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It may be a little late for ‘’Happy New Years,’’ but I do sincerely hope that when the wanderlust bites in 2026, you will have your best travel experiences ever, exploring new lands, meeting amazing people, and becoming immersed in exciting new cultures and adventures. My last couple of articles of 2025 focused on how the hearts and minds of people can change their perceptions of many destinations. So, keep your hearts and minds open to experiencing new places and unusual things to do.
The inspiration for those articles came from a PhocusWire summary I read about the Tourise 2025 conference in Saudi Arabia, which I was unfortunately unable to attend. This forum produced some excellent takeaways on tourism trends for 2026. Another key topic that generated much discussions was something currently on every industry’s mind, was the impact and influence AI will have on operations and people over the coming years.
So much has been said about this topic that I have decided to split this subject into two articles. This first one focuses on the importance of AI’s effect on jobs, and the second on what will be some very positive influences on travel and tourism operations. So, watch this space.
AI and people – maintaining jobs is critical!
In the past, I have written extensively about why we will always need people in this very people-rich industry. As AI has emerged, I have commented on where I believe it is taking us to. One of the key questions on everyone’s minds right now is the extent to which AI will replace people in the Travel and Tourism industry. This was a major talking point at Tourise 2025, and I would like to share a few comments made there before I add my own 2 cents’ worth.
According to the article ‘’Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al Khateeb opened the summit with a call to action: “AI can digitalise the whole service end to end… but in an industry where people are the most important, where human-to-human touch is very important, we don’t want to digitise this service. We want to keep the jobs.”
He reminded delegates that travel employs 357 million people worldwide and that, even with 90 million new jobs expected to be created by 2034, there’s still a looming shortfall of 40 million people. The message was clear: artificial intelligence (AI) should empower, not erase.’’ I couldn’t agree more, and I believe if the Travel and Tourism industry ignores the importance of maintaining a strong workforce of human beings who think and feel and empathise with the wants and needs of their clients, and in particular, can be there to have their backs when travel upsets happen, we would do so at our peril.
AI – a support or a crutch?
What was also reported at this insightful conference was apparently ‘’At later AI-related sessions, speakers described technology as ‘human enablers’ or ‘a PhD in your ear’—a co-pilot that helps front-line staff serve better, faster and more personally.’’ Now that’s something I really identify with. From the beginning, I have believed that AI can be a magnificent tool for people to enhance and streamline their efforts, but the danger is that if people get lazy and start allowing AI to do their jobs for them, they will only have themselves to blame if they find that they are being replaced.
We must never forget that AI provides information but still requires humans to interpret and act on data, which should lead to an evolution of job functions. All participants at the conference agreed that AI cannot replace the human touch in tourism, particularly in areas requiring emotional intelligence and nuanced decision-making. My best takeaway from this segment of the report was the line that read ‘’The future, they agreed, belongs to AI-assisted humans, not human-assisted AI, and so humans will still be needed in this, the most human of industries.’’ That sums it up beautifully, so I can only add that I say ‘aye’ to AI, but in travel 2026, let’s ensure AI supports humans, and not vice-versa!
Lidia de Olim
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER