Author: Sebastian Benad

ITB Berlin 2024, one of the world's leading travel trade fairs, once again offered a diverse overview of current and future trends in the tourism industry. With the focus on "Pioneer the Transition in Travel & Tourism", the role of artificial intelligence (AI) was particularly emphasized - an area that is becoming increasingly important both in practice and in our teaching in tourism studies.

The second semester students from the Tourism Management (BA) course took part in the ITB to do research for their project in the Tourism Marketing module with Prof. Dr. Pflicke. Their positive feedback emphasized the diversity and range of topics and exhibitors. This direct experience provided students with an unparalleled perspective on the real-world application of the concepts they learn on campus and reinforced the relevance of hands-on education.

In his presentation, Thomas Hertkorn from Peak Ace shed light on how AI is revolutionizing marketing strategies. By attending this presentation, students who were currently working on a marketing project were able to gain valuable insights into how data-driven customer analytics and targeted content can personalize the customer experience and improve customer satisfaction.

The presentation on AI in the context of city tours offered a fascinating perspective on the future design of tourist experiences in urban areas. This presentation illustrated how technology can help to respond to the individual wishes of travelers and is also a practical example of the application of AI in the tourism industry.

Michael Giangrande from Google Cloud Germany shared his knowledge about the application of cloud technologies in tourism. His insights showed how important it is to be informed about the latest technologies and how they can be used to overcome the challenges in the industry.

The visit to ITB Berlin and the parallel congress was an enriching experience for lecturers and students alike. It was living proof that the combination of academic discourse and practice-oriented learning is essential in order to understand the complexity and dynamics of the tourism industry.

The intensive examination of the topics of AI and marketing, AI in city tours and the prospects of a technology giant like Google confirm that our faculty is on the right track. ITB Berlin 2024 has once again confirmed that a practical and future-oriented education is the key to training competent and innovative managers in the tourism sector.