Why Everyone's Trips Are Starting to Look the Same (And It's Not Your Fault)

[0:00] Be honest, how many times have you seen the exact same travel video, just with a different person in it? You open up TikTok, search a destination, and suddenly every itinerary looks identical. I know because I've experienced this in my latest trip of planning for Grenada.

[0:17] I was searching up many different keywords to try to figure out what to do, how long to visit, and how to get there. And literally, everyone said the exact same seven things. What if your trip isn't as unique as you think it is? My name is Kiara, the host of Put the Guidebook Down,

[0:35] and today we are going to talk all about how everyone's trips are starting to look exactly the same and how it's not your fault. Anytime anyone starts planning their next destination and creating that travel itinerary, people feel like their trips are unique, because we're going at a different time,

[0:54] maybe a different route or visiting different locations in a different order. So we like to think that our trips are personalized to us. But what if I told you that probably thousands of people in that exact same month are going to do the exact same itinerary that you just planned?

[1:12] Now you may be asking, why are you saying this? How are you able to make this statement? It's because we need to think, where are we actually getting our travel ideas from? Social media has played a large role in the tourism industry and many people now

[1:28] turn to TikTok or Instagram to get their travel planning tips and ideas. Therefore, those exact same ideas are being put into your itinerary, or maybe you're just following what their suggestions were exactly to the point. This goes back to what I just said. Our trips are no longer personalized to us and thousands of other people are doing

[1:47] the exact same itinerary. So this leads to a further question of travel planning. What does it actually mean to do travel planning now? It's really shifting from discovery to validation. We're not starting from curiosity anymore when coming up with our travel itinerary. We're starting from what's already been proven, and to avoid that feeling of FOMO

[2:08] that social media has been creating now for travelers in the tourism industry. Everyone knows that social media has an algorithm, and same with those AI tools. So I'd like to introduce you to your new travel agent. Any social media or AI algorithm. These two outlets and channels are really shaping demand for travel.

[2:30] We think we're choosing destinations, but we're actually choosing from what's being shown to us. If you're on social media, you know that the more you engage with different posts or videos, the more that you see showing up in your feed similar to them. Or if you start searching terms or maybe even talking about different ideas out loud,

[2:50] suddenly those exact same videos that you're talking about appear in your feed. This is the algorithm at work, curating the content that they believe you'd be most interested in or looking for, keeping you to stay inside the app and using the product.

[3:06] This is the influence of social media, and AI has started evolving in just the same way. We have different types of AI. We like to think of OpenAI, ChatGPT, Claude as the main ones and maybe the forefront of AI. But those who are involved in the AI field and tech know that we've been using AI

[3:28] for years already. It really came first with predictive AI. And that's really when you're typing something and spell correct jumps in to correct it, or maybe you start having an idea writing into the search bar and then it auto-populates with what it thinks you're trying to write.

[3:44] That's AI at work, and that's also an influence coming further from AI or social media, because you might not have been searching for what was being suggested to you, but now you're like, wait, actually I am curious about that, and you complete this search with the suggestion.

[4:00] That's the influence, and the same thing happens when you're doing your travel planning and you go to social media for ideas or AI and it does the same suggestions or showing related the same content. Are we being funneled into the same experiences? Is this just another version of the top 10 things to do?

[4:22] I'd say 100% because essentially you are just being shown the same content that anyone who's looking in a related search is looking for, whether it's on social media or AI. These LLMs, Claude or ChatGPT, work entirely off of patterning. So if someone else is searching top things to do in Grenada,

[4:45] or what to do in Grenada, based on the input and data that AI has collected or social media has collected, it's just funneling it to you and the millions of other people who are creating related searches to that same keyword. So we're all just getting shown the same thing on a repetitive basis.

[5:05] So this can help the travel tourism industry. It can also harm it, because we're just reinforcing certain places, cafes or viewpoints that are going viral, contributing to overtourism. But I think we're straying a little bit away from the main point.

[5:20] Visibility is not the same as value, but we treat it like it is because of social media and AI. So let's go a little bit deeper into it about this whole AI illusion. Personalization does not mean originality. AI feels tailored, but as I mentioned, it's built on patterns.

[5:39] So that personalized itinerary that you search for in ChatGPT is essentially the same itinerary ChatGPT has given to anyone else looking to go to that destination. They're not giving us something unique, just something that's statistically likely or similar based on predictive search. So no matter how much you try to modify your prompt to get to that personalization,

[6:06] I hate to break it to you, at this point in time, you're most likely not gonna get it if you're just relying on the outputs from those AI tools that you're using. Because again, it's feeding from the data that it receives as an input. And if thousands of people are typing similar prompts,

[6:23] then the same outputs are being pushed to those thousands of people. And the whole point of travel was to be curious, to learn something new, to go where not many people have gone so that we can learn and be exposed to new sights, languages, sounds, tastes if you're a foodie.

