Artificial Intelligence in Tourism

Artificial intelligence in tourism is now a driving force reshaping every stage of the travel experience and of how the industry operates, from destination discovery to after-sales support. It is no longer a distant promise but a concrete technology that changes the way industry operators work and, at the same time, the expectations of those who travel. In this guide we look at how the sector is being transformed, which applications are most mature and the critical role academia plays in training the professionals who will lead this revolution.

We will talk about it during the next Athics webinar on AI and training, an event designed for anyone who wants to understand how to prepare for the future professions of the travel sector.

“AI and Tourism: Skills for the Future between Innovation and Training”

Friday June 20th at 12 PM in live streaming on Linkedin

with

• Alice Mazzucchelli – Associate Professor, Università Milano Bicocca & Senior Research Consultant CRIET
• Raffaello Luly – Founder of Semplicissimo

Register now

The AI revolution in tourism today

The impact of artificial intelligence in tourism is already profound and pervasive. This is not just an incremental change, but a seminal advance in the way the industry operates, from booking management to the customer relationship. The spread of generative AI in particular has accelerated in recent months: more than half of the sector's global technology leaders (51%) say the technology already has a significant presence in their home market.

This is a strategic priority, not a simple experiment. For 46% of the experts surveyed, continued investment in generative AI is the top technology priority for the year ahead, outpacing other areas of innovation that until recently seemed more urgent. The Asia-Pacific region in particular shows strong momentum in this direction, signaling that adopting artificial intelligence in travel is not a niche phenomenon but a global trend that touches tour operators, airlines, hotel chains and agencies of every size. This scenario also pushes smaller players in the sector to ask how to integrate AI into their processes without losing the value of the human relationship.

What are the applications of artificial intelligence in tourism?

The concrete applications of artificial intelligence in the tourism sector are many, and they share the same goal: to measurably improve the traveler's experience and the efficiency of those who organize services. More than a single tool, AI is a set of technologies that act across the whole travel funnel, from initial inspiration to handling the unexpected during a stay.

• Advanced personalization: AI makes it possible to create tailored itineraries and provide highly personalized travel recommendations, analyzing each traveler's preferences, budgets and past behaviors.
• Enhanced customer service: chatbots and virtual assistants, powered by artificial intelligence in tourism, offer continuous support (24/7) for managing requests and resolving issues, both during the booking phase and during the trip itself. This helps increase customer satisfaction and lighten the workload of staff.
• Operational efficiency and targeted marketing: artificial intelligence in tourism is essential for optimizing advertising campaigns and dynamic pricing strategies. Data analysis is the most common internal application, cited by 68% of technology leaders, followed by content generation and digital assistance.

The common thread running through these applications is AI's ability to turn large volumes of data into operational decisions. A conversational assistant, for example, does not simply answer a question about check-in time: it can retrieve the booking, suggest an upgrade aligned with the guest's preferences and flag any special requests to staff. It is the same paradigm we explore when we talk about AI agents for business, software that not only replies but acts directly on company systems. The same conversational automation logic that powers these applications is also described in our piece on AI agents for customer experience.

How are travelers' habits changing?

It is not only companies that are embracing artificial intelligence: travelers are doing so too, at a growing pace. The percentage of users who used generative AI to plan their trips doubled in just one year, rising from 8% to 16% between October 2023 and October 2024. Many of these users did not stop at the inspiration stage: they then actually booked accommodation or activities discovered through these AI platforms.

Adoption is driven above all by millennials, who remain the main users of these tools to organize their travel. This generation, used to interacting with digital assistants and to a logic of immediate service, gradually shifts the expectations of the entire market: anyone who has experienced an itinerary generated in seconds and perfectly calibrated to their tastes will hardly go back to a manual, fragmented search. For industry operators this means that the quality of the digital experience becomes a competitive factor as important as price or a property's location. Organizations that manage to integrate AI at the right touchpoints, while keeping transparency and human oversight, will build an advantage that is hard to replicate. To see how this same transformation is affecting other sectors, we recommend reading our article on artificial intelligence in retail.

What skills are needed for the future of tourism?

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence in travel calls for strategic reflection on the skills tomorrow's professionals will need. While AI offers powerful tools to increase efficiency, productivity and customer satisfaction, significant challenges emerge on the other side that cannot be underestimated.

Among the obstacles most often reported by practitioners are:

• Lack of talent and technical know-how, namely the difficulty of finding people able to design and govern AI solutions.
• Adequate technological infrastructure, needed to run systems reliably and at scale.
• Organization of internal data, an essential prerequisite for AI to produce trustworthy results.
• Data security and privacy, a crucial issue when handling travelers' personal and payment information.

In this changing scenario, the academic world is called upon to play a key role. It is imperative to train professionals who not only possess advanced digital and technological skills, but who are also capable of understanding the ethical and strategic implications of artificial intelligence in tourism. They will need to know how to use these tools responsibly, ensuring data protection, privacy and the reliability of the information generated. Innovative training courses and close collaboration between universities and companies in the tourism sector are essential to cultivate the talents who will be able to lead the artificial intelligence revolution in tourism, maximizing its potential in an ethical, safe and sustainable way.

Market figures and outlook

Interest in artificial intelligence for travel is set to grow, in line with a broader adoption movement that runs across all business functions. According to analyses by McKinsey, generative AI can generate significant economic value precisely in customer service, marketing and sales, which are the core of tourism operations. Surveys from organizations such as Statista also confirm a steadily expanding trajectory of investment in the global travel and tourism sector.

For the tourism industry, these figures translate into a clear message: adopting AI is no longer optional but a battleground where competitiveness will be decided in the coming years. The organizations experimenting with pilot projects today are, in effect, building the skills and infrastructure that tomorrow will separate market leaders from followers. The same principle of gradual, measurable adoption applies to any business process, as we describe in our piece on AI for IT help desk services.

The Athics webinar: AI and tourism

To learn more about how artificial intelligence in tourism is shaping the future of the sector and how the training system can best prepare new professional figures, don't miss the webinar “AI and Tourism: Skills for the Future between Innovation and Training”, live on Friday June 20 at 12:00 in live streaming on LinkedIn, with the participation of Alice Mazzucchelli and Raffaello Luly.

Athics develops artificial intelligence solutions and conversational agents designed for companies, including those in the travel sector, that want to improve customer experience and operational efficiency. If you want to understand how AI can create concrete value in your processes, talk to our team: we will help you identify the right use case and bring it into production.

Register for the webinar