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.
failteireland.ie- -
Referral conversion rate from the planner
370%
Usage rate compared to 2.3% site search usage
5.80%
More usage on the AI planner than site search
2.50X
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It 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.
Insights gained from the AI Short Break Planner were used 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.
In addition, plans are underway to enhance the UX with voice functionality and other features, ensuring even more memories are made!
“We wanted to make it easier and more fun for people to plan their best short break yet, by meeting them online in the way they intuitively think, talk and search. The results of our work this year show that when planning feels intuitive, people engage more and move more confidently towards booking. The team are excited and ambitious to leverage the best of AI and emerging technology in shaping richer, more connected visitor journeys both on and offline.”