🌐 Does Your Privacy Travel with You? The Challenges of AI and Big Data in Tourism 4.0

 


Hi everyone! Today, I am proud to share a major academic milestone in my career. Together with Professor Rodríguez Cornejo, I have recently published our latest research paper in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research.

The article is titled Data security and privacy in the tourist industry: challenges arising from the use of artificial intelligence and big data. A review of the literature. In this paper, we tackle a highly topical issue that affects all of us every time we plan a trip: how emerging technologies impact the security and privacy of our personal data.

The Context: The Rise of "Tourism 4.0"

Today, tourism organizations and smart destinations are rapidly adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data (BD). Their goal? To better understand travelers, optimize booking processes, predict hotel guest satisfaction, and automate repetitive tasks so that staff can focus on delivering memorable guest experiences.

However, this massive digital transformation has a shadow side: it creates significant ethical and legal challenges regarding how our most sensitive information is collected, stored, and shared.

Key Findings of Our Research

By conducting a systematic literature review (following the rigorous PRISMA methodology), we analyzed the state of the art and synthesized the primary risks facing the sector:

  • The Regulatory Gap & Trust: We identified that a lack of clear global regulations (especially in emerging markets) acts as a catalyst for distrust, limiting tourists' willingness to share information for personalized services. This fuels the well-known "privacy paradox" (where travelers express concern about their data but freely cede it in exchange for convenience).

  • A Typology of Risks: Our study categorizes the main threats into technical risks (vulnerability to cyberattacks), legal risks (compliance with GDPR or CCPA), and ethical/algorithmic risks (such as algorithmic bias in dynamic pricing or the privacy implications of AI facial recognition).

  • The Need for Education & Transparency: For the Tourism 4.0 ecosystem to remain sustainable, organizations must be completely transparent about how data is used and grant users greater control over their privacy.

New Research Frontiers

This article does not just summarize the past five years; it looks straight ahead into the future of the industry. We highlight the urgent need to explore how the emergence of Generative AI and Autonomous AI Agents—which move from mere recommendation tools to systems capable of managing the entire booking process—will transform digital rights and data sovereignty.

This achievement is surely the first of many more at such a competitive level. I invite you to read the full paper and share your thoughts in the comments below. How much of your privacy are you willing to trade for a perfect, hyper-personalized travel experience?

👇 You can access the full paper here:

https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2026.2677779



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