Booking.com, one of the world’s leading digital travel platforms, has announced its AI Trip Planner (Beta) is now available for travellers in Australia and New Zealand.

Both countries are the first markets in Asia Pacific to launch, with the AI Trip Planner only available for US and UK travellers in the company’s app since June last year (2023).

Built upon the foundation of Booking.com’s existing machine learning models that recommend destination, accommodation and attractions to millions of travellers on the platform every day, the AI Trip Planner is also partially powered by large language model (LLM) technology from OpenAI’s ChatGPT API to create a new conversational experience for people to start their trip planning process.

Travellers can ask the AI Trip Planner general travel-related questions, as well as more specific queries to support any stage of their trip planning, including scoping out potential destinations and accommodation options, providing travel inspiration based on the individual’s needs and requirements, as well as creating itineraries for a particular city, country or region.

In a recent study conducted by Booking.com*, nearly a third of Millennials (29%) and Gen Z (30%) consumers said they are likely to use AI when planning travel in 2024, compared to Gen X (18%) and just 7% of all Boomers. Over one quarter (26%) of Kiwi travellers said they are likely to use AI to plan travel when booking holiday homes, the highest for any type of accommodation booked. Almost a third of Kiwi travellers (28%) are likely to use AI to plan international travel in 2024, in comparison slightly less are likely to use it for domestic travel (21%).

Travellers can easily chat with the AI Trip Planner to ask questions and refine their search in real time, with new options surfaced in a matter of seconds. From inspiration on romantic beach destination options in Tropical North Queensland to zeroing in on a curated list of holiday homes for a family of four in Byron Bay, or even asking about the best attractions in New Zealand for a winter holiday, the AI Trip Planner makes recommendations in a quick, effortless and conversational way.

The AI Trip Planner takes the trip planning process one step further by providing travellers with a visual list of destinations and properties, including Booking.com’s pricing, with links to view more details. Travellers can go back and forth between their chat with the AI Trip Planner and the Booking.com app as they consider options for their trip. With just a tap on what type of booking they require, from accommodation to attractions they can complete the reservation in-app.

“Our primary aim at Booking.com has always been to leverage technology to make travel easier.” said Todd Lacey, Regional Manager of Booking.com in Oceania. “Developments with generative AI are accelerating the work we’ve been doing for years with machine learning to enhance and improve every aspect of the customer experience on our platform, whether it’s optimising the right order to display hotel or holiday home content to surfacing the most relevant reviews or attractions. Our AI Trip Planner is another step in our ongoing journey to explore how we bring even more value, and hopefully enjoyment, to travellers from Australia and New Zealand.”

“Over the past year, our AI Trip Planner has provided us with new possibilities to help customers plan and search for travel options in a very natural, human way, and we’re excited to now launch in Australia and New Zealand,” said Rob Francis, CTO of Booking.com. “With generative AI, we’re able to start having scalable, one-to-one conversations with our customers on their terms, much like how you would begin to talk about planning a trip with your partner or friends. It’s just the beginning, but we have lots of runway here to explore in order to innovate and connect the travel experience further on Booking.com, all in a safe, ethical and inclusive way.”

Travellers in Australia and New Zealand must be signed in to their Booking.com account in the app and have their language settings set to English to access the new travel planning tool.

The post Booking.com Launches AI Trip Planner appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

This year’s (2024) Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra not only has built-in AI unlike anyother smartphone, ever, it is also the best travel companion you can own.

On a trip to Kenya, East Africa I left with a Galaxy S24 Ultra in my pocket, thanks to Samsung NZ.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra has some killer camera specs. I wont go over in detail, as we reviewed the phone a few months back, but to summarise you’ve got 200 MP wide as your main lens, a 10 MP telephoto, 50MP periscope telephoto), and 12 MP and super steady video recording up to 8K with the rear camera array.

Not too mention x100 zoom.

So I knew that I was set for a professional quality series of snaps as I travel about.

