What the Rencontres E-Tourisme de Pau taught us about AI and the tourism of tomorrow

Last week, I had the privilege of attending the Rencontres E-Tourisme de Pau with the Quebec delegation, a must-attend event for tourism professionals interested in new technologies. I spent three days soaking up the best of what the French-speaking world has to offer, where every conference, panel, workshop and exchange was an opportunity to cross-fertilize ideas, question our methods and glimpse the many possibilities that lie ahead.

Artificial intelligence featured prominently among the many topics discussed. These discussions reinforced my conviction that AI is an essential lever for our industry. It is profoundly transforming our reflexes and methods, redefining the way we interact with visitors and offering immense potential for increasing the attractiveness of our destinations.

Highlights

Far from being limited to theoretical concepts, the conferences and workshops put forward concrete use cases. Several companies and destinations from France, Quebec and Belgium shared their experiences and demonstrated how they are integrating AI into their daily practices, making the opportunities that lie ahead tangible. The AI+Tourism working group also presented its progress and strategic thinking on AI in our industry. Pierre Bellerose led a highly relevant exchange on AI appropriation initiatives in tourism with Jean-Luc Boulin, co-organizer of the event, and Jean-Philippe Duchesneau was able to share his expertise during the AI workshop, What’s new one year later? presenting concrete cases and innovative solutions. Finally, Frédéric Gonzalo rounded off the last day with an enlightening sharing on the Revolution in Tourism Research at the workshop of the same name.

A few concepts that caught my attention

• Data and discoverability: The accessibility and availability of detailed, up-to-date data on our offers, businesses and destinations is crucial. This is what feeds AI tools, fuels algorithms and improves our discoverability (the term of the hour!) in a saturated digital ecosystem. By providing accurate, detailed, natural-language and up-to-date information, we increase the chances that our destinations or offers will be highlighted by AIs.

• Personalization: AI enables us to refine our understanding of customer groups and to manage hundreds of specific segments, facilitating greater personalization of tourism offers, content and marketing campaigns. However, this requires companies to be more agile to remain competitive, and to ensure that business expertise continues to add real value to our marketing strategies.
  

• (R)evolution of online search: Generative AI is transforming visitors’ search practices at every stage of their journey. Search engines now anticipate users’ needs, and will soon be able to suggest activities or destinations even before they make a request. Another striking trend is that of zero-click search, where answers are provided directly by the search engine without the user having to click and visit a website. This forces tourism companies to adapt their content strategies to remain visible and relevant in this new reality, and calls into question the very relevance of having a website…!

Two outstanding examples of tourism applications

• One Provence One Provence: A territorial attractiveness initiative for the Aix-Marseille-Provence region, One Provence is the first promotional website based on artificial intelligence to efficiently answer all the questions of visitors, whether they are residents, future residents, tourists, entrepreneurs and so on. The simple interface, inspired by Google and ChatGPT, enables users to quickly find information on the region, accommodation, transport, events and other services in natural language.

• Anne Kerdi A virtual influencer created from scratch to promote Brittany. This example highlighted the technical and ethical challenges of creating virtual characters, including managing gender bias in visual representations, but also the near-futuristic potential of AIs with their own personalities and business goals.

With all that… where do we start?

Ah, the big question! When we come back from such a stimulating event, we have two choices: either we remain overwhelmed by the amount of information, or we take action. To avoid all this remaining theoretical, here are three concrete actions to put in place:

1. Identify an issue in your processes or a task that’s important, but where you’re not adding real value, and ask yourself if it can be solved with AI. My hypothesis? Most likely. Test an AI solution or tool on this process and make a first quick win, to familiarize yourself with the technology.
   
2. Train your teams: AI cannot deploy its full potential without human intervention. It’s essential to free up time for your teams to learn how to use these new tools to get the best out of them. Appoint a champion and encourage your teams to learn and experiment.
   
3. Share, share, share : Create spaces for internal exchanges, such as a group of curious or super-users, to encourage collective learning. Encourage the sharing of experiences to learn more quickly from each other.

In conclusion

These Rencontres E-Tourisme in Pau were incredibly rich, not only thanks to the official program, but also through discussions with speakers, questions from participants and informal exchanges. The Quebec delegation, with whom I shared this experience, was a source of personal and professional enrichment. Together, we laid the foundations that will continue to fuel our reflections and practices.

It also confirmed to me the extent to which people are at the heart of our industry. AI may be powerful, but it remains a tool at the service of our collective intelligence, which is our real strength. Beyond technologies, it’s by creating communities of practice and forums for exchange that we can really take advantage of these innovations.

The technical, ethical and creative challenges remain numerous. For me, the future of tourism will depend on our ability to adapt quickly to these transformations, and to take advantage of them responsibly and collectively. So let’s keep exploring these possibilities and keep the conversation going!

To discuss it with me on Linkedin, it’s here.