Planners are exploring the benefits for AI. Photo Credit: Adobe stock/Jon Anders Wiken
Now that AI has been on the market for more than half a year, travel
planners have had adequate time to check it out. They give their take on
how they use generative AI for work.
Let the creative juices flow
Liz Tippit, a Global Travel Collection affiliate, uses ChatGPT, Bard
and Bing Chat to create sample itineraries and curate attractions and
activities. She particularly appreciates the fact that search results
seem largely uninfluenced by paid advertising and that she saves time.
Creating a detailed itinerary for a weeklong trip would have
previously taken Tippit days. Now she can get input from generative AI
in moments, then spend 30 minutes to an hour curating it and
supplementing it with her own knowledge and client needs.
“A lot of people feel like the Internet is a competitor,” Tippit
said, “but it’s only replaced those who don’t grow with the technology.
Embrace it. Give it a shot.”
Anne Densk, owner of Daybreak Destinations Travel, has turned to
generative AI for marketing. Like Tippit, she reviews and reworks any
content the technology creates for her. It “helps get the creative
juices flowing,” Densk said.
Client interactions
Generative AI is also helping advisors with client interactions. San
Diego-based Connie Majors, also a Global Travel Collection affiliate,
uses it to bring up information quickly, especially when she is unsure
of a destination.
And even when she does, an AI tool can fill in some blanks. For
instance, although she considers herself knowledgeable about France, a
film producer was asking about a particular location with which she
was unfamiliar. She asked generative AI about it while on a call with the
client, and it gave her enough information to satisfy the client.
Untapped potential
“We’re only at the tip of the iceberg with where AI is going,” said
Scott Largay, director of marketing at Largay Travel. “And with some of
the enhancements that are happening as we speak, we’ll be able to
implement it fully into our business going forward, not only from a
marketing and content standpoint but in how we run our business and
overall strategy.” He sees potential AI use cases in every part of his
business, from streamlining processes and procedures to education,
events and beyond, but content created by generative AI needs a human
hand to be finalised. “It gives you 75%, and then adjust from there,” he
said.
Most recently, Largay Travel partnered with Approach Guides, which
gives its advisors access to a content portal filled with experiences
showcasing destinations. They can brand the content with one click to
either Largay Travel or to their own agency. Then, generative AI can be
used to generate and hone social media posts, again with one click.
It is part of the company’s overall strategy to be more proactive
when it comes to marketing. He wants his advisors to have access to
branded, personalised content they can easily send to individual
clients.
“A lot of people have had the worries about AI replacing jobs, but I
saw it very differently,” Largay said. “I saw it as a way to streamline a
lot of manual processes that take time away from my team.”
Travel42’s experience
Travel42, owned by Travel Weekly parent company Northstar Travel
Group, is currently experimenting with generative AI for social media
post creation, best-of lists and training documents.
“We’re still very much in the exploratory stages, balancing its
potential for future uses with maintaining our product’s standards for
unbiased, firsthand content,” said Karen Jordan, managing editor of
Travel42.
Jennifer Doncsecz, president of VIP Vacations started working with
ChatGPT when it was first publicly released last year. Her early
experiments included asking it to edit copy that she wrote and point out
grammatical errors. She quickly learned that, even with that simple
task, it could make mistakes.
Doncsecz moved on to Google’s Bard, which she prefers. She uses it to
generate copy and asks it for trip-routing advice. The most important
thing she has learned is that prompting is all-important with generative
AI. “It’s all in the way you frame the question,” Doncsecz said.
One of her tips when making requests: “Act as a (role) to perform a
(task) in this (format).” The role could be, for instance, an expert
travel advisor, a social media marketer, an editor, a CEO or a website
designer. The task: an essay, ad copy, summary or blog post. The format?
A list, PDF, presentation slides or code. So, a prompt could look like
this, she said: “As a social media expert, please create five unique and
innovative content ideas that will attract the attention of couples
interested in finding a destination wedding travel advisor.”
She ends by asking Bard to be sure to ask her if it has any questions
“so that you can produce with confidence what is being asked of you.”
And, she will often end the prompt with, “Explain like I’m a beginner.”
Source: Travel Weekly