Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in the Travel Industry

This report discusses the impact of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies within the travel industry. It covers the history, applications, and implications of these technologies in the sector. Big Data and AI technologies have a huge scope in the fast progressing world and hence can have a great form of impact on the society.

Running head: BIG DATA AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE TRAVEL
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Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in the Travel Industry
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1BIG DATA AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY
Executive Summary
This report focuses on the impact of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies within
the travel industry. The huge forms of these kinds of technological advancements have majorly
helped in enriching the customer experience and have hence moved a step forward as compared
to the other industries. This report also discusses the brief history of the technological
advancements within the sector, the applications of these kinds of technologies within the sector,
the present uses and the implications of technology within the sector. Big Data and AI
technologies have a huge scope in the fast progressing world and hence can have a great form of
impact on the society.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Body.............................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Technological Advancement within the Travel and Tourism Industry.................................3
2.2 Advancement of Technology over Time...............................................................................4
2.3 Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.......................................................................................5
2.4 Technological Advancement of Big Data and AI within the Travel Industry.......................5
2.5 Applications of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in the Travel Industry.........................6
2.6 Implications of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence within the Travel Industry..................7
3. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................7
4. References....................................................................................................................................9

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1. Introduction
In the recent times, there have been major forms of advancements within the field of
technology. Different sectors across various industries have made the most usage of several
forms of technologies. Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have also paved their way in the
recent forms of advancements within each sector. These technologies have also made their way
in the travel industry. The use of Big Data brings an endless pool of opportunities within the
industry. The use of big data within the industry has been mainly used within this sector for
collecting vast sets of information from the customer and thus provide them with several kinds of
facilities related to their needs (Vinod, 2013).
The use of artificial intelligence within the travel industry is also making the sector to be
entirely reliable and the most attractive sector within the business solution. AI within the travel
industry is also used for a variety of customer service and administrative tasks. AI within the
travel industry would be helpful for suggesting different kinds of options before the customers
and enabling them to book tickets and other enable other services with the high form of thinking
capabilities within the computing devices. The capacity of AI is to perform such kind of tasks,
which was previously performed by humans. With the help of AI enabled solutions, businesses
would be able to perform high kinds of tasks that were performed within the travel industry that
would range from problem-solving, data analysis, speech translation, improving personalization
and direct messaging throughout the journey of the customer (Loebbecke & Picot, 2015).

4BIG DATA AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY
2. Body
2.1 Technological Advancement within the Travel and Tourism Industry
Technology has penetrated in the various sectors of the travel industry. It is also
revolutionizing the way in which people used to perform their travel activities. Technology has
allowed the travel industry to perform their various operations in a useful manner. This industry
has been a boon for those people who are much more indulged in gaining the benefits from the
technological aspects. The phenomenal growth within the industry has hence impacted the
industry of tourism in a positive manner. The technological advancements have made the ease of
several kinds of operations within the industry such as bookings, planning and even sharing of
information of their travel (Xiang, Magnini & Fesenmaier, 2015).
In the recent times consumers are extremely tech-savvy, which makes them use the
various kinds of technologies at a tip of their fingers. With the rise of internet facility and
smartphone-based systems, it has become extremely easy to reach out to the entire world. People
are now able to plan their entire journey by sitting at their homes. They can also book their
tickets and can book hotels, which would be suitable for them from a wide number of provided
options. The social media platforms and tools also help them in gaining the experiences of travel
within the sector (Law, Buhalis & Cobanoglu, 2014).
2.2 Advancement of Technology over Time
With the impact of technology and high form of advancements within the field of
technology, there have been major forms of transitions. The revolution of internet technology has
been much more powerful and has transformed the technological changes within every industry.
Smartphones have become a constant companion for people and they have also made the utmost
use of the technology with the help of their smartphones. With various kinds of travel

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destinations and places to explore, there would have been a major form of confusion among the
people for choosing their travel destinations (Becerra-Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2014).
The rise of technological advancements within the travel industry has made the ease of
searching for destinations and thus book their favorite hotels from a wide range of available
opportunities. There could be a list of comparison based on which the customers would be able
to choose the best suitable options. Each of the processes within the entire journey has become
computerized and the journey of the customers have thus become hassle-free and much efficient.
2.3 Big Data and Artificial Intelligence
Big Data is defined as a continually evolving technological term, which mainly describes
any form of semi-structured, structured and unstructured form of data, which has the major form
of potential for mining through vast amounts of data in order to gather a huge stack of
information. It could be also defined as a term that normally refers to the study of the
applications within the larger sets of data, which could not be processed with the traditional
forms of data processing software. This technology makes use of predictive based analysis,
which is mainly based on the analytics based on user behavior. They also make use of certain
other forms of advanced form of methods based on data analytics (John Walker, 2014).
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also defined as machine intelligence that would mainly
make use of computerized machines. In the field of computer sciences, AI could be defined as
the broader study of intelligent agents who would be able to perform such kinds of tasks that
would need instant decisions and would perform actions in a diligent manner. The AI-based
technology is able to absorb any form of modifications with the help of gathering independent
pieces of information in a presentable format (Russell & Norvig, 2016).

