AI impact on travel and tourism sustainability
Participants:
Reynolds Boateng (Host): Founder and CEO at Boateng Travel | Nazeh Abel (Guest speaker): Software engineer, Data scientist and AI expert at the Financial Times |Dr. Monica Chauchan (Guest speaker): Lecturer in Marketing & PhD in AI and Consumer Behaviour
Keep up to date by subscribing to this podcast
Participants:
Reynolds Boateng (Host): Founder and CEO at Boateng Travel | Nazeh Abel (Guest speaker): Software engineer, Data scientist and AI expert at the Financial Times |Dr. Monica Chauchan (Guest speaker): Lecturer in Marketing & PhD in AI and Consumer Behaviour
Podcast Takes
‘’AI has great potential to significantly affect the hospitality and tourism sectors by both enhancing operational efficiency and improving customer service, ultimately leading to higher profitability, (Buhalis, 2020; Samara et al., 2020 cited in Bulchand Gidumal, J. et al. (2023))’’
AI is a supportive tool to help both consumers and travel providers in decision making when it comes to sustainable travel. It’s useful for personalisation, optimization, and Automation. The following highlights few takes discussed in the podcast for different stakeholders within travel chain.
Travel providers podcast takes.
· Hotels can use AI to enhance reporting and tracking to reduce environmental impact. Thus, for example instead of using AI as a luxury guest welcoming tool in a hotel, apply AI in a more sustainable way by reducing food waste based on the number of people visiting your hotel.
· Building sustainable incentive and values are also something that tour operators can consider applying AI systems.
· To achieve efficiency in development, AI can help to make operational plans be swifter and faster.
· AI can be helpful in all Travel operations to achieve the best in sustainability. Thus, with AI travel operators can easily optimise, personalise, and automate their operations to achieve sustainable travel.
DMOs Podcast Take
· Over tourism in the travel and tourism industry is a big issue for destinations. With AI DMOs can analyse real time visiting partners.
· With AI DMOs can also manage resources within destinations also use it find environmental solutions
Podcast takes for Traveller’s.
· Want to personalise your travel with good travel footprint recommendations, with AI this is possible. For example, with AI you can now check for lower emission or environmentally friendly airlines for your journey before purchasing an airline ticket.
· Using chat box and or virtual reality can also be AI assistant tools that help travellers to save time. For example, with virtual reality you can check destinations you might be interested to visit.
· With AI you can also plan and book your travel faster and more efficient way
· Wants to travel sustainable by using environmentally friendly airlines, with AI this is possible to determine which airlines are greener.
How trustworthy can AI be?
AI trustworthiness is a major concern as many research articles emphasize on its effects and factors. This is because it includes human oversight, data quality and governance, cybersecurity, transparency, robustness, accuracy, and record keeping and logging. Polemi N, Praça I, Kioskli K and Be ́cue A (2024) highlighted, addressing the different hazards related to human elements is necessary to ensure the reliability of AI system. Both explicit and implicit human biases have the potential to unintentionally affect AI algorithms, producing biased results in decision-making processes. Here is what you can take from this podcast based on AI speculations, trustworthiness, and transparency.
Developers or organisation’s role to ensure AI trust worthiness – Podcast Take
‘’AI is not GOD, because it does not have a mind of its own but rather reflect the mind of its creator’’ – Nazeh Abel
On the design phase of an AI system, it must adopt trustworthy data. Thus, through data quality, data privacy, transparency and explainable data based on societal standards for example, users can easily build their trust with AI systems to avoid its risks and negative impact on society.
Organisations or a developers must follow government AI acts order to build good societal AI systems. NOTE: AI always reflects the mind of the creator, but if good stewardship principles are not taking into accounts, the creator will risk his ownership of the AI product.
Fully automated organisations must also consider a hybrid system to achieve the best in their customer services. This will help customers who are not getting answers from AI or not comfortable dealing directly with AI get help or an assistance from customer representative agent in person.
AI user’s speculations – Podcast Take
Speculation examples:
· AI will take over our work.
· AI will destroy humanity.
· AI is dangerous to my human intellectual capacity advancement. Etc.
Answers on AI speculation
The basic idea behind AI is not to replace humans but it’s to empower humans to be more efficient. For example, with AI you will focus on been a human and allow AI handle some of nonhuman tasks we have. Assuming you have a family dinner at the dining table, and you are happily enjoying your social life with your family but forgot to schedule your doctor’s appointment, here is what you can do with the AI on your phone: ‘’Hi (AI name) can you schedule a doctor appointment for me on Thursday at 10:00 am’’? What have you done in this manner; you have killed two birds with one stone. Because you are still enjoying your family time but also have been able to schedule your doctor appointment without interrupting your family time.
AI is open to anything as its built on different data, but the way you use AI as a user will also determine whether AI is good or bad to you. It’s not about the AI itself but it’s all about how we use AI.
As user of AI, it’s also important to carry out several applicable standards before using AI. Asking questions, researching about how the AI you are using is built can also help you protect your digital prints (your data).
Avoid sharing your data to anyone or UNKNOWN platforms because that is your right.
Polemi N, Praça I, Kioskli K and Be ́cue A (2024) Challenges and efforts in managing AI trustworthiness risks: a state of knowledge. Front. Big Data 7:1381163. doi: 10.3389/fdata.2024.1381163
Bulchand-Gidumal, J. et al. (2023) ‘Artificial intelligence’s impact on hospitality and tourism marketing: exploring key themes and addressing challenges’, Current Issues in Tourism, 27(14), pp. 2345–2362. doi: 10.1080/13683500.2023.2229480.
Participants: Reynolds Boateng (Host): Founder and CEO at Boateng Travel and Dr. Crispin Dale (Guest speaker): Senior lecturer for Travel...
Keep up to date by subscribing to this podcast
Participants:
Reynolds Boateng (Host): Founder and CEO at Boateng Travel and
Dr. Crispin Dale (Guest speaker): Senior lecturer for Travel and Tourism at University of Wolverhampton
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