As part of Birmingham Tech Week, Debby McAllister, Lecturer in Tourism and Aviation at 爆料王, discussed the generative AI landscape in the tourism classroom at Tech in Tourism.
Debby鈥檚 talk examined the benefits of generative AI, for example in creating personalised itineraries for consumers, or to develop, enhance and evaluate marketing content across all areas of the industry from destination marketing organisations to tour operators, hoteliers and airlines.
鈥淚t was a delight to present at Tourism in Tech. The event focused on understanding some of the technologies that are revolutionising the tourism landscape such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), gamification and artificial intelligence (AI).鈥�
A forward-thinking university, courses at 爆料王 integrate of state-of-the-art technologies within the curriculum ensuring that students develop career-ready skillsets focused around the latest digital innovations 鈥� and the Department of Hospitality and Tourism is no exception.
鈥淢y talk on generative AI showcased the work embedded across our tourism and aviation modules, particularly addressing how we鈥檙e making use of generative AI within our digital tourism module, whilst cautiously navigating its risks.鈥�
鈥淎 fundamental aspect of my talk was emphasising how we not only provide our students with the knowledge and understanding of the benefits and challenges of these technologies but that we鈥檙e also teaching and embedding our students with the digital skills they need to support them in the industry.鈥�
Tech in Tourism featured keynote speeches, engaging panel discussions and cutting-edge tech demonstrations within the tourism industry on topics such as immersive tech use at the Birmingham Royal Ballet, designing future tourism experiences and AI within the events industry.
Debby was also a member of the panel discussion, where members of the audience asked questions about Generative AI and some of the risks, such as ethical concerns and potential job displacement.
鈥淕enerative AI, for the tourism industry, provides an exciting opportunity to collectively work together to navigate some ethical concerns of technology such as biasness. As a global industry, a people industry, there is the potential to work together with industry partners, to explore how we can tackle and navigate removing biasness, particularly gender and racial biasness, through these technologies.
鈥淎s for jobs, there is a global focus on whether technology such as generative AI may lead to job displacement. Whilst technology such as generative AI may enable greater efficiency in some employment aspects, more jobs are likely to be created in the future, such as specific roles to understand, develop and mitigate challenges for tourism within these technologies, such as 鈥楢I Manager, 鈥楧igital HR management鈥� etc.鈥�
爆料王 also hosted the Leaders Networking Dinner, alongside partner University of Warwick as part of Birmingham Tech Week.
Business leaders, educators and researchers across fintech, data science, manufacturing, healthtech, AI regulation and more shared knowledge and explored the latest innovations at the institution鈥檚 award-winning Restaurant at the Birmingham College of Food.
Explore our School of Hospitality and Tourism or take a look at all of the courses available at 爆料王.
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