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2.4 Technological Advancement of Big Data and AI within the Travel Industry
The wide form of technology adoption within the travel industry has helped in the
transformation of the travel industry. With the help of big data analysis and AI-based
technologies, it has been extremely useful for the travel businesses for providing various kinds of
functionalities within the sector. With the help of the data collected, various agencies are able to
provide different kinds of recommendation engines and also provide personalized offers. With
the application of artificial intelligence within tourism, the travel industry has been able to
provide an instant form of messaging services and several other capabilities based within the
context of tourism (Gretzel et al., 2015). In addition to these kinds of services, the artificial
intelligence also makes use of data that is collected from the Big Data technology in order to
understand the choices of the customers. This would be very much helpful for proactively
assisting the customers in making efficient forms of decisions in relation to their travel
experiences. The artificial intelligence technology collects the data of the customer from a vast
number of sources and thus creates a 360-degree view of the behavioral trends within the
customer. This helps in driving higher form of conversion and thus improves the loyalty of the
customer towards the particular business application (Russell, Dewey & Tegmark, 2015).
2.5 Applications of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in the Travel Industry
There are several forms of applications based on big data and artificial intelligence within
the travel industry:
Recommendation Engines – Big data technology collects various kinds of information
that are in relation to the data of the customers. High forms of algorithms are used for the
collection of a vast form of data based on the customers. This data is used by various companies
and travel industries for providing efficiency within the business operations. The mobile

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application also supports various kinds of recommendation engines, which make use of the
stored and collected data from the customers (Ricci, Rokach & Shapira, 2015).
Hotel Prices and Flight Fare Forecasting – The prices of hotels and flights are ever
increasing as this mainly depends on the decision of the service provider. Hence the tracking of
the individual prices in a manual process becomes a hectic process. Hence smart AI-based tools
would be extremely helpful for monitoring and thus send timely alerts to the customers based on
the current trends within the industry.
Intelligent Travel Assistants – The travel agency is one of the many areas that are being
automated with the help of highly powerful algorithms. Intelligent forms of programs that are
referred to as chatbots help in the ease of various kinds of operations within the travel industry.
These bots are able to provide 24/7 services and assist in making wise decisions (Williams,
Peters & Breazeal, 2013).
2.6 Implications of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence within the Travel Industry
The implications of big data and artificial intelligence within the sector of tourism would
include the positive and negative forms of implications within the sector (Fuchs, Höpken &
Lexhagen, 2014).
The positive forms of implications would include several forms of improved forms of
experiences based on the experiences of the customers. The customers would be able to compare
different kinds of prices based on several choices of hotels. The use of these kinds of
technologies also helps in providing travel assistants who would be helpful in supporting the
decisions of the customers (Xiang et al., 2015).

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The negative forms of implications of the impact of AI and big data within the travel
industry are the potential of automation systems for giving rise to loss of jobs within the sector.
There would also be a major challenge for the security of the computing devices within the
sector as they would get prone to attacks (Loebbecke & Picot, 2015).
3. Conclusion
Based on the above discussion, it could be concluded that there are numerous forms of
technological advancements in the field of big data and artificial intelligence within the travel
and tourism industry. The report focuses on the various ways in which the travel industry is
getting transformed. With the invention of the latest kinds of technical devices, there have also
been huge advancements in the algorithms, which are able to define the automation systems
within each of the processes within the system. The recent forms of travel based applications put
their major focus on the ease of customer experience so that they would be able to use the
application according to their needs. The use of AI within the sector would be helpful in solving
the various kinds of challenges within the implications within the travel industry. Hence,
enriching the technologies would be a major enhancement for the growth of the profits within the
sector and thus provide a soothing experience for the customers.

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4. References
Becerra-Fernandez, I., & Sabherwal, R. (2014). Knowledge management: Systems and
processes. Routledge.
Fuchs, M., Höpken, W., & Lexhagen, M. (2014). Big data analytics for knowledge generation in
tourism destinations–A case from Sweden. Journal of Destination Marketing &
Management, 3(4), 198-209.
Gretzel, U., Sigala, M., Xiang, Z., & Koo, C. (2015). Smart tourism: foundations and
developments. Electronic Markets, 25(3), 179-188.
John Walker, S. (2014). Big data: A revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think.
Law, R., Buhalis, D., & Cobanoglu, C. (2014). Progress on information and communication
technologies in hospitality and tourism. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management, 26(5), 727-750.
Loebbecke, C., & Picot, A. (2015). Reflections on societal and business model transformation
arising from digitization and big data analytics: A research agenda. The Journal of
Strategic Information Systems, 24(3), 149-157.
Loebbecke, C., & Picot, A. (2015). Reflections on societal and business model transformation
arising from digitization and big data analytics: A research agenda. The Journal of
Strategic Information Systems, 24(3), 149-157.
Ricci, F., Rokach, L., & Shapira, B. (2015). Recommender systems: introduction and challenges.
In Recommender systems handbook (pp. 1-34). Springer, Boston, MA.

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Russell, S. J., & Norvig, P. (2016). Artificial intelligence: a modern approach. Malaysia;
Pearson Education Limited,.
Russell, S., Dewey, D., & Tegmark, M. (2015). Research priorities for robust and beneficial
artificial intelligence. Ai Magazine, 36(4), 105-114.
Vinod, B. (2013). Leveraging BIG DATA for competitive advantage in travel. Journal of
revenue and pricing management, 12(1), 96-100.
Williams, K. J., Peters, J. C., & Breazeal, C. L. (2013, June). Towards leveraging the driver's
mobile device for an intelligent, sociable in-car robotic assistant. In Intelligent Vehicles
Symposium (IV), 2013 IEEE (pp. 369-376). IEEE.
Xiang, Z., Magnini, V. P., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2015). Information technology and consumer
behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the internet. Journal
of Retailing and Consumer Services, 22, 244-249.
Xiang, Z., Schwartz, Z., Gerdes Jr, J. H., & Uysal, M. (2015). What can big data and text
analytics tell us about hotel guest experience and satisfaction?. International Journal of
Hospitality Management, 44, 120-130.