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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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: […]

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 […]

There are very few innovations originated from within the tours & activities sector. Instead, technological change has historically come from outside our sector and was then applied to how we retail, operate and measure the success of our consumer facing experiences. To clarify what I mean, I group digital innovations into 3 distinct generations. I […]

I was invited on a panel this week to talk AI tour guides, audio tours & autonomous vehicle sightseeing. From feedback, it went well and was an interesting listen for tour guides, day tour operators and the wider industry. So for your listening pleasure, here it is: Thank you to: – Mitch Bach of TripSchool – Von Harden of IATDG (International […]

The urban sightseeing industry was already on the precipice of significant change as a result of ongoing digitisation and then COVID-19 hit. There have been so many predictions about the future of urban tourism, and the future of travel, I don’t really want to dwell on this too much. However three fundamental COVID-19 changes DO […]