Airlines, hotels, travel agencies, and all those agents who work in the first industry in this country, tourism, also want to get the maximum possible profitability from the virtues of artificial intelligence (AI). What changes are expected in the coming years in its application to tourism? Will they all be beneficial? The travel search engine Skyscanner has carried out a study to be able to put a bit of clarity on this great journey of transformation of the tourism industry with a companion who will be, it seems, for a long time, the AI.
In the tourism sector, artificial intelligence is already used regularly, and not only the ubiquitous Google Maps, which has gone from being a simple browser that helped you get to your destination, to becoming an authentic travel guide in which being able to consult restaurants, experiences of other travelers, images of different places, … Another example is the programs used by airlines to analyze the vast amounts of data derived from customer demand and to be able to calculate optimally , the prices at which each seat on their flights must offer.
Chatbots, which have also spread to many pages of hotels, airlines, travel agencies or restaurants, interact with customers to help them answer questions, make reservations and, of course, obtain information that will be very valuable to be able to draw profiles of tastes that will be the basis of future commercial actions to be undertaken by many of the companies in the tourism sector.
Hotels to the taste of the consumer
Artificial intelligence is also helping to change the proposal that many of the players in this sector offer their clients. This is the case of hotels, which increasingly offer personalized rooms tailored to the taste of customers. There are already hotels where check-in is done by robots, such as the Henn Na Maihama hotel in Tokyo Bay, but surely there are already those that allow it to be done with facial recognition.
The computer will be able to recognize the customer and will know what are the requirements and preferences that he expressed at the time of making his reservation. Thus, the room will have the right lighting and temperature, a bottle of the guest’s favorite drink will wait for them in the fridge, and the digitized works of their favorite painter will hang from frames on the walls, to be contemplated while their favorite music plays in the room. piped music. The perfect room.
In addition, in the room, mattresses with sensors could be installed that will collect information about the guest’s sleep, thus being able to propose different activities each day, depending on how their rest has been.
Skysvanner says in its study that, thanks to developments with artificial intelligence in the sector, there will be no immigration officers at airports. At the Abu Dhabi airport, for example, they hope to have in operation by 2021 some scanners in the form of tunnels in which the passenger will enter to analyze their physical characteristics, the iris and the fingerprint. All this information will be stored in a database for strict immigration control, which will be carried out exclusively by machines.
It is also expected, says the travel search engine, that within 30 years robotic driving will have spread to a good part of the tourism sector, either to car rental agencies, bus and ferry companies, and even to airlines. . But, Skyscanner wonders: would you get on a plane if you knew it was being piloted by a robot?
“ Tiredness, mood, or inattention often lead to human error in performing tasks. This can lead to an error in the reservation of a hotel room or a plane ticket, or to give a bad treatment to a client who claims bad service “, they say from the company that has carried out the study.” But this will stop happening with artificial intelligence, because machines do not feel tired or are influenced by feelings. The error of the chain of tourist services will be eliminated ” .
The impact on employment
It is also commented from Skyscanner that it is a fact that the arrival of AI in the tourism sector is already destroying classic jobs for humans. This begins to happen with the receptionists of some hotels or the agents of the customer service of airlines or travel agencies. However, all the experts point out that new jobs will be created, all related to the technological part of the tourism industry.
It is true that artificial intelligence will reduce errors in many of the implicit tasks in the tourism sector. However, these machines are programmed by humans, and they must be trusted to do so without error. We will have to check if, with the machines and AI, the personal treatment of a human is missed, even to complain, when we are in our favorite vacation hotel on the beach, in the mountains, or in the city .
