Technical description of the innovation
Use of a virtual agent to welcome visitors to a tourist office

The INTIMACY project aims to develop an animated conversational agent to support and advise visitors to the Nevers tourist office. This experimental device supports the tourist office teams and enables them to :

• on the one hand, to answer questions with low added value and/or which require only limited expertise on tourism in the city (for example, the location of the nearest public toilets);

• and to provide digital support for visitors during peak periods and/or when the tourist office is closed.

The system was deployed in the form of a digital interface featuring a virtual tourist advisor presented on an interactive terminal, available to visitors in the reception area of the Nevers tourist office.

Several technological building blocks were required...