A series of Q&As with selected speakers ahead of their appearance at Travolution Connects, the new event from Eventiz by Travelsoft.

What are you bringing to Travolution Connects?

I’ve been making travel content for over nine years now, and as everything I do is with the hope of helping people travel better, it means that I have access to a lot of information about everybody’s day to day travel habits. With over one million followers across all my platforms, I’m in a super lucky position to get a real insight about the general vibe of the consumer. 

t’d be good to have an idea about who your followers are  

I have followers from Gen Z all the way to The Silent Generation! But most people tend to fall in the millennial to Gen X category, with a big swing to women over men. However, the main thing that brings people to my accounts is a love for travel, and getting the best value out of your future trips so what you’ll find is many people who are following are the ones planning and researching trips.

And what is the vibe, particularly around AI?               

When it comes to using AI for travel, I was really keen to hear from my followers about whether they were using it at the moment, and if so, how. I pulled together a questionnaire and had over 900 responses and the findings were super interesting.

More than half of respondents (57%) said they had already used AI tools such as ChatGPT or Claude to help plan a holiday, with 46% saying that they would use it again.

When it came to what they were using it for, it tended to be for more of the initial idea and planning rather than booking, with people stating they’d used it for building itineraries, finding destination ideas and budget planning and recommendations.

However, the overwhelming response was that trust still belongs to humans, with 50% saying they’d check other hotel reviews after one was suggested by AI. 

“At the moment” is a caveat to every conversation about AI, because AI is changing so quickly. Was there any indication that your readers would be interested in booking their trip through an AI tool rather than their current channel of choice?

The consensus was most people erring on the side of no, at the moment, because there are a lot of shortcomings that AI has currently in the travel space, even as a discovery tool, and we all like to believe that humans, or brands we already trust, are the best.

But I think we also have to be realistic about what’s happening - not just in travel, but with the use of AI in general. It’s growing at such a rapid pace, and only getting better, and the truth is that us humans are fickle! The moment something works well and that helps us save time and money, many people will be won over.

The interesting thing right now, is how far is that moment away?

So that touched on what we call agentic AI, but what about generative AI? As a travel content creator how has your world been impacted by this tool that means almost anyone can write articles, create videos etc

It's already happening - people are creating videos that are completely AI, but I don’t think we have got to  a point yet where we've seen a big disruptor. 

Right now, I think people are way more on side with agentic AI over generative AI when it comes to content creation.  I've seen it in other industries – namely fashion - where they’ve launched AI-avatar style creator accounts and the comment section hates it. But the brand behind it is committed to seeing it through because it believes that is where the future is heading. 

Will we look back in the future and think they were right to?

There’s also a difference between a brand and an individual, and ultimately, I think it comes down to who is creating the content. A lot of established creators are wary of using AI, because their popularity is built on the human connection and to lose that by would be going completely against the whole purpose of the point that got them there in the first place.

This is reflected strongly in legacy mainstream media, where the articles that centre in on a person’s experience can be the most widely read.  For example, a recent Metro piece I wrote about a £100 trip to Łódź in Poland wasn’t headlined as “how to book a £100 trip to Łódź” it was something like “I booked a £100 trip and my holiday snob boyfriend liked it…”

Was your holiday snob boyfriend okay being outed in print as a holiday snob?

Yes - he’s used to it now!!     

But the point here is that the angle is the personal experience, not a transaction how-to.   Human qualities are the biggest selling point, and that means that we don't need to see perfect trips. In a way, AI is able to offer us the promise of a perfect trip and that’s not how it is. From a content creator’s perspective, I've never been more aware of how the quirks and flaws of travel and these need to be highlighted to give people a realistic overview of what travel is actually like, because AI isn't doing that.

What do travellers think about AI-generated content versus human?

At the moment - there it is again – I don’t think  people trust travel content that is signposted as AI generated. Over 80% of my sample specified that they trust human content more, some were unsure but only 1% said they would trust AI creators equally to humans. 

Also, for video content, I actually think travel is quite a hard nut to crack as an AI creator, as so much about travel comes back to the human experience. How warm was the weather? What was the sand like? How much did the beer cost at the bar? Did you have to tip?

These are things that are experienced, and every experience is different.

However, that’s not to say that I can’t see a world in which a totally AI generated content creator exists - I just think they will fit into a different category. And whilst the backlash may be heard at first, I think the moment that that persona starts to entertain people, or give solid recommendations, that people will be more on board.                                   

So the future is bright for human travel content writers?

Yes - I passionately believe that people still want to watch and consume human experiences, especially when it’s something as emotive and personal as travel.      

As for my own job, I will be continuing to think about the human connection and making content that helps build people’s trust in me. 

Travolution Connects is a new event brand for the UK market from Travolution’s parent company Eventiz by Travelsoft. It is an invitation-only senior leaders event, with the launch event taking place on June 23 in London. For more details, visit the Travolution Connects web site and for sponsorship or guest list queries, please contact andy.hibberd@travolution.com.

Other Travolution Connects Previews:

Roopak Pati, managing director, Oppenheimer & Co Inc

Manuel Hilty, CEO and co-founder, Nezasa

Sarah Ditton, director of customer success, Alyza

Gemma Timmons, Director of Operations and Chief of Staff, OAG

Casper Maasdam, Managing Director, Europe Operations