Generative AI in tourism: Future challenges and implications for competition and consumers

Abstract

Generative AI is seen as a great transformative power in tourism, offering novel opportunities for businesses, consumers and policy makers. Established Online Travel Agencies, individual businesses and tourism organisations are partnering with generative AI providers and implementing new applications. The use of general purpose generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, as the starting point for travel plans is gaining popularity. Nevertheless, risks associated with the emergence of generative AI are at the centre of authorities’ and legislators’ attention. The European travel market is already dominated by large digital players, such as Booking in the field of intermediation for travel accommodation services and Google in the field of hotel comparison services. This study investigates competition and consumer law concerns arising from generative AI implementation, with a focus on the European digital travel market, and discusses the effectiveness of the existing regulatory framework. From a competition law viewpoint, potential issues such as self-preferencing and algorithmic collusion are identified and evaluated under competition law provisions and the Digital Markets Act. In consumer law, concerns such as misleading information, biased recommendations and personalised prices provided by generative AI tools are assessed under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and the Digital Services Act, while the effect of the AI Act is also explored. While the current European framework may provide certain solutions both from a competition and a consumer law perspective, issues exaggerated by generative AI will have to be further assessed, especially in the case of travel services.