Sri Lanka Convention Bureau’s latest MICE training initiative at Rajarata University included artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality alongside destination branding, event planning, sustainability and risk management. The programme reflects how quickly technology is becoming part of Sri Lanka’s future business-tourism conversation.

For tourism businesses, however, there is an important difference between using new technology and solving a real customer problem.

An AI chatbot that cannot answer basic questions accurately is worse than a well-organised FAQ. A VR experience that requires ten minutes of explanation may add very little to a conference delegate’s experience. An event app nobody downloads has not created innovation simply because the invoice contains the word digital.

Technology becomes valuable when it removes friction, improves information or creates an experience that could not be delivered as effectively otherwise.

AI can help event teams organise large volumes of enquiries, generate personalised information, translate content or assist attendees with schedules. AR can add information to physical spaces, while VR can help potential buyers preview venues or destinations remotely. Those are useful applications because each technology has a specific job.

The same rule applies to smaller tourism businesses. A hotel does not need an AI concierge simply because competitors are discussing AI. It may benefit far more from fixing a slow website, improving room information and automating pre-arrival messages.

Tour operators should make the same calculation. An advanced itinerary generator sounds impressive, but if customers still receive slow responses and confusing quotations, the business has automated the wrong part of the journey.

Data quality is another important consideration. AI systems become less useful when the underlying information is outdated or inconsistent. If room policies, event schedules, prices or product descriptions are wrong, automating access to that information simply allows mistakes to travel faster.

Human handoff also matters. Tourism involves emotional, complex and occasionally unusual customer requests. Technology can manage repetitive tasks while giving staff more time to handle conversations that genuinely need judgement.

The best technology often becomes almost invisible to the customer. The booking feels easier, information appears faster and the event runs more smoothly without requiring the guest to understand what system is operating behind it.

Sri Lanka’s MICE sector is right to develop future-ready skills around AI, AR and VR. Businesses should simply resist the pressure to adopt technology for presentation value alone.

At Tourithm, we think technology should earn its place inside the customer journey. If it cannot improve speed, clarity, experience or business performance, adding another platform is not digital transformation. It is additional complexity.