TY  - JOUR
T1  - Leveraging inter-tourists interactions via chatbots to bridge academia, tourism industries and future societies
A1  - Calvaresi, Davide
A1  - Ibrahim, Ahmed
A1  - Calbimonte, Jean-Paul
A1  - Fragnière, Emmanuel
A1  - Schegg, Roland
A1  - Schumacher, Michael
JA  - Journal of Tourism Futures
Y1  - 2021
UR  - https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JTF-01-2021-0009/full/pdf
M2  - doi: 10.1108/JTF-01-2021-0009
KW  - chatbots
KW  - Industry focus group
KW  - Social chatbots
KW  - Tourism academia
KW  - Tourism industry
KW  - Virtual Assistants
N2  - 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.
ER  -