Towards a unified metamodel for developing the conversational agents for smart tourism

Abstract

The innovations in smart cities are crucial to integrating green technologies, including in the tourism sector, which can signif-cantly impact the sustainability of destinations. Conversational agents (CAs) are considered green technologies because they ofer solutions to reduce the negative impact of human activity on the environment while enhancing the customer experience through automated interactions. By combining these advances, sustainable tourism destinations can effectively leverage green technologies such as CAs to ofer quality attractions while preserving the natural environment. In this work, we present an analysis study and a comprehensive comparison of CA development tools. As a case study, we explore the power of Bot Framework Composer, a visual development tool from Microsoft, to create a CA that displays attractions in the Deraa Taflalet region as part of smart tourism. However, our goal goes beyond the creation of a simple CA. We also introduce a metamodel for the CA, identifying the fundamental concepts of Bot Framework Composer. This metamodel aims to establish a unified basis for creating a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) for designing CA in a consistent and portable way.