Artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies are reshaping the tourism industry, fundamentally transforming how people search for, plan, experience, and evaluate tourist destinations (Koo et al., 2021; Liao et al., 2025; Ling et al., 2025; Zhang et al., 2026). Far from being incremental improvements, these technologies are revolutionizing the entire travel experience.
Specifically, travelers’ decision-making processes are increasingly shaped by AI-mediated information environments (Xu et al., 2024). AI-powered tools now create personalized plans and predict what each person might enjoy in real time (Pillai, R., & Sivathanu, 2020; Seyfi et al., 2025). In terms of travel experience, AI integration powers immersive formats such as virtual and augmented reality, reshaping how tourists engage with destinations and services (Ali et al., 2025; Buhalis et al., 2025; Liao et al., 2025). AI also supports new forms of human–machine interaction, for example, through service robots, intelligent assistants, and automated services (Gursoy, 2025; Seyitoğlu & Ivanov, 2023). However, these new technologies also bring up ethical and behavioral questions, calling for closer examination of issues such as privacy, authenticity, and the extent to which people rely on technology when choosing how to travel (Dwivedi et al., 2025; Hu & Min, 2025). Health, safety, and sustainability are key factors in travel decisions. In this setting, it is essential to explore how AI can help make operations more efficient and support sustainable tourism and consumer well-being (Gössling & Mei, 2025).
In the tourism and hospitality industry, AI applications span generative AI models, service robots, intelligent assistants, and autonomous systems (Koo et al., 2021). Generative models like ChatGPT let tourism organisations talk with customers in real time and quickly create marketing content (Mogaji & Jain, 2024; Zhang et al., 2026). Service robots help with tasks in hotels, restaurants, and airports, such as checking guests in, cleaning rooms, supporting staff, and keeping things running smoothly (Seyitoğlu & Ivanov, 2023; Wu et al., 2025). Intelligent assistants, including chatbots and voice-activated room services, provide guests with a smooth, interactive experience (Pillai & Sivathanu, 2020). While these technologies clearly make operations smoother and improve guest experiences, there remains a significant gap in research on their broader impact, particularly on consumer behavior (Jain et al., 2024; Koo et al., 2021; Ling et al., 2025; Mogaji & Jain, 2024). In addition, AI is not changing just how services are delivered, but also how jobs are defined, and human–technology boundaries.
The goal of this special issue is to examine how AI and emerging technologies are transforming tourism and hospitality using a consumer behavior lens. We encourage interdisciplinary collaboration to identify new theoretical and empirical perspectives on decision-making, human-machine interaction, travel experience and evaluation, sustainability strategies, and the ethical sides of technological change. We welcome a diverse range of methodological approaches, including quantitative (e.g., modelling approaches, secondary data analytics, field experiments, surveys), qualitative (e.g., participant-observation, interviews, case studies), mixed methods research, conceptual and review articles.
List of Topic Areas
Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. AI and Emerging Technologies in Decision-Making
- AI-powered trip planning
- AI-generated content
- AI influencers marketing
- Algorithmic recommendation systems
- Value co-creation in travel planning using Generative AI
2. AI–Consumer Interaction
- Service robots
- Virtual assistants and AI chatbots
- Smart hotels and smart destination
- Human–AI interaction dynamics
- Service failure and recovery in AI-mediated encounters
3. AI and Emerging Technologies Influence on Emotions and Experience
- AI-powered VR and AR applications
- Metaverse tourism environments
- Sensor-enabled AI systems
- Affective AI and emotion-aware systems
- AI-enabled well-being enhancement
4. AI and Issues of Ethics, Trust, and Sustainability
- Privacy and data protection
- Algorithmic bias and unfairness
- Transparency and explainability
- Trust and authenticity
- AI for responsible consumption
- Consumer resistance, technostress, and digital detox tourism
5. AI, Emerging Technologies and Methodologies Innovation
- AI-generated data
- AI-based experiments and simulations
- AI-assisted qualitative research
- AI-enabled quantitative research
Journal Information: Scopus Journal Q1, H-Index 51
Guest Editors
Sameer Hosany, Department of Marketing, Royal Holloway Business School, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom, sameer.hosany@rhul.ac.uk
Blend Ibrahim, Department of Tourism Management, Faculty of Tourism, Balikesir University, Turkey, blend.ibrahim@balikesir.edu.tr
Xingyu Huang, Department of Marketing, Royal Holloway Business School, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom, xingyu.huang@rhul.ac.uk
Submissions Information
Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Author guidelines must be strictly followed.
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”. Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.
Key Deadlines
Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 1st April 2026
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 1st August 2027
For more details refer here
