Vancouverscape, a Vancouver based blog covering travel, tech, and lifestyle

We were recently sent a press release from Spotlight Communications that caught our eye. The luxury PR company gave ChatGPT a $500,000 travel brief. They then passed along the same brief to a human travel adviser.

A 50th birthday celebration, 25 guests, and a budget that should make anything possible. Same brief. Same budget. Completely different answers.

If you had half a million dollars to spend on a once-in-a-lifetime luxury birthday trip, treating 25 of your closest friends and family, where would you go? A private island? A safari lodge? A yacht for the week? But, more importantly, how would you plan it — and whose advice would you trust?

Luxury travel advisers are having a good run. In the US alone, travel advisers booked $115 billion of travel in 2023, according to ASTA. Internova’s luxury division, Global Travel Collection, says its 1,500-plus advisers generated $2.3 billion in luxury sales last year, including nearly 900 trips worth more than $100,000 each.

[ChatGPT image by Basictell Hub on Flickr]

AI is learning quickly — tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity AI and Gemini are already reshaping how trips begin — and, increasingly, what people actually end up booking. Around 40 per cent of travellers now use it as part of the planning process, rising to well over half in some markets. Among those who do, the influence is significant: 78 per cent say they have booked trips primarily based on AI recommendations.

This raises an uncomfortable thought: If AI can already assemble a compelling itinerary in seconds, and a growing number of travellers are willing to act on its advice, what exactly is the role of the luxury travel adviser when a booking engine is just a prompt away?

[Photo by Jocelyn Erskine-Kellie on Flickr]

The multigenerational 50th birthday celebration outlined above was set to depart from New York City, its sole ambition a meaningful, memorable trip.

Spotlight went to ChatGPT for ideas, and the response was “instant, cheerful, and compelling.”

“Absolutely! Here’s a fully integrated, polished proposal combining destination, reasoning, itinerary, suppliers, costs and narrative flow.”
Lake Como: the perfect answer.

A private villa, Villa Balbiano, no less: A vast, frescoed lakeside palazzo with manicured gardens, a place that’s often a backdrop in films and fashion shoots. Five nights. Business class flights from New York to Milan, transfers mapped out and each decision explained.

It even came with a theme: “A Life Well Lived — Celebrated in Timeless Italy.”

[Bell tower in Varenna, Italy, Lake Como; photo by Landscape and Travel on Flickr]

The itinerary was reassuringly logical: arrival drinks on the terrace, days spent on the water, helicopter tours for the more adventurous, cooking classes and spa time for everyone else. The finale was a candlelit birthday dinner cooked by a Michelin-level chef, live band and fireworks over the lake, followed by a relaxing last day with a private picnic and an outdoor screening of a film of family memories.

It was all there. Even the thinking had been done for the team. Why Lake Como? “Accessibility. Visual impact. Emotional resonance.” Why Emirates flights rather than a private jet? “Better value, more budget for experiences.” Why this sequence of days? “To move, deliberately, from connection to celebration to reflection.” Who would design the setting for the finale dinner? “Full villa transformation by Lake Como Weddings.”
It was a very good answer. In fact, it’s exactly what most people would book.

The AI proposal was impressive, but it was also recognizable — a greatest hits of high-end European travel. Lake Como remains one of the most requested destinations in the world for many reasons, however it’s on the well-trodden path.

This is where human judgement shows. AI can process information and build coherent plans. What it can’t yet do is read the emotional undercurrents of a group, or anticipate what will matter once you’re there.

When one of Spotlight’s travel advisers was tasked with the same brief, Ireland’s 16th-century Dromoland Castle came to mind. A milestone trip needs a sense of occasion from the first moment, and should not feel like you’re checking into a hotel.

On Lough Derg, it’s not just a boat ride. Guests are taken into places they couldn’t access on their own — a lakeside house with its own art collection, an island castle. Days are spent trying falconry and archery, carriage rides through the estate, visits to historic distilleries and speeding along the Atlantic coast in a private RIB.

The final night is a Downton-meets-Bridgerton celebration where the castle becomes a stage and the guests dress the part. These are just a few moments that travellers did not know were possible, and definitely something that an AI engine would miss.

[Dromoland Castle secret garden entrance; photo by James Higgott on Flickr]

Designing a trip for 25 people with different expectations and energies means that pacing is everything. Shared moments combined with downtime are crucial for a successful trip. Not everyone wants to be ‘on’ all the time. Itinerary adaptations and regional contacts are also key for last-minute changes or blips in the schedule.

In the advisor’s itinerary, guests don’t just transfer from Shannon Airport, but are met at the gates of the estate by huntsmen on horseback who then move in procession up the drive. The castle appears gradually. Staff are waiting.

The most telling distinction between ChatGPT’s response and that of a human is that luxury lacks options: choice creates its own problems. Once almost anything is possible, judgement becomes the thing that you are paying for.

AI is brilliant at assembling the best of what already exists to give travellers a highly competent version of the expected. While AI may provide confident solutions, a great travel researcher/adviser interprets, edits, and occasionally pushes the boundaries.

[Dromoland Castle; photo by Andrew Miller on Flickr]

The best travel is not defined by where you go, or even what you do, but by what stays with you long after you’ve returned. The details you didn’t expect. That sense that it was put together with just you in mind.

The final outcome? AI can get you very close. But for now, at least, it doesn’t quite know where to look — or what matters once you arrive at the destination.