Six out of 10 people who responded to a survey on this year’s summer holidays said they are using generative artificial intelligence to make travel plans.
The survey, conducted by Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance on 1,120 people in their 20s to 50s in June, showed that 61.2% of those planning to travel in Japan or abroad refer to generative AI to make travel itineraries, as well as obtain information on local food and transportation.
“The main tool people use for planning trips and doing research when they get there is shifting from travel guidebooks to generative AI,” the firm said.
Asked how they plan to spend their summer holidays, 58.4% said they are going out, down by 6.3 percentage points from last year. The rate of those traveling in Japan was 57.6%, up by 1 percentage point, while the ratio of those traveling overseas halved from 13.5% last year to 6.4%.
Reflecting the recent weakening of the yen and inflation, many people are choosing closer destinations and cheaper hotels, the survey said.
More than 40% of the survey’s respondents said they don’t plan to travel during the summer holidays.
The average amount of money they said they would spend on leisure during summer vacation was ¥85,145 ($525), down 18.8% from the previous year. This is the first year-on-year decline since 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“People are less enthusiastic about going out because of the extreme heat and high prices,” said Kazutaka Maeda, senior economist at the firm.
The survey also asked people who have school-age children about the children’s use of generative AI, and 38.2% said they want their children to use generative AI when doing their homework for the summer holidays. The ratio exceeded those who don’t want their children to use AI, which totaled 26.4%.
Those who are for the use of AI said they believe the children’s inquisitive mind and explanation skills will be nurtured through creating questions to give to AI and getting answers, while those who are against it expressed concerns that copying answers given by AI could erode children’s thinking skills and hamper them from acquiring scholastic proficiency.