ORLANDO — The question haunting every tourism board in America right now is simple: how do you help a visitor plan a trip when they don’t want to talk to a human, but they also don’t trust a generic chatbot? Visit Orlando thinks it has an answer. It’s called OPAL.
Short for Orlando Planning Assistance by Locals, the tool went live on the organization’s website this week. It runs on technology from Mindtrip, a travel tech firm.
But what sets it apart, according to the tourism board, is the data behind it. OPAL was trained by local specialists. It pulls from human-curated knowledge and global travel data aggregated from more than 40 sources, including Google Places and TripAdvisor.
The result is an AI assistant that doesn’t recommend a generic chain restaurant two miles from the nearest theme park. It knows the local neighborhoods.
It knows the Michelin-recognized dining spots. It knows the difference between a family-friendly attraction and a date-night experience. That distinction matters in a market flooded with AI planning tools that often produce bland, copy-paste itineraries.
Visit Orlando’s president and CEO Casandra Matej called the destination “complex.” The thinking inside the tourism board is that travelers today want personalized, instantaneous advice in a conversational format. They do not want to scroll through a dozen web pages. They do not want to call a phone number.
OPAL generates custom itineraries based on individual needs. It highlights local businesses.
It is available around the clock. It is, in Matej’s words, “a natural evolution of how Visit Orlando helps travellers plan their trip.” The tool joins an existing suite of planning resources. Those include one-on-one consultations with destination experts and a moderated Facebook group called “Plan Your Orlando Vacation.” OPAL does not replace those.
It adds a new layer — one that operates at machine speed. The timing is no accident.
The travel industry is being reshaped by artificial intelligence. Airlines use it. Hotels use it.
Booking platforms use it. Destination marketing organizations have been slower to adopt it, in part because the stakes are higher. A generic recommendation for a restaurant in a city like Chicago or New York is annoying.
A generic recommendation in Orlando can ruin a family’s entire vacation. Orlando is a market built on precision.
A family of four visiting for five days has no room for a bad meal or a wasted afternoon. The margins are thin. The expectations are high.
OPAL is designed to tighten those margins. Visit Orlando declined to say how much the tool cost or how many users it expects in the first year.
The organization did say OPAL is live now and free to use. The broader picture is one of adaptation. Travelers have changed how they research trips.
They start on search engines, move to social media, and end on review sites. They want answers in seconds. They want them in a chat window.
They want them to feel local. OPAL is an attempt to meet all three demands at once.
Whether it works will depend on whether tourists trust an AI with their vacation plans. Visit Orlando is betting they will.
