Call for Papers: Special Issue on AI-Enabled Tourism Research and Practices | APJTR
July 25, 2026
The Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research (APJTR) invites original contributions for a special issue on the theme "Walking and Working with AI: AI-Enabled Tourism Research and Practices". The issue explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and tourism research and practice.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the tourism industry and the way tourism research itself is conducted. From service robots, chatbots, and AI-powered trip planning to AI-enabled analysis of reviews, social media, and mobility data, AI is reshaping how tourism experiences are designed and delivered and how research is done. The special issue places particular emphasis on collaboration between AI and practitioners in tourism management, collaboration between AI and researchers across the scientific workflow, and the ethical implications of AI adoption. It also foregrounds using AI in innovative ways to address long-standing tourism problems, and investigating the novel problems that AI applications create. By foregrounding collaboration, ethics, and innovation, the issue aims to establish rigorous and responsible foundations for AI-enabled research and practice in tourism.
Scope
Submissions are invited across the following areas, and on related topics.
Six scope areas
Purely technical contributions without clear relevance to tourism will not be considered.
- 1AI-practitioner collaboration in tourism practiceHuman-AI collaboration in the workforce: service robots and chatbots alongside employees, augmentation versus replacement, algorithmic management, reskilling, trust, and human-AI service co-production.
- 2AI-researcher collaboration in tourism scholarshipHuman-AI and AI-AI collaboration across the research cycle: topic selection, hypothesis development, literature review, methodology, data collection, analysis, evaluation, and writing.
- 3AI-driven methodology and theory developmentLLM-based analysis of reviews and social media, multi-agent simulation of tourist behaviour, AI-driven demand forecasting, systematic literature analysis, and causal AI-enhanced design.
- 4AI-enabled experience design and operationsGenerative AI in trip planning, personalisation, virtual guides, immersive and AR experiences, plus AI-driven revenue management, crowd management, staffing, and smart destination operations.
- 5Ethics and responsible AI in tourismPrivacy and surveillance, algorithmic bias, transparency, the digital divide, governance frameworks, and safeguarding research integrity in human-AI collaboration, including hallucination risks.
- 6AI-driven innovation in tourismUsing AI to address long-standing problems such as overtourism, labour shortages, and sustainability, and investigating novel problems AI creates, from fake reviews to experience homogenisation.
Submission and key dates
Manuscripts should follow the standard submission guidelines and procedures of the Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research. When submitting, authors should ensure the correct special issue, "Walking and Working with AI: AI-Enabled Tourism Research and Practices", is selected. All submissions undergo the journal's standard peer-review process.
Key dates
Guest editors: Prof. Gang Li (Deakin University), Dr. Haiyang Xia (University of Macau), and Prof. Rob Law (University of Macau).
- Call opens1 September 2026
- Submission deadline30 April 2027
- Estimated publicationEarly to mid 2028
Enquiries about the special issue can be directed to the coordinating guest editor, Dr. Haiyang Xia, at haiyangxia@um.edu.mo.
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