Ministry employs AI-driven system to track visitor satisfaction

Umut Erdem – ANKARA

Türkiye’s Culture and Tourism Ministry employs an AI-powered system to track visitor satisfaction in the country’s touristic regions in a bid to identify areas for development.

“The system has over 1.1 billion data points. With software we created in-house, we can rapidly follow about 193,000 news sources,” said Sinan Türkseven, deputy general manager of Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA), shedding light on the functioning of the progressive system.

Through the analysis of over 1 million data points on social media, this software detects favorable or unfavorable discussions on the country and evaluates an average of 33,000 news stories every day, Türkseven noted.

These meticulous investigations enable the relevant authorities to ascertain the existence and extent of issues in certain regions.

In order to take the required steps in line with such issues, the ministry utilizes other technologies and data analytics alike, Türkseven added.

The ministry’s promotion head, Timuçin Güler, noted that they commenced the works for the development of the software some four years ago, reaping the harvest two years later.

“We start field inspections right away when we encounter adverse conditions,” he said, noting that it is necessary to look into every unfavorable aspect though they might not always be completely credible.

Thus, the ministry’s advertisement strategy depends on customer satisfaction, the visitors’ perspective, and the world’s perception of the country to a large extent, he added.

Social media has been a key component of the ministry’s national marketing campaigns in recent years.

With 3.6 million YouTube, 4 million TikTok and 3.6 million Instagram followers, the ministry produces tens of thousands of content annually on its extremely active social media networks.

The GoTürkiye platform, the country’s official travel guide, also attracted some 197 million online visitors last year.