Panagiota Papastamoulou

• N. ANTONOPOULOS
• F. MYLONAS
• K. MOURLAS

The intercultural communication of digital tourist services, and specifically small hotels, is benefited from the utilization of artificial intelligence, a utilization that is examined in this research paper. This paper aims to discover the influence of artificial intelligence systems, such as recommendation systems and personalization tools, and the presented effects regarding the user's experience, the reliance, the acceptance of the ai-produced suggestions and the decision-making on behalf of differently-cultured users. Moreover, artificial intelligence is approached from a communicative perspective, capable of conveying and shaping cultural meanings through language, interface design, and content presentation. As a complementary 'distillation' of the research, the importance of intercultural communicative competence and cultural intelligence is affirmed in the context of human-technology interaction. The above are methodologically highlighted through the adoption of a mixed approach, with quantitative and qualitative methods, specifically through the employment of experimental designs, questionnaires, interviews, and field research. Notably, this multiphasic approach, the focus on small tourism businesses, which remain underrepresented in the literature, as well as the consideration of artificial intelligence as a communication mediator are elements that distinguish the present research from previous ones. Finally, by providing this new research evidence, the guidelines for designing culturally sensitive and reliable artificial intelligence systems in tourism can be benefited both theoretically and practically.