Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Tourism: New Challenges and Theories for a Future Agenda

The turn of the century has accelerated long-dormant changes in the fields of technology and digital technology. AI (Artificial Intelligence) adjoined to AR (Augmented Reality) have radically shifted the ways the world is perceived. At the same time, these technological breakthroughs are innovating in the fields of tourism and hospitality as never before. Policymakers and experts have widely discussed the urgency to regulate the arrival of new technologies in the industry. Technology can be part of the solution or the problem. While some studies have alerted digital platforms to generate undesired effects at the destination, others enthusiastically focus on the efficiency of technology to resolve problems like pollution, personal consumer data breach, over mass tourism, and so forth. The question remains open, and of course, this book covers not only this intriguing aspect but also other associated issues such as virtual tourism, staycation, smart tourism, technology, and the ecological crisis, as well as the introduction of robots at hotels. The invited authors, who are specialists in the field, hold a common-thread argumentation that says that technology can be beneficial for tourism if it is duly regulated by the experts.