How are emerging technologies transforming the travel & tourism industry?

How are emer­ging tech­no­lo­gies trans­form­ing the travel & tour­ism industry?

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites question.

Your cor­res­pond­ent put the ques­tion to the travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers in the “GT” net­work, invit­ing responses of no more than 300 words. (You too can join the “GT” net­work. Register.)

Thanks to the four respond­ents — pro­fess­ors, pro­fes­sion­als, prac­ti­tion­ers — who took the time to share their thoughts on the ques­tion. Their answers appear in the order received.

And thanks to Frédéric Dimanche and Kel­ley McClinchey for their “GT” Insight BiteX.

(Click/touch an item on the Bites menu to go straight to it.)

Social media influencers are replacing travel agents

Greg Richards, Professor, Breda University of Applied Sciences; Professor, Tilburg University, Netherlands

Some of the biggest changes in the travel & tour­ism industry are com­ing not from advances in hard­ware, but in soft­ware; par­tic­u­larly social media. 

Social media plat­forms such as Tik­Tok and Ins­tagram are influ­en­cing travel trends, repla­cing travel agents and tour operators. 

The abil­ity of Tik­Tok to high­light urb­an hot­spots has cre­ated ’Tik­Tok queues’ in cit­ies such as Ams­ter­dam, cre­at­ing a need for pro­fes­sion­al queue managers. 

Dif­fer­ent plat­forms can be used to tar­get spe­cif­ic groups. Holidu’s Gen­er­a­tion­al Travel Index meas­ures the pop­ular­ity of cit­ies using Ins­tagram hasht­ags for Mil­len­ni­als, and Tik­Tok hasht­ag views for Gen Z.

Research on the youth travel mar­ket has shown a con­sist­ent rise in the role of social media over the past 20 years. For those under 30, social media is now often the first stop in travel searches and an increas­ingly import­ant influ­ence on des­tin­a­tion choice. 

These tech­no­lo­gies are provid­ing oppor­tun­it­ies to ‘cur­ate’ tour­ism exper­i­ences, with con­sumer choice increas­ingly being driv­en by algorithmic cur­a­tion and Tri­pAd­visor rank­ings. 

Along­side the growth in algorithmic cur­a­tion, influ­en­cers are becom­ing travel cur­at­ors, tak­ing over the role of the travel agent. 

For example, social media influ­en­cer Mohsin Amdaouech has set up the ‘travel exper­i­ence and com­munity’ #niet­naden­kenge­woon­doen (Dutch for “don’t think, just do it”) to provide adven­tures for like-minded people. Par­ti­cipants often come from eth­nic minor­ity groups who might be hes­it­ant to join a tra­di­tion­al tour group. 

New tech­no­lo­gies can also attract new markets! 

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The optimal balance between tech and the human touch

Mahiru Fernando, General Manager, Khiri Travel Sri Lanka

As we enter the era of Big Data and Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence (AI) among oth­er tech­no­lo­gic­al advance­ments, the travel & tour­ism industry is no excep­tion in terms of the need to adapt. 

In almost every aspect of the industry we can already see rap­id tech-powered trans­form­a­tions: From AI chat­bots and vir­tu­al assist­ants to ser­vice robots and smart hotel rooms; book­ing plat­forms to digit­al wal­lets and block­chain pay­ment plat­forms; vir­tu­al real­ity (VR) tours to aug­men­ted real­ity (AR) tours; ana­lyt­ic­al tools that pre­dict trends to AI-assisted mar­ket­ing and man­age­ment tools.

Hav­ing had the priv­ilege of being born in the early 1990s, I spent my child­hood play­ing crick­et out­doors and play­ing elec­tron­ic games indoors; wit­ness­ing the evol­u­tion from basic cart­ridge games to the Play­Sta­tion. I believe I enjoyed an optim­al bal­ance of form­at­ive experiences. 

Like­wise, even with the pen­du­lum swinging more rap­idly towards tech­no­logy, I believe the optim­um level for travel & tour­ism is some­where in the middle, bal­an­cing the effi­ciency of tech­no­logy with the human touch. 

A start­ing point for this is to remem­ber that tech­no­logy is here to enhance human capa­city, not to replace it. With this in mind, we can and should cer­tainly use tech­no­logy for routine tasks while entirely focus­ing our human touch on more import­ant aspects of the busi­ness; those that require an authen­t­ic emo­tion­al intel­li­gence over the arti­fi­cial variety. 

Our industry is filled with cus­tom­er ser­vice touch­points which require empathy and human intel­li­gence. If we can save our human efforts for those tasks, while using tech­no­logy for the more straight-for­ward pro­cesses, I believe the optim­um bal­ance lies some­where there.

[Khiri Travel is a val­ued “GT” Partner.]

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Bhutan’s digital identity technology to transform tourism

Dorji Dhradhul, author and creativist, Bhutan (former Director General, Bhutan Tourism)

I’m excited to share that Bhutan became the first coun­try (at the nation­al level) to imple­ment a digit­al iden­tity sys­tem in Octo­ber 2023. I like to believe that the Nation­al Digit­al Iden­tity (NDI) has the poten­tial to trans­form the travel & tour­ism industry significantly. 

