Tourism forum sheds light on changes in hospitality
This year's Bernese Oberland Tourism Forum focused on the topic of hospitality. Among other things, it looked at the use of artificial intelligence to measure hospitality. Around 150 participants from the tourism and hotel industry took part in the industry event.
This year’s Bernese Oberland Tourism Forum was held under the motto “Hospitality in transition”, the Bernese Oberland economy announced in a press release. It organized the industry event on 2 April at the Thun Culture and Convention Centre together with the Bernese Oberland Hoteliers Association and Made in Bern AG. Around 150 participants, mainly from the tourism and hotel industry, discussed theoretical and practical issues relating to hospitality.
In the theoretical part, Adrian Müller from the Tourism Research Center at the University of Bern presented the project Monitoring and Strengthening the Quality of Interaction in Swiss Tourism. Here, artificial intelligence is used to analyze the quality of interactions between guests and hosts. Specifically, content, moods and topics in posts on review portals are to be recognized and evaluated using natural language recognition.
In the more practical part, David Romanto from Hauenstein Hotels presented the hotel group’s approach to the topic. For the General Manager of the hotels, hospitality is a competence that needs to be trained. Alice Leu from the Thun College of Tourism explained the extent to which this also includes the teaching of cultural skills.
The panel discussion at the forum dealt with the involvement of the population. It was shown “that a differentiated approach to this topic is necessary and that the concerns and fears of the local population with regard to tourism development must be taken seriously”, according to the press release.