As part of Tourism Summit Aotearoa, we had a great range of speakers to discuss AI and other new technologies in the industry. Read on for a summary of the speakers who have made their slides available.
Harnessing AI to meet the needs of the post-Covid traveller
Tourism New Zealand General Manager Insights, Performance & Technology, Brendan Downey-Parish
Brendan explored how AI can be used to aid the tourism industry in a post-Covid environment. Notably, visitors are more open to using AI to plan their holiday itineraries resulting in shorter visits but with increased holiday expenditure.
The age of virtual assistance
Acceleration Managing Director Tom Braybrook
Highlighting the evolution of AI technology, Tom illustrated the three distinctive eras of AI and how humans have trained it to become more advanced. In return, both travellers and internal organisations can harness its power to create more valuable travel experiences. Tom's presentation begins on slide 12.
Artificial intelligence trends in 2023
Technology Futurist at Memia, Ben Reid
ChatGPT is front and centre this year as AI begins to become increasingly more accessible to the general public. Ben illustrated how more businesses are harnessing this tool to create marketing campaigns which can cut costs and improve business opportunities with massive economic potential.
Robotic Revolution
Sudima Chief Operating Officer, Les Morgan
The landscape of hotels is changing as robots begin to fill roles within the sector. Les discussed the benefits of removing human error and the time needed to train people to complete the jobs needed to keep a hotel running.
Immersive Travel using Virtual Reality
Sky Motion Founders, Soraya Sarwary and Sean Mascarenhas
Sky Motion are redefining the discovery phase of travel by allowing people to get a glimpse of global destinations using VR. Using VR technology, businesses have found an increase in their conversion rates of customers from higher emotional engagement created through these immersive experiences. You can download a guide on how to start your immersive content journey using a QR code in the slides below.
AI for Sustainability
Senior Director of Global Advocacy and Head of Asia Pacific for Google’s philanthropic arm google.org, Annie Lewin
AI is being used for all manner of good. This included helping biodiversity experts after Australia’s recent bushfires to sift through 7 million images to help analyse the impact on wildlife, a task that would have ordinarily taken years to do. AI was freeing humans to do what they did well, Annie said.
Demystifying Artificial Intelligence and Supercharging Your AI Journey
Maverick Digital Founder, Alex Dykman
Alex, last year’s Emerging Tourism Leader in the New Zealand Tourism Awards, talked about how AI could be used for everything from customer service to marketing. She then encouraged delegates to try out ChatGPT, stressing the importance of adding the tone they wanted to get a less robotic sounding result. Dr Seuss describing Hawkes Bay’s tourist highlights, anyone?
Build a Resilient Business for the Future
Resilient Organisations Executive Director, Dr Erica Seville and Research Consultant, Cameron Eade
How will your business prepare for a disaster? In this workshop, Resilient Organisations, shared some tips on how to be proactive and the importance of doing so. They have shared great resources on preparing for the unexpected, earthquakes and tools to manage your response to disasters.
Navigating the Future Tourism Workforce
Tourism Talent Managing Director, Jason Hill
New Zealand tourism continues to face labour shortages and a changing work environment. To discuss this, Jason led a workshop called “Navigating the Future Tourism Workforce” with finalists of the Employer of Choice award. Together Shane Adcock (Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools & Spa), Gavin Oliver (EcoZip Adventures), Helen Osborne (GO Rentals) and Jason examined the issues at stake and how businesses could develop effective recruitment and retention tactics.
AI-Powered Carbon Calculator
CarbonTrail Founder and Chief Executive, Tom Hallam
Tom shared about his company’s AI-powered carbon calculator. He noted that although almost all tourism operators said sustainability was important to them and just over half had sustainability goals, only about 15% had a budget to action them. With AI, the calculations of emissions could be done in minutes, leaving operators in a place where they could then put their goals into action and use them for promotion and certification purposes.
