Feratel AI Plus: How Three Technology Partners Are Bringing AI Voice Automation to Tourism
Tourism organisations across Europe have been grappling with rising communication pressure for years. Higher call volumes, increasingly demanding guests, and ongoing staffing shortages have placed service teams under persistent strain. To address this widening gap, Feratel, Onlim, and Pixelpoint/dataCycle have created Feratel AI Plus, a joint initiative that applies AI-powered voice automation to some of tourism’s most labour-intensive communication tasks.
According to Feratel, the need for such a solution has been obvious for some time. “Tourism organisations, hotels, leisure facilities, ski area operators… essentially our customers using products such as the Deskline destination management system, our registration system or the digital travel companion – have been reporting for years that communication workloads are rising,” says Feratel CEO Markus Schröcksnadel. “High call volumes, repetitive standard enquiries, limited opening hours and growing guest expectations are placing increasing pressure on service teams. At the same time, many businesses and destinations are struggling with staffing shortages.”
Feratel AI Plus unites three specialist competencies—tourism data infrastructure, AI voice technology, and structured content management—to directly relieve this pressure. “Calls are automatically pre-qualified, answered or routed – without guests waiting in line or tying up staff time,” Schröcksnadel adds. “The solution is based on AI-powered voice dialogue systems combined with structured tourism data and content.”
A Joint System Built on Complementary Strengths
The three partners contribute distinct capabilities to the shared platform.
“Feratel provides the tourism system landscape: the registration system, the Deskline destination management system (accommodation, experiences, points of interest, etc.), and the digital concierge with routes, tours and events,” Schröcksnadel explains. This data infrastructure ensures that AI responses are grounded in verified, destination-specific information.
Onlim supplies the conversational technology layer, including natural language recognition, intent detection, voicebot functionality and hosting on EU-based Azure infrastructure. Pixelpoint/dataCycle, finally, is responsible for content preparation, ensuring that tourism information is clean, structured and AI-ready.
How the AI Voice System Works for High-Volume Tourism Operations
Across tourism, many daily enquiries repeat the same themes: opening hours, ticket details, directions, appointment scheduling and basic service questions. These calls take up time but rarely require specialised expertise. Feratel AI Plus is designed to handle this first level of communication autonomously.
The solution replaces traditional phone menus and handles large parts of first-level communication. It currently supports four core functions:
1. Automated appointment scheduling
The voicebot records appointments, enters them directly into Google or Outlook calendars and sends confirmation SMS messages. The entire process – from the initial request to confirmation – runs fully automatically.
2. Intelligent lead capture
The system categorises enquiries into up to ten types and forwards them as structured leads, including transcripts, AI-generated summaries and optional translations.
3. Natural language call routing
Instead of “Press 1” menus, the voicebot understands callers’ intentions and connects them to the correct department or extension.
4. AI-driven FAQ responses
Using RAG technology, the system responds to frequent questions based on up to 100 pages of authorised internal documents.
“The voicebot takes over staff-intensive standard calls, reduces waiting times and relieves front desks, tourism offices or ticket offices… Teams can focus on complex matters while routine cases run automatically,” says Schröcksnadel.
This core system can be extended with additional AI agents depending on organisational needs.
Who Benefits Most?
Tourism organisations with heavy call traffics see the largest gains, according to Schröcksnadel. “Tourism boards, accommodation providers, spas and leisure businesses, attractions, and mountain lift operators, for example.”
Across these sectors, the goals are similar: reduce repetitive enquiries, extend availability beyond fixed opening hours and ease the load on understaffed service desks.
Ensuring Accuracy, Safety and Multilingual Support
Tourism communication demands precision. Incorrect or outdated information can undermine guest trust and create operational issues. Feratel ensures accuracy by tightly controlling the system’s data environment.
“The voicebot operates exclusively on a company’s own data sources, calendars, knowledge bases, PDF documents, the destination management system and more – rather than uncontrolled web content,” Schröcksnadel emphasises. “RAG technology ensures that answers are generated only from authorised documents.”
Security and compliance are central to the project:
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EU cloud operation
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Full GDPR and EU AI Act compliance
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No transfer of caller data outside the EU
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Automatic logs and summaries for transparency
Multilingual support is built into the platform: the system can run in any language supported by the chosen LLM.
Early Deployment and Market Rollout
The system is already live with initial customers: the voicebot can be deployed quickly and is ready to use after a clearly defined setup process of about one working day.
Commercialisation will begin in the DACH region—Germany, Austria and Switzerland—where Feratel and its partners already have strong market presence.
A Roadmap Toward Full AI Agents
Feratel AI Plus is only at the beginning of its planned development path. “The current AI voicebot is the starting point,” says Schröcksnadel. “A smart call handler will evolve into a fully capable AI agent that not only provides information but also processes bookings and services.”
Future versions will be multimodal, available via smartphone voice assistants or desktop widgets. Feratel is also using AI in other areas: its Deskline solution employs automated translations and AI-generated image descriptions, and its Performance and Forecast Monitor uses AI to analyse and predict guest behaviour.
The next phase will connect tourism data streams more tightly to communication flows. “Data on accommodation, events, pricing, mobility and weather feed into communication in real time, enabling more precise, context-aware responses,” Schröcksnadel explains.
The long-term ambition is clear: to merge communication, data and booking logic, and to create a seamless multilingual service that integrates into everyday tourism operations and significantly reduces operational pressure on businesses and destinations.
A Turning Point for Tourism Customer Service
By combining structured destination data with AI-powered voice interaction, Feratel AI Plus aims to modernise one of tourism’s most burdened operational areas: routine guest communication. With automation already relieving service teams and early adopters reporting measurable benefits, the initiative marks a meaningful step toward more scalable, always-available visitor engagement.
For tourism organisations struggling to keep up with demand, Feratel’s pitch is straightforward: AI can now handle what has long consumed disproportionate staff time, making space for human teams to focus on the interactions that truly require them.