AI Travel Influencers are changing face of travel, are becoming sensations on Social Media. Having said that, it’s difficult for a fake woman (or man) to get travellers to spend real money on destinations.
Avatar Competes with Human Influencers in Travel
People love to travel and often get destination ideas, hotel recommendations, local do’s and don’ts, from human travel influencers.
But times are changing.
It’s very likely that in the most recent travel video that you have seen, the person giving travel tips is more likely an AI influencer, and not a real person.
Also, the monuments, train, countryside that you see in the video may not be real but digitally generated.
More travel companies are now using AI influencers to create travel content and to engage with potential travellers.
AI travel influencers are digital characters created using artificial intelligence.
Digital travel influencers are used to create content that feels real enough, and has the potential to influence most viewers.
Travel companies prefer digital avatars for various reasons:
- AI influencers are cost-effective. Companies don’t need to pay for their flights and for hotel stays.
- They are available 24×7, they always look perfect, they never get tied, they never cancel plans.
- They can be edited to fit different styles/trends.
- AI travel influencers are able to speak multiple languages which makes it easier for brands to use them in global campaigns.
- Impact On Human Influencers
Reasons I Don’t Trust Them Yet
Lot of countries are using AI for destination marketing; Germany being among the earlier adopters of AI and now they have Emma, the AI influencer.
Go through the comments on their Instagram site and you can see the apprehensions of people.
In one of the videos of Emma, she had a “missing finger on the coffee cup.”
Sometime back, Italy’s campaign had also fallen flat.
Early renaissance artist Sandro Boticelli’s famous painting “The Birth of Venus” depicts Goddess Venus. Italian tourism board turned Botticelli’s Venus into a virtual influencer to promote Italy as a destination, but the campaign turned out to be a disaster.
This is because people want to see real people with real passion for destinations; they are not yet ready for a fake AI person giving travel tips or inspiration.
An AI travel influencer can help plan an itinerary for a trip but it is likely to lack genuine creativity, especially if you want a customized one for your unique situation.
It also may not come up with original ideas as AI can only promote things that many are already promoting online.
So, you are unlikely to know about those little known places that a human influencer is likely to recommend.
As of now, AI influencers lack the emotional depth, needed to make genuine connections with audiences.
The footage used in such videos are AI generated, so you cannot discern what is real.
If you see German AI influencer Emma’s videos, those places in Germany look unreal. It’s because the pictures of Germany were digitally generated based on existing pictures of Germany.
Use of AI influencers also raise questions related to ethics.
AI-generated images of travel destinations can be misleading. Not only is the avatar AI generated, the footage is also AI generated.
Some users are likely to believe that they are listening/talking to a real person and watching real footages. You really have to observe closely to notice that the interactions are not genuinely human.
So, such images and videos actually need to have appropriate disclaimers.
How Can Human Travel Influencers Survive?
Travel influencers love traveling to various destinations and creating useful content. Many have already made a name for themselves in one of the travel niches — Budget travel, Luxury travel, Adventure travel, Solo or Family travel.
Unfortunately for these IRL (in real life) influencers, digital travel influencers are the newest sensation on social media. One can expect to see more digital avatars dole out travel tips going ahead.
While its still early days, human travel influencers must plan ahead.
The best way to differentiate your work is by:
- Exploring unique and little known places.
- Interacting with the locals.
- Focusing more on the emotional aspects of travel.
- Remember, AI can only provide information that already exists online (or is fed to it during training)
So, if you’re already working as a travel influencer or aspiring to be one, you need to differentiate yourself and keep an eye on this trend to see how it develops.
You are now competing with influencers that can generate lifelike images, provide travel advice, and operate 24/7 without incurring the costs associated with human influencers.
