Destination BC Launches Beta Test of New HelloBC AI Concierge to Support Digital Visitor Servicing

Destination BC has released in beta the HelloBC AI Concierge: a powerful ‘chatbot’ tool that enhances visitor servicing on the consumer trip inspiration and planning website, HelloBC.com. As interest and capabilities in artificial intelligence continue to surge, this technology will play a valuable role in supporting British Columbia’s tourism industry and improving the online user experience for both travelers and residents alike.

The Concierge offers a 24/7 resource for general tourism inquiries, providing customized assistance with trip planning and destination insights. With information drawn from our own HelloBC.com platform and a province-wide tourism network of over 30 Destination Management Organization (DMO) partners, popular attractions, and ski resorts – in addition to extensive data from Destination BC’s Digital Strategy and Tourism Data Hub team members – the Concierge can provide immediate, tailored, and round-the-clock information to support visitors in planning and booking their trips.

As an AI-enabled system, the Concierge will continue to evolve and improve, learning from every interaction and adapting as data is updated and interactions grow.

The launch of HelloBC’s AI Concierge is part of Destination BC’s commitment to innovation in tourism marketing, providing and actioning more user-friendly ways to support visitors throughout their trip planning journey. A comprehensive FAQ is available below and will continue to be updated as we gather feedback from industry partners and visitors.

FAQ:

What information can the AI Concierge provide? Is the information limited to what’s on HelloBC and the official partner websites you mention?

The HelloBC AI Concierge offers detailed information on attractions, activities, accommodations, and itinerary suggestions from across BC, both for trip planning and while travelers are in destination. It pulls data from HelloBC.com, and many other reliable and relevant online sources, including content from a province-wide network of websites of over 30 DMO partners, popular attractions, ski resorts, and tourism-specific businesses and organizations.

How do I engage with the AI Concierge? Where do I find it?

The AI Concierge is presented in a user-friendly but unobtrusive manner through an interactive prompt in the lower right corner of the website, featuring a ‘chat dialogue’ bubble with the ‘?’ query icon. This prompt is available on all HelloBC.com pages. Clicking the chat dialogue launches the Concierge, providing a set of 8 predefined ‘sample’ prompts that demonstrate the depth and intricacy of the queries that can be made. 

What is the benefit of having the AI Concierge?

The AI Concierge is ‘always on’.  It provides personalized, 24/7 assistance that enhances the travel planning experience. It offers instant access to comprehensive information, tailored recommendations, and efficient itinerary planning, all of which can help travelers save time and make informed decisions. The Concierge meets the rising expectations and needs of travelers for instant and real-time information to assist their trip planning.

How does it align with Destination BC’s strategy?

Destination BC continues to be an innovative leader in the tourism industry, and the Concierge is the latest example of investing in technology that supports the provincial industry as a whole and leverages the strength and depth of our partner network and quality content – learning together, to win together.

How do you anticipate the AI Concierge will evolve? Will it be used on other Destination BC platforms?

We aim to continuously enhance our capabilities by improving response speed and quality, such as introducing enhanced features like voice chat. Beyond chatbots, we are also exploring ways that AI can support our email marketing team in creating personalized email content – integrating with platforms such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

How does it incorporate other official sources of information, like DriveBC?

The Concierge can be trained using proprietary data or content from other sources, such as DMO websites, DriveBC or HelloBC. This information is stored in a database and used as a reference for the AI through a technique called RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation). The Concierge can also use these resources as direct references in its responses.

What are the limitations of the Concierge?

The Concierge is limited by the data it has been trained on, which can lead to outdated or incomplete responses. Additionally, it may struggle with understanding complex or nuanced queries, resulting in less accurate answers. Part of the Concierge’s function is reminding users of its limitations, and encouraging them to verify any important information. It is continuously adapting and refining its answers based on updates to the sources it uses, and the feedback that it receives from interactions.

How do I know that information from the Concierge is up to date?

The Concierge is limited by the data it has been trained on, or has access to, which could lead to outdated or incomplete responses. Major AI model providers are addressing this limitation by increasing the frequency of training and content updates through regular crawling and processing of public online content. As this refresh rate improves, approaching that of Google Search, the information from AI models will become more current. Additionally, they are enhancing AI capabilities to perform real-time internet searches, allowing it to retrieve the latest information from relevant websites as needed.

What technology/platform is powering the Concierge?

Currently, we use OpenAI’s GPT-4 model but we take an agnostic approach to AI APIs and have tested and implemented other APIs, including Gemini, Llama, Mistral, and Grok. We will continue to evaluate various options to ensure the best solution for speed and response quality.

How is my data used & stored?

The Concierge does not currently store user information. The dialogue is only retained in the active web browser during the user’s current session, and is not retained once the session is closed.

In future iterations, a registration or login mechanism based on e-mail address will establish users with a unique ID, should they choose. This would enable users to save conversations over multiple sessions, so they don’t have to repeat the context in subsequent chats. In this scenario, the Concierge would provide users with a strategic call-to-action, to sign-up and save a chat.

Can, or will, the Concierge be configured to provide ‘preferred’ answers?

Any chatbot-style tool such as the Concierge can be configured with custom logic and algorithms to prioritize information sources and responses. However, Destination BC has made the decision to not implement this feature, to avoid user confusion and implications to credibility. Instead, the Concierge has been created to provide accurate and contextually appropriate answers.