The travel industry is an extensive sector, encompassing many other small sectors as well. Holiday planning,aviation sector, hospitality industry & the government together form the travel & tourism industry. All these industries are interdependent on each other, contributing to the growth of each other. Each sector has its own set of challenges wherein the shortcomings and defects of one sector can result in a loss for the other eminent players as well.
For example, if an individual has trouble booking flights for a particular airline or location, they might divert to another airline platform or look for another vacay destination. Thus, affecting not only the airlines but also the revenue for hotels where that individual might have stayed, the expenditure spent on local transportation, income earned by the government which might have been generated by that individual at different paid tourist spots in that place during their stay. The usage of Natural Language Processing (NLP) in the travel and tourism sector can help solve concerns faced by all the major components of the industry. NLP provides a hassle-free experience to tourists & help business enterprises streamline the operations, thus benefiting one and all.
What is NLP?
NLP is a field of artificial intelligence that gives the machines the ability to read, understand and derive the actual meaning of human languages. Basically, NLP focuses on the interplay between data science and human language. NLP is booming, thanks to the improvements in the data access process and the increased computational power which provides worthy results in travel & tourism industries.
The All-Round Benefits of NLP’s Usage in the Travel & Tourism Sector!
The global travel sector is enormous.The industry can progres and contribute further to the global GDP with the use of NLP in travel industry, which aims at improving the efficiency of the major processes involved in.
1- An Improved Booking experience
Bookings and reservations are the foremost stage of a travel plan that includes choosing airlines,arranging local taxi services and hotel room reservations. It becomes very tiresome and confusing finding the shortest airline duration, the cheapest flights or hotel accommodations at low prices. Then, conversation with customer support starts from the individuals to get doubts clarified. Here, web travel portals, airline websites & hotel aggregation sites can anchor NLP in the form of chatbots to ease the booking process. A chatbot can help answer general queries such as “What is the discount coupon available for the flight?” or “Does the hotel have free Wi-Fi ?” This NLP chatbot can easily answer such questions. An NLP chatbot can also be completely automated i.e. autonomously responding to questions or it can be placed as an assistance tool to help humans better. This helps the customer care executive to identify key parameters in the chat which helps them respond to the customer’s grievances seamlessly.
For example, a customer service agent might find it difficult to understand a foreign language. NLP tools can help translate and identify key points in the conversation, and the employee can respond appropriately without any hassle.
Another top advantage of using NLP chatbots is that they work round-the-clock unlike humans and thus are present to respond to queries any time of the day, minimizing the need for human resources.
2- Curating personalized tours
How to spend that beautiful vacation is the next step, which includes deciding the place to stay, the number of days to stay, the kind of hotels to choose from and the places that need to be visited on a priority basis. NPL tools can help in suggesting & curating tailor-made travel packages for individuals. What the NLP tools do is basically analyze the kind of searches an individual does regarding their holiday preferences.This includes data regarding the holiday destination, the vacation duration and the budget preferences of the individual. All this datas can be combined to form big data which is further implemented by artificial intelligence algorithms and NLP tools to create custom tour packages that fits one’s pockets easily simultaneously providing him the experience he’s looking for.
3- Improving maintenance procedures
The application of NLP is not only customer-centric but also business-oriented. NLP tools can help simplify the business processes which can improve the financial and reputational status of the business. Airlines and other transportation companies can improve their maintenance processes with NLP tools. For instance, NLP tools can remarkably help airlines with aircraft maintenance strategies. The tools can help maintenance and repair technicians easily understand the suggested information from complex manuals. Thus, a lot of time, money, and human resources can be saved by providing the employees with information in a quick and easily understandable manner i.e. NLP tools. Also, NLP tools can help recognize handwritten notes that are usually difficult for other individuals to understand because of complex handwritings.
4- Reinventing the hotel experience
A complete renovation can be seen with the help of NLP tools in the hotel industry. With the power to redefine the stay experience for individuals, NLP tools in the form of voice assistants can be utilized in hotels. From adjusting the AC temperature to turning on/off the lights or playing your favourite web series, NLP tools will help carry out these tasks with ease. Voice assistants such as SIRI, Alexa or a customised voice assistant can be gripped to provide personal voice assistance to all the guests at the hotels. Similarly, AI powered tools with NLP can usher an enhanced user’s room service experience. These robots recognize the customer’s needs & provide services accordingly.
For instance, these robots can be used to deliver food items or take the customer’s clothes for washing or can be also used for cleaning the rooms according to the instructions provided.
Additionally,voice and facial recognition tech helps to provide a more secured experience to the hotel’s visitors. Such technologies can help to identify guests that are entering, staying or visiting for a less time or leaving the hotel premises. In case of robbery, voice and facial recognition technologies can help identify the criminal easily.
5- Redefining the sightseeing experience
NLP tools can prove to be an effective instrument for people facing language barriers at new places. These tools automatically translate texts on signboards & help tourists easily get directions to the required location. Simultaneously, these tools can help with ticketing at tourist’s sightseeing places by upgrading the conversations between employees & the tourists, help easily understand timings & other instructions provided by informatory boards and even suggest other nearby attractions depending upon the customer’s location in an easy to understand manner.
Wrapping It Up!
Implementation of NLP in travel & tourism provides an end-to-end solution for tourists and travellers. It will definitely attract more travellers to your travel portal, your hotel & your country. With this kind of intensified experience, all thanks to NLP tools, individuals are expected to spend more on their travel getaways. Thus, increasing the revenues for private players as well as the government. The efficiency & accuracy of NLP tools can be used to train the algorithm further with increased data provided by customers.Thus, with the help of NLP,a truly seamless experience for travelers and increased revenue for businesses and government is expected in the travel and tourism industry.