AI is Reshaping the Travel Industry (not just ChatGPT)

We discuss how AI is going to change travel curation, Google's new price guarantee, and share travel opportunities you don't want to miss!

Google released its price guarantee feature—it’s a pilot program available on select Google itineraries within Google Flights.

For some flight prices, Google's algorithms are confident that the price you find is the lowest available before the flight departs. After you book on Google, they’ll monitor price until the first flight in your itinerary departs. If the price drops, they’ll make up the difference and send it via Google Pay app.

  • Investment in AI is set to reach $500 billion by 2024

  • Models are being trained on existing data and to take in feedback and sentiment, which means it’s likely for them to get smarter and nuanced to tailor to customer needs when it comes to travel curation and interests.

  • Expedia rolled out a new plug-in in its app that utilizes the latest version of ChatGPT to help recommend prospective hotels for your next trip. The plug-in then automatically saves ChatGPT’s hotel recommendations to users’ profiles in the Expedia app, so they can continue their trip planning by searching check-in dates, room availability, and flights on Expedia’s platform.

Tom Kershaw, CTO at Travelport, believes there are two key areas in which AI can set the travel industry alight: “The first is personalization – using data and predictive analytics to match the perfect offer to the traveller at exactly the right time,” he says.

The second is automation – reducing the amount of time needed to change a ticket, cancel a ticket, reroute a traveller, or make changes to an itinerary. With staff still in short supply and demand for travel continuing to outpace supply, replacing routine human tasks with automation is not just desirable, it’s existential to the continued growth and relevance of the travel agency community.”

Travel Tingz ✈️ 

  • Ranked at the top of the WPS index for Central and Eastern Europe, Slovenia surprisingly has made big strides in the perception of women's safety in recent years, with 85% of women feeling safe here, according to the index. Other countries noted and ranked high in safety for solo female travel include Rwanda, United Arab Emirates, Japan, and Norway.

  • 16 countries with no income tax - The following list includes all countries without any kind of income tax. You may not be able to get residence or citizenship in all of them, and some of them aren’t exactly the most livable. You’ll be surprised this includes the Bahamas, Maldives, Qatar, UAE, and more.

Work, Skirt, & Travel Opportunities

  • [Only for citizens or residents of the US] The Study Abroad Redo Grant is a chance at $5,000 in funding towards an intentional travel experience for those who never had the opportunity to study abroad, and want a chance at a “redo.” 

  • Wanderful pays $200 USD flat fee for accepted contributor articles on their travel platform. Your written work get posted, reaching 70K+ followers on their social platform.

  • [Only for UK-based storytellers] Condé Nast Traveller is launching a Future of Travel talent search to discover new voices in travel journalism. They’re looking for new, undiscovered, passionate and diverse voices to help drive important conversations around sustainable, inclusive and transformational travel.

AWW Feature Friday

Nayalash Chaudhry is a science enthusiast, edufuturist, writer, podcaster, and activist. She wears many hats, but her passion for travel ties them all together. From the bustling streets of Pakistan to the rolling hills of the UK and Ireland, she’s been fortunate enough to call these places "home" for a little while. And with every journey she takes, she’s always on the lookout for new paths to explore and exciting adventures to be had. Follow her Substack here.

✨ Follow us on social media ✨

Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube

Love our content? Help us reach 10K subscribers! It only takes you 1 minute to share this newsletter with a friend.

Reply

or to participate.