Purpose This paper explores how generative AI (GAI) may complement, extend or selectively assume information-based functions traditionally associated with human tour guiding in self-guided tourism experiences (SGE). It presents a new framework for GAI-driven SGE, highlighting three central aspects: personalization, real-time support and contextual relevance. Design/methodology/approach To map the relationship between GAI, on-site information-seeking behavior and SGE, we adapted a structured approach based on MacInnis' (2011) framework for explicating (descriptive) conceptual contributions. Findings By utilizing GAI's features, the study shows how GAI may improve tourist independence and convenience. The paper also evaluates the limitations of GAI, particularly its difficulty in replicating the emotional connections, cultural understanding and narrative immersion that human guides provide. Through a comparison with traditional guided tours, the research discusses the consequences of adopting GAI for tourists, service providers and destination management organizations (DMOs). Ethical issues, including data privacy concerns and the potential for cultural inaccuracies, are also explored, along with proposed strategies for responsible implementation. Originality/value This work lays the groundwork for future studies and real-world applications, offering insights into how GAI may make tourism more adaptable, inclusive and sustainable. While the paper focuses on how GAI may support or selectively assume specific information-based functions of guiding, we recognize that tour guiding is also a form of embodied, relational, and regulated labor that extends beyond the scope of this conceptual framework.
Purpose This trend paper argues that in disaster-prone regions of developing countries, teaching-led greening, rather than facilities-focused greening alone, has emerged as a future-shaping mechanism for eco-tourism systems. By embedding sustainability competencies, local knowledge and dynamic capabilities into curricula, disaster-exposed Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) can catalyze resilient, low-impact, and inclusive destination development. Design/methodology/approach The paper synthesizes emerging practices in education for sustainable development (ESD), dynamic capabilities theory and tourism futures research to examine how institutionalized teaching-led greening operates as a systemic lever linking curriculum design, assessment, governance and stakeholder partnerships to destination resilience. Findings Teaching-led greening enables HEIs to build a skilled green workforce, diffuse sustainability standards across tourism value chains, support transparent assessment and certification and strengthen community-based livelihoods, contributing to visitor trust, extended stays and climate resilience. Research limitations/implications Calls for comparative, multi-site evaluation of teaching-led greening initiatives and their measurable effects on destination-level tourism and resilience indicators. Practical implications Introduces a five-pillar teaching framework and a three-horizon roadmap linking curriculum levers to eco-tourism outcomes, with relevance for HEIs, tourism stakeholders and policymakers in disaster-prone developing regions. Originality/value The paper repositions the classroom, not only green infrastructure, as a core site of transformation in eco-tourism futures, framing sustainability as a repeatable, assessable capability rather than episodic advocacy.
Purpose This contribution inaugurates the Journal of Tourism Futures’ new practice-oriented section, designed to strengthen dialogue between research and practice. Through an expert interview, Bernadett Papp (Senior Researcher at the European Tourism Futures Institute, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences) and Janette Roush (Senior Vice President of Innovation and Chief AI Officer at Brand USA) explore how AI is transforming destination management and marketing, the evolving roles of NTOs and DMOs and the questions these developments raise for both researchers and practitioners. Design/methodology/approach An expert interview was held on June 12, 2026. Findings Janette highlights a shift from viewing AI as a discrete tool to understanding it as an embedded operating system for work, with NTOs and DMOs increasingly acting as coordinators of trusted information streams, validators of experiences and AI trainers for the wider tourism ecosystem. She also identifies provenance and transparency as key concerns and points to emerging research questions about the value travellers place on the sources of AI-generated recommendations. Originality/value This viewpoint offers researchers an opportunity to engage with the complexities of practice through the reflections of Janette, whose experience invites us to reconsider how AI is reshaping the ways destinations are promoted, managed, governed and experienced.
