Antigua and Barbuda: Caribbean Tourism Faces AI Revolution

• Antigua and Barbuda’s Tourism Minister Charles Fernandez sees the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) into the regional hospitality sector as having both beneficial and detrimental effects for everyone concerned.
• Speaking at the University of the West Indies’ Five Islands Campus Caribbean AI Conference, Fernandez pointed out that AI could facilitate Antigua and Barbuda and hotels in delivering seamless service to visitors.
• “On cruise ship days, for example, at the height of the season, you have a lot of traffic. So, you have all kinds of bottlenecks. And the last thing you want is for your population to start to say, look, this is too much of a headache. This is a nuisance. And so, we lose that whole aspect of warmth and hospitality that we are known for. So you could use AI, for example, with the police to generate which are the best routes to reduce the time, for example, from the airport to the hotel,” he said at the panel titled: “Unleashing the Tourism Potential: Revolutionising Experiences through Generative AI and Technology 5.0 Innovations”.
• On the other hand, Fernandez acknowledges that while improving service with AI will enhance efficiency, it may also lead to job losses for some individuals.
• “Governments will have to be concerned. But I think there are two ways that we have to, at least at this point in time, look to manage it. The first one I will say is there have to be discussions with the unions,” he said.
• “You have to bring them on board because quite often people tend to create fear out of, pardon the word, ignorance. And so, what you got to do is bring them in and let them know that actually, yes there's a concern for job loss, that's one, but the other aspect of it is that you're opening an avenue for us to really build our capacity, because if we don’t, we're going to be left behind. Everybody else is doing it.”
• Secondly, to save jobs, Fernandez said countries will have to offer incentives for hotel owners to keep a certain amount of locals employed at their properties. He added it was important for governments across the region to get their citizens prepared for a future where AI is a part of everyday life.

 (Source: Caribbean Loop News)