Future Tourism Markets: Between Digitalisation and Humanity – “Coffee Road” Vision of Tourism

Abstract

Relevance and novelty of the scientific approach. In recent decades, tourism has undergone fundamental changes that have changed the concept of travel and its social meaning. Global shocks – the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the effects of climate change – have not only limited physical movement, but also prompted a new rethinking of the value and motives of travel. The modern tourist increasingly perceives travel not only as a geographical movement; it becomes a way to make sense of his relationship with the world, to express values and choices related to responsibility, technology, and sustainability. Bekele and Raj (2025) argue that travel today is a social and cultural investment that reflects the traveller’s self-concept and worldview. This paradigm shift suggests that future tourism must combine innovation with the need for authentic experiences.

Drawing on insights from Bekele and Raj (2025), Buhalis (2020; 2025), Gretzel (2022), OECD (2023), WTTC (2024), and others, the article discusses how digital technologies and artificial intelligence solutions are shaping a new travel culture, while highlighting the paradox between technological convenience and the need for authentic experiences. It analyses the sustainability discourse, travellers’ ecological awareness, and the phenomenon of digital fatigue, which is increasingly encouraging a return to humanity. In order to reveal how digitalisation and humanity can be reconciled in future tourism models, the article introduces and evaluates the concept of the “Coffee Road” – a form of gastronomic tourism that emphasises the connection with local culture, traditions, and sustainable choices. It provides an insight that this concept can become an innovative tourism model in which technology complements, but does not replace, human experience.

During the pandemic, the accelerating digitalisation has led to the integration of technology into almost all links of the tourism process. Buhalis (2025) emphasises that virtual experiences, artificial intelligence tools, and digital planning systems have become an indispensable part of the sector’s functioning. However, the dominance of technology has also highlighted the paradoxes accompanying travel: disappearing spontaneity, decreasing connection with local culture, and increasing digital fatigue. In addition, the growing ecological awareness of travellers (European Travel Commission, 2024) and sustainability requirements are forcing the tourism sector to search for new, responsible, and culturally meaningful forms of experiences. Considering these processes, the direction of gastronomic tourism, which combines local culture, traditions, and social connection, is becoming relevant. The concept of the “Coffee Road” emerges as one of the innovative models that offers the opportunity to combine technology with humanity and sustainability. This concept allows us to analyse a broader question – how can tourism remain modern, but at the same time be able to create authentic, valuable experiences.

Research problem. Modern tourism is experiencing a contradictory transformation: accelerating digitalisation increases the efficiency and accessibility of services, but at the same time weakens the dimensions of authentic travel experience – human connection, cultural depth, and spontaneity. Travellers, in response to the rise of technology and increasing digital fatigue, are increasingly seeking sustainable and culturally meaningful experiences. At the same time, sustainability requirements and ecological awareness are forcing the tourism sector to search for new models that would combine innovation with humanity. However, there is still a lack of theoretical insights into how these three dimensions – digitalisation, sustainability, and authentic experience – could be combined in one coherent tourism model. Therefore, the question arises whether gastronomic tourism, and in particular the “Coffee Road” concept, can become an effective solution in integrating these competing trends and offer a more sustainable direction for tourism in the future.

The purpose of the study: to identify, based on scientific insights, the interaction of digitalisation, sustainability, and humanity in the tourism sector, highlighting the potential of the “Coffee Road” concept as an innovative model for future tourism.

The results. The results of the study suggest that the value of future tourism will depend on the ability to maintain a balance between digitalisation and authentic experience. Technologies will be effective only to the extent that they enhance the content of travel, without turning travel into a purely technological process. Gastronomic tourism models, such as the “Coffee Road”, can significantly contribute to the humanisation of travel and strengthening cultural connections, as their essence is based on a connection with tradition, local people, history, and emotional experience, which cannot be algorithmically recreated.

Future prospects show that the tourism sector will have to solve several interrelated tasks: consistently integrate innovations so that they do not replace humanity, but complement it; reduce the ecological footprint of technologies and ensure their sustainable application; create tourism models that preserve cultural identity and local experiences; and strengthen travellers’ ability to responsibly choose and value authentic, lived experiences. It can be concluded that travel will remain meaningful to the extent that it allows travellers to experience the world through people, culture, and real, non-algorithmic emotions. Tourism that is able to combine technological advancement, sustainability, and human values will have the greatest potential to become a resilient, ethical, and meaningful sector of the future.

Keywords: tourism; digitalisation; sustainability; authenticity; gastronomic tourism; artificial intelligence; “Coffee Road”