How we are helping Fáilte Ireland to use AI to increase engagement.

Industry

Tourism

Services

CRO, AI Engineering, UX, Design

As part of a broader campaign, Fáilte Ireland introduced an AI planner to help people enjoy a more personalised search experience when on the Visit Dublin website.

visitdublin.com

Results

+37%

Referral conversion rate from the planner

5.8%

Usage rate compared to 2.3% site search usage

2.5x

More usage on the AI planner than site search

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The Brief

As part of its strategy to increase the number of people planning short breaks, Fáilte Ireland, Ireland's national tourism development authority, sought to deploy a new AI-powered capability on its Visit Dublin site. Its goal was to produce a new search experience, one that mirrors the behaviours and results typically found on popular LLMs and enables visitors to move effortlessly from pre-trip discovery to on-trip experiences.

The Ah Strategy

Collaboration with Fáilte Ireland

Working with Fáilte Ireland, we designed and built the AI Short Break Planner for its Winter in Dublin campaign. Visitors to the site can search for ideas and suggestions using conversational prompts to find inspiration and information for their upcoming trip to Dublin.

Smarter Trip Planning

Moving beyond traditional navigation and filtering methods, the AI Short Break Planner also delivers more personalised responses. Plus, because the content comes directly from Visit Dublin's site, users can trust the information received.

Seamless Integration and Transparency

The planner was embedded directly on the Winter in Dublin landing page, making it easily visible to both mobile and desktop users. To ensure transparency and maintain Visit Dublin's brand integrity, users were made aware that this was an AI tool.

Winter in Dublin seasonal inspiration planner interface

Winter in Dublin, Visit Dublin's seasonal inspiration planner for the perfect Winter break in the capital.

The Outcome

The campaign ran over four months. During this time, the AI planner:

Was used 2.5x more than the site's search function
Enjoyed a 37% referral conversion rate, outperforming traditional site search in both usage and conversion
Experienced a 5.8% usage rate, almost double that of the main site search usage
Helped visitors articulate intent they couldn't easily express via filters
Delivered high-quality referrals without requiring paid media.

Tech Stack

Azure

We followed an Azure documentation guide to implement Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) on Fáilte Ireland's platform, adding an intent detection layer at the start of the process.

By linking outputs back to the original source material, we reduced the risk of hallucinations and improved referral quality.

Highlights

Intent driven

Identifies the user's intent before retrieving any content. This narrows the search to the most relevant Visit Dublin sources, rather than generating broad or generic responses, making the answer more accurate and more contextually relevant. The planner also helps visitors who are struggling to know where to start, offering prompt guidance.

Expanding AI capabilities

Insights gained from the AI Short Break Planner to inform the future expansion of AI capabilities across Fáilte Ireland's digital ecosystem, starting with adding a similar AI trip ideas feature to DiscoverIreland.ie.