Sector: Tour guides

10 questions to ask candidates in an AI tourism job interview

February 13th, 2024 by Alex Bainbridge

I am thinking about hiring. Not actually hiring, but thinking about hiring. So with that in mind, I have pulled together some questions that I could ask in a job interview. The more senior you expect to be, the more of these questions I expect you to be able to give a good answer to. […]

Big tech is winning using AI for destination experiences. The sightseeing sector needs to talk

October 18th, 2023 by Alex Bainbridge

Last week I went to the Arival conference in Orlando and I was surprised by the reaction to the content. Some tour operators were saying too much AI in the schedule. Well I have news for you, your upstream big tech partners are winning AI and you are not part of their plans. Tomorrows experience economy […]

For and against rolling up reztech in 2023 – Checkfront / Rezdy

July 20th, 2023 by Alex Bainbridge

Depending upon your perspective, the big news this week was either the Checkfront / Rezdy shared ownership announcement, or Tripadvisor launching their AI tour itinerary generating service to consumers. Here is how both stories can be viewed from a singular perspective and are relevant to more than just suppliers who use Checkfront / Rezdy. But […]

What does technology innovation in sightseeing & experiences look like in 2023?

February 21st, 2023 by Alex Bainbridge

In the last couple of months there has been a whirlwind of tech news much of it lead by discussion about generative AI such as ChatGPT. But underneath all of that, innovators in our sector have begun to tentatively hint at what they are focussed on. Therefore it is worthwhile documenting what people have said, […]

Is forming a sightseeing industry DAO the only solution to AI centralisation?

January 25th, 2023 by Alex Bainbridge

Generative AI such as ChatGPT is an era defining technology and it merits the number of articles and videos created on this topic. However we are ignoring one core debate, we need to talk about what happens when this and related AI technologies scale, which they will. This article focusses on this important topic with […]

How many AI generated experiences do consumers want?

January 11th, 2023 by Alex Bainbridge

Is it thousands per city like today? Or is it tens of thousands perhaps? Or could leading retailers just have 10 experiences per city that are each highly configurable & personalised? Today’s upper bounds example is Rome on Viator, where Viator has 7000 things to do just in Rome and the surrounding area. I am […]

How do we solve the alignment problem between AI and tour operating?

December 19th, 2022 by Alex Bainbridge

Firstly, what exactly is the alignment problem? Lets ask Chat GPT… The AI alignment problem is the challenge of ensuring that an artificial intelligence system will behave in ways that are beneficial to humans, rather than causing harm. This involves designing AI systems that are aligned with human values and goals, and finding ways to […]

PhocusWire: The role of autonomous vehicles within tours & activities

June 5th, 2022 by Alex Bainbridge

If you missed this, last week I was interviewed by PhocusWire about the role of autonomous vehicles within tours & activities. If you are a bus sightseeing operator (or retailer) this is a must listen – however there are wider topics covered, including hotel originated experiences, tour guides etc, and the new industry structure I […]

Metaverse, decentralisation (web3) or autonomous vehicles – what should your focus be?

November 1st, 2021 by Alex Bainbridge

It is a confusing time within tourism innovations for in destination experiences. With Facebook (Meta)’s announcement last week of their vision for their metaverse, we now have three competing technologies at play: Metaverse Facebook (Meta) isn’t the only metaverse, but it may perhaps be the best funded. Maybe easier to explain by stating the evolution: […]

Future of reservation technology platforms (for tours)

October 13th, 2020 by Alex Bainbridge

So much focus on reservation technology – pricing (revenue or monthly subscription), which to use etc…… now I built, priced & scaled res tech! So I get every nuance of every argument. But we have to accept that the tech (for tours) is fundamentally obsolete so pricing & retailer ownership discussions are now fairly irrelevant […]