Yung, Rui Yuan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3755-2557 (2024) Techno-utopia or techno-dystopia: current and future extended reality and Artificial Intelligence developments in destinations. In: Pillmayer, Markus, Karl, Marion and Hansen, Marcus, (eds.) Tourism Destination Development: A Geographic Perspective on Destination Management and Tourist Demand. De Gruyter Studies in Tourism . De Gruyter Brill, Berlin, Boston, pp. 453-472. ISBN 978-3110794090; 978-3110794021; 3110794098 (doi:10.1515/9783110794090-021)

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Abstract

Technological innovations have historically been the driving force behind developments in tourism. Proliferation of digital technologies and the onset of industry 4.0, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for an increased urgency to examine the implications of potentially industry-moulding innovations on the developments of destinations. Specifically, this chapter examines three key technological innovations that spearhead industry 4.0 - artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). The twenty-first century has seen growing widespread consumer adoption of the technologies. Accordingly, worldwide market value of AI is projected to grow to over $1.5 trillion by 2030 (Statista, 2022b), with AR and VR projected to grow to over $250 billion by 2028 (Statista, 2022a). AI and machine learning have already found their footing in the backgrounds of a variety of scenarios including voice assistants, service robots, social media, recommender systems and increasing automation of processes in the travel system. Meanwhile, AR and VR have largely seen adoption in contexts including destination marketing, in situ experience enhancement and visitor interpretation, particularly in the heritage tourism sector. Looking to the future, the continued advancement of these technologies point to functionalities including autonomous mobilities, virtual worlds and metaverses, and hyper-personalised and predictive ‘perfect’ experiences. The second half of this chapter will explore the impact of these advancements from a future destination development sustainability lens. Pertinent and complex questions remain around the paradox of (in)equality and inclusivity of virtual tourism and virtual events, paradoxes of degrowth and economic resilience of automated service workforces, paradoxes of hyper-personalisation and authenticity of augmented experiences. Discussions in this chapter culminate in possible utopic and dystopic scenarios for implications of the technologies on sustainable destination development futures.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	tourism, Artificial Intelligence, extended realities, scenario planning
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BH Aesthetics H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) T Technology > T Technology (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Greenwich Business School Greenwich Business School > School of Management and Marketing
Last Modified:	02 May 2025 08:42
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/48712

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