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If you have been testing the newly released ChatGPT-4 in recent days you will have seen some remarkable capabilities and, if you work in media or content creation, I’m sure you would have felt both a thrill and a shiver – probably at the same time!

Some of its output is outstanding, especially from a consumer point of view when it comes to travel. When asked to create a two-week itinerary for a trip to New Zealand preferring boutique accommodation, fine dining and cultural experiences, it took about 10 seconds to complete:

It’s not perfect and not the highly specialised service you can get from an inbounder but it is a pretty good place to start, especially for about 30 seconds of effort.

My first instinct was to ask ChatGPT-4 to book it all but it is not yet connected to the internet or the necessary travel and accommodation services. But how long will it be before that capability is available? ChatGPT-6? Where will that leave ITOs, OTAs and operators? How can they position themselves to ensure they are advantaged by AI and not neglected?

One question immediately raised by the above itinerary is: how did ChatGPT-4 decide to serve up those specific operators and experiences? Being a large language model, the terms it uses are selected on a statistical basis so will Mollies Hotel Auckland always be its top recommendation for a boutique hotel in Auckland? The hotel does not appear anywhere near the top of either Bing (which is owned by Microsoft, a backer of ChatGTP owner OpenAI) or Google’s search results for ‘Auckland boutique hotel’ (Update c/o Gina Paladini highlighting the risk of using old information: Mollies Boutique Hotel was bought years ago and has been converted back to a private home).

Admittedly, ChatGPT has been trained on information available mainly before September 2021, so how malleable will its top recommendations be when it or its future upgrades are eventually connected to the internet? Could it create another auction house like search for businesses keen to buy prominence?

For destination marketers, below is ChatGPT’s answer to a basic request to ‘create a marketing plan to convince Aucklanders to visit Nelson’ – again, it took about 10 seconds to write:

There’s nothing there that a professional wouldn’t know but when I asked ChatGPT-4 to make a top recommendation to help the plan stand out, this was its answer:

Which, of course, makes perfect sense. But what is remarkable is do you notice how the VR suggestion is not part of the original marketing plan? There is not even a hint of it. It almost feels like ChatGPT-4 ‘understands’ the VR strategy to be a little extraordinary when it comes to formulating a destination marketing plan and not something to simply serve up at first prompt. Of course, it is a large language model so it does not ‘understand’ marketing plans and strategy prioritisation but its potential as a useful tool is clear.

Now, can you imagine an even ‘smarter’ AI connected to the internet and live databases and services providing connected real-time information about your target markets? One that can understand your prompts and queries to help your business or destination become more efficient and responsive?

Imagine how AI could help us design, create and market more sustainable tourism products and experiences. Could it support travel and tourism to decarbonise much faster than expected?

Of course, there will be disruption. There will be tasks that will be taken over by AI but the hope will be that people will be reassigned to higher-order jobs unable to be performed by a machine.

Fortunately, tourism’s foundation of location specific and experiential products means the sector may be less disrupted than others. But the tools that will surely become available for tasks like product design, data analysis, sales and marketing strategy, and investment priorities could be transformational for professionals.

Journalism and content creation may fare worse, but I’m confident there will be a place for good industry information served with human insight… at least until ChatGPT-7?

I’ll let the AI have the last word on the impact it could have on New Zealand’s tourism industry:

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The metaverse can be defined as a set of virtual shared spaces that are indexed in the real world and accessible via 3D interaction. It is a term that has been rapidly gaining ground in the media landscape ever since Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the creation of the Meta Group.

While some people remain cautious or resistant to the idea, others see this technological evolution as an opportunity to develop new offers. Given tourism is a sector that moves forward largely in line with information and communication technologies, it is entirely relevant to look at how it could integrate this virtual universe.

So how could the metaverse take over tourism, a practice that requires physical travel?

Can tourism and technology work together?

There is a clear correlation between the development of tourism and that of technology. Indeed, from the computerised booking centres of the 1970s to the domestication of the Internet in the late 1990s, technology has always been used in tourism to develop new practices.

The metaverse is part of this evolution of the Internet, which deploys increasingly immersive technologies to offer ‘phygital’ experiences – i.e., that blur boundaries between the real and the virtual.

