TAMPA, Fla. – More destinations are coming to Tampa International Airport, and travelers are planning their trips there with the help of AI.
What we know:
Tampa International Airport is growing in size and offerings. The newest international route includes flights to Bogotá, Colombia from Avianca Airlines, and those will ramp up with daily nonstop flights in October.
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TPA’s chief commercial officer, Chris Minner, said TPA wants to meet the need.
“We reach out to the airline decision makers multiple times every year. My team and I will be traveling to Hong Kong next month, and we’ve got more than 30 speed-dating appointments already established,” said Minner. “We’re going to be talking to the airlines that fly here today and all the airlines who can fly here in the future.”
He said they would like that to include destinations like Dublin, Ireland; Lima, Peru and São Paulo, Brazil.
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“We are a really, rapidly growing market. And we’ve been underserved with international nonstop flights for generations. So really, we’re playing catch-up in trying to deliver the global access that our region really deserves,” said Minner. “Our international flights at Tampa International Airport have been extremely popular. Over the last year, more than 1.6 million passengers. That’s up 24% versus just the prior year.”
Dig deeper:
When it comes to planning trips, research shows more travelers are turning to artificial intelligence.
“If you want to Google and try to prepare your own itinerary, most probably you have to spend hours and hour and hours. But when it comes to AI, it happens only minutes, sometimes seconds,” said Seden Dogan, an assistant professor of instruction at the University of South Florida’s Muma College of Business.
Dogan said about 60% of travelers are using some kind of artificial intelligence in their planning.
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“If you want to go to New York for weekend as a solo traveler, you can ask ChatGPT or other type of language learning models to come up with minute-by-minute itinerary for you,” said Dogan.
What they’re saying:
Some airline passengers at TPA said they are sold on trying out AI in travel planning.
“Parents working in full time, you don’t have as much time to look into things as much, and it’s probably more accurate, so yeah, I would definitely use it in the future,” said Joanna Thorp, from Essex, United Kingdom.
While others said they aren’t so sure.
“I would have to see other people do it first and see how well that goes. And then maybe I would think about it,” De’Jon Davis, a traveler flying out of TPA. “At the moment I probably wouldn’t try it, but maybe in the future. Just having to rely on something else to do the whole planning, I would like to actually know the whole process myself.”
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Professor Dogan said there are concerns about bias and data privacy in AI. But, she said if you try it out, be specific with your prompts.
“If you feed them with enough information, the result will become more customized and personalized,” said Dogan.
Also, validate or double-check the results you’re getting, Dogan said, so you don’t end up in a hotel or restaurant that doesn’t meet your expectations.
The Source: The information in this story came from Tampa International Airport officials and the University of South Florida and was gathered by FOX13’s Briona Arradondo.
Tampa International AirportArtificial IntelligenceTravel News