Soon you can chat with a bot on all things Tamil Nadu tourism

CHENNAI: In a bid to provide real-time information and personalised recommendations to tourists, the Tamil Nadu tourism department has decided to design and develop a Machine Learning based chatbot.

The chatbot will help tourists optimize their travel experiences and expenses and navigate the Tamil Nadu tourism landscape more effectively, thereby improving the tourism ecosystem. The chatbot is software powered by pre-programmed responses to answer questions without the need for a human operator.

“It will also help promote sustainable and responsible tourism by offering eco-friendly travel tips, encouraging local cultural experiences, and sharing insights on minimizing environmental impact and supporting local communities”, a senior official from the Tourism Department said.

Stating that the chatbot is to be based on the curation of global best practices and essential features available in the tourism sector, with relevant information optimised for the user-friendly and visually appealing interface, he said, “The chatbot will address the public service requirement of the tourism department by providing instant, accurate and standardised messaging about tourist destinations, accommodation support, transport and local amenities available for tourists.” “It will help overcome language barriers in service delivery, by offering personalized recommendations, and assistance in travel planning by providing timely and reliable information,” he said adding “After initiating a conversation with the tourism bot, users will receive a warm greeting and it goes a step further by proactively suggesting popular destinations and places to explore in State.”

He said that the bot is capable of providing details about well-known tourist spots in the State including information about their history, cultural significance, opening hours, and nearby attractions.

“Other features include providing destination details and location links, suggesting places of interest, accommodations (provides a direct link to the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) hotel booking website), information about private hotels approved by the state government, events and festivals,” he said.

Pointing out that the users can switch between English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, French, Spanish, and German languages during their interaction with the bot, he said, “The chatbot will be launched in a few months.”