Whether it be for museums, national parks or heritage sites, the health crisis has also enabled many organisations to increase and sustain their use of technological tools to offer virtual reality tours.

The Fly Over Zone application, as well as offering an exploration of World Heritage cultural sites, shows users what damaged sites would have looked like in their original state.

Web giant Amazon launched “Amazon Explore”, allowing people to “travel the world, virtually”. This venture is an interactive live-streaming service, which they say allows you to discover new places from your computer. Although this service is still in its infancy, with a beta version it is likely that these virtual tours will progress to offer even more immersive formats.

When it comes to tourism, Asia is a forerunner, with proposals such as the Seoul Metaverse project, which aims to become the first major city in the world to enter the metaverse, with a tourist route reproducing the city’s main sites.

But it is in France that we find one of the most successful projects with MoyaLand, a virtual tourism realm including a tourist office, museums, an airport and a historical centre where inhabitants and tourists can move around virtually via their avatars.

Other tourism stakeholders could follow suit, with 25% of people forecast to spend at least one hour a day in the metaverse by 2026, according to the American company Gartner. So how will people experience tourism in this virtual environment?

Using the metaverse to inspire travel

There are two main trends defining the tourism experience: the first is related to the process, with a transformation of the world into knowledge, the second is about the moment, with a focus on hedonism and feelings of success. While by definition, tourism requires physical travel, there is a contradiction in the tourism experiences offered by the metaverse. The metaverse cannot replace physical travel, but can create the desire to travel.

In the immersive reality of the metaverse, technological devices feed the user with sensations such as sight, hearing, touch and even smell. Besides acquisition costs, the use of these new devices calls into question the perception of the senses connecting humans to their environment.

The metaverse results from the interaction between a device, a user putting themselves in the shoes of a tourist, and other spectators. Although the experience is virtual, the senses are indeed put to work by stimulating certain situations that are desired but not accessible at the time.

Through immersion, the virtual reality headset or haptic sensors allow us to experience things that were previously intangible and to reconnect with the senses. Through an avatar, the metaverse user can embody a tourist by creating a virtual tour route, interacting with other avatars and consequently imagining how they feel, stimulating what Giacomo Rizzolatti calls mirror neurons.

Societal and environmental constraints

Whether imitated, reproduced or simulated, travel and holidays are touristic practices that provide a break from everyday life. They’re also an opportunity for some to see their loved ones or to engage in activities that are difficult to do in everyday life.

Observing animals in a safari, discovering archaeological sites or practising a foreign language are activities that produce unique, essential bodily and spiritual sensations different from those produced virtually by metaverse devices.

Moreover, the metaverse, which is in itself a technological development of the Internet, is not yet complete. It requires financial investment and the construction of a regulatory framework to control user behaviour.

For when Mark Zuckerberg expresses his desire to create a virtual and alternative world in which users can also travel, we must not lose sight of the fact that users’ data will be put to use.

And while some people see the metaverse as a solution to avoid flying and move toward sustainable tourism, the digital pollution it will create could well work against this ‘virtuous’ form of tourism.

Although tourism in the metaverse will not be able to replace outdoor experiences, some tourism professionals could use it to promote sites that are not easily accessible or are ignored by tourists, who can discover them virtually.

Naïma Aïdi is a PhD student in information and communication sciences at the from Dicen-IdF laboratory, Tourism and Smart Tourism at Gustave Eiffel University in France.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

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So, the future is here! Whether you are a believer in the Star Trek holodeck or James Cameron’s Avatar films, something is happening in the world that is going to change consumption and the future of tourism. That change is Extended Reality technologies (XR).

 XR is an umbrella term that incorporates all kinds of realities supported by immersive technology including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Realities (MR). Virtual Reality refers to computer-generated environments that replicate places, people and objects, which provide a realistic sensory experience by the full immersion in a digital space. Whereas augmented reality is a mixture of digital and real world, as it creates digital information to the real environment. The VR and AR technologies are combined together to create MR, which is a more immersive experience.

Thanks to VR and MR technologies, tourists can experience visiting a destination without being there, just like the Star Trek Holodeck. Maybe in the future, the technologies will be so good, we may never leave home to go on a holiday. Is this reality or a science fiction proposition? 