[6:44] So this AI illusion... are we mistaking efficiency for creativity by using these AI tools? If you're very busy with work or you have a busy schedule and you just want to get that trip planned, then what do you tend to do these days? You tend to go to AI or social media to do the planning for you.

[7:04] That's the efficiency, right? You're not really getting creative with your itinerary anymore. You're just turning to what's easiest, and you feel comfortable going for it because it's already been done. In my opinion, think AI is just removing the friction that we're seeing with the travel planning portion, not... leaning into curiosity.

[7:26] And that's part of the problem with AI tools these days, and ones that we're trying to solve in the education technology field, is people constantly use these tools and get outputs, but a smaller percentage actually goes further with the output, questioning it, pushing it to go further or deeper.

[7:44] And that's where we're starting to see a decline in curiosity when it comes to any AI usage. And this creates a feedback loop that just keeps getting worse. Content goes into behavior of that efficiency and just accepting the output, which means more content is just being created as noise and not actually high quality or genuine.

[8:10] So sameness reinforces itself. When people visit places because they went viral, we're just reinforcing the same place. We're not challenging ourselves to go different or step outside of our comfort zone or to go off onto a new adventure. We're just going where we know is safe and maybe nice to experience because it had great views.

[8:35] And one of my favorite challenges on social media is the expectation versus reality. When people actually try to go to some of these viral places and the content creator showed it as like five people there or maybe this insanely pink beach, and then another person goes there and there are maybe thousands of people at that one

[8:57] place with a 40 minute line to enter, or the beach is actually in fact not pink and maybe a light brown. I mean, when you look back on it, it can be funny, but in the moment you're pretty upset because you just wasted a bunch of money and time to get to that influencer recommended spot. Again,

[9:13] we've all been there, I've been there, so I feel like it's just part of the learning curve when it comes to travel. But this is the exact impact that I'm referring to when it comes to sameness and content creation shaping what becomes worth visiting. And I believe that travel influencers,

[9:30] content creators hold so much power, and local businesses and large companies know that more than ever, because people are searching for authentic, genuine content these days instead of just AI noise outputs. So these creators hold the power to really shape a destination and the perspective of it,

[9:51] which is why we are seeing an uptake in user generated content or UGC in marketing. If a content creator who has a lot of subscribers or followers goes to a certain hotel and then creates content around it, then that hotel sees an immediate spike in bookings, if the review is positive of course,

[10:11] and it may be something that they're not ready for, and then as I mentioned in my previous episodes, that leads to other complications. But on the flip side, if someone goes to a destination, has a negative experience, creates negative content around it, then we see the exact opposite,

[10:28] which is harmful for the local economy, especially if they depend upon tourism. So there really is a power with social media that we need to acknowledge. And this now leads into another data point for these AI engines to pick up and what they determine in their outputs. So I think now travelers

[10:52] are now influencing destinations more than the destinations are influencing travelers. Why do I say this? It's because again, travelers are creating those destinations rather than the destinations leaving a positive impact on the travelers because it was something different, because they had this deep, enriching, immersive experience, and we're just seeing this flattening culture into a trend.

[11:18] So then what happens to places that don't fit the algorithm? Are they just lost or forgotten? Do they not see visitors because of it? Yes, and I talk about this in how AI is impacting travel in our previous episode, in that when places are not being suggested now in social media or in AI, then they

[11:38] just don't see visitors or tourists. This can be good or bad, but the more we follow trends, the fewer new ones exist. Or they just remain hidden. So what gets lost when everything looks the same? Sameness isn't just boring. It has consequences. So these lesser known places tend to be forgotten.

[12:01] If we're searching top 10 things to do in Paris and we're looking only on AI or social media and not taking the curiosity to a deeper level to do our own research, then that really trendy hip neighborhood in the lower side of Paris gets forgotten. It receives fewer visitors, it generates less income for the local economy,

[12:23] or it now creates a more enriching experience for those that decide to venture beyond what that AI-generated list was. And I think this ultimately creates this whole missing layer when it comes to travel, and especially experiencing deeper cultural experiences. Unfortunately, if things are not documented, they tend to get lost or forgotten.

