Travel writing is all about personal experience. There aren’t many people who would argue with this fact since this non-fiction genre focuses on the people, traditions, and landscape of specific locations. So, is it possible to create meaningful and interesting texts about traveling with the help of AI? 

Many people would say that’s not possible because AI can only write a text that presents the most general and obsolete picture possible, with no value to the readers who want to find out the newest information about any geographical area. Is there really no middle ground between this innovation and honest, interesting travel writing? Let’s see for ourselves!

Is it possible to travel-write using AI?

The answer to this question depends on how you define travel writing. If all you need is general information that familiarizes you with any geographic area, tools like ChatGPT might just do a perfect job of giving you exactly the materials you need.

In some cases, you don’t even need an AI content detector to distinguish between the “encyclopedia style” you get from digital helpers and the vivid descriptions that real people provide. Still, here are some tips on distinguishing useful and human-written travel articles from the artificially generated ones.

• People write about the current situation. Unlike AI, which loves providing generic information that mostly concerns the past, people tend to tell you about how things are right now. Of course, they may throw in 1 or 2 historical facts, but that’s usually just a small part of the description of their own experience. 
• Real people often incorporate personal experiences into their travel writing articles. This means you’ll probably find some endearing or funny stories in the human text, like having sweet memories of childhood after tasting a familiar dish or getting lost in the streets of a new city and laughing about it later. 
• You can learn about interesting routes and prices from a human travel writer. Practical tips, approximate prices, and mini-reviews of the newly-opened restaurants are all sure signs that you’re reading a human text. After all, many generative AIs simply can’t keep up with current events, so the newer the information, the better.

AI can be a helper, not the main writer

Of course, people can make AI-generated texts that are very similar to human writing. However, not all AI use is necessarily bad. In fact, there are a few things with which ChatGPT and similar generative tools can help travel writers, which means they can empower them to write faster and better without copying digitally created content. 

For example, ChatGPT can serve as a database from which writers can pull interesting historical facts to incorporate into their works. As generic as that information may be, good AI tools can pull it up faster than individual Google searches. The downside of this strategy is that AI tends to make stuff up, so you might still need to double-check each fact.

Another use of AI tools is to get new, interesting directions for research from them. When a writer needs to familiarize themselves with historical context, they need to do their research, but it’s not always simple to formulate your request for Google. That’s where AI tools can be handy, sometimes showing creators new possibilities. 

If a writer has trouble structuring their impressions, AI can help with that as well. After all, many travelers get overpowered by emotions, so it can be tough to write about everything they’ve experienced coherently. Luckily, AI tools can look at their first drafts and suggest improvements, so they spend less time on technicalities and let their creativity fly free.

Harnessing the power of innovations for truthful writing

As you can see, the authors who write their travel notes and stories themselves can use AI without copying the content it generates. This type of technology can serve as a useful reference and save creators hours of googling. In short, as long as you can trust the artificial intelligence you use, it can be your trusty assistant. 

However, many AI tools that are currently available can simply make things up or make crude mistakes. That’s why, if you’re a travel author, you should double-check the information ChatGPT gives you or use it to find new perspectives, but no more than that.