Tag: Tourism Research

Revolutionising Travel: ChatGPT and Generative AI Usher in New Era of Automation

There’s a new poster child for generative AI – ChatGPT – that is taking travel and the world by storm. With travel highly digitalised, where 66% of all bookings are conducted online in 2023, disruption from generative AI is already rife, writes Caroline Bremner, Senior Head of Travel Research, Euromonitor International.

Balancing privacy and personalisation

Consumers are comfortable with new technology such as voice assistance providing personalised product information. However, how much will they embrace AI that depends on sharing ever more private data to enable personalisation? According to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer: Digital Survey, there is resistance: 45.1% of consumers agreed that they are concerned about how much data companies hold on them in 2023, while 21.8% are not willing to share any personal information.

Generative AI goes mainstream

Released in November 2022 by OpenAI, the speed of adoption of ChatGPT4, a natural language model, has been record-breaking, reaching 100 million users within two months. This is leading to an accelerated phase of automation across operations, communications, marketing, promotion, sales, coding and sustainability.

Leap forward in personalisation

Expedia announced in April 2023 its collaboration with OpenAI, offering in-app trip planning powered by ChatGPT, as well as offering a plug-in to ChatGPT Plus users. The Expedia ChatGPT experience provides personalised recommendations and facilitates bookings, delivering relevant results for hotels, flights and activities.

Other travel brands like Kayak, TripAdvisor, GetYourGuide and Klook followed suit. Hotels and airlines are turning to generative AI for customer service, whilst automating menial tasks. More integration is expected for ChatGPT into the search and booking process. Generative AI is only at the beginning of its journey.

AI creates controversy

 However, the path of adoption will not run smooth as there are concerns over consumer privacy with countries like Italy temporarily banning ChatGPT. There are also concerns about the models being reliant on out-of-date knowledge. However, access to real-time data has been enabled for ChatGPT thanks to a new plug-in with Microsoft Bing.

The risks of amplifying misinformation, bias and inequality are major threats. Tech leaders like Elon Musk recently demanded a pause on AI development to avoid risks to humanity, stating that time was needed to enable governments to play catch-up.

Quality control will be required to ensure that there are no disconnects between trips crafted by AI, but not fulfilled to the necessary standard, leading to consumer dissatisfaction and personal risk.

AI unleashes new era of work

There are alarm bells for what an era of mass automation will usher in for the future of work. Travel agents faced mass disruption due to the rise of online travel three decades ago that led to mass store closures and job losses. Now, more travel agents face more disruption as generative AI accelerates automation across every stage of the customer journey. With Microsoft planning to integrate generative AI into its Microsoft 365 Copilot software, it will become ever more prevalent in consumers’ daily lives, work and travel.

 

Hosting a European colleague for a month: Alicia Orea-Giner’s eventful research stay at ENU

Alicia Orea-Giner – Associate Professor in Tourism at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid – has recently spent a month at Edinburgh Napier University after being invited by Dr Louise Todd. The two academics have related research topics that focus on Sustainable Tourism, Events and Technology. Alicia told us about her research and experiences at Edinburgh Napier University.

I believe that technology is not an isolated element or a tool that only facilitates processes but rather a part of the environment. In addition, that technology should be analysed from the perspective of technology itself, with its human connection and the way it creates, manages, and promotes relationships between human beings and between human beings and technology. I am currently working on analysing the stakeholders’ perceptions about events, among other topics, and decided to contact Edinburgh Napier University because of its research impact and the themes covered by the Tourism Research Centre.

During this research stay at Edinburgh Napier, I have participated in different activities and felt part of the staff. The first week I took part in the CHME conference. I had the opportunity to attend numerous presentations and meet researchers from different parts of the world at various stages of their careers. It was also an exciting experience as it was my first face-to-face conference since 2019.

The VM&E seminar took place in my second week at Edinburgh Napier. This symposium broadened my knowledge of visual and ethnographic methods with excellent keynotes and work presentations based on these methodologies. It was a highly fruitful meeting and discussion point.

In the third week, as well as continuing to work on a future project with Dr Louise Todd, David Jarman and I were fortunate enough to present at the tourism group’s research seminars. My presentation focused on qualitative methodologies, specifically, virtual ethnography and big qualitative Data.

Finally, the last week I ran a seminar and workshop entitled Young in Academia and Mental Health: Publishing, Lecturing and Surviving. This talk explored what it is like being a young woman in academia: doing a PhD, publishing papers in top journals, lecturing (many hours a year), obtaining an academic post after finishing a PhD, and surviving, all at the same time.

During the weekends, I walked the streets of Edinburgh, enjoying what it has to offer, and I also visited the Highlands and other areas of Scotland. Activities such as these are important when your career revolves around tourism.

I want to thank the whole team for welcoming me and having me as part of the team. Being part of Edinburgh Napier for a few weeks has been a pleasure. I hope to be back in the future!

It was a great pleasure for the TRC to host such a respectable academic, and we hope to see Alicia again soon too.

Alicia Orea-Giner has a PhD in Tourism from Universidad de Alicante, Universidad de Málaga, Universidad de Sevilla and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid; as well as a PhD in Geography from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

If you too are an academic and interested in a research stay at Edinburgh Napier University, please email a.leask@napier.ac.uk.