AI in Tourism: Why Coordination is the Key to a Seamless Travel Experience

AI is making its making its mark on the tourism business by assisting companies become more efficient, characterizing helps with AI, and increasing overall automation in the business. Despite its largely positive impacts on the tourism business, AI can also negatively impact the overall travel experience. The primary cause of this problem is more so the lack of coordination among the many different players involved in the tourism experience.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to the tourism industry. Unlike all other industries, the tourism industry consists of many different players, all of which are dependent on, and intimately involved with, one another. Individual parts of the operator ai travel industry. There is little to no communication, and even less action, in the ai travel industry. When one part of the journey makes choices that do not get communicated to the other parts, tourism providers. Such operators disrupt the smooth and seamless flow of the traveler’s journey.

The Problem: Coordination Breakdown

In today’s world, autonomous AI systems operate within their individual silos. For instance, when a flight is delayed, this can trigger a series of manual interventions across multiple touchpoints. Hotels may not be notified of the delay, transfers remain unaffected, and reservations are missed. In such scenarios, travelers become responsible for navigating these broken systems, often dealing with different languages, time zones, and platforms.

While technology is not the problem, the absence of a shared coordination layer remains a major challenge. This gap in the system leaves travelers to integrate their experience across various platforms, which could lead to frustration and inefficiencies.

Introducing Agentic Tourism

To address this issue, the Agentic Tourism Initiative has been launched. This initiative, developed in collaboration with TOURISE and the Saudi Ministry of Tourism, aims to create a new operating model for the tourism sector. This model will allow autonomous AI agents across airlines, hotels, airports, destinations, and travel experiences to coordinate seamlessly in real-time.

Agentic Tourism is not a product owned by one company; rather, it is a global protocol designed to ensure that AI in tourism works as a unified system. The initiative focuses on ensuring that AI can take autonomous action but within strict guidelines set by humans. These guidelines are essential for ensuring responsibility, transparency, and accountability in the AI decision-making process.

How Agentic Tourism Works

At the heart of Agentic Tourism is the ability to move from insight to autonomous action responsibly. AI agents will be able to sense the context of a situation, reason through potential actions, plan responses, and act. However, they will always operate within predefined guardrails. This means that automation will handle the expected processes, leaving the human touch—such as empathy, creativity, and trust—to focus on what truly matters.

This move toward AI autonomy also includes monitoring tangible metrics such as operational efficiency, recovery time from disruptions, traveler confidence, and continuity of experiences. These measurable outcomes will help ensure that Agentic Tourism not only works in theory but also delivers results in practice.

The Global Economic Impact of Agentic Tourism

Tourism contributes nearly 10% to global GDP, and this figure is set to increase to $16.5 trillion by 2035. Meanwhile, the role of AI in the tourism industry is projected to grow to $13.86 billion by 2030. However, without a coordinated system, the rapid growth of AI in the sector could result in fragmentation. If the industry fails to implement shared standards, closed ecosystems and dominant platforms could emerge, limiting the opportunities for smaller players and destinations.

The economic potential of a fully coordinated AI system in tourism is significant. But to realize this, global collaboration and adherence to shared standards are essential.

Governance and Trust in AI Systems

A major point of focus in the development of Agentic Tourism is the importance of governance. During a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, a group of global CEOs, policymakers, and technology leaders discussed the need for clear human oversight and accountability in AI systems. It became evident that simply having a technologically advanced system is not enough. Trust in these systems will only emerge when there is transparent governance, clear guardrails, and enforceable accountability.

AI agents must not only act autonomously but must do so under governance frameworks that ensure their actions align with human values and objectives. This will be crucial in building confidence among travelers, operators, and other stakeholders in the tourism sector.

Phased Implementation for Scalability

Rather than attempting to implement a large-scale transformation all at once, the Agentic Tourism model will evolve in phases. These phases will begin with piloting core agent archetypes—such as agents focused on experience personalization, operations optimization, sustainability, and economic opportunity. Once these initial pilots are successful, the protocol will scale incrementally, ensuring that regulatory, cultural, and operational diversity is preserved across different regions and destinations.

Saudi Arabia plays a central role in this global initiative. The Kingdom is not only investing in the scale of AI applications but is also focusing on building systems that can coordinate across different platforms and stakeholders. By hosting and facilitating the efforts of TOURISE, Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as a key player in defining how AI and agentic systems will shape the future of global tourism.

Practical Guide for Travelers

As these advancements unfold, travelers can expect more seamless experiences in the coming years. AI will help personalize their journeys, anticipate their needs, and offer real-time adjustments to their plans. For example, if a flight is delayed, AI systems could automatically adjust hotel bookings, transportation, and even create new itineraries based on available data.

However, this process will also require travelers to trust the systems in place. As AI continues to evolve, it’s essential to stay informed about which platforms are implementing these technologies and how they can benefit the travel experience. Keeping an eye on pilot programs and initiatives like Agentic Tourism will offer a glimpse into the future of travel, ensuring that you’re at the forefront of this evolving sector.

Conclusion

The Agentic Tourism initiative has the ability to change how the travel and tourism industry utilizes AI and enhances the customer experience and personalization. As advancements of AI become more prominent, the AI in tourism industry will become more sophisticated, resulting in a demand in the industry. The AI will be sophisticated enough to create the perfect travel itineraries and predict the travel behaviors and preferences of tourists. The Agentic Tourism initiative provides travel and tourism organizations with the opportunity to be the first to offer sophisticated travel personalization and AI to their customers. The initiative will also enhance the travel and tourism industry, travel agents and customers experience. Agentic Tourism indicates the use of AI in travel and tourism which gives the customer the ability to have total control of their travel experience.

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