How practitioners can leverage GenAI to bridge the research-practice gap

Despite the practical relevance of many tourism research studies, organizations and policymakers often struggle to integrate them due to time constraints, language barriers, limited resources, and interaction challenges. Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) offers new capabilities to overcome these barriers. We propose a GenAI-enabled knowledge translation process with three stages: (i) research curation to identify and translate relevant literature; (ii) content creation to produce materials; and (iii) market research using synthetic guests to pre-test their effectiveness. We examine the capabilities, limitations, and ethical implications of GenAI at each stage, drawing on a systematic review of GenAI and tourism literature. To equip managers with the knowledge and tools needed to harness research-based insights effectively, we offer a toolkit comprising a handbook, a promptbook, and tailored GPT models. The toolkit enables tourism and hospitality practitioners to apply research findings in their decision-making and content strategies without direct stakeholder interaction.