Ima­gine arriv­ing in Bhutan and exper­i­en­cing a sim­pli­fied bor­der con­trol pro­cess. Tour­ists could pre-register and veri­fy their iden­tit­ies online, stream­lin­ing visa pro­cessing and cus­toms checks. Upon arrival, bio­met­ric veri­fic­a­tion, such as facial recog­ni­tion, would exped­ite entry and exit, ensur­ing a smooth trans­ition through the borders.

The NDI sys­tem could also enhance secur­ity and safety. A cent­ral­ised data­base of tour­ist iden­tit­ies would allow author­it­ies to man­age emer­gen­cies more effect­ively. In cases of nat­ur­al dis­asters or health crises, the sys­tem could provide imme­di­ate access to accur­ate trav­el­ler inform­a­tion, facil­it­at­ing swift and coordin­ated responses.

Tour­ists’ exper­i­ences could become highly per­son­al­ised. The sys­tem might offer tailored recom­mend­a­tions for activ­it­ies, din­ing, and accom­mod­a­tions based on indi­vidu­al pref­er­ences. With seam­less integ­ra­tion with loc­al ser­vice pro­viders, tour­ists could enjoy real-time updates and easy bookings.

Access to ser­vices could be stream­lined. Tour­ists might use their digit­al IDs for hassle-free hotel check-ins, vehicle rent­als, and pub­lic trans­port. NDI would reduce the need for mul­tiple tick­ets and sim­pli­fy trans­ac­tions across vari­ous attrac­tions and services.

Addi­tion­ally, integ­rat­ing tour­ist data into NDI could offer Bhutan valu­able insights into travel pat­terns to sup­port bet­ter plan­ning and man­age­ment of tour­ism resources, pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able prac­tices, and pre­serving the country’s cul­tur­al and nat­ur­al heritage.

In sum­mary, the imple­ment­a­tion of a Nation­al Digit­al Iden­tity ser­vice in Bhutan could enhance travel effi­ciency, per­son­al­isa­tion, and safety while sup­port­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism. This for­ward-think­ing approach would blend Bhutan’s rich cul­tur­al her­it­age with cut­ting-edge tech­no­logy, set­ting a new stand­ard for glob­al travel.

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For sustainability’s sake, tech must come with a change of mindset

Samut Bunnag, Junior Marketing Manager, LightBlue Consulting, Thailand

In the travel & tour­ism industry, emer­ging tech­no­lo­gies, led by arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI), are start­ing to play a pivotal role. 

Tech­no­logy optim­ises everything from book­ing engines to cus­tom­ised travel exper­i­ences, enabling com­pan­ies to pre­dict and adapt to trav­el­ler pref­er­ences and optim­ise their oper­a­tions with precision.

Tech­no­logy can also be applied to food pro­duc­tion and redu­cing food waste. How­ever, as we har­ness these tech­no­lo­gies, it is cru­cial to remem­ber that: “Tech­no­logy itself is not a mir­acle. It has to come with a change of mind­set”. Ben­jamin Lephilibert, CEO of Light­Blue Con­sult­ing, often says this.

This is cru­cial because tech­no­logy alone can­’t make the sus­tain­able changes we need. It’s the human ele­ment — the change in mind­set — that makes these solu­tions stick and mul­ti­plies their impact.

In fact, there was a recent art­icle by Cath­rine Jans­son-Boyd at Psy­cho­logy Today who found that get­ting people to con­sciously think about food waste for six weeks can change beha­viours in the long term.

At Light­Blue Con­sult­ing, we’re equip­ping chefs and their staff with prac­tic­al, ver­sat­ile tech and the right mind­set to reshape both oper­a­tions and atti­tudes. This isn’t about plug­ging in a sys­tem and walk­ing away. It’s about ignit­ing a sus­tain­able cul­tur­al revolu­tion among the people who work in kitchens.

Why does this matter? 

Today’s trav­el­ler isn’t just buy­ing a get­away, they’re invest­ing in val­ues. They choose des­tin­a­tions and com­pan­ies that reflect their envir­on­ment­al con­scious­ness. They look for genu­ine com­mit­ments to provid­ing sus­tain­able accom­mod­a­tion and dining.

In con­clu­sion, while AI and oth­er tech­no­lo­gies make our lives easi­er and are instru­ment­al for the hos­pit­al­ity industry to adapt in the chan­ging land­scape, it’s the evolving atti­tudes towards respons­ible tour­ism that truly define the next chapter for travel.

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“GT” Insight Bite_X (‘_X’ is up to you)

The “Good Tour­ism” Blog offers a great oppor­tun­ity to any travel & tour­ism stake­hold­er who wishes to express them­self in writ­ing for the bene­fit of “GT’s” open-minded readers. 

To fea­ture in the next “GT” Insight Bites com­pil­a­tion, send no more than 300 words (300 words or few­er (</=300 words)) on any tour­ism-related idea or con­cern you may have. 

Don’t use AI. if you lack con­fid­ence in writ­ing in plain Eng­lish, “GT’s” pub­lish­er will per­son­ally help with copy edit­ing. “GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” publishes.

