The Psyche of Travel AI
What happens when artificial intelligence meets our very human desire to explore? A talk about trust, curiosity, personalisation and keeping people at the heart of travel.
Speaker · OURTOR Founder & CEO · Tourism Professional
TOR WEBSTER
AI, tourism and the human experience
Travel has been my working life for more than twenty years. Today, through building OURTOR, I’m exploring how artificial intelligence, storytelling and the thoughtful use of data can help shape its future.
I speak about what these changes mean for the people who work in tourism and the people who travel. How do we embrace new possibilities while keeping human stories, local knowledge and a sense of discovery at the heart of the experience?
- 20+ years guiding in Glastonbury
- Founder of Tor’s Tours — 15 years
- Director, Pilgrim Reception Centre
- TIS Seville 2026 — speaker & pitch finalist
- Tourism Society member
- Tourism Management Institute member
About
About me
I’m Tor Webster, founder and CEO of OURTOR, founder of Tor’s Tours and a director of the Pilgrim Reception Centre in Glastonbury.
I’ve run Tor’s Tours for fifteen years and have been guiding in Glastonbury for more than twenty. My work brings people into contact with the landscape, its history, its myths and legends, and the meaning they find in their own journeys.
Building OURTOR has taken that experience into the digital world. Working alongside my co-founder, Gabriel Moon, I’ve been exploring how technology can help people discover places, connect with stories and follow their curiosity.
That meeting of tourism, technology and human experience is at the centre of my speaking. I bring the perspective of someone who has spent years welcoming travellers and is now helping build tools for a new generation of explorers.
Speaking
Speaking about AI and the future of tourism
AI is already changing how people find inspiration, plan journeys and decide where to go. For tourism businesses and destinations, it brings questions as well as opportunities.
My talks make space for both. I explore what AI can offer, where human judgement matters, and how we can use these tools with purpose.
In 2026, I delivered my first formal talk on AI in tourism at the Tourism Innovation Summit in Seville, where I also took part as a pitch finalist. I have pitched OURTOR at various startup events, sharing our vision and learning how to communicate new ideas to different audiences.
My approach is conversational, practical and grounded in the experience of working with travellers.
Talks
Talks and conversations
Talks can be shaped around your audience, the time available and the questions your organisation wants to explore.
Watch the talk
The Psyche of AI Travel
Tourism Innovation Summit, Seville
- Tuesday 6 October 2026, 15:45
- Tourism Innovation Theatre, Seville
- 17 minutes
AI Is Here to Stay: What Do We Do?
An accessible introduction for tourism organisations considering their next steps. Where can AI help, what questions should we ask, and how do we begin?
Human Stories in a Digital World
Local voices give places their character. How can technology help those stories reach people while preserving the knowledge and individuality behind them?
Travel, Data and Personalisation
Understanding what travellers want without reducing them to a profile. Exploring how information is collected, managed and used, and what makes personalisation useful and welcome.
Connecting with the Next Generation of Travellers
Exploring how discovery, play, participation and digital experiences can help tourism connect with younger and young-minded audiences.
Glastonbury: Myths, Legends and Living Traditions
Stories of Arthur, Avalon, pilgrimage and the sacred landscape, drawing on more than twenty years of guiding in Glastonbury.
Trust
Data, trust and understanding the traveller
Data management belongs in the conversation about the future of tourism. The information people share can help us understand their interests and create more relevant experiences. It also brings responsibility.
My interest is in the human purpose behind that information: why we collect it, how we manage it and whether its use genuinely improves someone’s journey.
Through building OURTOR, I’m exploring the relationship between traveller preferences, personalisation and discovery. In my talks, I connect those questions with the everyday concerns of tourism organisations: understanding visitors, earning trust and making thoughtful decisions about technology.
Beyond the stage
Television, radio and film
Where Tor has appeared on air and in print, and the documentary he made himself.
2:52 The Great Staycation: Glastonbury Getaway with the Fairies
Half an hour among Glastonbury’s characters and traditions when the festival isn’t on, with Tor one of the people on screen.
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The Archdruid of Stonehenge’s guide to Pagan Glastonbury
Rollo Maughfling, Archdruid of Stonehenge, recommends Tor’s Tour of the Tor: “You’ll be safe in his hands.”
“Local tour guide Tor Webster is a character deeply versed in Glastonbury lore.”
BBC Travel -
Explore the spiritual side of Glastonbury
A three-minute film for the BBC’s Glastonbury Festival coverage, in which Reverend Kate Bottley discovers the story behind the Glastonbury Holy Thorn. Tor filmed it with the BBC crew on the summer solstice.
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Steve Yabsley: Bookbinding, Douglas Adams and Glastonbury Tor
Tor joined presenter Steve Yabsley for the climb up Glastonbury Tor, with stories and facts along the way, in a two-hour show.
