A bridge between culture and tourists.
AI technology is revolutionizing the tourism industry, offering numerous benefits for both travelers and businesses. The World Travel and Tourism Council predicts that AI will profoundly shape the future of travel and tourism by significantly improving business operational efficiency and enriching travel experiences.
Currently, many tourism services are starting to use AI, for example, interactive activities and direct interaction between visitors and technological solutions, especially demonstrations using robots to serve restaurants, robots to serve rooms, robots to advise on services, etc., and AI applications like Wao AI BOT which can interact, advise, and provide tourism service information to tourists with diverse and easily accessible interactive tools, allowing visitors to directly chat with and interview robots easily.
Around the world, many countries have successfully applied AI to promote attractive cultural tourism products. For example, in China, a traditional art exhibition at a famous tourist area has been held using entirely AI algorithms.
More than half of those surveyed by Expedia are interested in using AI to plan their next trip. AI is expected to simplify the planning and booking process, although certain inaccuracies remain. Nearly 40% of travelers said they would use AI-powered search tools to ensure a perfect vacation.
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AI is becoming a convenient and fast "bridge" connecting culture to tourists. (Illustrative image - Source: TGCC) |
With its advantage of attractive cultural tourism destinations, many provinces and localities in Vietnam are applying AI technology to become a "bridge" between tourists and local culture. In Co To, Quang Ninh province, virtual reality technology has been applied to allow tourists to experience "remote tours" of Co To through 360-degree images combined with automatic commentary: the special national historical site of the Ho Chi Minh Memorial Area on Co To Island; exploring Co To Island, Truc Lam Pagoda, Mong Rong rock formation, Thanh Lan Island, etc. This technology helps Co To tourism spread more widely to domestic and international friends, while effectively supporting tourists in planning their actual trips.
Hue is a leading province in applying AI technology to promote tourism, connecting tourists and cultural heritage. Specifically, in 2023, the "One Food in Hue" project was launched to convey the beauty of Hue's cuisine using AI tools. The project created an AI ambassador - Chabot O Thuc, with the mission of spreading the "map" of Hue's cuisine to a wide audience both domestically and internationally with the support of AI technology.
This is the first dedicated chatbot promoting Hue cuisine, offering many interesting experiences for users. O Thuc is inspired by the image of the women of Hue, with their gentle, refined, and diligent beauty. The O Thuc chatbot helps tourists answer questions about Hue's cuisine, culture, and tourism completely free of charge. Users can chat with O Thuc using the AI chatbot integrated into the message box on the "One Food in Hue" project page, in both Vietnamese and English.
By 2025, Hue will again implement Smart Interactive Stations (TapQuest), which are physical boards equipped with short-range wireless (NFC) connectivity chips that tourists can tap their phones on to connect to the cultural and historical story of each location through various rich forms of presentation including images, videos, 3D models, text, and AI-powered guides. Now, tourists can tap the smart interactive stations at 9 important points of Hai Van Pass to connect with the story and leave their beautiful images on the "digital wall" of this historically significant pass.
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To widely apply AI technology to create a "cultural tourism map," the Vietnamese tourism industry faces many challenges that need to be addressed. (Illustrative image - Source: Rooty trip Phu Quoc) |
AI has immense potential for development in the tourism sector. AI is creating a "flat world" at tourist destinations. Tourists can easily create detailed itineraries thanks to AI-powered "virtual assistants." AI also allows tourists to quickly access "maps" of delicious food and cultural and historical sites in various provinces and localities in multiple languages. This is a way to attract international tourists to Vietnam.
The AI-powered "tourist map" model needs to be replicated on a larger scale.
In September 2024, within the framework of the seminar "AI and Digital Transformation Technology Solutions for Khanh Hoa Tourism Industry," Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research, stated that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is creating many opportunities for the tourism industry, from smart management and operation to digital marketing. To compete with the international tourism market, Vietnam needs to widely apply technology, including AI, to the tourism industry in its provinces and localities.
In fact, in Vietnam, AI technology is opening up a direction for sustainable tourism development. For example, AI helps reduce waste and the negative impacts of tourism activities. Technology plays a key role in monitoring, managing, and protecting tourism resources, including both natural and cultural resources.
With the development of digital tools and data management technologies, authorities can monitor, assess, and implement timely interventions to prevent the overexploitation of tourism resources. Technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Big Data help management agencies track changes in the environment and natural resources, and predict potential impacts from tourism activities.
These are the factors that enable Vietnam to create diverse and attractive tourism maps. However, the application of AI in the tourism industry is not yet widespread. For example, only a few provinces and cities such as Hue, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Quang Ninh, etc., use AI to attract tourists to visit and experience the local cultural beauty.
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Thanks to AI, tourists will quickly have access to a "map" of delicious food and attractive cultural and historical sites in various provinces and localities in multiple languages. (Illustrative image - Source: GenK) |
To widely apply AI technology to create a "cultural tourism map," Vietnam's tourism industry faces many challenges. For example, the tourism sector is currently experiencing a shortage of human resources, particularly those with basic knowledge and understanding of AI. This is especially true in remote, mountainous provinces where people traditionally engage in tourism. Therefore, there is a need for "affordable AI training" to educate the local population and help them shift towards a more sustainable tourism development model.
Furthermore, building AI-powered tourism maps requires support and investment from the State. A complete and detailed data source will help provinces, localities, and businesses easily apply AI algorithms to create unique cultural tourism tours. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has issued Decision No. 2710/QD-BVHTTDL approving the project "Tourism Industry Database System". Accordingly, the tourism industry database system will be built and developed comprehensively and uniformly nationwide to serve state management of tourism and contribute to tourism promotion.
The project will be implemented from 2024 to 2030 and divided into two phases. Phase 1 (2024-2025) prioritizes the completion and development of several key component databases for the tourism industry to connect and share nationwide. Phase 2 (2026-2030) will continue to maintain, upgrade, and expand the component databases completed in Phase 1; and complete the remaining component databases to create a comprehensive tourism industry database system.
The project aims to develop, maintain, and update information and data in the tourism industry database system by 2025 using new technologies; to build a tourism industry database system in accordance with relevant standards, regulations, and technical solutions in a synchronized manner, and to utilize shared data from various units, ministries, sectors, and localities. By 2030, the goal is to apply Big Data and AI technologies to process and analyze data for analysis, evaluation, management, connectivity, and data sharing within the tourism industry and related organizations and individuals.
Source: https://baophapluat.vn/du-lich-van-hoa-thong-minh-thoi-ai-post547895.html
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