BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 22. The tourism industry must integrate modern trends and technologies, Turkish Kayseri University's Rector Kurtulus Mustafa said during panel discussions within the 1st meeting of higher education institutions specializing in tourism education within the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC), Trend reports.
According to him, in recent years, the tourism industry has been facing serious challenges due to rapid changes in the technological landscape and shifting consumer preferences.
"Integration of modern technologies and trends is not just an opportunity but a necessity to remain competitive and meet the expectations of modern tourists. The innovations actively being implemented in the industry today include the use of big data to analyze customer preferences and behavior, enabling the creation of personalized offerings and improving service quality," Karamustafa noted.
The rector also said that there is also a trend towards increased use of artificial intelligence.
"All of this contributes to improving service quality and increasing the efficiency of operations in the tourism industry. Overall, tourism is a rather fragile sector. It's exposed to both economic and social risks," he added.
The Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) was established in 1992 with the active support of Türkiye and the permanent international secretariat of the organization is located in Istanbul. BSEC was established to promote cooperation, peace, stability, and prosperity in the Black Sea region.
Baku hosts the first meeting of BSEC tourism higher education institutions to discuss cooperation, perspectives and challenges in the field of tourism education.
The meeting is attended by official representatives of states and tourism educational institutions from 11 member countries of the Organization, including Azerbaijan, Türkiye, Russia, Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine, as well as representatives of the UN World Tourism Organization.
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