December 10, 2020 – In order to make communication between the city administration and the citizens as simple as possible, the City of Karlovac created a virtual assistant Korana in cooperation with the company bonsai.tech.

With the virtual assistant Korana, symbolically named after one of the four rivers flowing through the city, Karlovac is the first city in Croatia to use a chatbot to inform citizens about a city, county, or municipality.

As Lokalni.hr reports, instructed by positive experiences from the private sector and motivated by the risks of the pandemic and new business circumstances, the City of Karlovac very quickly decided to adopt artificial intelligence technology to use its potential.

Thus, in cooperation with the company bonsai.tech, which recognized the needs of local governments and new business challenges, Korana, a virtual assistant of the City of Karlovac and its residents, was created to make communication between the city administration and citizens easier, faster, and safer.

Offers an answer to the query

A smart city chatbot, i.e., a virtual assistant, is a tool that interactively informs the general public and thus greatly facilitates the work. The advantage of Korana is that at any time, without the need for support experts, it offers an answer to a query.

The City of Karlovac wants to make its services available to citizens at any time, informing them when they need it, without waiting for information by phone or e-mail. Users will thus be able to find out about the topic they are interested in through the Korana virtual assistant before contacting the city administration.

Photo: Screenshot Karlovac.hr

Korana will help the Karlovac citizens find the necessary information related to the city administration and current events, such as details of the winter service's work, events in the city. At the same time, the city administration will facilitate contact and be a reliable support to its citizens by regularly updating the content and insight into the work of the chatbot.

Korana offers a menu with several groups of information; contacts, utilities, construction and housing, financial support, business and investment, tenders, and public calls and forms. Also, Korana has a database of questions and answers regularly updated following the analysis of questions asked by users.

Photo: Screenshot Karlovac.hr

It is currently available on Karlovac's website, and it will soon be available to citizens within the Karlovac City Viber community and on the official Facebook pages of Karlovac.

Despite all the advantages of a virtual assistant, no matter how much one tries to assume what the citizens will be interested in and what their experience will be like, it is impossible to predict everything. Therefore, the City of Karlovac and the company bonsai.tech try to assume in advance a whole series of possible individual conversation series and dialogues to improve the citizens' experience in using a virtual assistant.

An example to other Croatian cities

"Two years ago, we adopted the Smart City Strategy in the City of Karlovac, and the introduction of a virtual assistant is part of the idea of making the work of the city administration as accessible as possible to the citizens. With the virtual assistant Korana, accurate information can be obtained faster and from any digital platform, at any time of the day. The idea is to develop this principle of work overtime through the entire city system," said Damir Mandić, Karlovac Mayor, at the presentation of the virtual assistant.

Virtual assistant Korana is a challenging pilot project and represents a new step forward that will indeed be followed by other cities in Croatia.

To read more about lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, August 18, 2019 - A path for cyclists and strollers has been completed on the right bank of the Korana River in Karlovac, which is the first stage of a 9.2 million kuna project called "Meeting the River", designed to improve areas in Karlovac, Ozalj and Ogulin that are protected under the Natura 2000 programme.

The value of the project for the city of Karlovac is 3.5 million kuna.

Benches will soon be put up along the path and next year multimedia information points will be installed, containing mostly environment-related information, the city administration has said.

The purpose of the "Meeting the River" thematic paths is to acquaint members of the public with the richness of the local rivers and the life in them and to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the environment, using natural resources sustainably and preserving the biological balance of the Natura 2000 river areas in the county.

The improved areas of the River Korana in Karlovac, the River Kupa in Ozalj and the River Dobra in Ogulin are expected to boost the county's tourism potential.

Of the 9.2 million kuna project cost, 7.8 million kuna are EU grants

More Karlovac news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

April 11, 2019 - Putting Croatian adventure tourism on the map, with the biggest welcome in the world. Day 16 of this incredible 2011 adrenaline trip covering 2,500 km along the Croatian coast. 

The World's Biggest Welcome, an ambitious adventure tourism project in 2011 in Croatia enters Day 16 of this 2019 appreciation of one of the finest tourism promotion projects ever in Croatia.  

The plan? To showcase the diversity and fabulous offer of adventure tourism in Croatia by following a GPS route the length of the Croatian coast in the shape of the word 'Welcome' - thereby creating the biggest welcome in the world from a hospitable tourism country. 

Day 16 moved on foot, bike, and kayak from Plitvice Lakes National Park to Rastoke. 

67 kilometres for the day: 15 km on foot at Plitvice Lakes National Park, followed by a 35 km bicycle ride from Plitvice Lakes National Park to Korana, and 17 km on a kayak from Korana to Rastoke to continue forming the ‘L’ in ‘Welcome’.

Day 16 started at Plitvice Lakes National Park, the oldest and largest national park in Croatia. 

And then onto Baraćeve spilje, or the 'Caves of Barać', located near the village of Nova Kršlja in Rakovica.

Making their way to Rastoke by bike, the historic center of Slunj.

And a warm welcome to Rastoke by the Slunj majorettes.

Lacko had to stop to get a picture with the girls.

The Slunjčica river flows into the river Korana at Rastoke.

Some of the breathtaking sights; as if you're in a fairytale. 

A key part of the project was promoting tourism, and the official website has details of the key places visited during the day. 

Plitvice Lakes National Park.

Rastoke.

You can see the entire project on the Welcome website, as well as much more of Luka Tambaca's stunning photography on the Welcome Facebook page. 

Tune in tomorrow for Day 17, as Lacko moves from Rastoke to Zavižan by bike.

To follow the whole project from the start, follow the dedicated TCN page. 

Continuing our weekly look at the marvellous opportunities of Croatia as an adventure tourism destination on November 25, 2017, another breathtaking video from the one man and one dog team of Outdoors Croatia. 

This year for the first time, the beaches and rivers on the continent, including the the Karlovac Foginovo beach on the Korana river, will get support.