Feature documentary · 2010
The Rainbow Serpent Dawn of the New Age
Five years in the making, the film follows the Rainbow Serpent, an ancient energy current said to travel the world from Uluru, linking the planet’s chakras. At each site Tor works with ceremony and interviews tribal elders along the way.
It sets his own discoveries and adventures among images, poetry and footage of the sacred world, and aims to inspire people to travel consciously, around the world and into their hearts.
Directed and produced by Tor Webster
The seven chakra points the film visits
- Base Mount Shasta, USA
- Sacral Lake Titicaca, Peru
- Solar Plexus Uluru, Australia
- Heart Glastonbury, UK
- Throat Giza, Egypt
- Third Eye Glastonbury, currently
- Crown Mount Kailash, Tibet
Tor has also been interviewed by Russian TV, Japanese TV and Norwegian TV, appeared in local documentary productions, and been featured in German National Geographic Magazine and on The World National Geographic TV Channel.
OURTOR
OURTOR: bringing discovery into the digital age
OURTOR brings together places, human stories and the excitement of a treasure hunt.
Our vision is a global travel treasure quest, helping people discover the stories and experiences around them and encouraging them to look a little closer.
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The map
Find the sites that make a location worth exploring
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Travel DNA
Travel DNA: the sites YOU want to visit
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Travel stories
Real places, told in stories
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Play & social
Every trip is a game worth winning
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Journal
Every journey, remembered for you
Tor Webster
Founder & CEO, OURTOR
As founder and CEO, I bring my experience of guiding, storytelling and welcoming visitors into the development of the platform. We want technology to encourage people out into the world, where they can meet others, explore places and make memories of their own.
Building OURTOR gives me a practical perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing tourism as it moves further into the digital age.
For investors
We are looking for investors
Read the investor story: the problem, the market, our traction and the team. Then talk to the founders.
Invest in OURTORTor’s Tours
Tor’s Tour of the Tor
Sacred-secrets tours of Glastonbury, Stonehenge, Avebury, Cornwall, Scotland and Bath, led by Tor since 2001. TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence 2014 & 2015.
“The history and magic of Glastonbury comes alive through the stories that Tor shares on his tour. He connects ancient legends with known history and makes it all relevant to our lives today.”
Tor’s Tours traveller, 2017
“Tor Webster is one of the best and most knowledgeable guides for the sites of Glastonbury. His tours are personal and on-the-ground — this brings the history alive and gives you an experience you cannot get anywhere else.”
Tor’s Tours traveller, 2013
For travellers
Sacred tours of the UK, with Tor
Day tours and multi-day journeys, booked direct with Tor. Rated 4.8 out of 5 on Tripadvisor from over 230 reviews.
Book a tourFind Tor’s Tours on
Glastonbury
Glastonbury, pilgrimage and the magic of place
Glastonbury has shaped my life and my work. After more than twenty years of guiding here, I’m still fascinated by the way one place can hold so many stories and mean something different to everyone who visits.
As a Druid, Celtic Christian and Mystic of Glastonbury, my spiritual life informs how I understand landscape, community and our relationship with the earth.
Through Tor’s Tours and my role as a director of the Pilgrim Reception Centre, welcoming people is central to what I do. Some arrive with a spiritual purpose, others with an interest in history, and others simply with curiosity.
That experience continues to shape my thinking about tourism: how we welcome people, what we share with them and what they carry home.
Part of the tourism conversation
I’m a member of the Tourism Society and the Tourism Management Institute.
I want to contribute to a tourism industry that shares knowledge across generations and gives new voices room to be heard. I’m particularly interested in bringing practical tourism experience into conversations about AI, digital change and the expectations of younger travellers.
I welcome opportunities to take part in conferences, panel discussions, destination events, professional gatherings and community talks.
For event organisers
Short biography
Tor Webster is a speaker on AI, tourism and the human experience, and founder and CEO of OURTOR. He has run Tor’s Tours for fifteen years, guided in Glastonbury for more than twenty, and is a director of the Pilgrim Reception Centre. In 2026, he spoke on AI in tourism at the Tourism Innovation Summit in Seville, where he also participated as a pitch finalist. A member of the Tourism Society and the Tourism Management Institute, Tor brings together practical tourism experience, storytelling and insights from building a travel technology business.
Book Tor
Invite me to speak
If you’re bringing people together to explore AI, tourism, storytelling or the future of travel, I’d love to hear from you.
I’m available for talks, panel discussions, interviews and conversations with tourism organisations, businesses and community groups.
Tell me a little about your event, who will be there and what you would like them to take away. We can shape a talk that speaks to the people in the room.