In honour of World Tourism Day on 27 September, we’re highlighting members with extensive experience across the tourism industry. Discover their stories, explore their perspectives on AI in tourism, and learn how they are embracing new opportunities and developments within their sectors.
Vox Group is a global B2B specialist in guiding and visitor-experience technology for tourism and culture. They work with tour operators, DMCs, attractions, cruise lines, destinations, and event organisers to make experiences more accessible, engaging, and efficient. John Boulding, Global Brand Ambassador & Strategic Advisor explores how Vox Tours implements AI to enhance its services.
1. How is your organisation currently using AI or digital technology to improve the tourism experience?
At Vox, we use technology to solve very practical visitor and operator problems. A good example is Vox Aura, our AI-powered real-time translation technology, integrated within our wider Vox guide radio system. It allows a guide to speak naturally while visitors hear the commentary in their own language, with accessibility built in, so guides can focus on telling the story and engaging their group.
For the visitor, that means clearer understanding and a more inclusive experience. For operators, that can also mean consolidating multilingual guests into a single guided experience rather than running separate language groups, while each visitor still hears the commentary in the language that works for them.
Alongside that, we use digital guiding, self-guided apps and multilingual content to help visitors hear, understand and engage with the places they have come to experience.
The principle is simple: start with the problem, then use the technology that best solves it.
2. What opportunities do you see for AI to transform the way visitors experience the UK?
One of the biggest opportunities is simply making the UK easier to experience. Visitors arrive with different languages, levels of confidence and accessibility needs. AI can help with translation, navigation, interpretation and information at exactly the point it is needed. Digital technology can also make the experience more inclusive in other ways. Vox BT, for example, is a Bluetooth adapter that allows Vox guide radio systems to connect directly with modern hearing aids, helping more visitors hear clearly without needing a separate listening device.
It can also help people discover more. A visitor who comes to London, Edinburgh or Bath for the obvious highlights can be introduced to nearby places, smaller attractions and experiences they might otherwise never find. That matters for the visitor, but it can also help spread tourism more widely.
I do not think the best future is one where travellers spend more time looking at screens. The better use of AI is quieter than that. It should sit around the experience, removing friction and helping people understand the place, the story and the people in front of them.
3. How can UK inbound businesses use AI to become more sustainable while still delivering a great visitor experience?
AI can help tourism businesses use what they already have more intelligently. It can help predict demand, manage visitor flows, encourage people towards quieter times and places, and make it easier to promote alternatives when one attraction or area is under pressure.
Digital tools can also reduce the need for printed material and give visitors more useful information in a more flexible way. Vox POPGuide, for example, can give guests a personal digital experience from their tour operator, with multilingual content, interpretation and destination information available directly to them throughout their journey.
There is a wider destination benefit as well. If visitors can confidently discover secondary attractions, neighbourhoods and regions, spending can be spread more evenly rather than concentrated in a small number of hotspots.
The important point is that sustainability should not feel like a compromise to the visitor. The strongest solutions make the experience better at the same time: less queuing, clearer information, easier navigation and more choice.
4. What do you think are the biggest challenges or considerations for tourism businesses adopting AI?
The first is trust. Tourism depends on accurate information, good judgement and cultural understanding. If AI is interpreting history, translating a guide or recommending what someone should do next, businesses need to know that the information is reliable and that there is proper human oversight.
There are also practical questions around data protection, accessibility, integration with existing systems and staff adoption. But perhaps the most important question comes before any of those: what problem are we trying to solve?
There is a danger of adopting AI because it is new rather than because it is useful. If it helps a visitor understand more, removes friction, saves staff time or helps an operator run the experience better, there is a clear case for it. If it simply adds another layer of technology, there probably is not.
5. Looking ahead, what role do you think AI and digital technology will play in the future of inbound tourism?
I think much of the most useful AI will become almost invisible. Visitors will simply expect to understand what is happening around them, navigate unfamiliar places easily, receive information in their own language and get help that reflects their interests and circumstances.
That can make inbound tourism easier to access and more inclusive, particularly for visitors who may otherwise face language, confidence or accessibility barriers. But the reason people travel will not change very much. They still want to experience real places, meet people, hear stories and come home with memories.
So I do not see AI replacing the tourism experience. I see it helping more people take part in it. For Vox, that is really the opportunity: using technology so that every visitor can hear, understand and enjoy the moment they came for.
Author: John Boulding
Global Brand Ambassador & Strategic Advisor
