More holidaymakers are turning to AI when planning or booking their trips, according to travel association ABTA. The body found that 8% of travellers were using AI - up from 4% last year - with younger holidaymakers more likely to use the technology when planning their trips. However, AI still lagged a long way behind more established methods - such as general internet searches and asking family and friends. Overall, the number of people taking a holiday continued a recent trend of climbing back towards pre-pandemic levels, ABTA said. The travel body described the increase in customers using AI as both a challenge and an opportunity.

Tourists can now use an AI drone to follow them around and take pictures. Taking off from the palm of your hand, the HOVERAir X1 can record you from 50ft in the air or chase after you at 15mph. The lightweight device uses AI to keep focused on you and can be directed where to go with simple arm movements. It might not be for budget travellers however costing 419 for the basic package compared to around 10 for the humble selfie stick. The device was shown off at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which is known for unveiling the future tech trends about to hit the mainstream.

Access to AI and blockchain technologies has been democratised, but humans still lack full control of their digital interactions. This is now beginning to change. Technologies such as AI and blockchain are now becoming more commonplace across multiple industries – healthcare, finance, agriculture, construction and more. As a result, increasing numbers of people worldwide – even in economies still in the early stages of technological empowerment – are, knowingly or not, starting to come into contact with them on a near-daily basis. However, until recently, these technologies had been the domain of large companies in the tech, pharmaceutical or trading worlds, which meant that, on the whole, access to them for the everyday person was either minimal, or indirect.

With paperless boarding passes, biometric self-service security and in some places robots to assist customers as they make their way around terminals, it is clear to see that technology is impacting the way we travel. However, as well as changing journeys themselves, technology is having a significant impact on every part of the travel process. With the announcement earlier this month that travel agency Thomas Cook had gone into administration, it is clear that even established brands are in danger of collapse. Therefore, the need to keep up with customer demands for a frictionless booking process is of high importance in the industry. Technology is one way of achieving this.

Cheers! Raise a glass to the revolutionary new "Holiday Spirit" rum that puts the A and I into a Mai Tai. Virgin Holidays has unveiled the world's first "data-distilled" drink created by Artificial Intelligence – a bespoke booze they say is "infused with real emotions from holidaymakers around the world''. Sir Richard Branson's firm enlisted IBM's Watson, the world's most intelligent super-computer, to analyse the thoughts and feelings of more than 15 MILLION holidaymakers from their posts on various social media platforms. The predominant getaway emotions were then matched to more than 5,000 rum flavour descriptions and reviews to create a one-off rum recipe that was distilled at the Foursquare plant in Barbados . For example, Watson concluded happy equals vanilla, excited means sugar cane, curious can be matched with cinnamon and relaxed equals coconut. The project was overseen by UK rum guru Ian Burrell to ensure that a recipe derived from Artificial Intelligence was accurately distilled. Using his master blender skills, Ian carefully replicated the digital emotions expressed to create what Virgin Holidays hopes is a smooth, sweet and lightly spiced drink that captures the home of rum, the Caribbean. A Virgin Holidays spokesman said: ''We've long been known for creating the'perfect blend' when it comes to holidays, so we set ourselves the task of translating this into something tangible. Bottling the holiday spirit and creating a blend informed by joy, excitement, curiosity and confidence perfectly encapsulates the Virgin Holidays experience.'' Ian added: "The Virgin Holiday Spirit has a subtle vanilla flavour, medium sweetness, hints of coconut and is naturally caressed with cinnamon and allspice.

If you are among the players sick of pounding the pavements playing Pokemon Go – only to catch yet another Zubat – you may soon be able to outsource your gaming to a robot. An impressive machine dubbed'Baxter' has been caught on camera seemingly catching a Pokemon. While the video clip doesn't show the whole process, it does include the friendly-looking machine holding a phone showing the game, with its'hand' aloft and the capturing of a Spearow Pokemon. An impressive machine dubbed'Baxter' has been caught on camera seemingly catching a Pokemon (still shown above). While the video clip doesn't show the whole process, it does include the friendly-looking machine holding a phone showing the game, with its hand aloft and the capturing of a Spearow Pokemon Interestingly, hotel searches for Sokcho, Korea on the website are up by 95 per cent year-on-year between the 10th July and 19th July.