Benidorm is putting out to tender the development of an AI-assisted chatbot to improve communication and access to services for residents and tourists.

The project is part of the 'Visión 360' Sustainable Tourism Destination Plan and has a tender budget of 327,349 euros.

The Local Government Board of Benidorm City Council has approved the launch of a tender process for a contract to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted chatbot to improve communication and access to resources and services for residents and tourists, through both a regular and harmonized open procedure. This was announced by the city's mayor, Toni Pérez, who explained that this project is one of the actions contemplated in the "Benidorm Vision 360" Sustainable Tourism Destination Plan and has a base tender budget of €327,349.58, including VAT. 

The "Benidorm Visión 360" Sustainability Plan is part of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, financed with European Next Generation-EU funds. It has a total budget of €6.1 million, which will allow the city to develop up to fourteen actions within four areas of action—green transition; improving energy efficiency; digital transition; and competitiveness—to adapt the city to a more innovative and sustainable future. 

The mayor stated that "at Benidorm City Council, we continue to make progress in developing this 'Vision 360' Sustainability Plan, which, in addition to this action, includes other important initiatives such as the second phase of the lighting catenary on our Paseo de Levante, which we also awarded yesterday."  

The development of this chatbot aims to "provide information and assistance efficiently and accessibly through a conversational virtual assistant, implementing advanced artificial intelligence technologies," explained Toni Pérez. This virtual assistant will "provide detailed and up-to-date tourist information on local attractions, events, and services; facilitate interaction with municipal services, ensuring accessibility and multilingualism; integrate with the City Council's existing digital platforms to optimize the user experience; and ensure informational consistency," while also ensuring that this solution "is scalable, allowing for its future evolution and integration with other municipal tools," as stated in the tender documents.

Among the benefits that this tool will bring to the City Council, the mayor highlighted "the improvement in information, experience, and user satisfaction," as a chatbot allows "real-time responses to queries about transportation, accommodation, tourist attractions, cultural events, municipal procedures, and environmental information, offering citizens and tourists a reliable tool accessible from any internet-connected device." 

It also allows for more accessible, inclusive, and multilingual information, which "is essential for Benidorm due to the large influx and diversity of tourists it attracts." Finally, this tool will also advance the promotion of transparency and citizen participation, while also implementing its integration with the DTI Platform and other municipal open data systems, "boosting the generation of metrics and indicators based on user interaction with this 'chatbot' and, in turn, allowing the City Council to refine its tourism, cultural, and environmental strategies, orienting them toward the real needs of the community and visitors."

The contract is due within nine months of its award and formalization. Those interested in participating in this tender have 30 calendar days following the date the notice is sent to the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).