This autumn, FUTOURWORK researchers have shared the project’s work from London and Lisbon to Varna and Sofia. From a labour law keynote to the project’s first published findings from Bulgaria, here is where we’ve been and what we shared.
Can 20th-century Labour Law Handle AI? A Keynote at the European Labour Law Congress
Felicia Rosioru gave a keynote at the European Labour Law Congress titled Addressing the “Forgotten” Worker: can 20th-century tools handle the 21st-century AI?
Much of the policy debate on AI at work has centred on platform workers. Felicia turned the spotlight on ‘regular’ employees, asking whether existing labour law rules are fit to protect them from the risks of artificial intelligence and algorithmic management in the workplace.
Her talk focused on transparency: whether workers know when and how AI and algorithmic management are being used, and the role of information and consultation rights in finding out. She looked specifically at tourism and hospitality, and shared examples of social dialogue in practice, including collective agreements that address AI transparency.
Rethinking AI in Tourism at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference
The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual International Conference took place at Imperial College London, bringing together more than 2,800 delegates.
Fiona Bakas hosted a session titled Beyond Human Bias: Re-imagining Equitable AI for Tourism’s Multiple Stakeholders. It brought together four papers:
- The Algorithmic Tour Guide: How LLMs Construct Safety, Danger, and Belonging across Tourist Destinations (Meltem Mutlutürk)
- Algorithmic Governance and Structural Inequality in Digital Tourism: A System Dynamics Perspective (Aysun Bozanta Hakyemez)
- The Digital Divide in the Tourism Industry: Generative AI, Digital Confidence, and the Risk of Exclusion (Muhammed Idris Kayhan and Duygu Salman Öztürk)
- Worker Well-being and Social Dialogue in the era of AI-enabled digitisation of Tourism and Hospitality work processes (Fiona Bakas)
Thanks to all the authors for an important discussion on who AI in tourism serves, and who it risks leaving behind.
Gender and Platform Work at Semana CEG Turismo, Lisbon
Fiona also presented FUTOURWORK research on gender and platform work at Semana CEG Turismo 2026, the tourism week hosted by IGOT at the University of Lisbon. She spoke to a mixed audience of students and academics, with Margarida Queiroz as discussant.
First Bulgarian Findings Published at the Black Sea Tourism Forum
It has been a busy season for tourism events in Bulgaria, and our partners at Zangador attended three of them.
The team started at Tourism Expo Destination Varna (1–2 October) and then went to the Hotel and Tourism Investment Forum in Sofia (12–14 October). There, Stan Ivanov spoke on a panel about the impact of AI on hospitality and tourism.
Next came the XIX Black Sea Tourism Forum in Varna, organised by the Varna Chamber of Tourism with support from Varna Municipality. Stan chaired and moderated a panel on the intelligent management of tourist experiences.
The team also published a paper in the Forum’s proceedings, sharing the first findings from FUTOURWORK’s primary research in Bulgaria. Drawing on surveys and interviews with tourism employees and stakeholders, it explores worker well-being, social dialogue and the impacts of digitalisation.
Ivanova, M. and Ilieva, E. (2026). Digital Transformation and the Future of Work in Tourism: Stakeholder and Employee Perspectives. Proceedings of XIX Black Sea Tourism Forum, Varna “Intelligent Tourism Destinations – innovations and sustainable development”, pp. 186–195. Varna: FIL. Read the proceedings (PDF)
At all three events, the team used informal meetings with tourism and hospitality professionals to introduce FUTOURWORK and our worker survey.
Connecting Our Research to Industry at WTM London
Principal Investigator Professor Stroma Cole (University of Westminster) also took part in a panel at WTM London, helping bring our insights to an industry audience. The discussion looked at how AI is reshaping tourism and hospitality, and Stroma made the case for keeping workers’ voices at the centre of those changes.
Read more about the arguments Stroma put forward, and the FUTOURWORK findings behind them, in our WTM blog post.
Thank you to all the organisers for making space for these conversations. Follow FUTOURWORK on LinkedIn for more.
