The Automated Tourism and Hospitality Company of the Future

Abstract

In the robonomic economic system many tourism and hospitality companies will be completely automated, and some of them may not even have any human employees. It means that we must rethink the way tourism attractions are created, the way tourism experiences are designed, and the practices of tourism and hospitality companies. We need to consider how to cater for tourists in ways that prove viable both with and by (ro)bots, as well as the with human employees who might have a changed role in future tourism and hospitality. The automated experiencescape of the future can be envisaged as that of changed roles and practices, which if designed with care, also could contribute to more sustainable solutions within the tourism and hospitality industry. <p>

<p>In the future, tourism and hospitality companies may be owned and run by AIs and may have no human employees. The AI is not owned by someone, unlike today when technology is an asset owned by someone, whereas in the future AI could be legally treated as animals, i.e., some have owners, others do not. In future tourism and hospitality, experiences may be (co-)created by humans and/or AI. This will likely lead to a “rational - emotional clash” when the rational decision-making of AI meets the emotional reactions of human tourists. To counteract such conflicts, front-stage AI must have emotional intelligence. Automation of future tourism indeed will influence the co-creation of experiential value for all stakeholders. <p>

<p>In the event of human-out-of-the-loop decision-making approaches, where no human is involved, decisions are taken and implemented by AI. Tourism and hospitality management decisions relating to operational practices, marketing, and financial aspects of the automated tourism and hospitality companies will be different from current norms. For example, AI can communicate with other AIs in the supply chain. At the same time, the need for human involvement will be evident particularly in tourism companies’ operation in unpredictable context (e.g., outdoors experience-based companies) or highly interactive emotional settings such as problem-solving of a complex character, relying on highly specialized human competence (e.g., gourmet chefs). <p>

<p>This chapter focuses on the characteristics of the automated tourism and hospitality company of the future. It elaborates the automation of tasks and processes in tourism and hospitality, the partial and full automation in the industry, and sheds light on the ways business processes are organized in automated tourism and hospitality companies in the future.