The Problem:
For tourists arriving into QLD for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, it can be a daunting experience to navigate around and discover relevant things to do while staying in the sunshine state. This can be even more so if you are a non-English speaker or English is a secondary language.
The Solution:
Borobi, the official mascot of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, now has his own Facebook page. He's keen to help everyone out where he can with all the information they need to know for the sporting events happening at the Commonwealth games. Well versed in multiple languages, he aims to help as many people as possible find their way around Commonwealth Games events as well as the cities they are based in. Just send Borobi a message on Facebook to get started!
Technical Information:
A working prototype on Facebook Messenger was built using Chatfuel and stores/retrieves/displays relevant data (commonwealth games events / city places of interest / city events ) through Amazon Web Services (RDS Postgres, Lambda, S3).
Future Improvements:
- Build to work at scale
- Implementing better dynamic information discovery - lifestyle and leisure activities based on user likes/dislikes
- Expand to multiple platforms e.g. QQ, WeChat, Kik
- Transfer the concept to be used across multiple chat bots e.g. local and state governments, private enterprise (externally facing)
"Ask Borobi" aims to be the start of the future “go-to” method of implementing an easy-to-use and highly accessible tourism information guide across both Queensland and Australia.