[12:45] As a linguist, I see this all the time with languages, especially ones that are extinct. When there is no documentation of the language and the last few speakers die out from that community, then the language is lost, which is a loss of culture, heritage, history, so much from that. And that's why documentation and content creation is so important,

[13:07] but we need to do it intentionally so that it is authentic and amplifies local voices rather than a Westerner's perspective on X. So when the AI tools stop generating these local experiences or cultural knowledge out, people don't take the extra step to go look further, which means they're missing a whole layer of travel.

[13:30] When everything becomes visible, nothing feels discovered. But on the flip side of that, when things aren't visible, they can't be discoverable. And as a marketer, this is what marketers are supposed to do in a way, is to help create information for others to discover it or optimize existing content to be discovered in these AI

[13:51] engines and social media channels. But this is where it's more important to find the balance, because we want to avoid this whole sameness of travel and the lack of personalization. So you may ask now, how do you actually travel differently? My first suggestion would be to use AI for logistics, not discovery.

[14:12] That means using it as your anchor to search for flights, maybe timing suggestions on how long you should stay in a destination, budgeting. You can even suggest, within your prompt to AI, like, I wanna do X, Y, Z, stay in this type of accommodation for

[14:32] this amount of dollars, is it possible, or do a price breakdown for me. But don't rely on it to just generate your itinerary for you. You have to be specific and push further. My second suggestion is to ask better questions. Instead of just saying, give me a list of the top things to do in Paris,

[14:51] ask Paris are rarely talked about in English media and why. Give me the reason, cite facts with your answer. This makes the AI engine do deeper research and produce something that's a little bit more voluminous so that you're able to reference other exterior sources from

[15:16] the output and challenge the data point that it was usually feeding off of for top things to do in Paris or create an itinerary for me in Paris. You're making it go further and you're adding the cultural element to it. So it's purposely searching for the culture side of the destination.

[15:37] My third one is follow curiosity, not content. Go one layer deeper, at least, than the first result. Don't just take, this is said for any prompt you're doing in AI, don't just accept the first response. And we should be doing this with media anyways that we consume, especially with news.

[15:59] We always say for countering disinformation or misinformation to check at least three different sources. Why aren't we doing the same thing for AI? Why aren't we questioning the output? Because we want efficiency, but that's killing curiosity. Whether you're just going to work with AI or you're open to still doing in the

[16:18] traditional method of going to other websites and Google search and checking what's out there, you need to go beyond the first answer. Challenge the AI engine, maybe stress it out a little bit. My friends know me, they are like always concerned about how much I make my AI stress out,

[16:35] but it gives me better results and more meaningful results. So go back and forth with it, give it longer prompts, like paragraphs, to get the result that you want. And then of course, my favorite, go to Google, go to a book, go to another podcast and listen to what other people are saying.

[16:56] Of course you're going to go to social media because everyone wants to look at photos and videos of a destination, but don't let that be your only research point. And lastly, the most important one, to leave space for randomness. The best travel moments aren't optimized.

[17:12] They're the ones that happen spontaneously and challenge the itinerary that you put together. So if you go to your destination, stay with a local family or in a house, and they tell you, my gosh, you should really come with us to this village to go for this wedding. Why not?

[17:31] It may take time out of your itinerary, but when would you have ever been invited to a local wedding? Or they're gonna give you a suggestion for a restaurant or something. Those are local recommendations, especially if you're staying with a local family. They know what's good and want you to engage further with the culture.

[17:50] So why not take them up on their suggestions? With these steps, you are challenging the AI illusion and social media algorithms to actually make your trip unique and personalized to you. And of course, to go more deeper and have more meaningful experiences during your travel.

[18:08] But I want to take this a little bit further for you to reflect on yourselves. If you remove social media, would your trip look the same? Are you choosing experiences or just repeating what's already been done? And lastly, when was the last time you discovered something without being told to?

[18:29] Hint, you should really lean into that spontaneous tip that I gave at the end. That's where you'll find your answers to the last question. didn't make travel less original. It just made sameness easier. The question is, are you okay with that? And if not, what do you do about it? How do you resolve it?

[18:50] I hope this episode resonated with you and gave you something to think about next time you start prompting into ChatGPT or Claude or searching on social media planning your next vacation. Be sure to go a little bit further than the first output and to challenge yourself to leave space in your itinerary for spontaneous side quests.

[19:14] Trust me, it's worth it. Please make sure to subscribe to our channel or podcast if you haven't already. We're having a lot of different videos come out that are shorter and to be more of a question and answer style around travel. So be sure to check them out.

[19:28] And if you have any questions, please let us know in the comment section. Thank you so much everyone. Bye.