PERSPECTIVES OF YOUNG TOURISTS IN USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE POWERED CHATBOTS ON TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RELATED WEBSITES

Abstract

1. Introduction Young tourists play an important role in consuming tourism and hospitality services across the globe. They interact with the service providers in the pre-, during and later stages of consuming the services using chatbots. These chatbots are powered by Artificial Intelligence and can interact with tourists for basic and advanced communication. The research aims to explore the perspectives of young tourists towards using Artificial Intelligence powered Chatbots interact with service providers. 2. Research Methodology Being explorative mix-method research, it used both interview and survey as data collection tools from 125 young tourists using convenience sampling method. Descriptive analysis and thematic content analysis were adopted for data analysis. 3. Findings and Discussion The quantitative analysis indicates that most young tourists are keen on using AI- powered chatbots. Qualitative analysis revealed that chatbots may be useful for different purposes, but specific requirements can only be fulfilled with the help of human interaction. Respondents also believe that AI-powered chatbots are a tool for collecting tourists’ information, which can be used by the tourism and hospitality service providers. 4. Conclusion and Implications The implication of the study is for the service providers to understand the perspective of young tourists and employ AI chatbots on their websites. Young tourists feel that it is useful in the personalization of services, reducing operation costs, travel companions, and tourists’ data collection. Most young tourists feel that AI Chatbot is an alternative to 24/7 customer support.