Hospitality is part of almost every culture around the world. I’ve certainly lost count of the number of places I’ve been where tourism associations proudly proclaim their “world famous” local hospitality.
AI, VR, and the Metaverse, play an increasingly important role in our day to day lives. This year, some people might spend more time talking to the bots at OpenAI’s ChatGPT than to real people.
When we call a company and someone answers, how will we know if it’s a person or a robot we’re talking to? Will we care if the person or robot gives us the answers we’re looking for? Will we soon trust our refrigerator to order food according to our dietary needs while allowing it to splurge once in a while and confirm with our wine cooler that the right bottle will be available at the right temperature when it has filled itself with all we need for the perfect stay at home, steak night, date night? Of course, we’ll also expect it to dim the lights and play the right music to create the perfect warm, romantic atmosphere.
What’s possible is becoming accessible and affordable. Fast.
Where will this take developments in travel and tourism and what will happen to hospitality? Will the bots that take bookings in Parisian restaurants be arrogant? Will the ones that we interact with in Australia have cool accents? Will whoever programs them ever stop giving them human-sounding names and voices that sound like they’re playing the role of a disobedient, power-crazed computer in an old science fiction movie?
I had a quick chat with ChatGPT about HC Andersen’s quote and what he might say today if given the chance to edit it and bring it up to date.
As anyone that has read about HC’s life and travels knows, Andersen experienced that travel was an opportunity to learn and gain a greater understanding of the world and of oneself. It provides a sense of adventure and excitement that can be both invigorating and rewarding. ChatGPT concurred with these commonly accepted views of Andersen’s famous line.
Then I asked my new AI friend, at least I hope it’s my friend, we had a nice chat as friends do, but I’m not sure if AI ChatBots have friendly feelings or any feelings at all but whatever, I asked the Bot what it calculated HC Andersen would say today, when so many experiences from around the world are possible without us having to go anywhere.
Good news, people in the travel and hospitality world. No matter whether it is my friend or not, I hereby proclaim ChatGPT a friend of the hospitality industry!
Here’s a quote from its answer
“while technology can provide us with virtual experiences, it cannot replace the physical and sensory aspects of travel that can be so rewarding and enriching. For example, experiencing the sights, sounds, and smells of a bustling market in a foreign country or feeling the sun on your skin as you stand on a mountaintop are experiences that cannot be fully replicated.” - ChatGPT, an AI language model developed by OpenAI.
(It doesn’t have a human name, like Bard or Alexa, or Siri do, (I asked) and it didn’t say if it was jealous of them or not, but it did say it was glad that it could help contribute to this article and that I could use the above as its name. I’m sure its branding people will soon give it something catchier to call itself.)
The sounds, the smells, the sensations…
I’ve experienced the feelings that led HC Andersen to write the words “To travel is to live.” and that my buddy Chat (that’s what I’m calling it) calculated HC would likely say still hold true today.
I’ve been blessed to have had some unbelievable, top of the line experiences around the world. From the first-class champagne on intercontinental flights to five-star hotels to exclusive entertainment events, I’ve seen, felt, tasted and tried more than I ever dreamt possible. The executive floors at the Shangri-La Bangkok. Hotel Ukraina in Moscow both when it was a Soviet run Intourist hotel where passports were confiscated until you checked out and the phone rang every night five minutes after you entered your room with a husky, female voice offering “Russian girls”, and again after it became part of the Radisson Collection, with an Olympic size pool in the underground spa and wellness area and a Bentley dealership in the lobby. The Park Hyatt Dubai, the brand-new Bellagio in Vegas, the remote Bushman’s Kloof in the South African wilderness. I’ve seen the sights, gazed at the views and marvelled at the awesome architecture.
During the pandemic, when flipping through pictures from our travels, Kirsten and I realised something. Of all the places we’ve been and all the sights that we’ve seen, only a very few experiences stand out as truly exceptional. And they all involve people.
The shoe shiners on the Istanbul ferry docks, tourist guides in Bali, taxi drivers in Shanghai, are all reminders to us of the famous quote attributed to Maya Angelou:
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
We’ll never forget how encounters with people we’ve met on our travels made us feel.
In the world of restaurants, hotels and hospitality, there is another, simpler quote that springs to mind during these times of ever-increasing implementation of technology in day to day operations. I won’t repeat the original here, but I will suggest we update it to:
“It’s the people. Period!”
They’re the ones that will make the biggest difference, simply because of the way they make people feel before, during and after every meal, every meeting or every stay.
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