Artificial Intelligence in Tourism Ecosystem

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing sectors internationally, which is considered an important factor of socio-economic and technological development. In previous decades, planning a trip either domestically or abroad was time-consuming, from selecting the destination, transportation, accommodation, provisions (food and drinks) and leisure activities (entries in museums, monuments, souvenirs, etc.). The advance of technology brought great changes in the tourism industry, through the Internet, from registrations for lodging, restaurants and recreation activities to booking flights and transportation. However, artificial intelligence has revolutionised the tourism industry. The growing need for more personalised experiences and services from the tourists’ side of view and the cost reduction from the tourism enterprises’ side of view have nearly made every tourism company use at least one AI-powered technology, forecasting a valuation of $1.2 billion by 2026. Innovations like natural language processing (NLP), big data and deep learning are some tools used by artificial technology, enhancing the authendicity and experiencial value of the tourism experience, like travel planning, pricing, marketing and customer servising. This article will demonstrate how artificial intelligence could help all the stakeholders involved in tourism policy design, the benefits and the drawbacks of it, the contribution of the OECD in forming a legislative framework for artificial intelligence (AI) and the first active travel assistance for travellers in Greece, called “mAiGreece”, formed by the Greek Ministry of Tourism with the collaboration of the Ministry of Digital Governance in Greece.