As artificial intelligence enters the daily lives of businesses, how can professionals integrate this new technology for their benefit? The 26th Tourism Conference held in Ferrals-les-Corbières this Thursday, November 14, 2024 provided some answers.
It is a technological revolution, which generates enthusiasm, fear or curiosity. Artificial intelligence has become essential for businesses. But how to integrate it into tourism professions? Especially when we talk about Aude as a destination rich in human encounters, where conviviality becomes an art of living? To enlighten professionals, the Tourism Development Agency and the Chamber of Commerce invited a specialist on the issue. Vincent Vandevelde, communications expert and co-founder of the consulting firm Id-Rezo, was the guest of the 26th Tourism Conference, which took place this Thursday at the Cultural Space of Ferrals-les-Corbières.
Independent – CHRISTOPHE BARREAU
The opportunity to demystify the “learned tool” that is artificial intelligence and give valuable advice for exploiting its potential. The conference was followed by testimonials, practical demonstrations, presentations of new businesses, before sharing a moment of exchange in the less formal setting of the Spi-K-Tri street art museum.
A human adventure
Anticipate and manage the flow of customers, better train your teams, reduce administrative tasks, create schedules, generate posts for social networks… Artificial intelligence offers tourism companies multiple opportunities to save time and remain competitive. After demonizing this new technology as a mathematical tool at our service, Vincent Vandevelde used pedagogy. He provided valuable advice for beginners (read box) and explained the different artificial intelligences available on the market, their specificities, and their uses. He emphasized how “without humans, artificial intelligence is an empty shell… it is our creativity which will invent the uses”. The primary objective is to focus on the quality of welcome and service, in order to provide added value to tourism professions.
I increased my prices by 30% with artificial intelligence
If for some the adventure is just beginning, others have indeed taken the plunge. Among the testimonies, let us note that of Cédric Migrenne, manager of the five-star lodgings L'Écrin de la Cité, in Carcassonne. He started using artificial intelligence to “write response emails to customers, with formatting, polite phrases and editorial”. Now he uses this technology “to produce tourist brochures and press kits, create publications for networks, and even to recruit. He's a great assistant who helped me progress. I save between 30 minutes and an hour a day. That gives me frees up time to put a human touch into my job, to meet my clients and to attend trade shows.” Better yet, “I used artificial intelligence to revise my prices and increase them by 30%. I did not lose any audience, on the contrary. I found a population of more upscale people who consume more in the territory It's incredible: I changed clients in a few months with this technology and I wouldn't have dared to do it alone!
Best practices: advice from the expert
Expert Vincent Vandevelde provided advice to business leaders starting out with artificial intelligence. For text generation, he recommends “ChatGPT that is multitasking”. According to him, it is preferable to “start with simple questions and needs, and only deal with areas in which you have expertise to verify the information.” He advises to “think about the clearest wording and think about providing the artificial intelligence with all the information it might need to formulate its response.” He considers artificial intelligence “like a 3rd year trainee who has all the knowledge, but who is lazy: you have to push him to dig deeper into his answers and proceed by repetition”.
