When ChatGPT designs your trip: How GenAI adds a cognitive layer to smart tourism

Abstract

This conceptual article explores how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), particularly tools such as ChatGPT, is transforming smart tourism by introducing a new cognitive layer into digital ecosystems. While traditional smart tourism systems have focused on data-driven optimization and automation, GenAI enables content creation, emotional simulation, and human-like interaction, which redefines how tourism experiences are imagined, delivered, and evaluated. This article proposes a research agenda organized around eight key tourism business domains (product, demand, consumer behavior, supply, disruptors, performance, ethics, and sustainability) and fifteen thematic topics, including authenticity, predictive intelligence, emotion-driven marketing, and labor transformation. Drawing on the literature, we illustrate how GenAI shifts the focus from personalization to co-creation, from information retrieval to immersive storytelling, and from reactive systems to predictive design. The study concludes with a call for interdisciplinary inquiry into the ethical, social, and experiential implications of GenAI in tourism.