Purpose While previous research examined metaverse applications, to date, no study has explored metaverse tourism futures in 2035 using explanatory, exploratory and interpretive futures methods. This study addresses this gap through a distinctive selection of foresight methods to analyse the paradigm-shifting potential of the metaverse and demonstrate the value of futures methodologies for interrogating contested technological trajectories. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study applied Inayatullah's Six Pillars framework as an iterative, multi-method scaffold integrating nine foresight techniques, grounded in a critical realism paradigm. Online futures workshops facilitated collective sense-making and worldview surfacing, enabling participants to interrogate assumptions and paradigms shaping metaverse tourism futures. The study demonstrates how futures thinking cultivates anticipatory capacity, an essential competency given the paradigm shifts likely to redefine the sector. Findings The integrated foresight framework proved effective in building contextual depth across multiple layers of analysis. Four scenarios emerged from participants' worldviews, metaphors and archetypes: The Invisible Hand, A Promised Land, Fountain of Youth and Garden of Eden. The study surfaces a disruptive proposition: that under specific structural conditions, virtual tourism may constitute a viable substitute for “on-site” travel. The value of this approach lies not in prediction but in surfacing assumptions, exposing ideological tensions and expanding anticipatory capacity for tourism futures. Originality/value This study challenges the dominant framing of metaverse tourism as supplementary, proposing that under specific structural and ideological conditions, virtual tourism could become a viable substitute for “on-site” travel. The framework demonstrates transferable value for interrogating contested socio-technical phenomena, equipping practitioners and researchers with anticipatory tools to navigate paradigm-shifting futures.
Purpose Luxury dining is offered over the curvature of the Earth. Deep-pocket dinners will be served by gourmet dining at an altitude of 100,000 feet. Eating a luxury-level meal while gazing out at the curvature of the Earth is about to become a reality, thanks to the collaborative efforts of the luxury dining and space industries. The study responds to a timely call to investigate deep-pocket dinners' perceived space dining experience.Design/methodology/approach This study developed a multidimensional scale via mixed methodology, incorporating diner reviews, interviews and surveys. The dimensions of the newly developed scale are specified through exploratory factor analysis, confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis and nomological validity is ensured.Findings Four dimensions of the perceived space dining experience scale were explored via multi-analytic processes, including acute altitude sickness, artificial intelligence failure and cyber threats, mood states (euphoria followed by depression) and sensory perception of flavor.Originality/value This high-end dining experience features innovative scientific experiments, the complex integration of agentic and generative artificial intelligence, and is likely to provide a once-in-a-lifetime dining experience. The newly developed scale comprehends diners' perceptions at the edge of space.
Purpose This paper aims to explore the role of cultural ecosystem services in influencing tourist behaviour toward certified products in the context of the Gran Paradiso National Park (Italy). It investigates whether visitors who engage with the park's cultural and recreational offerings are more likely to purchase "Qualit & agrave; Gran Paradiso" certified products, a label that identifies high-quality local goods produced in line with the Park's environmental and sustainability criteria.Design/methodology/approach The study is based on primary data collected through the face-to-face administration of a structured questionnaire during the summer tourist season of 2024. Logistic regression is employed to assess the influence of socio-demographic characteristics, visitor habits, and engagement with Cultural Ecosystem Services, such as artistic activities, cultural events, and recreational services, on the likelihood of purchasing certified products.Findings The findings reveal that families with children, individuals with higher education, and those engaging in gastronomic tourism or overnight stays are more inclined to purchase certified products. Moreover, participation in artistic and cultural events significantly increases the likelihood of such purchases. These results highlight the connection between local products, cultural identity, and sustainability goals in promoting consumer/tourist preferences.Social implications This research provides insights for local entrepreneurs, park administrators, and policy makers by identifying key drivers for promoting sustainable product consumption within protected areas. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of cultural services in enhancing both the economic sustainability and cultural preservation of local communities.Originality/value The novelty of this study lies in the investigation of how the valuation of cultural ecosystem services influences consumer likelihood of purchasing certified products. Furthermore, it contributes to the literature by presenting Gran Paradiso National Park as a case study that links the park's unique cultural heritage with sustainable consumer behaviour.
