This week, AI entered the tourism conversation in a more prominent way than the more generic “use of technology” – never mind that some in the tech industry are warning that sufficiently advanced AI could pose an existential risk, while Bill Gates has separately warned of scenarios in which AI could contribute to a billion deaths.

Putting aside the current AI doomerism, the topic deserves serious consideration among tourism industry players in Cyprus – as it does in across almost every sector today.

However, AI should not be pontificated upon as it if were the next big thing that will change everything for tourism in the sense of replacing older buzz words such as “quality tourism” and “sustainable tourism”. Neither of these ambitions have ever been achieved to any great degree despite being on a wish list for three decades.

“You can prompt AI for a picture of culture, but you can’t algorithm the soul of an island festival!”. So says the ‘Visit Cyprus’ campaign on Facebook. This is true but how do you plan to get people to experience the “soul of Cyprus”?

Whether we like it or not, Cyprus remains a mass market sun and sea destination. And, when everyone talks constantly about arrivals and expresses grave concerns when numbers are down, as they have been this year amid regional instability, that this is part of the information picture AI draws on when people search.

A recent survey on ‘tourism and AI’ by Limassol-based Tharro, a hotel marketing intelligence platform, revealed that Cyprus is perceived as a “footnote destination” which appears “deep in search lists most readers never finish”.

The island scores low on perceptions of luxury, food and wine, culture and authenticity, almost vanishes on solo travelling and couples but is high on all-inclusive package holidays. Its strongest showing was the perception of winter sun.

“AI’s Cyprus, in short is a package island for families in summer and anyone in winter, present as an option, almost never as the answer, and invisible to the traveller who isn’t booking a board basis,” the report says.

So yes, it seems you really can’t algorithm the “soul” of Cyprus, at least not based on the information currently available about the island. But if that information is properly fed into the wider online ecosystem, maybe the AI output may not just come back with sun, sea and arrival metrics as the entirety of what Cyprus has to offer.

The hoteliers’ associations, Stek and Pasyxe are pressing their members to utilise AI not only for promotion purposes but also to engage in greater efficiency and sustainability policies.

But this will not change without action in real life and until everyone in the tourism industry is singing from the same hymn sheet. Recently, the Limassol tourism board president complained that the district was taking only 12 per cent of the tourism pie. He called for incentives to increase beds instead of “just attracting higher spending visitors”, which seems to contradict everything the industry claims to want.

One thing is certain, unless there is a cohesive policy everyone can agree on, the “soul” of Cyprus seems destined to wither away in AI limbo.