Best Arctic: The AI Agent Travellers Know by Name

The Problem

Best Arctic is a B2C tour operator and DMC based in Tromsø, Norway, offering more than 100 fairy-tale tours in Northern Norway and Finland. Its target market is global, spanning Europe, the USA, and Asia. Their customer service team was the backbone of the business, but it was stretched thin, especially during peak season. Carolina Espada e Pena, Marketing and Brand Manager at Best Arctic, saw the potential of conversational AI agents and promoted it internally to the C-Level team.

Before Maya, staff were juggling multiple channels at once with no way of tracking chat volume, while simultaneously handling in-person sales at the office. Repetitive questions about the Tromsø Airport Express, tour meeting points, and reservation changes piled up, pulling the team away from high-value work. Best Arctic needed a smarter, scalable solution, specific for travel, and one that could handle the incoming volume, while staying accurate in a user-friendly way.

Why Maya?

Best Arctic chose Maya to save time, free up CS resources, and position the brand as modern and an early AI adopter in their niche. But they didn't want a generic chatbot.

They wanted a teammate, bringing personality to the conversational AI agent.

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Meet "Maria”, an AI agent designed to feel like a real member of the Best Arctic team, powered by Maya.

Name: "Maria", international, easy to remember, and approachable
Avatar: Designed to look like an active person, reflecting the adventurous spirit of their target audience
Bio: Added to the company's "About Us" page, making Maria a visible team member, not just a tool.

Maria isn’t just our AI customer service team member she’s a spirited, 28-year-old from Belgium, with a passion for all things Arctic.

Since January 2025, she has made her home in Tromsø. She adores the magical northern lights and is never tired of sharing the latest news, events, and happenings from Tromsø and the surrounding region.

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By positioning Maria as the first point of contact, the team created a seamless support experience. Travellers could get instant, personalised answers in the website chat, Instagram and Facebook Messenger, around the clock.

Results

After the onboarding and the training stage, Maria went live on bestarctic.com during October 2025.

Maria’s impact was immediate and wide-ranging. The travel support team's capacity was freed up to focus on complex issues, phone calls and in-person sales, while Maria handled the repetitive enquiries that previously consumed their day. It quickly proved to be more than a support tool; Maria actively guides high-intent traffic towards booking pages and, by answering traveller questions in real time and linking them directly to relevant tours, Maria turns interest into conversions.
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Maria on Best Arctic's website — Maria, powered by Maya

While streamlining support and guiding high-intent traffic to booking pages, Maria achieved the following:

Unlocked multilingual support: by responding in the traveller's own language, Maria removed a key barrier between interest and conversion, capturing bookings from non-English speakers who previously hesitated to reach out.
Accelerated marketing support: instantly answering campaign questions and directing travellers straight to booking pages, shortening the path from discovery to purchase.
Attracted unexpected B2B usage: tour operators now use Maria for quick answers about Best Arctic's offerings, opening up a new channel for partnership-driven bookings she wasn't originally built for.
Surfaced hidden traveller trends: Maria's conversations reveal common questions and desires (like high demand for student discounts), pointing to new potential offerings and revenue streams.

What Best Arctic has to say about Maya

"Maria has become an essential part of our frontline team, taking care of most of general traveller questions and enquiries that previously our team would lose hours every day responding.
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One customer even called our office specifically asking to speak with Maria. That's when we knew the persona was working."
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Carolina Espada e Pena, Marketing and Brand Manager @ Best Arctic

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Best Arctic's story proves that AI agents can really become part of a brand, and can be integrated enough to feel like a teammate. By giving their AI agent a name, a personality, and a place on the team, they turned a support tool into a brand asset. Maria, powered by Maya, now handles the heavy lifting of traveller enquiries across languages and channels, freeing the human team to focus on what they do best: creating unforgettable Arctic experiences.

For tour operators and DMCs looking to scale without sacrificing the personal touch, Best Arctic offers a compelling blueprint: invest in AI early, and the results will speak for themselves.

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