Tourists' Perceptions Toward Using Artificial Intelligence Services in Tourism and Hospitality

Abstract

Tourism and hospitality industry are considered one of the first industries to adopt new technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies are growing and advancing rapidly. They are expected to bring great benefits to the tourism and hospitality industry. They can provide high quality services, enhance tourists' experiences, save time and money, eliminate human error and perform tasks accurately and quickly. Most tourist companies, airlines, hotels, restaurants and resorts depend on providing excellent customer service to build their reputation and AI technologies can be valuable to them in many ways (i.e. voice search, AI-powered chatbots, robots, self-driving cars…etc.). The aim of this research is to identify and discuss the application of artificial intelligence (AI) services in tourism and hospitality (travel agencies; tourist companies; air ports; airlines; hotels; restaurants; museums; car rental and tour guides), in addition to investigate tourists’ perceptions of advantages and disadvantages of using artificial intelligence (AI) services in tourism and hospitality. To achieve the previous aim, a questionnaire form was distributed to tourists in tourism and hospitality (March to May 2022). Data was collected from 319 tourists (155 tourism samples and 164 hospitality samples). Data was analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS, V. 20).The results revealed that applying AI services in tourism and hospitality has many advantages for tourists, such as: fun and enjoyable experience; speed in performing tasks; accuracy with less human errors. On the other hand, disadvantages to using AI services can be found.