The Travel Tech Paradox: Why Some Tourists Are Ditching AI for Dumbphones

A group of anthropologists hiking Peru’s Inca Trail recently entertained themselves by swapping local legends—or so they thought. Their guide, Miguel Angel Gongora Meza, was baffled. The stories, which he’d never heard in three decades of leading treks, turned out to be AI fabrications. “I asked where they got them,” says Meza, founder of Evolution Treks Peru. “They said, ‘AI!’ No wonder they sounded so fabulous; they’re not true.” His experience is becoming common as chatbots feed travelers made-up facts, fake landmarks, and even entire nonexistent destinations like the “Sacred Canyon of Humantay.”

In response, a quiet rebellion is brewing. While Google Maps now embeds Gemini AI to suggest detours and Apple’s upcoming iOS 27 will let your camera “see” and translate signs, a growing number of travelers are choosing the opposite path. They’re buying minimalist “digital detox” phones like the Light Phone III or the retro Commodore flip—devices that block Instagram but allow Uber and Spotify. Compact cameras like the Fujifilm X100VI are selling out, and e-readers with monochrome screens are making a comeback. Kaiwei Tang, co-founder of Light, compares the shift to society’s changing attitude toward smoking: “We’re so out of balance with smartphones and AI goggles. People are pushing back.”

Meza isn’t anti-tech—he recommends hiking apps with offline maps. But he argues the real struggle is helping tourists disconnect from their screens and reconnect with the world around them. “The challenge isn’t just correcting AI misinformation,” he says. “It’s getting people to look up from their phones at the mountains and forests. That connection is something we need more than ever.”