During the conference organized by the Italian Ministry of Tourism on the digital ecosystem of Italian tourism, held at the Forum PA 2024 in Rome, the establishment of TURISMI.AI (“Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence in Tourism”) was officially announced. TURISMI.AI is a non-profit association aiming to explore and promote the use of artificial intelligence in the tourism sector, share and disseminate innovative solutions, inform and train tourism professionals, and encourage the adoption of ethically sustainable AI-based technologies in the tourism industry.
The three founding members of TURISMI.AI, all with extensive experience in tourism and innovative technologies, are:
- Edoardo Colombo, digital transformation expert in tourism, who serves as President;
- Antonio Barreca, Director General of Federturismo Confindustria, and
- Mirko Lalli, CEO and co-founder of The Data Appeal Company, both serving as Vice Presidents.
TURISMI.AI aims to bring together technology companies, start-ups, tourism businesses, research institutes, and universities to develop cross-sectoral projects and become a center of expertise for the creation of technology partnerships that facilitate the meeting of supply and demand in the field of AI for tourism.
During its first invitation-only round, the following organizations joined the association:
- Google Italy Srl
- Trentino Holidays Srl
- Bluvacanze SpA
- Federturismo Confindustria
- Cultura e Turismo Italiae
- Carraro LAB Srl
- Exprivia SpA
- Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Naples “Federico II”
- Mastercard Italy
- Fastweb SpA
- Almaviva Group
- Teamwork Srl
- Best Western Hotels Italia Scpa
- HIA Impresa Sociale Srl
- Jampaa Srl
- Univers Group Srl
- Valica SpA
- Digitalia Srl
Key Activities of TURISMI.AI Include:
- Research & Development: Promoting research into new AI technologies tailored to the needs of the tourism sector.
- Training & Education: Organizing workshops and seminars to train industry professionals in the use of AI.
- Networking & Collaboration: Building a network of professionals and companies to exchange ideas and best practices.
- Sustainability: Developing solutions that contribute to the sustainability of the tourism sector through AI adoption.
- G7 “Tourism”: Preparing a position paper to support initiatives for the G7 Tourism summit, to be held in Florence this autumn, with a focus on AI.
TURISMI.AI is also working on organizing the First National Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Tourism.
More at: www.turismi.ai
Giancarlo Carniani e direttore d’albergo a Firenze dove gestisce tre importanti strutture, è l’ideatore di BTO il più importante evento italiano dedicato alla distribuzione online dei prodotti turistici // Giancarlo Carniani is a hotel manager in Florence, where he runs three major properties. He is also the creator of BTO, the most important Italian event dedicated to the online distribution of tourism products.
