Biography
Nikhil Thakur is a NHTET and UGC-NET-qualified academician in Tourism Administration and Management, currently serving as a Teaching Associate at Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Hotel Management, Chandigarh—one of India’s premier hospitality institutions under the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Known for his ability to seamlessly blend academic depth with industry pragmatism, he embodies the modern hospitality educator—scholarly, innovative, and deeply connected to the realities of the tourism world. A lifelong learner, Nikhil holds an MBA in Hospitality Management and is presently pursuing a Ph.D. in Tourism and Hospitality Management from Mangalayatan University. His research reflects a forward-thinking vision, focusing on sustainability, virtual tourism, and the evolving dynamics of experiential travel—areas critical to the future of global hospitality. Before joining Dr. Ambedkar IHM, he served as Assistant Professor and Training & Placement Coordinator at Guru Kashi University, and later as Assistant Professor & Head at Mewar University, where he played a pivotal role in curriculum innovation, industry–academia collaboration, and skill-based learning integration.
Conference contributions 1
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, BLEISURE TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY:
Ethical challenges and social responsibility in the transformation of work, culture, and human relations
Background: The hospitality industry has seen the rise of artificial intelligence adoption and at the same time, bleisure tourism has become a widely popular segment of travel. These two trends are changing the way services are delivered, however, they are also raising ethical issues such as privacy, employment, and human interaction. Objective: This paper is aimed at investigating the ethical dilemmas and social responsibility aspects of the use of artificial intelligence in bleisure tourism and hospitality, especially in terms of changes in work, culture, and human interaction. Methodology: A systematic review of the literature was carried out using the databases Scopus, Web of Science, Emerald Insight, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. The focus was on peer-reviewed articles published from 2014 to 2025. A thematic content analysis was performed. Results: AI is capable of significantly improving the efficacy of operations and the level of personalization for bleisure tourists. Nevertheless, the issues of data security, discrimination by algorithms, loss of jobs for employees, monitoring of employees, and the diminishing of genuine human contact have all been highlighted as problems. Conclusion: In order to incorporate artificial intelligence into bleisure tourism and hospitality in a way that is sustainable, it is crucial to find a point of equilibrium between technological advancements on the one hand and the ethics of responsibility, the values of human-centered service, and social sustainability over the long term on the other.