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WebinarOnline

Persuasion in the digital realm: AI, chatbots and the ethics of influencing traveller choices online

  • 17:00–17:45 UK time45 minutes
  • Online, on Zoom, inside ScholardemiaRegister, then join on this page from 16:50. How to join
  • Alex BainbridgeConvened by Prof. Eugenia Wickens

This webinar examines how chatbots, recommendations and interface design influence traveller choices online.

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About this event

Speaker update, 2 October 2026: Alex Bainbridge is confirmed as the industry speaker. The academic speaker will be announced once confirmed.
Conversational artificial intelligence, recommendation systems and booking interfaces influence how travellers compare options and make decisions online. This webinar examines defaults, ranking systems, urgency messages, artificial scarcity and natural language interactions. It asks when digital guidance improves comprehension and when it manipulates attention or restricts meaningful choice. The session will consider how design features work together across a booking journey and how apparently minor prompts can shape decisions when users face limited time, complex information or uncertainty.
Panellists will analyse the use of behavioural data for personalisation, including whether consent is informed and whether recommendations can be explained or corrected. The discussion will address automated disclosure, sponsored rankings, dynamic pricing and the allocation of responsibility when a system provides misleading advice. It will also consider accessibility for people with different languages, abilities, ages and levels of digital confidence. Ethical assessment will extend beyond interface design to the commercial objectives and data infrastructure that determine system behaviour.
Participants will gain systematic criteria for identifying whose interests a digital service advances and where risks of consumer harm may arise. They will learn to examine the evidence behind persuasive features, test whether less intrusive alternatives are available and establish routes for human review. The webinar will also consider monitoring, complaint handling and the withdrawal of features that produce unequal or unintended effects. Delegates will leave with a practical basis for designing or regulating online travel services that remain transparent, accessible and accountable. This supports digital innovation without weakening informed and voluntary consumer choice.

How to join

This webinar runs on Zoom. You join it here on Scholardemia, where the meeting opens inside the page with the chat, questions and polls beside it. You do not need a Zoom account or a Zoom link.

  1. RegisterFree, with your Scholardemia account.
  2. Come back on the dayThe room opens at 16:50 on Friday 11 December. We email you reminders with the Join button 24 hours and 1 hour before.
  3. Press JoinSign in with the same account. The meeting opens here, with questions, polls and the group chat beside it.

Use an up-to-date Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox. Allow sound when your browser asks, and use headphones if you can.

Featured speakers

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Alex Bainbridge

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Scholardemia
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Persuasion in the digital realm: AI, chatbots and the ethics of influencing traveller choices online

WebinarOnlineSession 6 of 29

This webinar examines how chatbots, recommendations and interface design influence traveller choices online.

  • 17:00–17:45 UK time
  • Online, on Zoom, inside Scholardemia · 45 minutesRegister, then join on this page from 16:50. How to join
  • Alex BainbridgeConvened by Prof. Eugenia Wickens

About this webinar

Speaker update, 2 October 2026: Alex Bainbridge is confirmed as the industry speaker. The academic speaker will be announced once confirmed.
Conversational artificial intelligence, recommendation systems and booking interfaces influence how travellers compare options and make decisions online. This webinar examines defaults, ranking systems, urgency messages, artificial scarcity and natural language interactions. It asks when digital guidance improves comprehension and when it manipulates attention or restricts meaningful choice. The session will consider how design features work together across a booking journey and how apparently minor prompts can shape decisions when users face limited time, complex information or uncertainty.
Panellists will analyse the use of behavioural data for personalisation, including whether consent is informed and whether recommendations can be explained or corrected. The discussion will address automated disclosure, sponsored rankings, dynamic pricing and the allocation of responsibility when a system provides misleading advice. It will also consider accessibility for people with different languages, abilities, ages and levels of digital confidence. Ethical assessment will extend beyond interface design to the commercial objectives and data infrastructure that determine system behaviour.
Participants will gain systematic criteria for identifying whose interests a digital service advances and where risks of consumer harm may arise. They will learn to examine the evidence behind persuasive features, test whether less intrusive alternatives are available and establish routes for human review. The webinar will also consider monitoring, complaint handling and the withdrawal of features that produce unequal or unintended effects. Delegates will leave with a practical basis for designing or regulating online travel services that remain transparent, accessible and accountable. This supports digital innovation without weakening informed and voluntary consumer choice.

How to join

This webinar runs on Zoom. You join it here on Scholardemia, where the meeting opens inside the page with the chat, questions and polls beside it. You do not need a Zoom account or a Zoom link.

  1. RegisterFree, with your Scholardemia account.
  2. Come back on the dayThe room opens at 16:50 on Friday 11 December. We email you reminders with the Join button 24 hours and 1 hour before.
  3. Press JoinSign in with the same account. The meeting opens here, with questions, polls and the group chat beside it.

Use an up-to-date Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox. Allow sound when your browser asks, and use headphones if you can.

Speaker and convenor

Alex Bainbridge

Presenter

Mr

Scholardemia profile

Prof. Eugenia Wickens

Convenor

OTS Academy

United Kingdom

Professor Eugenia Wickens edits the Journal On Tourism & Sustainability (JOTS) and the Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Education (JTHE), and chairs Scholardemia webinar sessions. Her research covers tourist experience and typologies, tourism routes and rural development, volunteer tourism, and event and cultural tourism. Formerly Reader in Tourism at Buckinghamshire New University, she has helped plan tourism education in Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Serbia, Greece, Ireland and Turkey.

Scholardemia profileORCIDGoogle Scholar

Organised by Scholardemia.

Committee

Organising Committee

Operational leadership and event delivery team.

Prof. Eugenia Wickens

Convenor

OTS Academy

United Kingdom

Professor Eugenia Wickens edits the Journal On Tourism & Sustainability (JOTS) and the Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Education (JTHE), and chairs Scholardemia webinar sessions. Her research covers tourist experience and typologies, tourism routes and rural development, volunteer tourism, and event and cultural tourism. Formerly Reader in Tourism at Buckinghamshire New University, she has helped plan tourism education in Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Serbia, Greece, Ireland and Turkey.

Scholardemia profileORCIDGoogle Scholar

Scholardemia

Organizer

Event committee

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Photos

  • Critical discussion and human accountability. Illustrative photograph — Reza Tavakoli / Pexels.

  • Testing urgency and scarcity prompts — AI-generated editorial illustration.

  • Consent that preserves a meaningful choice — AI-generated editorial illustration.

  • Can different travellers understand the choices? — AI-generated editorial illustration.

  • A route from automated advice to human review — AI-generated editorial illustration.

Next in this series

All 29 sessions
  1. Fri 8 Jan09:00Ecotourism in action: Balancing sustainable development, resident perceptions and conservation realitiesSession 7
  2. Fri 15 Jan09:00The destination lifecycle revisited: Navigating overtourism and fostering sustainable growth in a post-pandemic worldSession 8
  3. Fri 22 Jan16:00The soul of tourism: Anthropological perspectives on cultivating true destination stewardshipSession 9
  4. Fri 29 Jan14:00Planning for resilient destinations: Integrating cultural heritage, rural tourism and community-led strategiesSession 10