South-east Asia’s governments put AI to work in tourism

[JAKARTA/KUALA LUMPUR] It’s not about fancier trips but smoother ones – and more personalised too. Across South-east Asia, tourism authorities are embedding AI into travel, not as a gimmick, but to make the journey more seamless for travellers.

The shift is a strategic push to move tourism from sheer volume to “high-value” tourism with the aim of creating a more personalised experience that supports growth while easing pressure on cities and heritage areas.

Namho Chung, a professor at Kyung Hee University in Seoul and co-founder of the Association for Smart Tourism, said smart tourism is often summarised as the digital transformation of the tourism industry.

“However, what makes smart tourism a true game changer is not merely the adoption of new technologies, but the fact that it fundamentally reshapes how tourism operates,” he told The Business Times.

Indonesia is testing a new AI tool, MaiA, as it looks beyond Bali; Thailand is plugging AI into a national tourism data backbone to deliver real-time recommendations; Vietnam is building AI platforms tied to its 2026 tourism targets; and Malaysia is pairing Visit Malaysia 2026 with smart-tourism pilots in places such as Melaka and Penang.

From AI itinerary builders and interactive maps to national tourism data hubs delivering real-time recommendations, the technology is being deployed to solve practical problems.

In turn, this is helping visitors plan faster, move more smoothly, and discover experiences that match their interests.

Not chasing hype

Indonesia introduced the MaiA platform on Nov 28, 2025. Developed in partnership with Google Gemini, it offers personalised destination recommendations, automated itinerary creation and interactive maps to support both trip planning and on-the-ground navigation.

Firnandi Gufron, deputy for marketing at Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism, said MaiA is currently being used to test market interest. The platform, available only on the Web, has not yet been developed into a standalone mobile application.

“Future application development will depend on the level of user enthusiasm, as there are many factors that need to be considered when building an app,” he told The Business Times.

The initiative is part of a broader push to strengthen Indonesia’s tourism competitiveness as traveller behaviour shifts towards digital services that are more personalised, efficient and accessible throughout the journey.

Tourism accounts for 4 per cent of the gross domestic product of South-east Asia’s largest economy.

Indonesia welcomed about 15.3 million foreign visitors last year, up 10.38 per cent year on year, with Bali remaining the country’s main draw.

Arrivals have not fully returned to pre-pandemic levels, but tourism revenue and its contribution to GDP have already exceeded 2019 figures, averaging at around US$13 billion.

Against that backdrop, the government is seeking to reposition Bali as one hub within a wider network of destinations. This includes the “10 New Bali” initiative launched under former president Joko Widodo, aimed at developing tourism centres across the archipelago to reduce reliance on a single destination.

Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia step up

Thailand, meanwhile, has taken a more assertive approach. Its Tourism Authority launched the TAT-AI project in 2025, integrating a national tourism data warehouse with Google Cloud and Gemini AI to deliver real-time, personalised travel recommendations. 

The initiative earned Thailand the “Best Use of AI in Travel” award at the World Tourism Awards 2025, for its focus on sustainable tourism and secondary destinations.

Vietnam is also advancing smart tourism through digital platforms, AI assistants, and data ecosystems, with major initiatives tied to 2026 tourism targets of 25 million international arrivals and US$43 billion in revenue.

Its centrepiece project, the Visit Vietnam AI platform, is set to be launched in the second quarter of 2026. It will offer personalised itineraries and data analytics; there will also be a broader digital strategy integrating virtual reality guides, smart tourism products and green pilot projects in destinations such as Ninh Bình, with an emphasis on sustainability and personalisation.

Malaysia is investing RM705 million (S$227.4 million) in Budget 2026 to power its Visit Malaysia 2026 campaign, leveraging AI-driven strategies and digital marketing to capture a global audience.

Cities such as Melaka and Penang are also funding smart-tourism pilots with state budgets and federal matching grants. These include Melaka’s AI dashboard for real-time visitor flow monitoring and Penang’s heritage technology initiatives, such as digital heritage mapping and augmented reality-guided walks.

South Korea: a merging of tourism and urban policies

The ability to handle the invisible work is what makes smart tourism transformative, said Prof Chung, adding: “Smart tourism is not about technology itself. It’s about redefining tourism as an integral part of urban life.”

By integrating tourists and residents into a shared digital ecosystem and urban spaces, smart tourism goes beyond improving industry efficiency, said the author of Smart Tourism Grand Transformation, a book examining how digital systems deepen travel experiences and strengthen tourism ecosystems.

Digital technology reshapes how tourism contributes to cities and society; it enables visitors to move with minimal friction in mobility, payments, information access and language, while residents benefit from infrastructure that improves daily life rather than overwhelm it.

South Korea exemplifies this through its five-year-old Smart Tourism Cities Development Programme. By involving 12 cities, it merges tourism and urban policy into a single digital ecosystem that incorporates seamless information access and streamlined payment systems, benefiting both visitors and residents alike.

“For these reasons, smart tourism is no longer optional. It has become a strategic necessity,” he added.

The vaunted AI bandwagon

Global travel platforms are not wasting time tapping AI to drive business volume.

Expedia Group unveiled Romie, its AI travel assistant, in May 2024, and followed this up a year later with an agentic AI experience on Hotels.com. The latter integrates discovery, service and booking into a single, seamless natural-language interface.

Expedia’s chief technology officer Ramana Thumu said that hotels leveraged over a million AI-powered recommendations in 2024, which drove a 9 per cent jump in transactions and delivered nearly US$6 billion in incremental revenue.

“AI ultimately strengthens our ecosystem by improving efficiency for (our) partners and creating better, more personalised trips for travellers,” he added, noting that AI’s ultimate role is to “reduce effort” so travellers can focus on experiences rather than logistics.

“Travellers today want journeys that feel intuitive, from initial inspiration to on-the-go support,” said Stephane Thong, general manager at Trip.com Malaysia.

To meet that need, Trip.com’s AI assistant, TripGenie, has evolved from a simple chatbot into a dynamic travel companion, providing personalised recommendations based on user behaviour, past searches and conversational prompts.

“It’s more than a search tool,” said Thong, adding that Trip.com’s internal data shows that 28 per cent of users turn to TripGenie for inspiration, 15 per cent for flight and hotel booking assistance, and 11 per cent for post-sales support.

Users interacting with TripGenie spend over 20 minutes a session on average and show higher conversion rates than non-users, she added.

Airlines that embed AI into operations are also reaping benefits.

A Malaysia Airlines spokesperson said the airline’s “Time For” campaign, underpinned by AI-driven personalisation, delivered a 57 per cent increase in flight selections and a 22 per cent rise in digital bookings.

The carrier has expanded AI partnerships with Google and PROS (a software company specialising in modern airline retailing, revenue management, dynamic pricing) to strengthen demand forecasting, pricing and personalised offerings as it prepares for Visit Malaysia 2026. These systems draw on real-time market signals, booking behaviour and historical customer data to optimise inventory and tailor offers.

Structural gaps and ROI

Measuring success also requires a broader lens. Prof Chung argues that traditional return-on-investment metrics fail to capture the true value of smart tourism, which functions more like urban infrastructure than a standalone service.

“The key question is not how much revenue is generated, but whether the destination has developed the capacity to sustainably operate and continuously upgrade smart tourism,” he said.

However, digital sophistication cannot bridge deeper structural gaps.

Edgar Honggo, an Indonesian travel enthusiast, welcomed MaiA as a “positive step forward”, but said that the government must continue addressing fundamentals such as visa access, hygiene standards, transport reliability and language capabilities.

“Without fixing these basics, technology-driven initiatives can only go so far,” he said.