As AI continues to proliferate, future travel and tourism students must be taught how to harness it as part of their studies, reports MATT LENNON.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) should be included as a core competency and foundational unit of study in travel and tourism tertiary courses, believes Australian Travel Career Council (ATCC) CEO, Rick Myatt.

Speaking to , Myatt said AI training should be considered a key study element for emerging travel industry career-seekers, similar to general travel and tourism knowledge.

“Whether it’s Cert III in Tourism, Cert III in Travel or Cert III in Events, general travel knowledge is actually across everything because it’s a foundational unit, but it doesn’t contain any knowledge about AI and I reckon that is a major flaw,” Myatt said.

Newcomers to the industry should be introduced to the roles AI is currently performing in the sector and learn how to harness it, Myatt added.

“But it doesn’t exonerate the human service – AI will do what you want it to do, nothing more and nothing less.”

However, Myatt suggested a key problem facing education in travel and tourism is that students often have a better grasp of the technology than trainers.

ATCC was recently consulted by the NSW Government on how AI can be better incorporated into travel and tourism training.

“One of my comments to the government was that ‘it’s not students, it’s the trainers’.”

“You don’t have trainers that are trained with up-to-date AI knowledge – AI and cyber security should be hand-in-glove.

“It should be a backdrop of almost any sector, any product,” Myatt added.