Send your “GT” Insight Bite and pic­ture to GoodTourism@gmail.com.

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As cruising booms environmental concerns intensify

Frédéric Dimanche, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada and Kelley A McClinchey, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

The 2024 cruise ship sea­son in Brit­ish Columbia, Canada began with Nor­we­gi­an Bliss dock­ing on April 3, mark­ing the first of 318 sched­uled ship arrivals in Vic­tor­ia. This fol­lows a record 970,000 pas­sen­gers in 2023, with more expec­ted this year. 

After the severe impact of the 2020 pan­dem­ic, the cruise industry has reboun­ded strongly due to high con­sumer demand and innov­a­tion, becom­ing one of the fast­est-grow­ing sectors. 

An industry report high­lights a sig­ni­fic­ant post-COV­ID recov­ery, with two mil­lion more pas­sen­gers in 2023 com­pared to 2019, and fore­casts 35 mil­lion in 2024. The sec­tor is exper­i­en­cing unpre­ced­en­ted growth, with new mega-ships like Roy­al Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas and MSC’s MSC World Europa. 

Cruise Lines Inter­na­tion­al Asso­ci­ation reports that 82% of pre­vi­ous cruis­ers would cruise again, prompt­ing com­pan­ies to offer innov­at­ive itin­er­ar­ies and onboard activ­it­ies. Young­er gen­er­a­tions (Gen X, Mil­len­ni­als, and Gen Z) are repla­cing Boomers, form­ing a sig­ni­fic­ant por­tion of the cli­en­tele. Solo and multi-gen­er­a­tion­al fam­ily travel is rising, lead­ing to innov­at­ive cab­ins, activ­it­ies, and dining. 

How­ever, des­pite some eco­nom­ic bene­fits and the appeal of cruises, their envir­on­ment­al (and social) impacts remain very prob­lem­at­ic. The industry’s reviv­al faces sub­stan­tial envir­on­ment­al chal­lenges often over­looked by the pub­lic. Cruise ships con­trib­ute sig­ni­fic­antly to mar­ine pol­lu­tion, with high emis­sions impact­ing port cit­ies and sens­it­ive ecosystems. 

Des­pite improve­ments like using lique­fied nat­ur­al gas (LNG) and elec­tric shore power, crit­ics argue the industry engages in gre­en­wash­ing. Some des­tin­a­tions (e.g., Ams­ter­dam and Venice) impose restric­tions on cruise ships due to these concerns.

The cruise industry must enhance its sus­tain­ab­il­ity efforts bey­ond merely meet­ing reg­u­la­tions. Con­sumers and travel agents must be bet­ter informed, and loc­al author­it­ies should demand great­er account­ab­il­ity and pro­act­ive meas­ures from cruise lines to address their envir­on­ment­al impact.

This “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bite sum­mar­ises our art­icle for The Con­ver­sa­tion.

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What do you think? 

In a com­ment below share your own thoughts about tech­no­logy and travel & tour­ism. SIGN IN or REGISTER first. (After sign­ing in you will need to refresh this page to see the com­ments section.) 

Or write a “GT” Insight or “GT” Insight Bite of your own. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

This is an open invit­a­tion to travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers from any back­ground to share their thoughts in plain Eng­lish with a glob­al industry audience.

“GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” pub­lishes. “GT” is where free thought travels.

If you think the tour­ism media land­scape is bet­ter with “GT” in it, then please … 

Featured image (top of post)

Image assisted by AI (Copi­lot).

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Previous “GT” Insight Bites

• What does it mean to be crit­ic­al of tourism?
• What con­sti­tutes ‘pro­gress’ for travel & tour­ism in 2024?
• Con­sid­er­ing a career in tour­ism? Import­ant things you should know in 2024
• What did tour­ism learn from the COVID-19 pandemic?
• In 2024, what are the best oppor­tun­it­ies for tour­ism over the next five years?
• Tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years to 2028
• On empower­ment, pro­mo­tion, and the power of expression
• On enrich­ment, repat­ri­ation, the double-edged blade, and war
• On tour­ism tech­no­logy, pro­gress, and loc­al benefit-sharing
• Hey, travel & tour­ism, are you ‘neo­co­lo­ni­al­ist’?
• Who’s the new boss? Asia Pacific tour­ism industry asso­ci­ation seeks leader
• ‘The hos­pit­al­ity industry offers a great career.’ Really?
• Cruise ships: Bless­ing or blight?
• Tour­ist vs trav­el­ler: What’s the difference?
• The heads of fin­ance, oper­a­tions, and PR walk into their boss’s office … 
• Yes, Tour­ism Minister
• What are tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years?
• ‘Tour­ism is built on the back­bone of white suprem­acy’. What do you think?
• Really, what’s the dif­fer­ence? ‘Sus­tain­able tour­ism’ vs ‘regen­er­at­ive tourism’
• Want a career in tour­ism? Import­ant things you should know
• Diverse per­spect­ives on travel & tour­ism and a fairer world
• Diverse per­spect­ives on eco­nom­ic degrowth and tourism
• Diverse per­spect­ives on vis­it­or dispersion

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