We’re in a fast-paced world today, especially in terms of the evolution of technology. With innovations such as virtual reality, blockchain, cloud computing, and many other developments, technology is changing the world and how businesses are run. Artificial intelligence is one of those developments that have become pronounced in recent years, particularly in the travel industry. With Chatbot automation and more recently robot hospitality, the travel industry is evolving. This begs the question – What are Five Ways in which Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Travel Industry?
With years of experience in the travel industry, I have experienced firsthand, the influence of Artificial Intelligence in business processes at travel agencies I have worked with. This is why I guarantee you that at the end of this blog post, you will have a comprehensive understanding of how AI is changing the travel industry.
Are you set to learn all about the influence of AI in the travel industry? Let’s get into it.
What are Five Ways in which Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Travel Industry?
1. Improved Customer Service
Artificial Intelligence has made the customer service department more efficient and prompt in operation. With AI-powered chatbots, hotels and other tourism businesses are now capable of offering 24/7 support to customers. Customers and leads often prefer that inquiries are responded to promptly, especially in emergencies. This is now made possible by Artificial Intelligence.
AI can handle different types of inquiries including social media messages to inquiries about itinerary modifications, providing accurate information to customers promptly. The integration of Artificial Intelligence in the travel industry has significantly enhanced the customer service department’s response time and service quality.
2. Robot Hospitality
Who would have thought that a robot would be the one to assist with my inquiries in hotels or travel companies? Well, ask Connie – a concierge robot at Hilton hotels, that makes use of Artificial Intelligence and speech recognition to provide answers to tourism-related questions. Connie is also able to learn and gather information with each interaction with an inquirer, enabling it to gradually improve communication with each human dialogue.
3. Personalized Recommendations
Artificial Intelligence can leverage user data and behaviour to provide personalized recommendations to prospective travelers. Most individuals would rather plan their trips themselves rather than consulting with a travel agent. The only downside of that would have been the time that would go into planning those trips, however, thanks to Artificial Intelligence, you can log right on to platforms like UtripPRO can help you plan that tour and explore different destinations making travel planning seamless and personalized.
With the integration of AI into travel, individuals are capable of planning memorable trips in an efficient and timely manner, not compromising their preferences to the discretion of a travel agent.
4. AI Face Recognition
Imagine you went to the airport and you didn’t have to be in a queue for your documents to be checked. All you have to do is simply look at a screen and your face is cross-checked with information in the database. Well, that’s the world we live in now and this is the reality at Dubai International Airport as travelers are no longer required to show passports and boarding passes. AI face recognition takes care of everything.
This significantly expedites processes at the airport, cutting down waiting time and giving travelers a great experience. This development also enhances security as humans are prone to errors thus, increasing the efficiency and accuracy of airport security systems.
5. Data Processing and Analysis
Data is important for many reasons in travel business such as crafting effective business strategies, understanding the needs of customers, and personalizing marketing techniques, among others. Humans rarely ever achieve 100% accuracy when analyzing large amounts of data. With the integration of Artificial Intelligence in the travel industry, AI algorithms can handle large amounts of data promptly and with less tendency for error.
Disadvantages of AI in Tourism
So far, I have spoken of AI like it has only good sides however, AI also has downsides which include:
- Loss of human touch in customer service: No matter how good an AI is, there are situations where it just wouldn’t act like a human when a human is needed
- AI automation may lead to the loss of jobs for tourism workers.
- Cost of Implementation: AI is quite expensive to implement so as a startup, it may not be a feasible option
- Data Quality: AI algorithms need a lot of data to train them to respond accurately to customer inquiries. Tour businesses may have issues gathering accurate data resulting in inconsistencies.
- Technical errors: AI may be perfect most of the time but they may experience technical glitches leading to poor service delivery.
Artificial Intelligence Tools for Smart Tourism Development
This refers to tools that are employed to aid the processes of tourism business. Here are some Artificial Intelligence tools for Smart Tourism Development, some of which were discussed earlier in this blog:
- Chatbots and virtual assistance
- Face recognition technology
- Predictive analytics algorithm
- Robotics and Automation technology
- Recommendation Engines
These are some AI tools being used to aid smart tourism.
To sum it all up, Artificial Intelligence is not just changing the travel industry, its transforming it. From their use of chatbots to quickly respond to inquiries to AI Face recognition technologies, AI is here to stay and it can only get better. As always, I encourage you to leave your thoughts regarding this topic or any questions you may have in the comments section, and I will respond to them.
