Overtourism in the mountains, in South Tyrol a chatbot reports in real time where there are too many people

Not just a chatbot, but a sustainability management tool for tourist destinations struggling with large visitor peaks. Touristinfo.ai, an Artificial Intelligence-powered chatbot designed to support tourism boards and destinations in their relations with visitors, effectively acting as digital destination managers, is born in South Tyrol, in a season marked by high attendance and debate on overtourism.

The chatbot, reachable via whatsapp and on the digital platforms of the destinations already using it, combines live all information from parking, traffic detection systems, site access, weather etc. to direct guests to the most sustainable solution. In this way, in the language of the interlocutor and thanks to a series of rules tailor-made together with the tourist operators of the area, the application helps to distribute tourists over the territory avoiding overcrowding.

Already adopted by San Vigilio di Marebbe (Val Badia), Valdaora, Anterselva and Appiano, as well as by many hotels, Touristinfo.ai has also recently signed an agreement with Dolomites Val Gardena to introduce the service. The collaboration comes in the midst of a summer in which the topic has become a national priority and complements the interest of other resorts, including Bolzano, with a roadmap for rapid scalability in view of the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Touristinfo.ai was created by Mediatize, a South Tyrolean start-up incubated at Noi Techpark, founded by Julian Palmarin and Sebastian Betz. "Our goal," explains Julian Palmarin, 27, "is to combine traffic, mobility, event and weather data to make the tourist experience the best possible. An important goal of using our solution is the distribution of tourist flows. In this way, we will help ensure that the same hotspots are not visited again and again, ensuring that they are chosen based on the latest data and information available to them'. The technological mind behind the solution is Sebastian Betz, 33, a German startupper on his second entrepreneurial venture. "The solutions are multichannel (WhatsApp, websites, social), multilingual and work 24 hours a day every day, integrating local data sources (trails, events, restaurants, accommodation, mobility) to provide reliable answers in line with the customer's tone of voice. Onboarding is immediate: you scan a QR code and open the chat on WhatsApp. The models are trained on certified content of the territory and hook live data for up-to-date suggestions on weather conditions, turnout or traffic,' Betz explains. The solution, designed and built with the destination managers of the locations concerned, can also be adopted by hotels, which can integrate information about their own facility into the system to ensure a fully useful experience. Concretely, the chatbot suggests bus/shuttle routes to leave the car, indicates fountains and refill points to refill water bottles, and proposes alternatives to crowded hotspots according to expected peaks. The project also benefits from a solid software component developed in collaboration with the European Digital Innovation Hub (EIDH), a node of the European network that, in synergy with the University of Bozen/Bolzano, guides the research and implementation of highly competitive artificial intelligence solutions on the market.

One of the resorts most enthusiastic about the contribution of Touristinfo.ai is San Vigilio Dolomites, which has customised its chatbot by giving it a name that recalls the symbol of the resort, the rooster: Giggo is much more than a mascot, it is a virtual assistant based on Artificial Intelligence, accessible via WhatsApp 24/7, capable of interacting in over 80 languages and providing real-time advice on activities, pet-friendly facilities and suitable routes even in the event of bad weather or overcrowding. "We have in our hands a very interesting technology that helps destination management in communicating with the tourist," says Carlo Runggaldier, director of the San Vigilio Dolomites tourism cooperative. "Nowadays, it is very important for tourism cooperatives to manage the territory. For this reason, it is essential to have excellent communication with the visitor: in the event of closures or saturated parking spaces, the system warns in real time and proposes alternatives; aggregated requests offer insight into peaks in order to plan services and mitigate pressure on the most sensitive places. In addition, the service can also transmit essential safety information during your stay. This is a revolutionary innovation. Content and responses can be defined and updated directly by the customer, so that the shared values of the operators can be conveyed, including sustainability, respect for the local population and landscape protection, ensuring consistent and reliable interaction.