Today, XR technology tourists experience destinations that are remote or difficult to get to. Tourists can sample the destination before they arrive or when making decisions for choosing a future destination. So big is this change that according to Mordor Intelligence, the XR market is valued at US$33bn, and forecast to grow to be between US$125.2bn and US$463.7bn by 2026.

XR technologies have been defined as the most significant form of “metaverse technology”, as they include merging the physical and digital worlds through the use of headsets and wearable devices. The history of the “metaverse” goes back to 1992 when science fiction writer Neal Stephenson used the term in his novel Snow Crash, where humans, as avatars, interact with each other in a 3D virtual environment. Nevertheless, with the major shift from Facebook to Meta, technologies that are built on XR and virtual worlds are seeing a noteworthy push forward. Meta’s concentration is to bring the metaverse to our life and to connect us using virtual worlds. 

Like every other industry, the arrival of the meta universe and the use of XR technologies means we are going to see change. These technologies transform how we can explore new destinations. Behaviours related to tourist experience or purchase can be associated with these new technologies. This means that the tourist industry will be vastly affected by these novel technologies. With metaverse, users can explore new destinations using navigation software. They could easily book a hotel and experience visiting them. They can get consultation, perform orders, and also pay in a convenient way. Even tourists who are already at the destination may go to metaverse to solve customer service issues, order meals in a hotel room, purchase latest destination experience products, or leave feedbacks on the services.

What we can see today is that these technologies are already present around us. In 2015, Marriott and Shrangri-La Hotels both used Samsung Gear VR headsets to enable guests to travel the world sitting on the couch in their rooms. Marriott’s famous ‘VRoom Service’ was considered to be a first in the travel industry. Also, Thomas Cook partnered with Visualise to use Samsung’s Gear VR headsets in several stores to offer potential tourists the chance to experience destinations such as Singapore, Greece and New York. In New Zealand, Michael Nees is inspiring the tourism industry and other sectors to apply digital technology to offer visitor experiences. Virtual Journeys plays a significant role in encouraging the tourism industry to use XR technology. Michael has created the first three of ten pilot visitor virtual reality tour experiences, such as an ecotour in the Abel Tasman National Park and a Nelson Tasman vineyard tour.

Given all these changes and the opportunities associated with XR technology, it’s important to embrace the changes that are going to occur. What does all this change mean for the future of tourism? What are emerging trends? How will tourists’ behaviour change? 

Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington is organising a webinar on 17 February to address these issues with leading researchers including Professor Timothy Jung (Manchester Metropolitan University), Dr Christopher Maymon (Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington) and Associate Professor Faizan Ali (University of South Florida)

Register for the free webinar here.

Author Naji Gharibi  is working towards a PhD in Tourism Management at the Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. Naji’s research aims to uncover the impacts of XR technologies on tourists’ behaviour. Her main interest is the future of tourism, new technologies and tourists’ behaviour/emotions.

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The attack is understood to have happened earlier this month after hackers gained access to the operator’s systems with the exact nature of the breach still under investigation.

Bungy NZ chief executive David Mitchell said in a statement provided to the Ticker following enquiries into the incident that while the cyberattack was “incredibly disruptive, briefly undermining access to Bungy’s technology systems, the company was prepared for this kind of event”.

“Our programmes and processes meant our IT team were able to move quickly to shut our system down and minimise the ongoing impact.”

Mitchell said access to email, files and other operating systems were temporarily lost but there was “currently no evidence that the hackers were successful in copying any company information”. 

“Our IT team will continue to investigate how the breach occurred and any changes that need to be made to ensure it does not happen again,” he said.

“We did not engage with the hackers and no ransom sum was proposed by them.”

Mitchell added it was a reminder for other businesses to be prepared for a cyberattack.

“I’d encourage others in the industry to get prepared in case they are targeted. Seek expert advice, review technology systems and ensure a proper plan is in place to minimise the impact.”

Even large businesses with significant cyber security systems can be caught out by sophisticated attacks.

Air New Zealand fell for a scam in 2019 when two contact centre staff email accounts were phished leading to a breach in Airpoints customer data.

Tourism New Zealand successfully repelled a “password spray” attack in 2019 but a breach in 2016 destroyed data on laptops and servers. 

Businesses that suffer a cyberattack should contact the government’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT NZ) to report the incident and seek advice.

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