How does AI innovate tourism management?

The world has changed dramatically over the past five years, and with it, our habits, the way we interact, and the way we access information. These changes have been intensified by the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) into our daily lives, impacting every sector.

The travel industry has not been left out of this technological revolution. Smokeless industries are being transformed by new technologies that are changing the landscape for both tourists and travel agents.

The Center for Research, Innovation and Digital Transformation of Tourism (CIINTUR) analyzed these changes in its study “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Adventure Tourism in Coroico, Bolivia,” identifying six touchpoints that show how tourism demand will change over the next six years.

“The emergence of technologies such as artificial intelligence will change the behavior of potential consumers. The perception or recognition of the need for adventure travel will change fundamentally. On the one hand, this is because adventure tourism travelers tend to be younger than other groups and, therefore, these young people are more willing to use disruptive technologies such as generative AI.” Regarding the first touchpoint, Franz Tamayo University Unifranz’s career in Hospitality and Tourism Management.

This means, the expert said, that in the coming years, the way to motivate potential consumers to travel will be through virtual assistants, augmented or virtual reality experiences, AI-powered social networks, and in a few years, through the Metaverse.

For travel operators, the use of machine learning becomes essential at this time, especially in generating content on different social networks and platforms aimed at motivating travel. Tools such as Hootsuite, ActiveCampaign, Canva Pro and Mailchimp will allow providers to plan and schedule marketing campaigns in an automated way.

However, Poma warns that events will increasingly need to be more personal.

“We no longer have the ability to run multi-faceted campaigns. Therefore, the use of big data will allow you to personalise marketing campaigns, determine your market positioning and personalise multi-channel interactions,” he added.

At the second touchpoint, virtual assistants will play a greater role in finding alternative solutions to meet consumer needs.

Planners like Roam around, Trip Planner, Curiosio or Destinations.ai will become channels for searching for travel information. This situation shows that while SEO’s positioning in search engines was crucial before, now positioning in artificial intelligence will also become important.

“To enter the field of artificial intelligence, you must continue to have good SEO positioning of business websites, increase the frequency of interaction with online travel agencies (OTAs) and greater vitality in social networks.

“On the consumer side, expect the metaverse to also become a communication channel in the coming years, although its development will still be slow, as we have seen in the previous points.”

Virtual assistants on social networks will be a key point when comparing alternatives.In the third touchpoint, the development of commercial virtual assistants (or personalized GPTs) will be constructed as a tool to establish effective communication between providers and different adventure tourism alternatives.

Upcoming technologies such as Taboola, Outbrain, GPT, Intercom, Drift, etc. will allow us to respond to potential customers’ doubts and concerns immediately and continuously 24/7. Therefore, providing information to generative AI used by travel planners becomes a primary function for travel providers.

“It will require a huge effort to collect information about the services offered, experiences, previous customer reviews, identifying common issues and destination-related questions, which must be powered by personalized GPT or generative AI. At this stage, digital information becomes key in the adventure consumer journey,” explains Poma.

For the fourth point of contact related to booking, customer relationship management (CRM) technology is essential for real-time, automated processing of information.

“This information can later be used to provide personalized customer service. In the face of potential inconveniences, companies can use apps to process international payments, capture customer data and increase confidence in returns,” the study said.

Poma noted that there are two main scenarios that must be identified when consuming this experience.

First, consumers will be equipped with AI applications that make their travel easier, such as digital guides with geolocation, language translation, financial applications for payments, which can be used on their mobile phones.

“So, without realizing it, you are demanding that the companies that provide the services stay up to date on the use of these technologies because if they are not updated, there will be a feeling of dissatisfaction with the service,” he noted.

The second scenario is presented by the interaction between the customer and the provider, and it is based on the processing and attention of the activities performed, where the main expectation is to produce an experience with personal contact and naturalness. If the experience at this point exceeds the initial expectations, this may lead to a lack of use of AI technology by the company.

“That is, a highly satisfying experience trumps a bidder’s lack of AI use. However, this situation does not prevent providers from using AI to improve the customer experience, such as by using big data to generate personalized experiences and create unexpected moments that exceed customers’ initial expectations,” the researchers noted.