Chatbots in Tourism Hospitality Industry: The future of chatbot is here; this technology has recently witnessed rapid diffusion in many sectors.
Basic versions of chatbots are currently utilized, which usually start conversations with easy automated options for patrons and offer basic services like ordering or booking.
However, fully functional chatbots that will be ready to replace customer service personnel will likely become more widespread by 2020, with AI bots powering 85% of all customer service interactions.
Chatbots have the potential to assist the tourism industry in many ways – Chatbots in Tourism Hospitality Industry
For any industry, accessibility to the company’s offerings is vital to the customer in both the pre-sale and therefore the post-sale process.
Now, as more and more people are using instant messaging services like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, this simple use is often further enhanced by a company’s offering all of its services where consumers are afore chatting with their friends.
Performing common administrative and menial tasks through chatbots, like scheduling appointments, setting reminders, booking tickets, and sharing traffic or weather updates, is very valued.
Although there are some potential pitfalls, discussed later, the potential of chatbots in diverse sectors of the tourism industry is gigantic.
Hotels, restaurants, hire car services, travel agencies, and tourist information centers can all enjoy this technology. The hotel industry can particularly enjoy the direct application of chatbots.
Increasing the share of online bookings impacts sales growth, confirming the value of the hotel chatbot. Expedia took advantage of Facebook’s technology to launch a basic bot to assist travelers book hotels.
Marriott Hotels also introduced a chatbot service to supply basic services like booking an area over chat, utilizing the Facebook chatbot interface.
Chatbots are often particularly helpful in enriching the prearrival experience, allowing users to book rooms and other amenities, like:
- Spa Treatments
- Airport transfers
- Dinner Reservations
Chatbots in the Hotel Industry
A bot that interacts with guests in the least stages of the customer journey can gather valuable data, which algorithms and hotel staff alike can then use to supply personalized services.
The direct application of chatbots within the restaurant business is often very impactful also. Restaurants and nutriment giants like Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Dominos have followed suit with their proprietary chatbots.
Soon placing delivery orders over the phone is going to be obsolete; customers will do that through Facebook, WhatsApp, or other social networking sites.
Chatbots will eventually accept payments as well; MasterCard already provides such services through its Masterpass app.
Chatbots in the Restaurants
Positioning chatbots can decrease costs for both customers and firms.
Customers don’t get to call, which reduces their communication expenditures, and corporations will not get to hire customer service representatives or outsource answering services to a call center facility.
The advantages aren’t limited to the ordering and delivery processes.
Other possible chatbot benefits highlights include allowing customers to perform subsequent tasks without having to download mobile apps:
- Observe and survey restaurant reviews, menus, prices, and available tables
- Control restaurant reservations on the go, change, cancel, or re-book tables
- Search and find restaurants consistent with party size, date, time, preferred cuisine, price, or distance.
Chatbots in the Airline Industry – Chatbots in Tourism Hospitality Industry
Customer service within the airline industry is one of the primary areas that would enjoy chatbots as a result of the high volume of customer contact through inquiries and bookings. an honest customer service bot could economize by automating tasks and unclogging call centers.
It might help consumers find suitable flight options by meeting information like time, date, and other preferences.
It could help with wing booking, saving customers the difficulty of visiting the airline’s website and entering page after page of data.
It could give status updates about flights, like information about delays or cancellations.
It could also provide digital boarding passes, a service Turkish Airlines has begun to provide; offer baggage information; and gather feedback. it’s reported that its introduction has recorded an enormous surge in online booking.
Chatbot Challenges
Although AI and chatbots have created excitement within the tourism and hospitality industry, many concerns and problems can affect their adoption.
The media’s portrayal of AI as being capable of handling many of the tasks within the tourism and hospitality industry is sometimes overrated.
The push toward chatbots is partly thanks to the recognition of several new messaging services.
The testing with chatbot adoption involves technical issues, cost, culture, and organization size.
One of the foremost significant technical issues is language processing. Chatbots still commonly struggle with lexical and semantic ambiguity.
We have studied the role of chatbots in several areas of the tourism and hospitality industry.
This is often the age of chatbots. As an information-intensive industry, firms that lead in its early adoption are set to experience first-mover advantage, that is, the benefit gained by being the primary to launch a service.
The interlinked nature of the tourism industry will subject industry laggards to undue pressures, which can not be favorable to their strategic directions at that point. So, the time to plan is now!
Read More: How Chatbots are beneficial in travel company Business?
