The implications of generative AI for hospitality, travel and tourism
by Tarik Dogru
The introduction of the ChatGPT by Open AI has created a major disruption to the entire economy around the globe. In its short tenure, ChatGPT and alternative generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools showed tremendous opportunities as well as challenges for overall economy and all industries. In general, GAI is expected to provide new or improved services and create new business opportunities and radical changes in the entire global economy. GAI tools, such as ChatGPT, Microsoft's Bing Chat, and Google’s Bard can produce outputs visual and particularly textual as if produced by human intelligence. Accordingly, GAI technology is expected to enhance a transformative but radical process that seeks to improve all stakeholders by effecting significant alterations in its properties through the integration of information, computing, communication, and connectivity technologies in creative means. Certainly, hospitality, tourism, and travel industries are not immune to this major disruption. In this context, GAI technology can offer more detailed and nuanced information to consumers tailored toward their inquiry during pre-planning stages and even throughout their experience. GAI technology could also assist managers in doing their jobs more efficiently, provide businesses insights with higher level of accuracy in forecasting, pricing, accounting and financial transactions, and other operational activities, significantly impact employment, redefine job and task definitions, create new business opportunities. The adoption and integration of GAI will automate some routine and mundane tasks and help employees optimize efficiency, provide enhanced experiences for consumers, and help hospitality, tourism, and travel firms reduce cost.
Although GAI can help create more memorable, quality experiences and co-create value for all stakeholders involved in this process, GAI also poses ethical, social, and economic challenges that require careful consideration. Otherwise, value co-destruction might be inevitable if this relatively novel technology is not effectively implemented. Therefore, hospitality, tourism, and travel firms must ensure to protect the rights and privacy of its consumers, meet their obligations to customers and avoid any legal or reputational risks and guests and that they do not violate intellectual property rights. To further ensure that GAI is applied responsibly and ethically in the hospitality, tourism, and travel industries, stakeholders must engage in informed discussions and teamwork. Also, elimination of routine and mundane tasks enables employees to focus on more important and creative components of their jobs. However, an over-reliance on GAI might create a perception that GAI produced content, answer, solution, etc. always more reliable, which may destroy collaborative organizational culture and lead to cultivate a climate of higher psychological competition, creating a toxic work environment, causing disunity, harming employees’ well-being, and leading to undesirable job-related outcomes, such as cynicism, depression, and burnout.
GAI Value Framework as published in the original article.
In the context of research and education, while some stakeholders strongly believe that we should not allow the use of GAI technology, many educators, scholars, professors suggest that we should incorporate this technology into our research, teaching, and classrooms. I believe when properly used this technology is not very different from using a statistical software, calculator, or Excel spreadsheet that makes life easier for everyone involved. However, the main problem in utilizing GAI tools in research context and beyond is likely to be the issues regarding intellectual property rights and copyrights. Also, the sources from which these tools are being fed with information to generate outputs is another issue as well. These issues require further discussions and possibly regulations. However, effectively utilizing these tools will create value for all stakeholders involved.
In conclusion, tools offered by the GAI technology are no longer just a trend in the hospitality, tourism, and travel industries. This new technology is already revolutionizing the hospitality, tourism, and travel industries and many other. GAI technology can quickly provide essential data and impact how we search for and collect information. Although the technology is in its early stages, it certainly appears to have the potential to elevate the guest experience, generate a higher level of guest personalization, and significantly impact the hospitality, tourism, and travel industries’ staffing requirements in the future. Echoing Kinsell, industry legend Danny Meyer once said, “Hospitality is almost impossible to teach. It’s all about hiring the right people”. In light of many recent and continuing innovations in guest service technology, perhaps Meyer’s statement deserves a modern addendum: it’s also about employing the right technology.
Article Details
Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry: Developing a Framework for Future Research
Tarik Dogru, (Dr. True), Nathan Line, Makarand Mody, et al.
First Published July 10, 2023 Research Article
DOI: 10.1177/10963480231188663
Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research
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