This week in travel news: An Australian tourist arrives at a fictional tourist attraction, a woman recalls the night she unexpectedly slept with a pair of traveling nuns, and a turning point for REAL ID arrives.
Hundreds of tourists gather at a hot spring in a small town in Tasmania, Australia. However, there was one small problem with their travel plans. The hot springs were actually an AI “hallucination” that mistakenly appeared on a travel advice website and was widely shared before people realized what was happening.
We tested ChatGPT travel advice in 5 cities
CNN Travel team members from five major cities around the world asked ChatGPT to create their trips. See how we tested itineraries to help you use the most popular LLM (Large-Scale Language Model) for travel planning more effectively. Read the full report to learn more about our experiments.
While this anecdote is funny, it speaks to a larger, more worrying trend in the travel industry.
Anne Hardy, an adjunct professor of tourism at Australia’s Southern Cross University, told CNN that about 37% of tourists use large-scale artificial intelligence-powered language models like ChatGPT for travel advice and itineraries.
Thinking about using AI to plan your next vacation but don’t know how to tell what’s real and what’s fake? Five CNN Travel staffers from five different cities attempted to visit their hometowns following an AI-generated itinerary with varying degrees of success. Follow their experience here and learn from their mistakes.
“Great Escapes” is a new series from CNN Travel about how trips don’t go as planned and what happens next. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be bringing you the first three articles in the series. Also available in audio format.
This week’s story is about Diane Droste, a 16-year-old high school student in 1973. She was traveling across the United States on a Greyhound bus when a blizzard threatened to leave her alone in a small Minnesota town.
But luckily Diane wasn’t alone. Two guardian angels appeared in the form of nuns. The two women find Diane alone, broke and frightened in a motel lobby, and invite her to stay with them. That night, the unlikely trio had dinner and the nuns taught Dian how to play the card game Canasta.
These days, Diane is a mother of a child who can’t believe she was once sharing a room with strangers. But, as she explains, it’s the kind of thing people did before cell phones and credit cards.
The next morning, the snow had cleared enough for the bus to continue on its way, and Diane returned home to her family. But even after all this time, she has never forgotten the kindness of the two women who ensured her safety on that snowy night.
This Sunday, starting February 1st, the Transportation Security Administration announced that airline passengers without a REAL ID will be charged $45 for identification.
CNN’s Pete Muntean explains what this means for travelers.
Travelers without a Real ID are subject to a $45 fee and possible delays
One of the most enjoyable parts of visiting a new place is trying the local specialties. That’s the case with actor Tony Shalhoub, who tried rye bread ice cream in Reykjavik, Iceland, during his series “Breaking Bread,” which he hosted on CNN.
A mixture of grains and dairy products topped with rhubarb syrup and homemade whipped cream. Shalhoub was skeptical at first, but eventually fell in love with the amazing treat.
Tony Shalhoub didn’t know this ice cream flavor existed. now it’s his favorite
That’s not all. A simple ingredient like olive oil may be best tried as a tasty treat on its own, rather than as part of a larger dish. Shalhoub and CNN’s Anderson Cooper tried olive oil shots. Yes, you drink it straight, just like tequila or vodka. What’s the verdict? 4 thumbs up.
America’s largest World War II cemetery is not located in Europe.
It is located in Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
France’s high-speed rail system offers child-free cabins.
It caused a lot of controversy.
A former flight attendant was scammed out of a large amount of free airline tickets.
He did it pretending to be a pilot.
Massive layoffs. A life-threatening climb. Farewell to the panda.
What do you remember about that week?