Purpose Tourism futures studies are of increasing interest. However, they remain method-driven and fragmented, with little theoretical consolidation. This article develops the Tourism Futures Dynamics Theory (TFDT), a mesotheory that brings together foundational constructs from futures studies and tourism management. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual theory-building article. We review and select constructs from the parent disciplines tourism futures and tourism management based on their necessity, relevance and transferability. These are integrated into a coherent relational model, with entropy introduced as a novel construct in tourism futures to capture the tendency of tourism futures scenarios to decay unless sustained by energy input. From this model, theoretical propositions are derived to guide further research. Findings We identified five foundational constructs (time, space, agency, uncertainty and entropy) that collectively form the building blocks of tourism futures. TFDT positions entropy as the dynamic force that destabilizes scenarios unless countered by deliberate action. Scenarios emerge from the interaction of temporal perspectives (past, present and future), spatial contexts (physical and virtual) and agency (protagonists and antagonists), but require continuous energy to persist. Originality/value This study makes three main contributions to the literature. First, it identifies and justifies a set of foundational constructs for tourism futures studies. Second, it integrates these constructs into TFDT, the first explicit theoretical foundation of the field. Third, it introduces entropy as a novel construct in tourism futures that explains scenario instability and the energy required to sustain desired futures.
PurposeAs digitalization accelerates and human attention becomes increasingly fragmented, time itself is emerging as a resource to be designed, commodified and reimagined in tourism. This paper explores the future of "temporal tourism" - experiences that manipulate, stretch, compress or decouple travelers' perception of time.Design/methodology/approachUsing a futures-oriented narrative synthesis, this paper envisions how time may become the next frontier of experiential differentiation in tourism, identifying three plausible futures - temporal design, chrono-personalization and temporal ethics - and proposing an integrative framework linking temporal experience, technology and ethics.FindingsTogether, these strands forecast an emerging reorientation where destinations and operators compete not merely for visitors' attention, but for their temporal consciousness - shaping how individuals live, remember and make meaning through travel.Originality/valueThe study contributes theoretically by reframing time as a central construct in tourism experience and by advancing an integrative framework that links temporal experience, technology and ethics.
PurposeIceland represents one of the most specialized and pioneering environments for nature-based tourism. Therefore, research in this environment is a good predictor of where trends in nature tourism are headed. The objective of this research is to study the implications of the growth of nature tourism, analyzing the sustainability thresholds, both from the point of view of the visitor and of local actors, so that both public agencies and private entities have more information to make better decisions.Design/methodology/approachThrough qualitative research, interviewing experts in the nature tourism sector, we want to know the reality of this phenomenon, as well as the main concerns and challenges raised.FindingsThere is growing concern about the saturation of certain tourist destinations on the island, the increase in visitor dissatisfaction, as well as the aggression toward the fragile ecosystem of the country.Research limitations/implicationsThe people interviewed are representative, but with an increase in the number of profiles, the result would logically be more accurate.Practical implicationsResearch underscores the fragile balance of nature destinations, which can only grow in an orderly and sustainable manner.Social implicationsNature tourism can only grow with a scrupulous respect for the environment, in order to avoid saturating the destination, which generates problems for both visitors and local inhabitants.Originality/valueMany tourists visit Iceland motivated by solitude, silence and wild nature. Currently, the destination's success and high visitor numbers can lead to situations where visitors' expectations are compromised and the tourist experience is not of high quality. These findings are of interest to public bodies with the aim of providing visitors with a quality experience.
PurposeSpacecraft launch rates, including for tourist flights, have increased rapidly in recent years. Despite these advances, historically and culturally significant sites in space - such as the first human footprints on another celestial body - currently have no binding, international legal protection.Design/methodology/approachThis article discusses the emerging concept of "space heritage" and presents a thematic content analysis of the 17-year history of the most prominent space-related Reddit group to gauge awareness and perceptions regarding this topic.FindingsThe analysis finds that discussions of space heritage tend to focus on the Moon, particularly the Apollo 11 site, and that there is notable disagreement regarding what constitutes space heritage, whether or not bestowing official heritage status is necessary, the viability of actually enforcing any protections and the potential tourism value of these sites. The findings underscore the importance of extending the study of heritage tourism beyond Earth, as human influence and impact likewise extend into the cosmos.Originality/valueSpace heritage is an underexplored topic in tourism studies, and the increasing involvement of the private sector in spaceflight indicates a need to begin delineating what constitutes space heritage and how to best protect such sites.
