AI is transforming the tourist experience, and how the industry delivers it.

When was the last time you went on a trip? From searching for a destination and picking a hotel to enjoying a scenic spot and sharing travel photos, did you know that artificial intelligence (AI) was in place to work for your convenience and fulfillment?

The tourism and hospitality industry is undergoing a digital transformation with the integration of AI, leading to increased automation, personalisation, and smart recommendations for tourists. Behind the scenes, industry professionals are using AI for tourism demand and sentiment analysis with a view to providing an enhanced customer experience.

Calling for new theories and methods

According to Professor Song Haiyan, Director of the Research Centre for Digital Transformation of Tourism (RCDTT), the decision-making process for tourists is now heavily influenced by web search information, reviews, ratings, travel blogs, photos, and interaction in Internet communities.

“New interdisciplinary theories are needed to understand how these factors affect tourism demand,” Professor Song said. “For example, the emotional contagion theory borrowed from psychology can to a certain extent help researchers understand how the sentiments brewing in online discussion forums affect demand.”

New methods have also been employed to forecast tourism demand. A comprehensive review of forecasting methodologies and their evolution conducted by Professor Song in 2019 found that AI techniques have been widely used over the past 20 years in tourism demand forecasting.

“More and more AI models which have significant advantages in processing large-scale data, such as convolutional neural networks and long short-term memory networks, are being applied to tourism demand forecasting with excellent results,” Professor Song added.

Enhancing customer experience

AI is also shaping customer experience in the travel industry – from facial recognition for check-ins to travel assistants for personalised travel planning to robots for concierge services.

Recently, RCDTT established under the leadership of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) signed a memorandum of intent for cooperation with Yunji Technology, a major hotel robots provider. Both parties will collaborate on the research of SHTM’s important project “Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Technology to Improve Business Operation Efficiency and Consumer Experience”, which promotes the use of service robotics in the hospitality and tourism industry in Hong Kong.

Yunji owns more than 400 invention patents in the fields of robot movement and IoT control. Both parties will give full play to their academic, technical research, and industrial application advantages in the field of AI+robots.

Trust in AI

AI’s prevalence in the industry impacts AI-employee collaboration, creating value for businesses and customers. A recent study by Professor Kaye Chon, Dean and Chair Professor of SHTM, highlights AI’s positive role in employees’ autonomy and work outcomes. The findings offer suggestions for hotel practitioners to help potential employees experience the benefits of human-AI interaction in the workplace.

While AI has many opportunities to offer, Professor Song emphasises the importance of retaining the humancentric nature of tourism. “In a heavily automated environment powered by AI, we must not lose sight of the essence of hospitality, the human touch,” he remarked.

Professor Song Haiyan

• Mr and Mrs Chan Chak Fu Professor in International Tourism

• Associate Dean and Chair Professor, School of Hotel and Tourism Management

• Director of the Research Centre for Digital Transformation of Tourism