Application of ChatGPT in the tourism domain: potential structures and challenges

Abstract

The tourism industry stands out as a sector where effective customer communication significantly influences sales and customer satisfaction. The recent shift from traditional natural language processing methodologies to state-of-The-Art deep learning and transformer-based models has revolutionized the development of Conversational AI tools. These tools can provide comprehensive information about a company's product portfolio, enhancing customer engagement and decision-making. One potential Conversational AI application can be developed with ChatGPT. In this study, we explore the potential of using ChatGPT, a cutting-edge Conversational AI, in the context of Setur's products and services, focusing on two distinct scenarios: intention recognition and response generation. We incorporate Setur-specific data, including hotel information and annual catalogs. Our research aims to present potential structures and strategies for utilizing Language Model-based systems, particularly ChatGPT, in the tourism domain. We investigate the advantages and disadvantages of three different architectures and evaluate whether a restrictive or more independent model would be suitable for our application. Despite the impressive performance of Large Language Models (LLMs) in generating human-like dialogues, their end-To-end application faces limitations, such as system prompt constraints, fine-Tuning challenges, and model unavailability. Moreover, semantic search fails to deliver satisfactory performance when searching filters that require clear answers. To address these issues, we propose a hybrid approach that employs external interventions, the assignment of different GPT agents according to intent analysis, and traditional methods at specific junctures, which will facilitate the integration of domain knowledge into these systems.