The Tourism Summit Aotearoa kicked off at the Tākina Convention Centre in Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington this week, Tuesday November 7, with the theme “Ready or Not!”- exploring the rise of technology like AI, VR and Robotics.
The focus was also on future proofing the tourism industry to develop and innovate a digitally savvy and capable tourism industry. All of this and more coincided with TIA’s 70th anniversary, so a lot to celebrate in the tourism industry.
TIA chief executive Rebecca Ingram spoke about the state of the tourism industry and rolled out what the new industry strategy will be: Tourism 2050: A Blueprint for Impact, a guide for the next three decades.
The strategy contains 10 actions that TIA believes could be a game changer for the industry, with advancements between now and 2030, which will set the industry up well for the next 30 years.
Rebecca says “New Zealand’s tourism industry is considering how global and local forces will push and pull the industry. We must prepare for the future by leaning in, and that means having a great plan.”
Greg Foran, chief executive of Air New Zealand spoke reinventing the travel experience and an outlook on the future of tourism including innovation like digital bag tags and AI- powered travel.
Greg says there is optimism for the future of Air New Zealand and travel, but “things are still clunky” and there is “plenty of room for improvement”
Moving into the AI portion of the presentations, AI is set to shape the future of traveling post covid and speakers, Brendan Downey-Parish of Tourism New Zealand and Tom Braybrook of Acceleration Australia and New Zealand spoke of separating fact from fiction and how travel behaviors have changed post covid. With that in mind, AI trends are becoming a more common narrative and Ben Reid from Memia spoke of what those impacts could look like for the tourism sector with some impressive videos on how effective and accurate the type of content AI and AI tools can create with basic prompts.
Delivering on the promise that there would be robots, Les Morgan, chief operating officer of Sudima Hotels and Hind Management spoke of how Sudima Auckland Airport Hotel has leveraged robots to their advantage to enhance guest’s experience and elevate service standards. SwiftBot, BellaBot and FlashBot, built by China’s Shenzhen PUDU Robotics company were a unique sight making their way through the conference. Their jobs? To deliver room service meals to guest’s room’s or table. A housekeeping robot trial will be planned for later in 2023 across Sudima Auckland Airport hotel.
VR (Virtual Reality) is also on the rise and Auckland company SkyMotion’s Sean Mascarenhas and Soraya Sarwary spoke of the possibilities of VR in tourism and offered attendees the chance to explore the hidden gems of Niue in the Summit Hub. Annie Lewin, senior director of Global Advocacy and head of Asia Pacific for Google.org also spoke of how Google has been at the forefront of Ai with a sustainable centric approach to bring impactful change to the world, now and into the future.
In the afternoon, a series of workshops were available to attend, one of them as a hands on learning about Chat GTP- Demystifying Artificial Intelligence and Supercharging your AI Journey. This session was about how this and other AI tools can be implemented into tourism businesses from customer service to marketing and the strengths and weaknesses of it.
There was also sessions of navigating the future tourism workforce and how to build more resilient businesses. Some big questions with simple, practical solutions to fit the needs of businesses and their staff.
Closing out the Summit, there were panel talks on the importance of preserving culture while amalgamating technology and augmented reality with Amber Taylor of Maori AR company, ARA Journeys.
Walter Rushbrook, general manager for Interislander Business Readiness spoke of some exciting and game changing news for Interislander, which will include two new hybrid diesel electric ferries and new terminals for Wellington and Picton to accommodate in 2026.
