Arival releases Gen AI guide for tours, activities, attractions and other visitor experiences – WiT – Web In Travel

Arival, a leading resource for the in-destination experiences sector, has released “The Arival Guide to AI in Experiences.”, a guide that aims to equip operators of tours, activities, attractions, and other visitor experiences with the knowledge and strategies to leverage Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) effectively. By doing so, the producers of the guide hope that operators can enhance the guest experience, streamline operations, save money, and drive business growth.

Released in partnership with Failte Ireland, the national tourism development authority for Ireland, The Arival Guide to AI in Experiences provides an exploration of this relatively new and powerful technology. It addresses key topics, including:

Understanding Gen AI

The guide offers a step-by-step walkthrough on how AI works, how it learns, and what to expect from it. It covers the main tools and capabilities, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each. Additionally, it addresses the issue of AI “hallucinations,” where AI generates content to fill gaps.

Modes of Gen AI

Covering written content, image generation, audio, and video, the guide explains how these modes can and should not be used by tour, activity, and attraction operators.

Effective Interaction with AI Models

Practical guidance is provided on navigating the evolving landscape of AI interaction. This includes understanding how to communicate with AI models to achieve desired outcomes and extract maximum value.

Real-World Applications for Experiences Businesses

With actionable insights, the guide explores various practical AI applications for operators. These range from tour descriptions and photography to translations, business planning, chatbots for customer service, and even time-saving tasks like helping staff with emails or summarizing contracts.

The guide aims to:

1. Provide an overview of major trends in AI and emerging technology applications.
   
2. Assess the potential impact and opportunities for visitor experience businesses to leverage this technology.
   
3. Explain how travel businesses can strategically integrate AI and emerging technologies.
   
4. Offer accessible use cases in practice today by experience operators and technology providers.

According to Douglas Quinby, co-founder and CEO at Arival, “The proliferation of ChatGPT, along with an abundance of new startups, software, and tools, have made artificial intelligence accessible and actionable for all. AI is poised to revolutionise so much across so many industries and presents a tremendous opportunity for the experiences sector. Our new guide empowers operators with the knowledge they need to stay ahead of the curve. By embracing AI strategically, experiences businesses have an opportunity to do much more with much greater efficiency, ultimately driving long-term success.”

Failte Ireland’s Orla O’Keeffe, Head of Industry Digitalisation, added, “This report underscores the significance of adopting new technologies and provides concrete examples of their relevance to Irish tourism SMEs. This report will help shape our strategic direction in 2024 and beyond and will help to empower our industry with the necessary knowledge to embrace the transformative opportunities presented by Generative AI and stay ahead of the curve.”

Generative AI, or GenAI, has sparked extraordinary interest and excitement in recent times. The release of ChatGPT 3.0 by OpenAI in November 2022 unleashed a flood of interest and excitement. This was the first generally accessible version of GenAI, making AI practical for non-technical users overnight. Today, discussions around AI all use or refer to a version of this technology.

GenAI, based on Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) technology, has been trained to understand and speak our language. This revolutionary advancement allows anyone to interact with a computer with almost unlimited knowledge.

How to interact effectively with AI models

The guide emphasizes three key principles for working effectively with GenAI tools:

1. Prompt Engineering: Crafting effective prompts is crucial. Prompts are directions given to the models to generate content. Users should be direct, specific, and provide examples to guide the AI.
   
2. Trial and Error: Experimentation is key to understanding the capabilities and limitations of AI models.
   
3. Understanding Limitations: Recognizing that AI models can “hallucinate” or struggle with current information and numerical data is essential.

Practical applications

The guide provides an overview of potential business applications, examples, and tools for GenAI in visitor experience businesses.

Applications are organized into five overarching categories:

1. Written Content Generation
2. Business Planning & Marketing
3. Customer Service & Communication
4. Multi-Modal Applications
5. Travel & Experiences Applications & Tools
   

While not as obvious as many general content generation applications, GenAI excels at creative thinking. It can be used for creating business and marketing plans, designing products, crafting itineraries, producing operational documents and manuals, and more.

According to the guide, GenAI can also enhance customer interaction through automated review responses, email communication, and live chat. It provides operators with the ability to converse directly with guests in real-time and manage customer communications efficiently.

Examples:

• Generating responses to frequently asked questions
• Providing engaging, human-like personalized responses to customer queries
• Delivering booking confirmations, tickets, and reminders
• Offering upsells and cross-promotional opportunities

Prepared by Magpie CEO Christian Watts, founder of the Everything AI in Travel Newsletter & Consultancy Tony Carne, and the Arival editorial team, The Arival Guide to AI in Experiences is now available for free download.