AI and tourism: a revolution you can’t ignore
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is, in the short term, unlikely to change the human input needed for the end delivery of tourism product but has huge potential to streamline the complexities of the booking process and increasing internal business productivity.
San Francisco-based founder and CEO of Magpie Travel, a company focused on content management for the tours and activities sector, Christian Watts, says GenAI is the biggest revolution of our lifetime, “and we all need to get our heads around it”.
“GenAI is a massive social shift, and it will be better for tourism businesses to get on top of it quickly as it’s here and not going anywhere regardless of if we think it’s good or bad,” Watts says.
“As a collective, industry businesses think we are tourism, but what tourism businesses are doing is helping a person visit a destination and what we provide is all the stuff in the middle while tourism is what the visitor comes for.
“The visitor doesn’t want to know about all the layers of interactions their booking had to go through to get to the final experience – the many middle layers of tourism – and if we can simplify these processes we can find efficiencies and cost benefits for businesses and travellers.”
Speaking at Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) Meeting Place, held in Adelaide, Watts has been involved in the tourism and activities industry for more than five years, operating the first Hop On Hop Off sightseeing service to San Francisco, and knows first-hand the complexity of running a tourism business.
“GenAI is hugely accessible and is available to everybody to use, helping to simplify what has become a very complicated tourism booking process with many levels and prices.
“Very soon AI will know how to manage your product and will do things you’re currently doing, like responding to emails, writing policies and marketing, and it will do it better.
“The good thing is everyone has the same access to these Large Language Models (LLMs), so there are few barriers to entry. It’s what everyone must do now to be competitive, because it is delivering massive efficiency, and you can be sure your competitor is using it too.”
While GenAI is hugely disruptive and involves unprecedented change, Watts remains optimistic about its future and ability to add value to the industry while allowing tourism businesses to focus on their core purpose.
“The final delivery of our tourism product in our industry is the last thing that will get touched by AI as humans will continue to need to be where we want them to be, and that is in the service – the most important part of the tourism experience.”
Source: ATEC
Changi T2 pushes the boundaries with new infrastructure
Terminal 2 at Singapore’s Changi Airport is back in business after a three-and-a-half-year revamp.
T2’s completion has added five million passengers per year to Changi’s capacity, bringing the airport’s total handling capacity to 90 million pax per year.
Infrastructure at T2 includes new systems, and more retail offerings. With a central common-use Fast and Seamless Travel (FAST) zone, the number of automated check-in kiosks and bag drop machines have almost doubled.
The immigration halls have been expanded to support additional automated immigration lanes allowing more passengers to be served at any time.
T2 is also the first terminal in Changi to have automated Special Assistance Lanes for persons with disabilities and young children at both arrival and departure immigration. A new early baggage storage system has also been installed that is fully automated with the capacity to handle up to 2,400 bags.
Tan Lye Teck, Changi Airport Group’s ’s programme director for the Terminal 2 Expansion Project, said, “Changi Airport has always been pushing the boundaries of airport service and innovation, while staying ahead of the latest trends in digital as well as retail and dining offerings.
“With T2, we sought to enhance the passenger experience, bringing together a modern terminal inspired by nature, with immersive digital experiences, innovative technology, as well as transformative retail and dining concepts that create a sense of place.”
Travelport onboard with airlines’ NDC content
The travel industry continues to embrace the IATA’s NDC (New Distribution Capability) despite early misgivings. Travelport says it has renewed and expanded its multi-year distribution agreement with EVA Air, which includes the airline’s future NDC content and servicing.
Travelport has also signed a new multi-year distribution agreement with Air India. The deal includes access to their NDC content and servicing for Travelport agencies when it becomes available.
The agreement expands the collaboration between Travelport and Air India, which will give Travelport’s global agencies the ability to search, shop, compare and service Air India’s future NDC offers through Travelport+ in an integrated workflow.
Once live, this content will be available through both Smartpoint Cloud and Travelport’s API connections.
A smarter way to go for Thai Vietjet
Thai Vietjet has become the first airline to use ‘Smart Path,’ an automated biometric identification system developed by the Airport Authority of Thailand (AOT).
Vietjet passengers on flight VZ626 from Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) to Singapore were recently checked in by the Smart Path system.
The Smart Path is an automated biometric identification system that makes use of facial recognition technology to quickly confirm a passenger’s identity at various touchpoints before departure.
Smart Path passengers are only required to grant permission for the use of their identification information at the check-in counter to allow the system to collect their identification information and generate a set of data called One ID that includes their personal identification information, biometric identification, travel itinerary and travel token, which is achieved within seconds.
The One ID will be utilised for passenger identity verification during all the pre-departure processes, including pre-security screening and self-serviced boarding, without the need to present their personal identification document and boarding pass.
WebBeds sorts out parity disputes
WebBeds has released an update to its online Parity Monitor tool, enabling hotels to instantly resolve pricing discrepancies.
WebBeds, which provides accommodation and ground product distribution services to the travel industry, has launched the online Parity Monitor tool to hotel partners as the initial phase of a major initiative to improve the speed of identifying and resolving parity issues, with the aim of achieving zero BRG (best rate guarantee) discrepancies.
The new v1.2 release provides WebBeds’ hotel suppliers with an exclusive industry-first; instant resolution of rate discrepancies – at a property level – when hotels report violations directly through the Parity Monitor tool. “No warnings, no strikes, no manual processes – this is an immediate and automated solution driven by best-in-class technology,” WebBeds said in a statement.
WebBeds has worked with Robiquity, a trailblazer in Intelligent Automation, to develop an industry-first solution.
Daryl Lee, WebBeds CEO, said, “The v1.2 Parity Monitor release demonstrates the progress we’re making in developing automated solutions that add value to our partners.
“Our stated objective for this project is to ultimately achieve zero BRG discrepancies through the WebBeds marketplace. It’s a very high bar to reach but we are demonstrating concrete progress and substance as we work towards achieving this aspiration.”
(PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: Changi Airport Group) (Changi Airport Group)
