ST JAMES, Jamaica – Director of Tourism Donovan White says despite the game-changing integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the tourism industry, the human element of travel is irreplaceable.

“The human element of travel is irreplaceable. I want to make that very clear. The human element of travel is irreplaceable. Only humans can provide insights into particularities like the best time to visit a location for an excursion, who at the hotel mixes the best drinks or offer the best rates through personal contacts. AI, unfortunately won’t pick up those complexities and won’t give you those deliberate responses,” White underscored.

“So authenticity is still an important aspect in the travel planning process, and we don’t see that disappearing anytime soon,” he added.

He was speaking on the topic ‘Harnessing Generative Artificial Intelligence for Tourism Resilience’ at the third Global Tourism Resilience Conference and Expo at the Princess Hotel and Resort in Hanover last week.

White explained how AI presently plays a crucial role in every stage of travel, from planning to departure.

“Since its emergence, the tourism industry has utilised AI to improve features like customer experience, reduce costs, streamline operations, and has been transforming our industry. From the initial spark of deciding where to travel and pre-planning that visit to then visiting the destination, all the way to departure, AI has given us useful tools to make the travel process seamless,” he said.

“Tools like the Chatbot to streamline air and hotel bookings, automation at the airports to optimise baggage handling, reduce delays and so much more. Perhaps one of the most interesting tools AI has given us is the AI travel agent. Of course, we’re on the demand and trade side, predominantly on the tourism value chain, so we are very interested in the areas that drive the market, the commercialisation of the tourism product,” he added.

The tourism director revealed that starting last week, “our Chatbot will converse in up to 10 languages”.

“Still there is enormous potential for AI that is yet to be realised, like audio AI, which is something that we are currently building. It’s still in development,” he said.

– Horace Hines