It's no secret: Ever since ChatGPT exploded in popularity, prospective travelers are using it to create travel itineraries. Although some travel advisors may see this as a threat to the industry, Bruce Fisher, owner of Hawaii Aloha Travel, has embraced the technology.
"You're not going to exist in the world unless you're going to be able to use AI," said Fisher, who started his Hawaii-focused internet travel company in 1997. "It's just like having a computer back in the day, when you got your first Commodore 64 or whatever it was when you learned how to use a computer."
In this Q&A, Fisher shares how he's using AI at his company.
Q: How are you using AI, such as ChatGPT?
A: Ever since the internet became a vehicle to book vacations or to book travel, the other side of it was that travel agents were going to be dead. They've been trying to kill us. We're like cockroaches, you know, they're never going to get rid of us. And if you don't embrace technology and you don't embrace the future, you're going to fail. That's just the way we look at it here.
So what we're doing is we're developing our own little ChatGPT that when leads come in, we can respond a lot faster.
Q: Can you describe how that helps you?
A: What we're finding is the faster that we can respond to a client, the quicker we're going to get that client. The faster we respond and get their trust and give them information, the faster we get [the client]. ... But basically, what will happen is the leads come in, and we let the AI create the quote for the client. We give that to our agents. The agents then use that and send it to the customer, and then that gives them a head start and a good foundation to try and close the booking.
Q: Do you think all everyone needs to develop their own AI, as you are doing, or should they at least be using the standard ChatGPT?
A: I think that everybody should assume everybody's using it and then use it yourself and do it better, you know. Just assume your client is going to be going there and do the same prompt, like 'I'm going to want to take a trip to New Orleans. I want you to make an itinerary for me.' See what ChatGPT does, spit it back out, and then do a better job of it.
Q: When it creates a quote for you, do your advisors go in and look at the pricing and correct certain things?
A: Exactly. They'll go in, they'll look at the pricing, they'll double check it, they'll add their little feel to it.
Q: Do you give clients a full itinerary?
A: We give them a pretty good idea. We don't give away all the keys to the kingdom, but we give them enough to wet their whistle and show them there's a value-added benefit to using our services. ... Because we're in Hawaii, we're a niche market. It's a complicated market. We're only focused on Hawaii and so there's a lot of questions that still need to get answered, and it's very helpful for the human to be connected with the technology to the consumer.
This is my theory, and I think it's going to work. ... I'm embracing it. We're not going to run away from it, and I don't think it's going to replace the travel agent. They always say that with every technology that comes around, but you know what, I'm finding that people want travel agents more than ever.