Artificial intelligence and ethical dilemmas in sustainable tourism: insights from an emerging destination in the Global South

This research aims to investigate the ethical challenges of the adoption of artificial intelligence in tourism practice through a qualitative research methodology in which key challenges, i.e., addressing immediate concerns (privacy, equitable resource distribution, and algorithmic-level biases), were considered within the context of early-stage AI adoption in an emerging tourism economy. To gather the data, semi-structured interviews with 10 key informants were conducted, including five business owners of private tour agencies and five government employees at the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation, using a purposive, saturation-oriented sampling approach appropriate for exploratory ethical inquiry. The thematic analysis revealed five interrelated underlying themes. These five themes are the critical need for algorithmic transparency in decision-making processes of tourism practices; the need for development of equitable AI solutions addressing the needs of local tourism stakeholders; heightened ethical concerns associated with distinct AI applications, including automated decision-support and emerging generative systems; concerns over digital privacy of tourists in AI-driven systems; the importance of capacity-building programs for the tourism sector to integrate AI; and the need for establishing an ethical governance framework to ensure responsible AI deployment. The results of this study provide valuable insights to help stakeholders such as policymakers in the tourism sector, tourism firms, and AI software developers across the tourism industry by offering a context-sensitive yet conceptually transferable ethical perspective. The findings also emphasise the importance of having a government framework to promote ethics in governance and initiate capacity-building programs to equip the tourism industry with AI integration. The study identifies future research avenues in terms of adopting artificial intelligence approaches in tourism practices without compromising sustainability, thereby contributing to anticipatory ethical discussions relevant to other Global South and emerging tourism destinations, including but not limited to Pakistan.