AI for Tourism: State of the Art
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70732/tijt.v34i1.52Keywords:
Artificial Intelligence, Generative Artificial Intelligence, Operational Management, Customer Satisfaction, Personalized TravelAbstract
Tourism is one of the most important sectors of the global economy, generating billions of euros in revenue and supporting millions of jobs. However, the tourism industry also faces many challenges, such as changing consumer preferences, environmental impacts and competitive pressures. In this paper, we explore how specialized and generative AI, a branch of artificial intelligence that can create novel content, such as text, images, or audio, can support hotels and other tourist accommodation companies in enhancing their products and services, improving their marketing and communication strategies and optimizing their operations and management. We review the existing literature on AI and its applications in tourism and propose potential use cases of generative AI for tourist companies. We also present some examples of generative AI tools that can be used for these purposes and discuss their benefits and limitations. Finally, we offer some conclusions and future implications for research and practice in this emerging field.
Theoretical implications of the present paper suggest that the incorporation of generative AI in the tourism sector can significantly advance the current understanding of AI applications in service industries. By leveraging machine learning techniques, such as deep neural networks and generative adversarial networks, the tourism industry can create novel content and optimize various operations. This study enriches existing literature by identifying new use cases for generative AI, thus providing a foundation for further academic inquiry. Practically, our findings reveal several actionable insights for tourism companies. Generative AI tools can be harnessed to personalize customer experiences, enhance marketing efforts, and streamline operational management.
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