Sierra Leone has launched Wakabot, an AI-powered travel planning tool designed to help visitors discover the destination, build personalised itineraries and access practical travel information through the country’s official tourism website.
Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Nabeela Farida Tunis, said it forms part of Sierra Leone’s activities marking World Tourism Day 2026 under the theme “Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism.”
Developed in partnership with Passporter Technologies, Wakabot is being introduced as Sierra Leone’s first AI-based travel planner and is intended to bring destination information, trip planning and visitor assistance into a single digital environment.
The platform allows users to explore places and experiences based on their interests, generate day-by-day itineraries, save points of interest and organise travel plans. It also provides information intended to assist with practical aspects of travel, including transportation, safety, health, mobility and travel documentation.
Minister Tunis described the initiative as the result of a long process of working towards greater use of technology and data in Sierra Leone’s tourism sector.
“Today’s launch is part of our World Tourism Day celebrations, and gives practical expression to the theme, digital agenda and artificial intelligence to redesign tourism,” she said.
“For us, this means using technology responsibly to make the living easier to discover, easier to explore, and better connected to the world.”
A digital planner built around the traveller
Wakabot is integrated into Sierra Leone’s existing tourism website, allowing visitors to interact with the AI planner without being redirected to a separate platform.
During a demonstration, Diego Rodriguez Royo, President of Passporter, showed how the system can respond to traveller preferences and generate personalised trip plans.
A visitor can ask Wakabot for recommendations based on a particular interest, such as beaches or adventure experiences. The platform then presents relevant points of interest that users can save while building their trip.
Users can subsequently request a personalised itinerary by specifying factors such as the length of their stay and who they are travelling with. The system generates a day-by-day plan, which can then be edited by the traveller.
The demonstration also showed the platform connecting itineraries with mapping functionality, allowing users to view routes between selected locations and adjust their plans as required.
Rodriguez Royo said the system is designed to move visitors through the stages of discovering a destination, considering a trip and planning their experience.
“What we are doing is that we are getting the actual website of Sierra Leone, and the technology by itself is reading all the information in the background of the website to create that knowledge base,” he explained.
According to Rodriguez Royo, the technology will continue to evolve as more information and traveller interaction become available.
“Innovation is a constant development,” he said, adding that the partners will continue collecting and analysing information on how users interact with the planner.
Bringing tourism information into one place
One of the central features demonstrated at the launch was the ability for visitors to obtain destination information without having to navigate multiple websites.
The AI agent can respond to questions relating to Sierra Leone, including practical travel requirements, while also recommending attractions, experiences, accommodation and restaurants as the platform’s content base expands.
Rodriguez Royo said the objective is to give prospective travellers a more seamless route from inspiration to trip planning.
“We have to go through the phase of consideration and planning,” he said.
The platform can also generate a downloadable itinerary that travellers can receive by email, keep for offline use or share with friends and family.
Users will eventually be able to invite other travellers into their trip, organise travel documents and continue managing their itinerary within the platform.
Minister Tunis said the Wakabot launch represents the first phase of a broader technology partnership with Passporter.
“The project has two phases,” she said. “The first phase is a trip planner, which we are launching today.”
The second phase will focus on content development and data analysis, with the Ministry expecting the additional content to strengthen how Sierra Leone tells its tourism story while the data component provides information about visitor interests.
The Minister said the data generated through the platform would support a better understanding of visitor behaviour and tourism demand.
“Our ambition is simple. It’s to build a tourism industry that makes informed decisions, responds to the needs of visitors,” she said.
The platform is also expected to expand its representation of private-sector tourism businesses as the project develops.
Connecting AI with Sierra Leone’s tourism identity
While the launch focused on technology, Minister Tunis stressed that the digital transformation of tourism should remain connected to Sierra Leone’s people, culture and creative assets.
“Even as we embrace artificial intelligence in a responsible manner, our people, our culture and the warmth of our world are really at the heart of the experience,” she said.
The Minister said the platform would provide an additional channel through which visitors could discover Sierra Leonean food, heritage, creative talent and communities.
She also linked the initiative to Sierra Leone’s broader focus on culture and creativity, noting that technology could help open access to those experiences for potential visitors.
A platform designed to evolve
The launch marks the beginning of the Wakabot rollout rather than the completion of the platform.
Passporter’s demonstration showed a system that can be expanded with additional points of interest, tourism businesses, content and data as Sierra Leone’s tourism offering develops.
Minister Tunis said the Ministry would continue to adapt the platform based on user needs and the country’s tourism context.
“The country context is really critical if we want to advance a tool that is implementable and that is accessible for everyone,” she said.
For Rodriguez Royo, the platform represents an initial step in a longer process of integrating AI into destination management and visitor planning.
“This is a first step forward innovation,” he said, noting that the system would continue to develop as more traveller data and interactions become available.
With Wakabot now officially launched, Sierra Leone has placed an AI-powered travel planner within its national tourism website, giving prospective visitors a new digital interface through which to explore the country and build their journeys.