PurposeThis research analyses the perceptions of expatriates, digital nomads, and academic tourists regarding different aspects of their daily lives in the city of Barcelona, including property rental, tourism pressure, traditional commerce, social interaction, and use of public space. These groups share similar characteristics, such as a high level of education, medium to medium-high purchasing power, and the decision to stay for a long or semi-permanent period.Design/methodology/approachTransnational gentrification is examined through a case study of Barcelona using a mixed-methods approach. The study combines secondary data obtained from INE, Idealista, Barcelona City Council, Catalan universities and the Inside Airbnb platform with primary data collected via an ad-hoc survey of 150 respondents.FindingsThe results highlight changes and new everyday lifestyles in cities viewed from a transnational lens, including the transformation of the commercial fabric and the loss of a sense of belonging and rootedness in certain neighbourhoods. However, many of these new international residents share the same concerns as local inhabitants, such as the unaffordability of (primarily rented) housing, concerns about tourism, and the desire to participate in Barcelona's community and cultural life.Originality/valueThis study goes beyond touristification by identifying the actors driving the changes occurring in cities that are attractive places to visit, and to live, study and work in. Its novelty lies in its analysis of the effects of touristification and transnational gentrification on everyday urban life from the perspective of temporary residents.
PurposeBased on integrating the career construction theory and the cognition-affect-conation (C-A-C) model, this study develops a model to explore how experiential learning (EL) involvement and artificial intelligence (AI) readiness impact job intention (JI) among hospitality and tourism (H&T) students through cognitive factors (e.g. perceived employability (PE), self-congruence (SC)) and affective factors (e.g. job passion (JP)).Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was conducted, targeting third- and fourth-year students of hotel and tourism programs in Vietnam who had engaged in EL activities. Data from 521 complete respondents were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsBoth EL involvement and AI readiness (AIR) play pivotal roles in shaping students' job choice intentions, operating through two broadly similar pathways: (1) a cognitive route, by strengthening perceptions of person-job fit, and (2) a cognition-emotion route, by jointly reinforcing employability beliefs and SC, together with JP. Moreover, SC serves as a critical mediator transmitting the effects of AIR and EL involvement to JP, as evidenced by its role both as an independent mediator and in combination with JP. Ultimately, JP is vital to the formation of job choice intentions.Practical implicationsThe research findings offer several practical implications for both H&T educational institutions and industry practitioners. Specific recommendations are proposed to strengthen adaptivity (through EL involvement and AIR), develop adaptability (via the development of career identity and PE), nurture an adaptive response (by fostering JP) and sustain adaptation outcomes (reflected in JI). These initiatives require close coordination among training institutions, businesses and students themselves, facilitated by self-reflection.Originality/valueThis study conceptualizes JI formation as a sequential adaptation process within the professional environment. It advances career research by not only identifying who can adapt but also elucidating how such adaptation occurs. The study highlights the pivotal roles of job SC and JP in mediating the influence of EL involvement and AIR on JI. This observation aligns well with the emotionally intensive nature of work in the H&T industry.
PurposeTo investigate the role of AI chatbots in shaping tourists' perceptions of sustainable tourism destinations during the pre-visit phase, this research examines how two dimensions of AI chatbots - information-related elements (quality, quantity, diagnosticity, relevance and value-added) and interaction elements (perceived enjoyment, accountability and anthropomorphism) - affect the brand image and authenticity of sustainable tourism destinations. These factors influence tourists' intention to visit and willingness to pay a premium for sustainable travel experiences. Additionally, the study also examines tourists' characteristics, such as nature connectedness and personal innovativeness, as moderators of these associations.Design/methodology/approachData from 508 respondents in Vietnam collected through a questionnaire survey were analyzed using PLS-SEM.FindingsFindings indicate that diagnosticity and relevance shape the brand image, while authenticity is influenced by quality and relevance. Interaction factors significantly affect brand image, with authenticity solely impacted by perceived anthropomorphism. Furthermore, both sustainable destination brand image and authenticity significantly influence visit intention. Notably, personal innovativeness strengthens the association between the brand image of sustainable destinations and users' acceptance of higher prices.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to explore how AI chatbots enhance sustainable tourism destination brand image and authenticity. This research offers novel perspectives into leveraging AI chatbots for sustainable destination recommendations, contributing to sustainable tourism development in emerging countries and advancing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 11 and 12).
