EICC Live: Artificial Intelligence - Can Tourism Stay Human?

Joshua Ryan-Saha is Director of Tourism, Travel and Festivals at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh. He established Traveltech for Scotland to cement our position as a European leader in travel technology innovation. He has delivered AI and tourism innovation lectures and workshops to more than 400 industry professionals across Europe, America and Asia, advising tourism destinations on the use of AI.

Edinburgh knows tourism's double-edged sword and is the topic of endless debate. Is the relationship between visitors and local residents under strain. Noise, house prices, traffic, and new developments have all at times attracted the ire of those who call Edinburgh their home. Yet this very tension makes our city the perfect laboratory for asking: what happens when you throw AI into the tourism mix?

Through interactive elements and real-world examples, Joshua will navigate how AI is already reshaping travel, from algorithm-curated itineraries to predictive crowd management. But as machines become better at planning perfect trips, are we losing the beautiful accidents, spontaneous discoveries, and genuine human connections that make travel transformative?

Drawing on his work around the globe, Joshua will explore the uncertain future ahead. Will tomorrow's tourists still get wonderfully lost? Can we harness AI's power while preserving tourism's capacity to surprise, challenge, and change us?

Hear how this technological revolution is unfolding in Scotland and beyond - and help shape what comes next.

Image: Cat O’Neil

Panellists

Nick Finnigan

Nick has held a range of tourism-related senior leadership positions over the years - most recently as Executive Manager of Edinburgh Castle - Scotland’s most famous and iconic visitor attraction.

With a range of commercial expertise including events, hospitality, catering and retail, Nick is now currently employed in a range of roles - Non-Executive Director at High Life Highland and Director of Enterprise at Double Take Projections and Business Consultant at Contini’s.

Professor Jane Ali Knight

Dr Jane Ali-Knight is a Professor in Festival and Event Management at Edinburgh Napier University and is a Visiting Professor at Curtin University and William Angliss Institute, Australia. She is Programme Director of the award winning ‘Destination Leadership Programme’; leads the Festival and Events discipline; lectures at universities internationally and facilitates training and development in the field.

A recognised academic, she has presented at major international and national conferences and has published widely in the areas of wine tourism and regional development; destination marketing and management; festival and event leadership, accessibility, and well-being. She has also edited seminal texts in Festival and Event Management. Jane has extensive experience in planning, designing, and delivering undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional courses and consultancy projects in tourism, festival, and event management both in the UK and overseas.

Jane is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and Higher Education Academy and a Trustee of British Arts Festivals Association and Chair of Hidden Door Festival

Callum McPherson

Callum is the Founder & CEO of Obvlo, an Agentic AI application used by travel brands to produce and personalise 'destination content' at scale. Customers like Virgin Hotels use Obvlo’s Content Engine to automatically research their destinations, creating local content for landing pages, trip planners, blogs and email marketing with minimal manual effort. Obvlo’s vision is to create ‘local knowledge on a global scale’.

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Host or Publisher Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC)