The emerald Choco Cloud Forest in Ecuador is cloaked in fog, which makes its abundant wildlife sometimes difficult to see. But it’s the sounds of the incredible array of species here—the chirp of Mashpi glass frogs and trill of neon yellow tanagers—that interest Mashpi Lodge’s Forest Guardians.
These solar-powered audio recorders were developed by Rainforest Connection, a U.S.-based nonprofit that builds acoustic monitoring systems outfitted with A.I. technology. That technology enables vast amounts of data to be collected, analyzed, and reported in real time. If the sound of gunshot is detected, for example, the Forest Guardians can alert rangers to a poaching threat immediately. And by collecting ambient noise, the Guardians can create a map of detected fauna, data that can then be used to track and preserve biodiversity in the Mashpi Reserve, one of the cloud forest’s last remaining tracts.
A.I. has been deployed by travel and tourism companies in myriad other ways in recent years: Booking.com’s A.I. Trip Planner; hologram concierges at the Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel and Hotel X Toronto; Airbnb’s move to use the technology to thwart potentially unruly guests; and, of course, the now-ubiquitous chatbot assistants. But the intersection of artificial intelligence and sustainable travel is an especially exciting space to watch.
The travel industry accounts for 8 percent of global carbon emissions, according to a 2018 study published in Nature Climate Change, making visibility and accountability around sustainable operations crucial. In a 2023 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—a United Nations organization dedicated to assessing and mitigating the effects of climate change—stated that artificial intelligence can improve energy management in all sectors, increase energy efficiency, and promote low-emission technologies. Travel industry leaders are taking note.
“The biggest game-changing use of A.I. within sustainable travel is reducing aviation emissions,” says James McDonald, director of travel transformation at the World Travel & Tourism Council, a global organization representing the travel and tourism industry. Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, and KLM are among the carriers using the technology in this way.
Google recently partnered with American Airlines on an initiative called Project Contrails. The project aims to use artificial intelligence to reduce contrails, the white, wispy streaks made of heat and water vapor that planes sometimes leave behind. Those streaks create non-CO2 emissions, which are responsible for an estimated 35 percent of the aviation industry’s contribution to global warming, according to a 2021 study published in Atmospheric Environment. By using A.I.-generated predictions, American Airlines pilots were able to choose flight routes that reduced contrails by 54 percent.
“A.I. is looking at the current weather, air traffic, and historical seasonal traveler data,” says Karen Panetta, a computer engineer at Tufts University specializing in A.I. and machine learning. “There’s this dynamic information coming in that can complement human-sourced data, helping us take more fuel-efficient routes, while hopefully moving people through to their destination comfortably with less delay.”
Other airlines, such as KLM, are integrating a machine learning model into their operations to tackle another substantive climate offender: food waste. By using its A.I. model, TRAYS, KLM is able to predict how many booked passengers will actually board a flight and adjust catering orders, producing 63 percent less food waste. Hotel brands are likewise tapping A.I. to tackle waste reduction. Hilton partnered with Winnow, a company that has developed an A.I.-powered camera and scale system to record and measure food waste, and it uses the data to adjust production, inventory, and menu planning.
The ways in which A.I. might help to make hotel and transportation operations more sustainable are far-reaching, such as reducing taxi time at busy ports and airports, and making sustainability reporting easier and more efficient. A.I. could even help destinations manage overtourism at natural and cultural heritage sites. “By using A.I.-generated weather data, current events, and visitor data to predict the most sustainable time to go to a destination, we’re able to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact,” explains Panetta.
While these kinds of advancements aren’t something travelers will notice firsthand, they make a big impact behind the scene, where some people might argue A.I. is best used. A common concern among travelers as well as tourism businesses is that A.I. will dilute what makes travel meaningful—human connections—and take away jobs from the people at the heart of the industry.
“As much as we’re worried about job loss because of A.I., we have extreme labor shortages in tourism,” says Peter Pilarski, founder of Tourism A.I. Network, a Canadian company that helps travel businesses adopt A.I. strategies. “If we can automate the processes that tie us to our desks, then we can spend more time providing authentic visitor experiences—those human experiences that A.I. will never be able to provide,” Pilarski adds.
Although accuracy is improving and the technology is developing at an astonishing rate, we’re not seeing general A.I. (the type of A.I. that meets or supersedes human intelligence) yet. This makes human oversight of A.I. imperative, which, in turn, could create new jobs. “You don’t just leave A.I. to its own devices at this stage,” says Panetta. “You need experts who understand where the data came from and how it was analyzed.”
It isn’t just the travel industry that could use A.I. to make tourism more sustainable. A.I. could empower travelers themselves, encouraging them to choose more sustainable activities and accommodations. A 2022 report by Booking.com revealed that 29 percent of responding travelers didn’t know how to find sustainable options. Personalized trip recommendations generated by A.I. algorithms that consider environmental factors could help travelers plan their trips judiciously. One example is Google’s most recent iterations of Maps and Search, which offer eco-friendly options such as rail routes as alternatives to air travel and locations of EV charging stations.
A.I. is still far from perfect, of course. Air Canada, for instance, was ordered to compensate a passenger this past February when a chatbot incorrectly informed them about a bereavement fare. This occurred because of a hallucination, which is when A.I. invents information because of insufficient or biased training data.
Beyond these pain points, the most pressing problem that A.I. faces as a viable sustainability solution is the environmental impact of A.I. itself. Data centers consume an enormous amount of water required for cooling and emit significant CO2 emissions from electricity usage. In a 2024 report, the International Energy Agency cited that electricity usage from data centers and A.I. could double by 2026 from 2022 levels. Similarly, Google’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 rose nearly 50 percent from 2019 levels, per its 2024 environmental report, a number attributed largely to A.I. data centers.
According to Panetta, to reduce A.I. resource drain, major shifts need to occur, like powering data centers with renewables and developing more energy-efficient algorithms and computer materials used to train A.I. Otherwise, any sustainability solutions the technology may offer are negated. But experts are hopeful that artificial intelligence will, in time, become more climate-friendly and that the technology’s promise will be a boon for sustainable travel.
