Speakers
Description
The accelerated expansion of artificial intelligence across the tourism and hospitality sector has reignited the debate on how digital technologies translate into sustained competitive advantage. Although AI investments have grown substantially among European tourism organizations from hotel chains and online travel agencies to destination management organizations empirical evidence suggests that adoption alone does not automatically generate superior performance. Increasing attention is therefore directed towards the organizational behaviour mechanisms that mediate the relationship between AI deployment and competitive outcomes, including leadership commitment, employee engagement, organizational learning, and change readiness. This paper aims to investigate how EU-based tourism organizations transform AI investments into sustained competitive advantage, and to identify the organizational behaviour mechanisms that activate this transformation. Methodologically, the study employs a comparative case study design based exclusively on secondary data sources, drawing on Statista industry datasets, European Travel Commission reports, UNWTO statistics, OECD Tourism Statistics, Eurostat, and the European Commission's Digital Economy and Society Index. Preliminary findings indicate that competitive advantage materializes predominantly in organizations where AI is embedded in customer experience routines, dynamic pricing, and service personalization, supported by a culture of experimentation and continuous learning. The paper offers an empirical foundation for a subsequent full-length article exploring the behavioural drivers of digital competitiveness in European tourism.
