But the room prototype put on show by French technology consultancy Altran, aimed at luxury hotels, has incorporated cutting-edge speech recognition technology, allowing, for instance, a guest to order a pizza in 40 languages.

“Even the lock is intelligent – it opens and closes via the WhatsApp app on the client’s phone,” says Carlos Mendez, head of innovation at Altran.

The mattress is equipped with sensors and records the movements of those sleeping, which could prompt hotel staff to offer them a coffee when they wake up.

Generally speaking, hotels are hoping to use artificial intelligence (AI) to get better knowledge of their clients via personal data provided on reservation or “beacon” technology used once the client is in the hotel or resort.

Restricted in some countries, the latter involves placing a beacon in the hotel that will detect customers’ smartphones, meaning they will know how much time they spend in their rooms, for instance, or at what time they go to the pool.

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Armed with this data, AI algorithms will determine the clients’ habits, either to lure them back by offering a tailor-made experience, or to sell them additional products.

If the algorithm “knows that when you come to the hotel with your wife, you don’t eat in the restaurant but order room service, it will propose a special room menu with a bottle of champagne,” says Carrillo.

“But if you come with your entire family, it will propose a reduction on kids’ menus.”

For Rodrigo Martinez, head of consultancy Hotel Servicers, these technological tools could also help improve hotels’ productivity.

“All purchases can become automatic,” he says.

“For instance, if a huge number of Brits are coming, the system will know that it has to order more bacon.”

Manufacturers of virtual reality headsets are also jumping on the bandwagon.

At various stands at Fitur, which concluded on January 21, visitors were able to immerse themselves in the streets of Marrakesh or amble along a portion of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrims’ trail.

“We’re in a completely pioneering phase,” says Marcial Correal, head of the Spanish association for virtual travel agencies, who is promoting this tool to tourism professionals as the brochure of the future, without too much success so far.

“Professionals say ‘how amazing’ but they don’t buy it. It’s not in their marketing budget priorities.”

Headsets themselves are not too pricey, between €50 and €600 (US$60 and US$730), says Cesar Urbina of virtual reality agency Iralta.

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“Then there’s content production, a little more than a normal video – from €2,000 up to €150,000.”

Hotel chain Palladium, however, has decided to give it a go.

Its salespeople no longer have paper brochures to present their hotels to travel agents, they carry virtual reality headsets.

Using these, the agents can virtually visit rooms, pools or restaurants at every one of their hotels.

Ivan Corzo, head of marketing for Europe at the group, says this gives travel agents a better idea of what the hotels are really like.

They “tell us it helps them sell,” he says.

“It’s much more difficult to cheat with VR headsets,” adds Urbina.

Morocco’s tourism office is also using VR.

“Tourism is linked to experiences, sensitivity,” says Siham Fettouhi, head of e-marketing at the office.

“Virtual reality can’t replace the taste of local cuisine or the smell of the ocean. But it makes you want to explore more.”