RCDTT and Pseudo Lab Co-Organize Joint Forum to Connect Tourism Research and AI Practice

The Research Centre for Digital Transformation of Tourism (RCDTT) and the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University jointly organized the "AI for Smart Hospitality, Tourism & Culture" forum with Pseudo Lab on 18 September 2026. Co-hosted by Prof Wangoo Lee, Assistant Professor at SHTM, and Mr Chanran Kim, Founder of Pseudo Lab, the event brought together academics, AI practitioners, and students from Hong Kong and South Korea.

Pseudo Lab is a South Korea-based, non-profit AI community that supports open knowledge exchange and collaborative projects. Its visiting participants included practitioners from NVIDIA Korea, KRAFTON, Myrealtrip, Shinhan DS, HDC LABS, and other organizations, bringing diverse industry perspectives to the discussions.

Prof Kaye Chon, Dean of SHTM, delivered the opening remarks. Prof Dan Wang, Associate Dean of SHTM and Associate Director of RCDTT, and Mr Chanran Kim also welcomed participants during the opening session. Prof Simone Bianco moderated the joint panel, which featured Profs Bela Stantic and Faye Hao alongside Pseudo Lab representatives, connecting hospitality and tourism research with developments in AI practice. A hands-on workshop introduced participants to building multi-agent AI systems through a hotel review response example. The first plenary seminar covered industry applications, including AI translation, visual content generation, and tourism trends. The second focused on research applications, including causal inference, generative AI in online reviews, and restaurant survival prediction.

Beyond the formal sessions, Profs Mimi Li, Associate Director of RCDTT, and Richard Qiu joined Prof Wangoo Lee and Pseudo Lab representatives for a lunch meeting, providing an additional opportunity for exchange between RCDTT/SHTM scholars and the visiting practitioners.

The forum supported RCDTT's commitment to advancing the digital transformation of tourism by connecting domain expertise with technical capabilities and encouraging collaboration between researchers and industry practitioners.