When Tourism Meets AI Customer Service: A Dual Evolution of Service and Experience

文章摘要：At the foot of Mount Emei early in the morning, tourist Ms. Wang stared at her phone, worried. She wanted to climb the mountain with her parents but feared the elderly couldn’t handle the physical strain, and had no idea if the scenic area offered suitable routes. Hesitantly, she dialed the scenic area’s service hotline, and a gentle voice came through: “Hello, this is Xiaoling, the scenic area’s intelligent customer service. I’ve detected that you might want to know about elderly-friendly hiking routes—would you like me to introduce them in detail?” This conversation marked the beginning of the transformation brought by AI customer service to the tourism industry.

At the foot of Mount Emei early in the morning, tourist Ms. Wang stared at her phone, worried. She wanted to climb the mountain with her parents but feared the elderly couldn’t handle the physical strain, and had no idea if the scenic area offered suitable routes. Hesitantly, she dialed the scenic area’s service hotline, and a gentle voice came through: “Hello, this is Xiaoling, the scenic area’s intelligent customer service. I’ve detected that you might want to know about elderly-friendly hiking routes—would you like me to introduce them in detail?” This conversation marked the beginning of the transformation brought by AI customer service to the tourism industry.

From "Manpower Tactics" to "Intelligent Brain": Disruptive Improvement in Customer Service Efficiency

The pain points of traditional tourism customer service are particularly acute during holidays. During the 2025 National Day holiday, a 5A-level scenic area received over 100,000 inquiries in a single day. The human customer service team worked from 8 AM to midnight, yet still couldn’t avoid the embarrassment of “1-hour call waiting times.” After introducing AI customer service, the system used natural language processing technology to automatically answer 80% of repetitive questions—such as opening hours, ticket prices, and transportation routes. This freed human agents from the role of “repeating machines,” allowing them to focus on complex scenarios like complaints and special requests.

Even more impressive is the tacit “human-AI collaboration.” At the Shenyang Hunhe River Cruise project, the AI customer service “Xiaoyou” can understand tourists’ colloquial expressions: when a tourist says “Go to that big diamond landmark,” the system immediately associates it with the Shengjing Grand Theatre and sends navigation directions; if a tourist asks “How to buy senior tickets,” the robot synchronizes ID verification and completes online ticket purchases directly. This “AI first, human backup” model reduced the scenic area’s customer service team size by 30% while increasing service capacity by 60%.

From "One-Size-Fits-All" to "Personalized Customization": Precise Delivery of Service Warmth

The evolution of AI customer service goes far beyond “speed.” In the case of Yantai Xinyi Tourism, the system proactively sends personalized services by analyzing tourists’ historical inquiry records: for families frequently asking about parent-child trips, it pre-notifies them of “new VR experience zones in the scenic area’s children’s park”; for photography enthusiasts, it recommends “the best sunrise shooting spots and cloud sea probability.” This “answering before being asked” intelligence surprises tourists with a sense of being “understood.”

Breakthroughs in emotional interaction are even more touching. The AI tour guide “Tang Xiaofei” at Xi’an City Wall Scenic Area can not only judge tourists’ emotions through voice tone—switching to a relaxed and humorous explanation style when detecting fatigue—but also recognize dialects, using Shaanxi dialect to connect with local tourists. More interestingly, it intelligently adjusts content based on tourists’ stay time: if a visitor lingers at the Arrow Tower for more than 10 seconds, it immediately launches a special explanation on “Ming Dynasty siege weapons,” bringing history “to life.”

From "Data Silos" to "Decision-Making Hub": An Invisible Driver of Industry Upgrade

The value of AI customer service has long exceeded service itself. At Chengdu Happy Valley, by analyzing hot tourist inquiries, the system found that usage of the “virtual queuing” function surged by 200% on weekends. It then collaborated with the technical team to optimize the algorithm, reducing average waiting times by 30%. At Hubei Suizhou Ginkgo Valley, AI detected a sharp increase in inquiries about the “water curtain movie” after its social media exposure, prompting rapid collaboration with the marketing department to launch a “night tour package,” driving a 45% growth in surrounding catering consumption.

A more profound impact lies in the reshaping of industry standards. The 2025 “Guidelines for the Construction of Smart Scenic Areas” issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism clearly requires: 4A-level and above scenic areas must deploy AI customer service systems with an independent resolution rate of no less than 75%. Behind this policy is AI technology’s restructuring of the underlying logic of tourism services—shifting from “passive response” to “active operation,” and upgrading from “cost center” to “data asset.

The Future Is Here: When AI Customer Service Becomes Tourism’s "Second Business Card"

Looking back from 2025, the penetration of AI customer service in the tourism industry has spread like wildfire. It is not only a “firefighter” solving peak-hour inquiry pressure but also an “invisible engine” driving the industry’s digital transformation. From intelligent navigation at Mount Emei to immersive explanations at Xi’an City Wall, from personalized recommendations at Yantai Xinyi to data-driven decisions at Chengdu Happy Valley, AI is redefining the connotation of “tourism service.”

Perhaps in the near future, when we plan a trip, the first one to offer suggestions will no longer be a human agent, but an AI partner who understands our needs better than ourselves—it will remember our seafood allergy from the last trip, know we prefer cultural attractions over natural scenery, and even anticipate our unspoken potential needs. This is not only a victory for technology but also the ultimate interpretation of the “people-oriented” service philosophy in the tourism industry: conveying the warmest emotions in the smartest way.

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