In January 2007, the first iPhone, also known as the iPhone 2G, was released, changing the phone industry. In May of the same year, a technology application that changed the tourism industry was also announced, Google 360 Street View. With this application, users can sit at home using their smartphones or computers to visit famous tourist attractions, or places they want to go with a 360-degree view, visual, sharp images in real time. As long as someone has been there and recorded it.
After 15 years, an application that is expected to change the tourism industry has also appeared, that is ChatGPT. The artificial intelligence system collects data based on different sources on the internet and then provides users with answers in the form of natural language text (natural language processing). Perhaps, in the future, tourism consumers will need a reputable source to consult knowledge before spending money, instead of "drowning" in a sea of information like using Google at the present time.
How will ChatGPT change the tourism industry?
So can ChatGPT change the travel industry?
Trung Nguyen (33 years old, Quang Ninh) is currently the CEO of ADVER media company. In 2021, he and his team founded a Vietnamese tourism support technology product called TRIPMAP, helping to connect tourists with local people. He shared: “Technology can completely replace human tasks in tourism. Up to now, there have been many units developing software products and tour guide applications, improving sightseeing experiences, customer care, room booking, air ticket booking, transportation or travel guides”.
When asked about ChatGPT, he also added: “Right after ChatGPT was announced, I experienced it and had to exclaim with praise for it. ChatGPT's technology is better and completely different from previous chat bots. This application can respond very contextually and give quite accurate information based on the Big Data it learns.” So how can ChatGPT impact the tourism industry?
Trung Nguyen highly appreciates ChatGPT for its surprisingly smart and modern nature.
ChatGPT is assisting users in answering questions and other tasks in text form. This application can be used to improve the tourist experience by providing useful travel information and tips about the destination. Or even tours can be promoted. ChatGPT has the ability to provide information quickly, helping users save time and effort in searching for travel information.
With the question function, destinations will need to learn how the algorithm recommends itself to travelers. In the future, ChatGPT can completely charge a fee to push tourism services to the top information, easily accessible to users.
ChatGPT when asked to recommend restaurants in Hanoi.
In addition, ChatGPT also helps reduce tasks in the tourism industry such as providing knowledge, financial planning, tour planning... Thanks to diverse data sources, the application can connect different industries such as culture, entertainment and cuisine to create richer travel experiences. At the same time, language and cultural barriers are also minimized and removed when customers want to learn about tourist destinations in different countries.
This helps optimize human resources in the tourism industry and has many interesting suggestions. The limitation is that it is easy to fall into stereotypes about content or information that is not updated with the latest information, because AI's knowledge is limited in terms of time (currently only updated data until 2021).
ChatGPT when asked to plan a tour.
Thus, we can see that ChatGPT is gradually forming a habit of asking and answering questions with users. In the future, this has the potential to become a virtual assistant that anyone who needs to travel can look up and trust.
How does technology impact tourism?
According to Mr. Trung, many prominent tourist destinations in Vietnam have applied technology to replace humans in many stages. For example, electronic sightseeing tickets to reduce ticket inspectors for better traffic control, automatic explanation systems in many languages to reduce the number of tour guides... At new generation hotels, technology to open room doors by phone helps reduce the number of receptionists in the hotel. Sometimes tourists come to the hotel without interacting with anyone. Travel experiences are becoming faster, more convenient and more diverse.
Many travelers have also become accustomed to using advanced digital services, which has increased the demand for travel apps. In a 2021 GlobalDate survey of users worldwide, 66% of respondents said they were influenced by the level of technical sophistication of a product or service before making a purchase decision.
Travel apps on phones have become an indispensable part of travel enthusiasts.
There are two groups that are influenced by the modernity of services when spending money. These are the Millennials, with 74% of those surveyed saying yes. And 72% of Generation Z share the same opinion. Both groups have grown up in the digital age. This proves that the importance of travel apps will continue to increase, as in the future, this generation will become the most important consumer group for travel and tourism companies.
Some popular travel apps on the App Store include Airbnb, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Expedia, Skyscanner, and Kayak. Nearly all of them help consumers reduce travel tasks or consult information about schedules and destinations before deciding to buy.
However, the human element still makes the difference in the tourism industry.
Besides, there are still many factors that technology cannot replace humans in the tourism industry. AI needs to learn from humans before classifying, it cannot naturally know the exact name of the destination, destination information... So the input data from service providers and experienced people is still extremely important. New undiscovered places will still need creative people who dare to conquer the steps.
Emotional factors also need to be paid more attention by units. Using "technology guides" to automatically explain when scanning QR codes only partly helps users to look up more information. A remote supporter or an experienced, funny, and professional tour guide accompanying the group will certainly enhance the tourist's travel experience a lot.
We can't predict what the future holds, but it's always wise to be prepared and adapt. And chances are, this travel article is being written in ChatGPT.
