01/06/2024 – 18:28
The use of artificial intelligence in tourism is here to stay. AI opens up completely new possibilities for travelers, especially when it comes to trip planning.”I want to ride my bike tomorrow and depart from a certain location. The tour should last a maximum of three hours and offer children the opportunity to play along the way. Afterwards, I want to eat ice cream.” Simple tips, like finding an ice cream shop on an unfamiliar route, if not passed on by someone you know, a tourist information center or a classic travel guide, are still difficult to find on the internet. “Google’s information is often incomplete or out of date. For example, sometimes you can’t tell if the ice cream shop is open,” explains Michael Prange, professor of data science at the University of Kiel.
Smart travel guide in your pocket
Prange is convinced that artificial intelligence will make travel planning increasingly easier. Because in the future, everyone will be able to carry their smart travel guide in their pocket, in the form of, for example, an app on their cell phone. However, the proper functioning of these intelligent systems will largely depend on the information they can access. “Data is the foundation,” says Prange.
The German Tourism Center (DZT), which sells Germany as a tourist destination, is striving to create a standardized database for tourism in the country. “Global travel and ticket sales platforms are already using AI to find suitable tourism offers for their customers and display them in a targeted way,” says Petra Hedorfer, CEO of DZT. However, these offers can only be found if the data is processed properly.
AI in all areas
Tobias Blask, professor at the Harz University of Applied Sciences, also emphasizes the great importance of the database for AI applications. “This is still a completely underdeveloped field,” he says. Tourism activity agencies and destinations that want to get noticed need to think about how they can make their data available and optimize. “Everything is developing very quickly at the moment. AI will influence everything in our society.”
For tourists, this has an impact on travel planning. Blask envisions a sort of “travel companion for life” who makes suggestions based on past decisions and interactions. “If I plan a trip and I can count on an AI that understands me and has been trained to do this, then why do I still need a travel agent?” In the future, business travelers will also be able to benefit from AI applications that take care of everything from planning to rescheduling appointments and booking if something goes wrong. “Suppose I miss the train,” says Blask: “It would be much better if an app took care of finding a new connection and proactively informed me.”
Chatbots are already standard in customer service
AI applications in tourism are by no means new. Hotel chains, booking platforms and airlines, for example, have been relying on machine learning systems for price determination for some time. Chatbots have already taken over the first steps of customer service as standard in many tourism companies before a human gets involved – if they even get involved at all, as the chatbot usually resolves the issue. This is also the case at DZT, where “self-learning chatbots answer customer questions 24 hours a day and thus free employees from routine tasks. “We are currently working on a pilot project to introduce virtual influencers – artificially created figures that are intended to function as advertising media. With the help of AI applications, they can act as ambassadors to build bridges between potential travelers to Germany and offer real travel experiences,” reports DTZ.
“AI is already involved in destination management in many places around the world,” explains Eric Horster, professor of International Tourism at West Coast University and member of the German Institute for Tourism Research. In the Bay of Lübeck on the Baltic Sea, for example, there are signs along the beach designed to control the number of visitors and prevent a certain area of the shore from becoming overcrowded. The number of people is checked by sensors, which record the number of visitors to the beach. Weather and day of the week are also taken into account and analyzed using algorithms to predict future usage. This is not only an advantage for swimmers, but also for destinations and their businesses, which receive important information about tourist behavior.
Surprises are part of the holidays
However, Horster still doubts that the pocket-sized “smart vacation guide” will actually change the way we travel. “I’m not sure that’s what tourists really want.” After all, tourism also thrives by providing contact between people. That’s why the good old tourist information center is still in operation. Surprises, the unexpected, the authentic are also part of the holidays. “Is this the future of travel, knowing everything in advance and having everything planned? It’s part of the experience to go out on your bike and look for an open ice cream shop.”
#vacation #chatbot