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Tourism campaigns have grown to focus increasingly on humor in recent years as they attempt to lampoon the absurdity of society’s trends while promoting the beauty of their locations. And now, it’s the turn of Austria as it offers its artificial intelligence technology to answer tourists’ questions—called ChatSkiPT.
Even though AI is now seen as a viable tool to offer information about vacations, the Austrian National Tourist Office has developed what it believes is the first “Authentic Intelligence,” which offers the in-depth responses from 16 real ski instructors on the website who take the place of chatbots to answer questions on winter sports, vacations or the best place to ski.
Over three days—Jan. 17-20—ski instructors will man the platform where they will relay local weather information or even tell a joke to begin an online conversation with users using their Austrian charm to showcase that AI does not yet hold better knowledge of the country than their human experts.
Created by Wien Nord Serviceplan, the campaign is led by a one-minute and 12-second online parody film hosted on the Holidays in Austria YouTube page, which uses clichéd imagery and a deep-voiced narrator to talk about the advent of AI.
Halfway through, it introduces ChatSkiPT to tell users all they need to know about winter holidays in Austria, showing the instructors responding to questions through laptops while at the same time enjoying the snow-covered slopes.
“What makes a holiday in Austria special are the authentic experiences and personal contacts. We at the Austrian National Tourist Office are enthusiastic about technology and open to the possibilities and capabilities of artificial intelligence,” said Astrid Steharnig-Staudinger, CEO of Austrian National Tourist Office, in a statement. “With ChatSkiPT, we still want to remind everyone that it’s all about people and that AI cannot replace the friendly Austrian charm, at least not yet.”
The chat feature is available in English and German throughout the period of the campaign.
Christian Hellinger, chief creative officer of Wien Nord Serviceplan, added: “We are not promoting tech-skepticism or denying the revolutionary changes that AI brings. With ChatSkiPT, we highlight the importance of real human interactions for a genuine winter holiday experience. It’s local people like ski instructors or local service staff whose personality and knowledge turn your stay into truly enriching memories.”
