TRANSFORMING TOURISM THROUGH AI: A KERALA CASE STUDY USING SMART MODEL

AI and ML have become an inseparable part of the global tourism and travel market, reinventing customer experience and engagement through the integration of digital marketing. From AI-powered chatbots to predictive analytics and personalized content recommendations, destinations are transforming the way they attract and retain their tourists. In contrast, even though the use of AI-based strategies is gaining importance, little scientific work has been done concerning their usage in marketing in tourism in the state of Kerala. To fill this gap, this study proposes the SMART AI-Driven Tourism Marketing Framework focusing on (a) Sentiment-driven personalization, (b) Machine learning-based predictive analytics (c) automated AI chatbots, (d) Real-time experience optimization (e) targeted content personalization for enhancing tourist engagement. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research combines sentiment analysis of online tourist reviews, machine learning models predicting travel behaviour, and a policy review of AIfacilitated tourism policies. Insights into best practices as well as possible areas for AI adoption are drawn from comparative case studies of Kerala Tourism digital strategies with global AIdriven destinations like Singapore and Dubai. It is anticipated that the findings will show the potential benefits of using AI to increase tourist contentment, destination brand communication efficiency, and government policy-making effectiveness. The findings from this investigation help in the development of AI-based tourism advertising and marketing fashions and offer a strategic guide for policy-makers, corporations, and tourism marketers to harness the utility of AI for a competitive gain to the tourism area of Kerala.