I propose that a new generation of travelers, born natively into natural language travel searching, will embrace natural language consumer-initiated travel searches (note the word consumer-initiated).

AI does have consumer-facing use cases, but these are nowhere near the hype surrounding its impact on consumer-initiated travel products and services.

In the context of ChatGPT searches, AI prompts are the initial inputs or queries that guide the AI’s response. They serve as the starting point for the AI to generate relevant and useful information. The need for detailed prompts cannot be overstated, especially in the realm of travel-related searches. A detailed prompt provides a clear direction for the AI, ensuring that the generated content...

I believe the US travel industry (companies, media, prognosticators) is currently spending too much mental energy, attention, opportunity cost and focus on the inbound Chinese traveler market while overlooking opportunities from other lucrative source markets. Fixating on ‘the Pre-pandemic level return of Chinese Inbound Travelers’ is like a friend who’s separated from his longtime girlfriend that keeps talking about the good old days; hoping...

Every aspect of the travel industry benefits from shorter tourism visa processing times --- hotels, guides, tourism boards, airlines, transportation companies, attractions, restaurants, etc. I am speechless (and that’s hard for somebody as opiniated as me) to the point of being shell shocked at the wait times people are experiencing to enter the USA as a tourist or for business. I had to re-read,...