Travel Tech Essentialist #159: Smart
In this edition, we explore how AI is enabling smarter bookings, better answers, and even reuniting travelers with lost items at airports. Plus, a clever marketing piece that will make you want to fly around the world for under $1000, and surprising figures on the economic impact of European airports.
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0. The most clicked link in the previous newsletter
The most clicked link in Travel Tech Essentialist #158 was this article by Sequoia highlighting how generative AI is evolving from thinking fast (pre-trained responses) to thinking slow (reasoning).
1. Five prompt engineering techniques for better AI outputs
Prompt engineer Mike Taylor shares five techniques to get more precise and relevant responses from AI, regardless of the LLM. Here are two:
Style unbundling. First, prompt to analyze and list the specific characteristics that make up a person’s unique approach (Prompt 1: “Describe the key elements of [expert]’s style/skill in bullet points.”). Then, you can apply those characteristics in prompts to create new content (Prompt 2: “Do [task] in the following style: [style].”)
Role-playing. Prompt template: “You are an expert in [field] known for [key adjective]. Help me [task].” Without clear direction, ChatGPT may produce generic responses filled with emojis and corporate speak.
Let’s see the role-playing technique in action. First, with a generic prompt:
And now, with a prompt asking for the announcement in the style of Brian Chesky:
2. I flew around the world for £620
Owen Merry, a Software Engineer at Skyscanner, created an interactive “Fly Around The World” game that challenges users to fly around the globe for under £1000. Maybe he didn’t intend it as such, but it sure turned out to be a clever showcase of Skyscanner’s ability to find affordable flights and an excellent example of organic, engaging marketing.
3. How AI is being used in travel
Amadeus just released the Navigating the Future report on how Generative AI is transforming the travel industry. It’s based on a survey of 306 senior travel tech leaders in North America, Europe, and APAC with generative AI experience. Right now, companies primarily use AI for digital booking assistance (53%), activity recommendations (48%), and content generation (47%). Looking ahead, they're focusing on enhanced customer service (39%), in-trip digital support (38%), and operations streamlining (38%).
4. The impact of airports and air connectivity
A new study by Airports Council International shows the massive economic impact of European airports and air connectivity. They generate €851 billion in GDP (5% of European GDP) and support 14 million jobs (6% of total European jobs). The impact goes beyond just running airports. While €121 billion and 1.8 million jobs come directly from airports (check-in staff, security, retail…), their "catalytic impact" on tourism, trade, and business activity is the real power. For tourism alone, airports enable €174 billion in GDP and 3.5 million jobs. And when direct air connectivity increases by 10%, GDP per capita grows by 0.5%. Read more.
5. Booking.com’s 2025 travel predictions
Like Christmas, the travel trends season seems to start earlier every year. Booking.com’s 2025 predictions and new destinations shows travelers moving toward more intentional, meaningful, and personalized trips (a trend that keeps popping up year after year). Surprisingly, over a third of travelers now see a destination’s airport as part of the appeal, with Gen Z and millennials leading the way. Check out the report.
6. Strong recovery in the aviation value chain
McKinsey’s latest aviation value chain report shows a strong 2023, with 8 of 11 subsectors improving over pre-pandemic levels and overall losses improving from $67 billion in 2022 to $3.6 billion in 2023. Some highlights:
Airlines saw their best performance in decades, with North America and Asia facing some headwinds. Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East had positive returns for the first time post-pandemic.
Jet fuel producers, which benefited from elevated fuel prices, and freight forwarders, benefiting from strong air cargo demand, achieved the largest profits among the 11 sub-sectors analyzed.
Airports improved in 2023 but posted a $9 billion loss (performance varying by region), the largest among subsectors due to slow traffic recovery and fixed, regulated costs impacting both aeronautical and retail (i.e. spending by passengers in terminals) revenues.
7. American Airlines’ new boarding alert system
American Airlines announced it’s piloting (pun intended) a new technology feature at three US airports to stop passengers from boarding before their assigned group. The system sends an audible alert signaling gate agents if a ticket is scanned prematurely.
But…calling this “new tech” is a bit of a stretch. It’s just checking boarding groups at the scan. The real test here seems to be how passengers will react and whether this slows down the process, not the tech itself. Plus, I am pretty sure that other airlines are already doing this. Can anyone confirm?
8. Transforming lost and found in travel (and daily life)
For the second Travel Tech Essentialist Deep Dive (I’ll feature six standout companies shaping the future of travel each year), I wrote about Boomerang, a startup transforming lost-item recovery with AI-driven automation. Co-founded by Skyler Logsdon, Boomerang is simplifying lost-and-found processes across airports, hotels, and venues, making recovery fast, seamless, and even profitable for businesses.
9. An efficient way of screening for candidates
10. Dad (or Bad) travel joke
Pencils can be as sharp as knives, so why are they allowed on planes? I guess they had to draw the line somewhere.
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Mauricio Prieto