Alma: Slovenia’s AI Tourism Advisor Wins Prestigious Game Changer Award

The award, presented by the organising committee and expert jury of Game Changer – one of the fastest-growing tech conference platforms in Europe – was received today by the STB at the Game Changer Ljubljana conference. This year marks the first time the awards have been presented in Ljubljana, highlighting projects, companies and individuals whose technological solutions are transforming the way we travel, explore and experience the world.

On this occasion, MSc. Maja Pak Olaj, the Director of the Slovenian Tourist Board, emphasised: “We are extremely proud that the virtual advisor Alma has received the Game Changer Award, which clearly shows that Slovenia is on the right path in developing advanced, user-friendly digital solutions in tourism. Alma represents an important step towards modern, intelligent, and personalised services that make exploration easier for visitors and enhance their experience of destination Slovenia. The award recognises our efforts toward innovation and confirms that thoughtful use of technology can create greater value for tourists, partners, and the entire Slovenian tourism sector.”

Upon presenting the STB with this prestigious award, the Game Changer platform wrote: “Your vision and clear impact in the field of travel technologies stood out over the past year. Among many excellent candidates, you deservedly attracted attention and proved that the future of travel lies in smart, user-friendly, and responsibly designed solutions.”

Alma, the smart virtual advisor of the slovenia.info portal

Alma is Slovenia’s AI chatbot, which has been helping visitors to Slovenia find useful information since its introduction. Using artificial intelligence that enables fast access to personalised answers, Alma simplifies the search for information on destinations, accommodation, activities, and transport across Slovenia. With the Alma project, the STB aims to provide users with reliable, individualised and up-to-date tourism information in real time and to elevate the quality of the digital experience. In doing so, it contributes to more effective visitor support and strengthens Slovenia’s visibility as an innovative, modern and technologically advanced destination. Over the past year, Alma has become one of the most recognisable examples of how advanced artificial intelligence can enhance the tourism experience, support sustainable mobility and raise standards of digital development in Slovenian tourism. Recognised by the Game Changer award as one of the leading travel technologies of the future, Alma acts as a dynamic laboratory for testing intelligent, user-friendly, and responsibly designed solutions.

Alma was born as a research challenge – how to bring the portal’s rich repository of content closer to the user in a more natural, fast and conversational way. Instead of a traditional search engine, it emerged as a hybrid between a chatbot and a content-based recommender: it identifies the user’s location, timing, interests and needs from the conversation and transforms them into precise experience suggestions. Alma addresses an exceptionally diverse range of travellers: families with children looking for trip ideas and accessible locations; adventurers planning hiking and cycling tours with its help; cultural visitors interested in festivals, events and local happenings; and sustainable travellers who use Alma as a guide to public transport and less-visited regions.

Discover more about Alma

In the first ten months of 2025, AI Alma answered more than 70,000 questions from visitors to the slovenia.info portal, primarily in Slovenian, Italian, English and German, but also providing answers in Spanish, French and Russian. The 91% positive rating (i.e. “likes”) on responses in October confirms user satisfaction with AI Alma. Users most appreciate specific suggestions, clear itineraries and practical information.

Visitors from around the world most often use Alma for preparing itineraries ranging from one-day to fourteen-day trips, searching for hiking and cycling recommendations, planning family outings, choosing culinary experiences and festivals and finding information about transport, vignettes, and parking.

Over the past year, it has been upgraded with a range of improvements: a mobile-first interface, dynamic content suggestions, follow-up questions for more precise recommendations, a response rating system, and advanced multilingual adaptation. Thanks to its integration of curated local data, Alma already surpasses generic AI chatbots.

The STB is also developing the concept of Admin Alma, which will allow destinations to enrich Alma with their own content and use analytics to identify information gaps. In the future, Alma will gradually become a dynamic voice guide that accompanies travellers on their journeys and offers stories, advice, or tips at the right moment.

Alma is therefore not just a chatbot – it is a digital companion that uses smart technology and local knowledge to help travellers experience Slovenia in a more personal, informed and sustainable way.

Game Changer Awards 

Game Changer is an international platform and a series of high-profile technology conferences, festivals and awards that, since 2022, has brought together thought leaders of tech industries, corporations, start-ups, creatives and innovators. Its mission is to promote technology for a better user experience, digital transformation and the connected communities of the future. It is a platform that emphasises open dialogue between industries, innovation and responsible technology implementation. The platform showcases the most advanced technological projects of the year and the conference of the same name has been taking place in Ljubljana for three consecutive years.

As part of the Game Changer Awards platform, breakthrough technological projects and innovations were honoured in Ljubljana this year for the first time – projects that significantly impact sectors such as digitalisation, artificial intelligence, e-business, gaming, data analytics, blockchain and sustainable technologies. The award-winning projects stand out for their impact, advancement and human-centred use of technology. The Game Changer Awards have previously been presented in Zagreb, Montenegro, and London.

In the cover photo, from left to right: Metka Kejžar, Game Changer; Aleksandra Jerebic Topolovec, Head of Management of the Slovenian Tourism Information Portal; Klemen Urbančnik, Project Manager at Creatim d.o.o.; and Ana Savšek, Head of the Digital Marketing Department.

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