Relevance of Applying Artificial Intelligence in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry

The purpose of the study was to consider the potential and possibilities of using the artificial intelligence technology in the field of tourism and hospitality. The authors analyzed Russian and foreign scientific literature and statistical sources and identified three reasons for using artificial intelligence in the tourism and hospitality industry: improving the quality of service, increasing the income of tourism and hotel enterprises, boosting the profitability of organizations by optimizing costs. Artificial intelligence technologies that can be used in the tourism and hospitality industry enterprises are indicated, with the authors naming the following: face recognition technology, virtual reality technology, chatbots, service robots, Google maps, translation and optimization services. The scientific significance lies in determination of the criteria necessary for artificial intelligence and automated systems to create value for customers, such as: attractive user interfaces, customizability for certain customer segments, functional similarity to other modern platforms. As the problems arising during application of artificial intelligence in the field of tourism and hospitality, the authors single out the following: lack of consistent success in replacing the provision of services in the traditional way with artificial intelligence, data security, high cost for small service providers, customer distrust when communicating with service robots. The authors indicate the need for further research in this area—it is necessary to critically assess the overall importance of the artificial intelligence technology for the tourism and hospitality industry, as well as to identify the possibilities of occurrence of adverse consequences for customers when interacting with the artificial intelligence technologies.