INTRODUCTION The TourisT project is developing a prototype conceptual hypermedia tourism information system, using GRAIL, a terminological logic devised at the University of Manchester [1], to maintain the conceptual model. A primary concern of the work is to develop a system which assists the tourist seeking information. The project has thus used the results of ethnographic studies, carried out in tourist information centres, to inform the structure and content of the conceptual model, and to determine what styles of interaction should be supported. 2 ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDIES The studies examined what kinds of information needs tourists have, how they express them, and how the staff resolve them. On its simplest interpretation, communication between customers and staff members follows a classical form: the customer presents a need for information (a request for information on a subject), which the staff member tries to resolve with an acceptable response; there