Sierra Leone Turns to AI With Wakabot, a Smart Trip Planner for Curious Visitors

West Africa has taken a confident step into the age of artificial intelligence. Sierra Leone has officially introduced Wakabot, an AI-powered trip planning assistant that now sits inside the country's official tourism website. The tool is built to help prospective visitors discover attractions, create day-by-day itineraries and find practical travel information without jumping between different platforms.

The launch forms part of Sierra Leone's World Tourism Day 2026 programme, held under the theme "Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism." Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Nabeela Farida Tunis, presented the platform as the practical result of years of work towards stronger use of technology and data across the national tourism sector.

"For us, this means using technology responsibly to make the living easier to discover, easier to explore, and better connected to the world," the Minister said during the launch.

Wakabot was created in partnership with Passporter Technologies and is described as the country's first AI-based travel planner. Rather than operating as a separate app, it is woven directly into the existing tourism website. A visitor browsing the site can simply begin a conversation with the assistant, ask about beaches or adventure experiences, and receive matching suggestions. Points of interest can be saved as the traveller builds a trip, and a full itinerary can then be generated by indicating how many days the visit will last and who is coming along.

What makes this interesting for the trade is how the system learns. Diego Rodriguez Royo, President of Passporter, explained during a live demonstration that the technology reads the content already published on the national tourism website and converts it into a working knowledge base. "Innovation is a constant development," he noted, adding that the platform will keep improving as more content is added and as traveller behaviour is studied.

The planner also links itineraries to mapping tools, so users can see routes between selected sites and reshape their plans on the spot. Completed itineraries can be downloaded, emailed, kept offline or shared with friends and family. Future updates will allow travellers to invite companions into a shared trip and store travel documents inside the same workspace.

For professionals arranging journeys across the region, the consolidation of information matters. The assistant can answer questions about transportation, safety, health, mobility and entry documentation, while also recommending attractions, accommodation and restaurants as the content base grows. This removes much of the guesswork that often slows down planning for lesser-known West African destinations.

Minister Tunis confirmed that the rollout has two phases. The planner represents the first. The second will concentrate on content development and data analysis, giving the Ministry a clearer picture of what visitors are actually searching for and how they behave once they begin planning. "Our ambition is simple. It's to build a tourism industry that makes informed decisions, responds to the needs of visitors," she said. Private-sector tourism businesses are expected to gain greater visibility on the platform as the project matures.

Technology, however, is not meant to replace the human element. The Minister was clear that Sierra Leone's culture, cuisine, heritage and creative talent remain central to the visitor experience. "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. She also stressed that any digital tool must suit local realities, noting that "the country context is really critical if we want to advance a tool that is implementable and that is accessible for everyone."

Across the continent, destination marketing is quietly shifting from brochures and static pages towards conversational, data-driven interfaces. Sierra Leone's move signals where the industry is heading. Agencies and tour operators across sub-Saharan Africa may soon find that the destinations which invest in intelligent digital storytelling become the easiest ones to sell, while those relying on older methods risk slipping out of the traveller's view.