Swiss tourism organizations launch AI Local Guides
Root/Zurich - Together with Holoai AG, a group of Swiss tourist boards has joined forces to launch local travel guides powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Visitors to these regions can use the AI Local Guides as an interactive digital travel companion that offers access to local expertise.
Swiss tourism organizations have launched a series of AI Local Guides that provide visitors to the country with a digital travel companion offering curated, local expertise in a structured, AI-legible form. The project has been realized by a range of tourist boards, namely Zürich Tourism, Basel Tourism, Lucerne Tourism, Graubünden Tourism with Chur Tourism and Tourism Engadin Scuol Samnaun Val Müstair, as well as graubündenVIVA, which is the canton of Graubunden’s cooperation program for regional culinary highlights, and the company Holoai AG from Root in the canton of Lucerne. The project was also supported by the Innotour promotional program, which is coordinated by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). According to a statement issued by Zürich Tourism, the AI Local Guides are now available on the websites of the respective destinations.
Each of the participating regions has developed its own AI-powered travel guide with a distinct personality. These guides are based on curated content from local experts, maintained and updated by the respective tourist board. The Joaia Guide Studio platform developed by Holoai serves as the technological basis of these guides and is now available to other destinations and tourism stakeholders in the form of a licensed solution.
“Together, we have managed to develop an innovative digital solution that makes local knowledge accessible to visitors and local residents in a personal way at all times”, as Janine Rupf, Head of Marketing at Zürich Tourism, explains in the statement.
The travel guides complement the existing information services by answering questions, providing directions and offering contextual information on tourist attractions, restaurants and other activities. Local residents can also benefit from learning about historical backgrounds and accessing information on current cultural offerings and events in their area.
