A funny “rebellion” against artificial intelligence in tourism began in one popular country. In the wake of the popularity of neural networks and related chats, the Austrian National Tourist Office has launched “the world’s first Authentic Intelligence”. Everything is designed like a chat with artificial intelligence – but it is not. In “SkiPT Chat” tourists’ questions are answered by live people, real ski instructors.
As promised in the Austrian press, the chat will start working in full from January 17. The creators of the chat promise “with typical Austrian humor and deep experience” to convey “the special flavor of winter vacation in Austria.” As the authors of the chat stated, artificial intelligence is already being used for vacation planning. Tools like ChatGPT can provide valuable advice and sound information, but there is a “residual risk of wrong results and bad recommendations” and “the typical Austrian humor of neural networks has not yet been mastered. So, the Austrian National Tourist Office says in a new marketing campaign that it relies on “Authentic Intelligence” — the knowledge and humor of real Austrian ski instructors — instead of artificial intelligence.
“Winter vacation in Austria is not only a modern skiing infrastructure with more than 23,000 hectares of tracks and more than 2,600 lifts. What makes a vacation in Austria special is the real experience personal contacts, and conversations with residents, hosts, and ski instructors. We at the Austrian National Tourist Office are enthusiastic about technology and open to the possibilities and possibilities of artificial intelligence. However, with Chat SkiPT we still want to remind everyone that it’s all about the people and that AI cannot replace the friendly Austrian charm, at least not yet,” explained Astrid Steharnig-Staudinger, Managing Director of the Austrian National Tourist Office, behind the chat concept.
At www.chatskipt.com, visitors write their questions in a chat box similar to ChatGPT. They are answered by 15 ski instructors from Austria’s ski regions. The chat is currently available in English, German and Dutch.
“With Chat SkiPT, we bring additional attention to winter in Austria alongside our regular large-scale campaigns in Austria’s 12 most important foreign markets. In the winter season 2022/23, winter sports sales in Austria amounted to 12.6 billion euros, corresponding to a direct and indirect added value of 6.7 billion euros. Winter in Austria is crucial for the economic success of our tourism country, and I am glad that we as the Austrian National Tourist Office can contribute in the form of modern and effective communication,” added Steharnig-Staudinger.