Technological development has changed how everything is done and the modern world is experiencing a digital revolution. The world is in a smart era which includes smartphones, smart technology, smart destinations, smart data, and smart tourism. The next technological advancements will affect different sectors and especially the tourism industry. Different technologies will be implemented to enhance services and products. Nonetheless, there are possible risks that are involved with the implementation and adoption of digital technology. Some of the things that will determine the digital future of the tourism sector with regard to hotels and guests include the use of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and booking possibilities (Xiang 2018).
Implementation of Digitization
The smart era is controlled by computers in a way that it acts intelligently. The systems and devices available now are smart, but not intelligent and the digital future aims at making them super intelligent. Artificial intelligence refers to an aspect of intelligence in a machine and Google has considered aspects of machine learning which a step towards the realization of artificial intelligence. The intelligent systems think like humans and do not use pre-designed algorithms, rule or suggestions but rather, it utilizes different types of information to make sound decisions on their own. The Artificial Intelligence is advancing day by day, creating models that have greater abilities of in organizing data just like the brain works (Cheng and Day 2014). They can detect problems, process it within seconds and comes up with great solutions without any help from the human. The systems grow better each day depending on the amount of data they have. The Internet of Things provides a platform through which Artificial Intelligence can be built upon (Benjamin and Cooper 1995).
While planning for travels, people will not have use search engines or social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook. With a few destinations in mind, people can ask the intelligent digital assistant to provide the advantages and disadvantages of the place. Additionally, people can visit places through virtual reality. The virtual reality can be a real time environment of the place and a drone or a robot represents the guest’s virtual identity (Gurău 2007). The virtual reality will be important because it gives the guests a taste of what the real place feels like, through this, guests will be able to make sound decisions with an assurance that they will have a great time (Guttentag 2010). Additionally, the personal intelligent assistant can recommend destinations based on a guest’s travel trends, reviews, tourism trends, and IoT data.
After choosing a destination, the guests will have to book flights and other aspects of the travel like accommodation and activities that will be enjoyed during the stay. The intelligent personal assistant helps people in doing all these and there is no need of performing it manually like going through a list of thousand hotels to find the best one. The system instantly books the destination without the need of going through multiple booking engines. During the stay, the intelligent assistant will constantly provide the guests with relevant information regarding their location and their places of interest. The information can be accessed through bionic eye implants, glasses or hearing aids (Likas, Blekas and Kalles 2014).
Advantages
Virtual reality walks its users through the destinations making them feel like they are in the actual place. The technology allows users to view guest experiences from the moment they enter the destination, they get facts about the place and this is enhanced by narrations that accompany images and videos (Hu and Wei 2012).
Over the last couple decades, providing quality services has become a necessity in the tourism industry, this has been greatly influenced by the initiatives from technology like artificial intelligence. The system has made everything easy, from finding the best destination, booking flights and accommodations to finding the most suitable activities that are enjoyable in the place.
The development in technology can be termed as a technological loyalty program that ensures that they retain their customers (Rettig and Friedrichsen 2018).
Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence are amazing technologies that have promised to change the lives of guests by giving them a chance to choose what they want from multiple choices. The system used by a hotel for instance to show a virtual reality will determine how the guests will be impressed. The hotel industry that will appropriately incorporate the systems will greatly benefit because they will always be highly recommended by the Artificial Intelligence (Luck and Aylett 2000).
Disadvantages
One of the major risks of the digital implementation is the fall of the tourism and travel industry. When virtual reality becomes so effective, people might choose to cancel their travel plans because they have already visited the place virtually. This poses a threat to the industry and as the improvements of virtual reality made, the places become so real and people might choose to visit the places virtually without the trouble of traveling.
Another disadvantage is the fact that the system cannot connect with humans directly. The Artificial Intelligence will be efficient is providing real-time suggestions but there is no emotion or empathy involved, there are times when decisions have to be made through emotions and the system will misguide. For example, a guest might need a quiet and serene destination but the system suggests destination based on the IoT data rather than the needs of the guest. Additionally, there will be a high dependence on machines and humans will lose their thinking capabilities. Because everything is done by the machines, people will not enjoy themselves because they are not involved in the decisions made by the system (Wang 2011).
References
Benjamin, I. and Cooper, M., 1995. Virtual Tourism-A Realistic Assessment of Virtual Reality for the Tourist Industry.
Cheng, S.M. and Day, M.Y. eds., 2014. Technologies and Applications of Artificial Intelligence: 19th International Conference, TAAI 2014, Taipei, Taiwan, November 21-23, 2014, Proceedings (Vol. 8916). Springer.
Gurău, C., 2007. Virtual. Reality. Applications. in. Tourism. Information and Communication Technologies in Support of the Tourism Industry, p. 180.
Guttentag, D.A., 2010. Virtual reality: Applications and implications for tourism. Tourism Management, 31(5), pp. 637-651.
Hu, Z. and Wei, L., 2012. Virtual Reality in Village Folk Custom Tourism. In Virtual Reality-Human Computer Interaction. InTech.
Likas, A., Blekas, K. and Kalles, D. eds., 2014. Artificial Intelligence: Methods and Applications: 8th Hellenic Conference on AI, SETN 2014, Ioannina, Greece, 15-17, 2014, Proceedings (Vol. 8445). Springer.
Luck, M. and Aylett, R., 2000. Applying artificial intelligence to virtual reality: Intelligent virtual environments. Applied Artificial Intelligence, 14(1), pp. 3-32.
Rettig, L. and Friedrichsen, M., 2018. Spatial Development Follows Digitization. In Mobilities, Tourism and Travel Behavior-Contexts and Boundaries. InTech.
Xiang, Z., 2018. From digitization to the age of acceleration: On information technology and tourism. Tourism management perspectives, 25, pp. 147-150.
Wang, Z., 2011, August. Xi'an tourism impact and tourism sustainable development proposals. In Artificial Intelligence, Management Science and Electronic Commerce (AIMSEC), 2011 2nd International Conference on. IEEE, pp. 6099-6102
