Artificial intelligence is redefining customer relationship management across travel, tourism, and hospitality, shifting the focus from reactive service to predictive, personalised engagement.
TT Bureau
A new report by the World Travel & Tourism Council and Trip.com Group positions AI as the defining force behind the industry’s next phase of growth, with 94 per cent of leaders identifying it as mission critical.
Across the traveller journey, AI is already driving change. From inspiration to booking and post trip engagement, intelligent platforms are enabling deeper personalisation and faster decision making. TripGenie by Trip.com Group recorded a 200 per cent surge in usage in 2024. At the same time, 91 per cent of travel businesses plan to increase technology investments, signalling a clear shift towards data led ecosystems.
Looking ahead, AI will converge with innovations such as quantum computing and smart mobility, unlocking new travel possibilities.
Yamina Sofo
Director – Marketing & Sales Office, GNTO GCC
When used responsibly, AI benefits customers by making service faster, more accurate, and more personalised — especially in travel planning. AI can help travellers find the right itinerary faster, compare regions, and get instant answers on transport, opening times, and practical trip questions. It reduces friction and improves confidence. The key is accuracy, source-based information, and an easy handover to a human when needed. With initiatives like Emma, GNTB’s AI travel companion, we can offer fast answers round the clock.
Elmira Heshmati
Founder & CEO, Elaxiom Travel
AI enhances customer experiences by delivering personalised faster responses and better tailored recommendations. In tourism, AI anticipates travellers’ preferences and enables targeted communication goals. This reduces waiting times, improves service efficiency, and results in a smoother and customer-centric travel experiences. AI can be a powerful bridge between operational efficiency and human connection.
Iftikhar Hamdani
Area General Manager – Northern Emirates, Bahi Ajman Palace Hotel and Coral Beach Resort Sharjah
AI enhances guest experiences by providing personalised recommendations and quick service. With chatbots and virtual concierges, guests can receive instant support anytime, ensuring their needs are met efficiently and effectively. AI can streamline operations while preserving the human touch. By automating routine tasks, staff can focus more on building genuine relationships with guests, fostering loyalty and enriching the overall experience.
Sapna Aidasani
Director – PR and Marketing, Pluto Travels
One of the most immediate advantages of AI is speed. It enables travel providers to present options quickly, reducing the time a customer spends searching, comparing, and waiting for responses. What previously took hours, or even days, can now be done in minutes. While AI can generate options, it is the responsibility of the travel expert to ensure those options are accurate, suitable, and genuinely in the customer’s interest.
Sohel Shaikh
Cluster Director – Data Science Accor Shared-Services
AI enhances customer value by enabling hyper-personalised and predictive experiences. By applying machine learning models on behavioural, transactional, and contextual datasets, organisations can anticipate needs and deliver tailored services proactively. For instance, in hospitality, AI-driven forecasting and demand prediction models analyse reservation trends, events, and seasonal patterns to ensure optimal service readiness.
Amro Nagah
General Manager, Swissôtel Al Murooj Dubai
We believe, AI significantly benefits our guests by enabling faster, personalised, and seamless all-in-one experiences. From intelligent chatbots to predictive preferences, it anticipates needs, reduces wait times, and ensures consistency across touchpoints — empowering hotel brands to deliver tailored interactions that enhance satisfaction, loyalty, and overall journey efficiency. At Swissôtel Al Murooj Dubai, AI enhances operational efficiency by streamlining processes while allowing our team to focus on genuine guest connections. By anticipating guest needs in advance, the human touch becomes more elevated and efficient.
Nuran Kilani
COO, L’AZURE Hospitality
AI elevates the guest experience by anticipating needs, personalising stays, and removing friction from every touchpoint. From tailored room preferences to instant service requests and smart recommendations, guests feel recognized and valued. Instead of transactional interactions, AI enables seamless, intuitive hospitality that feels curated rather than standardised. AI bridges this gap by handling the operational load, check-ins, service routing, data analysis.
Namratha Rose
Marketing Manager, Spain Tourism GCC
AI empowers customers through faster resolutions, hyper-personalised interactions, and 24/7 accessibility eliminating the frustration of wait times and generic responses. By anticipating needs before, they are voiced. AI shifts the customer experience from reactive service to proactive care, making every touchpoint feel intuitive, relevant, and genuinely valuable. When deployed thoughtfully, AI handles the repetitive and analytical tasks effectively.
Marloes Knippenberg
CEO, Kerten Hospitality
AI benefits the hotel guest when applied thoughtfully to enhance, not replace, human hospitality. It facilitates a better understanding of guest preferences, which, in turn, enables more relevant recommendations, smoother digital touchpoints, meaningful services, and tailored experiences from pre-arrival to post-stay. AI can close the gap between efficiency and empathy by moving hospitality from reactive to anticipatory. With advanced guest insights, hotels can deepen the personalisation throughout the guest journey.
Talha Ahmed Ali
Head of Operations – TMC, Cozmo Travel
AI benefits customers by creating a more seamless and well-managed travel experience. It simplifies planning, delivers timely updates, and strengthens risk management through real-time alerts and proactive support. By identifying potential disruptions early and guiding travellers with the right options, it reduces uncertainty and keeps journeys smooth and well-coordinated. AI can bridge this gap by quietly taking over repetitive work.
Ashok Kumar
Founder & Managing Director Cruise Master
We see AI as an emerging enabler rather than a fully embedded solution in our day-to-day operations. In a B2B cruise environment, where our teams and travel partners manage multiple brands, itineraries, and pricing structures, the potential for AI lies in simplifying complexity and improving response times. While we are continuously evaluating how such tools can support our processes, the core of our business remains firmly relationship-driven.
Jawad Saade
General Manager, Hilton Dubai Creek Hotel & Residences
AI can significantly enhance the guest experience by enabling hotels to better understand preferences, personalise communication, and respond to requests more efficiently. From faster check in processes to tailored recommendations, AI helps remove friction from the guest journey, allowing hotels to anticipate needs. AI is most powerful when it supports, rather than replaces, the human element of hospitality.
