main travel platforms. This is the case, for instance, of Omio, which announced in recent days the global launch of its own app (in English) on ChatGPT, offering its users the possibility to search and compare travel options in real time through a conversational interface based on artificial intelligence.

It is worth remembering that there is no shortage of drawbacks to the somewhat too 'brash' use of AI, especially when the chosen destinations are off the beaten track or long-distance, with risks that are difficult to calculate in terms of unrealistic travel rhythms, unmarked permits or ignored compulsory bookings. What is certain is that the rise of AI in tourism reflects a broader change in the way travellers inform themselves. According to Booking.com's 'Global AI Sentiment Report', in fact, only 14% of users trust influencers and 19% travel bloggers, while AI-based assistants are perceived as more neutral and trustworthy by 24% of the sample. An evolving scenario, then, in which the relationship with technology remains ambivalent: while 89% of users say they would like to use AI to plan their trips, only 6% say they trust technology completely, with 71% of respondents simply asking for suggestions to avoid overcrowded destinations and 60% expecting guidance on experiences that respect local communities.

Asking an artificial intelligence system to create a travel itinerary is simple: you enter your request (the 'prompt') and within seconds the chatbot returns a detailed, orderly and seemingly perfect plan with selected stops, attractions, accommodation and restaurants.

But what happens when we move from 'simple' to more complex destinations, which are known to require articulated planning between logistics and local dynamics that are difficult to synthesise in a brief interaction with a generative AI tool? The more generic the request (e.g. limited to travel time), the more the result may be a linear and appealing but superficial itinerary. And this is because artificial intelligence tends to propose standardised routes, without considering decisive variables such as seasonality, actual crowding, possible restrictions or sustainability of travel time. The risk, in a nutshell, is that of constructing trips that are too dense or unrealistic, correct 'on paper' but ineffective in practice, resulting in inefficiencies or disappointing experiences.

For those who do not want to experience such anxieties and worries, one solution is to rely on a travel designer, a figure who not only organises but also interprets, selects and makes sense of the information in a coherent manner, placing himself somewhere between consultant and storyteller. "Using AI to receive travel suggestions is very common, and in some cases useful, but it can be limiting to entrust it with the entire organisation, especially for structured destinations," explains Alessia Daisy Lai, founder of Alessiadventure. The examples that the travel designer brings to the attention of travellers explain well the sense of these limitations. The first concerns China, a destination for which artificial intelligence does not always correctly indicate closing days or compulsory reservations for certain attractions, as in the case of Tiananmen Square. The second leads to the experience among the elephant sanctuaries in Thailand: in this case, Daisy Lai recounts, artificial intelligence often relies on non-standardised definitions and only direct knowledge of the place makes it possible to distinguish what is authentic from what is simply declared as such.