In a fitting nod to their reputation as “Silicon Beach,” there’s a new tech-forward tool available for travelers heading to Santa Monica. Visitors can now receive travel planning assistance with Santa Monica Guide, an AI travel genius. Santa Monica Travel & Tourism recently launched the new feature on santamonica.com using GuideGeek artificial intelligence technology from Matador Network.

Santa Monica Guide is designed to supplement the destination’s three in-person Visitor Information Centers, dedicated travel specialists and the greater team. The AI tool can instantly plan an entire itinerary or answer specific questions about the best wellness experiences, beach activities, restaurants, neighborhood hot spots, hotels and more. The personalized, real-time responses are generated by AI trained on extensive data from Santa Monica Travel & Tourism and enhanced by over 1,000 integrations for travel information from GuideGeek’s award-winning technology.

In our recent article, “Cost-Effective AI Solutions for a Complex Market,“ we explored how AI is helping hospitality professionals navigate challenges like staffing shortages and rising operational costs. However, one critical area where many AI solutions fall short is emotional intelligence.

Despite the numerous advancements in artificial intelligence, the emotional intelligence gap remains one of AI’s most significant hurdles. According to a PwC study, 73% of consumers say that customer experience is a critical factor in their purchasing decisions, with emotional connection being a key driver of guest loyalty. But how can hotels achieve emotional connection when their primary tool for communication lacks empathy?

Was unterscheidet einen Anbieter heute wirklich von seinem Wettbewerb?

Diese Frage stellen sich aktuell viele in der Travel- und Hospitality-Tech-Branche – und beantworten sie allzu schnell mit einem simplen Buzzword: KI. Artificial Intelligence ist zum neuen Heilsversprechen geworden. Jeder nutzt sie. Jeder bewirbt sie. Jeder möchte „AI-first“ sein. Doch je mehr sich diese Rhetorik verbreitet, desto offensichtlicher wird, wie austauschbar sie ist – und wie gefährlich es ist, die Marke auf genau dieses eine Merkmal zu stützen.

Travel companies across all segments are grappling with rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI). Questions they are asking include: What use cases make most sense? Is my data centralized and accessible to glean meaningful insights? Can I trust what the AI is producing? And what large language model best suits my needs?

Generally, the message from experts across the travel industry is to "lean-in" to the technology, put some guardrails in place and let employees experiment. However, while some are all in with the belief that the technology will replace humans, others are taking a more cautious approach.

"In hotels, I think AI can lead to a miracle, but it does require them today to really lean into it," said Matthijs Welle, CEO of Mews.

KÜNSTLICHE INTELLIGENZ
Walliser Hotelier-Verein startet KI-Pilotpro­jekt
Mit dem Pilotpro­jekt «KI-Booster für die Hotellerie» testet der Walliser Hotelier-Verein ab Juni den Einsatz künstlicher Intelligenz in rund 15 Hotels. Das von Innotour unterstützte Projekt soll praxis­taug­liche Lösungen für effizi­en­tere Abläufe und Entlastung im Hotelalltag zu entwickeln.
Das Projekt «KI-Booster für die Hotellerie» soll den Weg für den sinnvollen Einsatz künstlicher Intelligenz in der Walliser Hotellerie ebnen.

La question de l’impact environnemental des IA génératives comme ChatGPT inquiète, mais leur consommation réelle reste difficile à évaluer. Les prompts réalisés sur le chatbot sont-ils vraiment si énergivores ?

Japan Airlines (JAL) lance une initiative révolutionnaire qui redéfinit le voyage aérien et l'engagement personnel dans les airs. Elle dévoile une expérience de vol visionnaire, optimisée par l'IA, intégrant les modèles Veo 2 et Gemini de Google. Cette initiative de nouvelle génération est une première dans le monde de l'aviation commerciale et ouvre la voie à une transformation radicale de l'expérience des passagers et de la narration des destinations grâce à l'IA dans le secteur du voyage.

À partir de 2025, certains vols de Japan Airlines proposeront des films de voyage générés par l'IA. L'IA générative de pointe permet de créer des films visuellement riches et émotionnellement riches, adaptés à chaque destination japonaise. Ces expériences immersives seront diffusées directement sur les écrans des sièges, transformant ainsi les écrans de divertissement classiques en portails dynamiques pour l'inspiration, l'apprentissage et la création d'itinéraires de voyage.

For the past 20 years, the travel industry has built websites for both humans and search engines. We've created multi-destination sites with schema markup, JavaScript frameworks and structured URLs. We've watched every Google algorithm update and adjusted accordingly.

But now there is a major change in how content is found online. Large language models (LLMs) are changing how the web is indexed, processed and served to users—and most travel companies haven't caught on yet. 

While we have become good at search engine optimization (SEO) for Google and humans, artificial intelligence (AI) reads and processes web content differently. Travel websites, especially those with dynamic, multi-destination content, need to optimize not just for traditional search engines but for AI systems that will increasingly direct travelers to our content.

Airbnb started rolling out an AI-powered customer service bot in the U.S. last month, CEO Brian Chesky said during the firm’s first-quarter conference call on Thursday.

Chesky said 50% of Airbnb’s U.S. users are already using the AI bot for customer service, adding that the company plans to roll out the feature to all its users in the country this month.

“One thing I’ll say about AI [is that] it is definitely making the customer experience easier … It has already led to a 15% reduction in people needing to contact live human agents,” he noted during the analyst call.

Three of the world’s largest payment companies, Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, are racing into the next frontier in digital commerce: agentic AI.

All three announced recently they were deploying agentic commerce, a fast-emerging trend in which AI agents not only assist consumers with shopping but also complete transactions on their behalf.

GetYourGuide has launched a suite of new artificial intelligence (AI) tools and other capabilities for operators and is also offering shows and events.

The tours and activities online booking platform said the product release kicks off its expansion to live events. As part of the move, customers will be able to use a seat selection tool directly in GetYourGuide’s mobile application for certain venues.

The news comes as experiences continue to take up more real estate in the travel industry.

Viele Hoteliers schimpfen über Vermittler wie Booking.com oder Expedia, doch arbeiten täglich mit den Plattformen zusammen. Oft hat sich eine fatale Abhängigkeit ergeben, vergleichbar mit dem Stockholm-Syndrom, bei dem sich Opfer mit ihren „Entführern“ verbünden. Aber wie gelingt es, sich aus dieser Abhängigkeit zu befreien, ohne Umsatzeinbußen zu riskieren? Ein Gastbeitrag von Markus Seemann.

If the two recent monopoly rulings against Google hold up upon appeal, Google could see business lines and tools getting sold off. New entrants may, in theory, ease the load for travel companies.

Die Hotellerie befindet sich weltweit in einem tiefgreifenden technologischen Wandel. Frage: Welchen Einfluss haben Digitalisierung und KI auf die Bestell- und Bezahlprozesse in der Hotellerie und Gastronomie? Mit welchen Transformationen müssen Hotels in naher Zukunft rechnen? Darüber spricht Stefan Bezold, Vice President Sales International bei der Schweizer Futurelog AG, im Interview mit Rolf Westermann (ahgz). Futurelog ist Teil der Mövenpick-Holding.