But also, I wondered how the Galaxy S24 Ultra would endure between charges. The smartphone has a 5000mAh battery and when I reviewed the device I was able to get one to two days without needing a charge. But the adventure I was about to set off on I knew there would be moments where I may have to go a few days without charging.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and me headed out in to the heart of Kenya, where the wildlife roam and own the lands… and you are prey.

From the base of Mount Kenya to the reserves, the journeys were long but well worth it.

From close-up snaps to using the x100 zoom the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra performed and really showed why this device is the king of all mobile photography.

The sheer performance never let me down and surprisingly, given that I was I snap-happy tourist, neither did the battery with me squeezing two days from a single full charge (yep I did take a battery pack everywhere incase, but only needed to use it once).

Catching extreme detail in non-zoom photo’s, the ones where I had to use the zoom function still turned out, even to my surprise, fully rich with striking vividness.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra honestly blew away my expectations on all fronts, especially the camera and while there were other tourists taking pics with giant digital cameras and some seriously looking professional large lenses, I was there with a professional grade camera that I could put in my pocket.

Another feature of the Galaxy S24 Ultra is the live translation.

Being in a country where English is not the first language, and being remote most of the time where English is not spoken at all, using the translation function from Swahili to English and vice versa helped. It wasn’t perfect to be honest, but a very helpful tool to have on hand. I managed to get by without embarrassing myself.

Whether you’re about to set off on a wild adventure, or just looking for a smartphone that to use back at home that is going to give you the highest quality pictures to the likes of a professional studio, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is definitely the smartphone to have.

It will keep up with you, whether you’re traveling internationally, locally… or somewhere as far off as East Africa, it’s the perfect all-rounder and most definitely ensures that your holiday memories are captured as they happened, as you remember them in crystal clarity and utmost detail.

No phone right now has the camera chops that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has.

The post East Africa w. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Shout out to all the travel junkies and adventure seekers: Discovery wants you to see the world. The search is on for the next Discovery Intern; a lucky blogger who’ll score the ultimate internship and a once-in-a-lifetime overseas adventure. Plus, the winner will be able to take a buddy along for the ride!

Are you consumed by wanderlust but don’t necessarily have the cash to fund your nomadic lifestyle? Consider yourself a bit of a hot content maker? Well, you could be the next Discovery Intern! We’re looking for someone who’s adventurous, creative, loves to travel, and is armed with the skills to tell the story of a place through images, words and videos.

The Discovery Intern will head off on a global adventure, hitting five countries to tour awesome destinations and blog about the trip on Discovery Channel’s social platforms and blog, Heaps Of Stuff.  Their overseas jaunt will take in Japan, the USA, Germany, South Africa and Croatia, plus the winner will also visit some of Discovery’s overseas headquarters and this time around, take a mate and Discovery will foot the bill!

If you think you have what it takes to be the next Discovery Intern, then show us (along with the rest of New Zealand) why you’re the best person for the job HERE. Entries are open NOW.

To enter, upload a 30-60 second video to YouTube or Vimeo that shows us why you should be jetting around the globe as the Discovery Intern – get as creative as you like! Along with your video, submit a photo from an adventure you’ve had (at home or abroad) with an accompanying caption on what made it memorable. You have until Sunday 17th of December 2017. Discovery will then choose 100 finalists who will be up for a public vote to determine who moves to the next round.

Earlier this year, 26-year-old, Ben Mikha from Auckland beat ten thousand entrants to take out the inaugural search. As the Discovery Intern, he travelled to Singapore, New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, London, Iceland and Italy. But his journey with us didn’t end there; he’s a highly creative photographer and videographer is still a contributor for Discovery.

When it comes to uncovering stories about the unique and diverse world we live in, Discovery is a trailblazer. At its core, the company is dedicated to satisfying curiosity and our Discovery Intern will put this into action. Discovery is the world’s number one pay-TV programmer reaching nearly 3 billion cumulative subscribers in more than 220 countries and territories. Home to world class storytellers, the company is dedicated to satisfying curiosity, and we’re giving you the chance to join our team.

Full T&Cs are on the website. What are you waiting for? Get involved and you just might find yourself on the adventure of a lifetime!

The post SCORE THE ULTIMATE INTERNSHIP! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.