As someone who has proudly called Suriname home for the past 18 years, I continue to be inspired by the country’s positive ondernemersklimaat (entrepreneurial climate) and, above all, the warmth and kindness of its people. Although I originally came from the Netherlands, Suriname is where I feel “rooted” — and I have no plans of returning any time soon.
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with several local hotels, offering consulting and support in areas like ICT infrastructure and digital setup. Through this work, I’ve noticed something important: while there are many websites offering information about places to stay — hotels, guest houses, apartments — there’s something still missing…
There’s no AI-powered resource that helps visitors or locals explore the best places to stay, ask natural questions, or get recommendations tailored to their needs. So I started thinking: why not build one?
🌍 An AI-Powered Chatbot for Travel in Suriname
My vision is to develop an interactive, AI-driven assistant that helps people discover accommodations, compare options, and even get travel-related insights — all by simply chatting.
Rather than building something from scratch, I came across some promising open-source projects on GitHub.
These tools allow you to automatically crawl websites (like hotel and apartment listings), convert their content into embeddings, and store it in a fast and searchable vector database like Qdrant. When combined with a large language model (LLM) via Ollama, the result is a powerful RAG-based (Retrieval Augmented Generation) chatbot that can intelligently respond to user questions based on real, up-to-date content from Suriname’s hospitality industry.
👨💻 My Personal Challenge — and Why I’m Excited
Although I have a lot of experience with PHP and server-side work, I’m still learning Python and JavaScript. This project is not only a great idea for Suriname, but also a great personal opportunity to expand my skills and experiment with cutting-edge AI tools.
With a bit of help — and some exploration — I believe this can grow into a public platform that benefits both visitors and local businesses.
🤝 Want to Join Me?
If this idea resonates with you — whether you’re a developer, hotel owner, traveler, or fellow AI enthusiast — feel free to reach out. I’m always open to collaboration, advice, or simply having a conversation about making Suriname smarter and more connected.
Let’s build something great together.
— Tom Dings
