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@ARTICLE{,
    author = {Calvaresi, Davide and Ibrahim, Ahmed and Calbimonte, Jean-Paul and Fragni{\`{e}}re, Emmanuel and Schegg, Roland and Schumacher, Michael},
  keywords = {chatbots, Industry focus group, Social chatbots, Tourism academia, Tourism industry, Virtual Assistants},
     month = aug,
     title = {Leveraging inter-tourists interactions via chatbots to bridge academia, tourism industries and future societies},
   journal = {Journal of Tourism Futures},
      year = {2021},
       url = {https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JTF-01-2021-0009/full/pdf},
       doi = {10.1108/JTF-01-2021-0009},
  abstract = {Purpose – The tourism and hospitality sectors are experiencing radical innovation boosted by the
advancements in Information and Communication Technologies. Increasingly sophisticated chatbots are
introducing novel approaches, re-shaping the dynamics among tourists and service providers, and fostering a
remarkable behavioral change in the overall sector. Therefore, the objective of this paper is two-folded: (1) to
highlight the academic and industrial standing points with respect to the current chatbots designed/deployed in
the tourism sector and (2) to develop a proof-of-concept embodying the most prominent opportunities in the
tourism sector.
Design/methodology/approach – This work elaborates on the outcomes of a Systematic Literature Review
(SLR) and a Focus Group (FG) composed of experts from the tourism industry. Moreover, it presents a proof-of-concept relying on the outcomes obtained from both SLR and FG. Eventually, the proof-of-concept has been
tested with experts and practitioners of the tourism sector.
Findings – Among the findings elicited by this paper, we can mention the quick evolution of chatbot-based
solutions, the need for continuous investments, upskilling, system innovation to tackle the eTourism challenges
and the shift toward new dimensions (i.e. tourist-to-tourist-to-chatbot and personalized multi-stakeholder
systems). In particular, we focus on the need for chatbot-based activity and thematic aggregation for next-generation tourists and service providers.
Originality/value – Both academic- and industrial-centered findings have been structured and discussed to
foster the practitioners’ future research. Moreover, the proof-of-concept presented in the paper is the first of its
kind, which raised considerable interest from both technical and business-planning perspectives.}
}