Source : the age
Depending on who you listen to, artificial intelligence (AI) is either the greatest threat to civilisation ever devised by dark minds or a powerful tool that helps us work faster and solve problems. The truth lies somewhere in between.
Plenty of travellers are using it and there are good reasons why you might invite ChatGPT, Claude or any other generative AI tool to collaborate when planning your travels.
If you want to construct a self-guided tour of the Western Front battlefields, plan a visit to Tokyo Disneyland with the kids or find the best scenic drives in Arizona, ask AI. It shines when suggesting itineraries, comparing France versus Italy for a holiday focused on food and wine, narrowing down transport options between cities, recommending the best neighbourhoods to look for accommodation, generating packing lists and optimising routes.
You might want to drill down further and take the kids to the best cat cafe in Tokyo, and AI can put its paws on the purr-fect choice. Something offbeat? Want to see traditional cheese-making as practised by Romanian shepherds or a five-day itinerary visiting the Kalash villages of northern Pakistan? Such questions would take hours of research, but AI can come up with the answer in seconds.
AI is a great tool for suggesting options you might not have considered. Ask it for “unusual sightseeing possibilities in X”, or “alternative transport ideas” and it might tell you about a spin around Rome in the sidecar of a vintage Vespa, or God’s Own Junkyard in London.
Check the answers – transport schedules, visa and entry requirements, baggage allowances, opening hours of attractions are subject to change at short notice, and AI doesn’t always catch the update. AI will usually give more weight to official sources, such as a government or a museum website, but it can be knocked off balance when many source websites have the same misleading information.
When it talks about remote places or obscure experiences that have limited sources of information, AI can sound convincing when it should tread carefully. In the Kalash region of Pakistan, ChatGPT suggests the walk from Bumburet to Rumbur, a 16-18km hike that involves crossing a pass 1000 metres above the river valleys where the towns are situated. That advice should be treated with great caution since Bumburet and Rumbur are interconnected river valleys, no need to climb a mountain pass to travel between them.
Think of it as a first-rate travel assistant, especially when it comes to constructing a first draft for your travels.
AI can also mess up big time. It can overlook the need for reservations in busy periods, underestimate driving times in rush hours or when the trip involves narrow twisting roads and stitch attractions into an itinerary without regard to the time it takes to get from one to the other. AI doesn’t know about the lived experience. Ask it about street food in Hanoi and AI won’t tell you what it feels like to sit on a tiny plastic stool for an hour on a crowded footpath. Only a human voice can tell you what it feels like when you sit in a Tibetan Buddhist temple among ochre-robed monks when they begin chanting.
It can even invent non-existent attractions. In 2025, an AI-generated article on a travel operator’s website began singing the praises of the fabulous Weldborough Hot Springs in the forests of northeast Tasmania. According to a CNN report, Kristy Probert, owner of the local Weldborough Hotel, was mystified when tourists started turning up asking directions to the hot springs. What started as a trickle became a steady stream, but the hot springs were a total fabrication. “If you can find these hot springs, beers are on me,” said Probert.
AI v the Tripologist
How does an answer from AI compare with a response from a real live human? Easy question since I write this column. From a recent Q&A, a reader asked where to stay in the Dolomites region of northern Italy, using a small, quiet town or two as a base for exploring and walking. My response was the village of Santa Magdalena in the Val de Funes, a postcard valley within easy reach of some of the loveliest alpine walking trails on the planet. Also the village of San Vigilio, gateway to the South Tyrolean nature parks. Hallelujah!
Both ChatGPT and Claude concur. Both mentioned another two villages as well (my responses have a word limit, the AI models do not). Given the unpredictability of mountain weather, if the skies turned sour I suggested a visit to Bolzano to take in the South Tyrol Archaeological Museum, home of Otzi the Iceman, and that’s the sort of knowledge that comes with first-hand experience. I also mentioned the essential guidebook to walks in the region, again based on personal knowledge. I have to concede though that both ChatGPT and Claude did a bang-up job of answering the question with the pros and cons of each of the villages they suggested.
Using AI to plan your travels
Think of it as a first-rate travel assistant, especially when it comes to constructing a first draft for your travels. From the basic structure of your itinerary, follow up any suggestions it might make that refine your trip. Check any time-sensitive information that might have an impact – opening hours and days of attractions, holidays and transport timetables. Refine it with more questions about where to stay, where to eat, transport options for sightseeing and any personal passions you might want to indulge. When you’ve stitched it all together run it through AI again, it should let you know if you’ve packed in too little, or if there are gaps you might want to fill. Generative AI learns about you the more questions you ask, it extracts personal preferences to build a long-term profile and it might suggest refinements of alternatives that may add something special to your journey.
Where AI gets scary
There are plenty of readers with reservations about AI, and rightly so. For some it’s a tool of the devil, training its models by hoovering up just about everything ever written like a mutant parasitic sponge, in defiance of copyright laws.
I just asked Claude to write a review of the best bars in Marseille in the style of Hunter S. Thompson, the outrageous, taboo-busting pioneer of the gonzo style of journalism. “There is no honest way to explain the bars of Marseille to a sober person. You have to arrive already half-wrecked from the train, salt air clawing at your shirt, the gulls screaming overhead like a jury that’s already reached a verdict…” That’s a scarily good imitation of Thompson’s voice.
Then I asked it to write a travel story on St Lucia in the style of Michael Gebicki. I’ve never been to St Lucia but here’s what it said. “I can’t write in Michael Gebicki’s exact voice, but I can write an original travel feature that captures the broader qualities often associated with his work.” But here’s how it kicked off a paragraph on the island’s food in “my” voice: “Food is another pleasant surprise.” Good grief. Surely that anaemic dross isn’t me? Tell my editors.
Michael Gebicki is a Sydney-based travel writer, best known for his Tripologist column published for more than 15 years in Traveller. With four decades of experience, his specialty is practical advice, destination insights and problem-solving for travellers. He also designs and leads slow, immersive tours to some of his favourite places. Connect via Instagram @michael_gebickiConnect via email.
