AI tour guide: Filipino travelers turn to artificial intelligence tools for travel plans

MANILA, Philippines — With the boom of artificial intelligence tools, Filipino travelers like Anne Real, 35, are crafting travel plans like never before.

Anne, 35, who has traveled to five countries so far, said she personally uses popular AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT when she is creating an itinerary for her travels. She first discovered this from online travel community group Hangout Buddies.

For Anne, ChatGPT’s travel suggestions only serve as the “skeleton” of the itinerary.

“It’s a good place to start especially if you don’t have any experience traveling or making an itinerary,” Anne said in a mix of English and Filipino.“

“It’s also responsive. For example, if I don’t like its Day 2 itinerary suggestion for Singapore that includes Universal Studios Singapore (USS), I’ll just reply to ChatGPT by typing ‘without USS.’ And then, the results will be amended,” she also said.

Like Anne, 35-year-old Ric, who has visited the 82 provinces of the Philippines and eight countries so far, has also been using ChatGPT in his travel planning since June this year.

“I have an upcoming trip to Brunei and Kota Kinabalu this November, and I used ChatGPT to make an itinerary including transportation, hotel accommodation, tourist places to visit and all. And to be fair, if you just include all the correct words during the search, it will definitely give you all the needed information. And it only took almost a minute to complete. Really amazing,” Ric said in an online interview with Philstar.com.

Ric said that using ChatGPT provides a stream of endless information and possibilities. However, he shared that this could also be its “downfall” given the credibility of the results.

“I tried using it also for my other upcoming trips and even for