The Orlando Local
Brought the persona to life with personal insights and local knowledge. Her voice carried the whole experience. Every recommendation came from her, as if she'd been there herself.
Tripadvisor x Visit Orlando · Case study · Conversation design
Visit Orlando.
Beyond the theme parks.
Designing an award-winning voice experience that made people trust a city they thought they already knew.
★ 2022 Mercury Award for Innovation, U.S. Travel Association
100k
User sessions
Across the US and Canada
3min
Average session length
Deep exploration, not a quick bounce
4.3
Interactions per session
Users stayed and kept exploring
Tripadvisor's first interactive immersive experience in North America. Expanded to Canada following US success. Then to Fire TV. Read the Visit Orlando press release.
What it refused to be
A tourist-board voicebot.
“I love theme parks, but as someone who was born and raised here, I know lots more reasons why you should come for a visit.”
The local guide persona, opening line
The gamble
The bet I made.
The risk
This was Tripadvisor's first immersive audio experience in North America. No template to copy. The obvious safe build was one narrator reading polished tourist-board copy.
The call
I built it around a single idea instead, an Orlando local showing off her city, and split the experience across two voices: her recommendations, and a separate voice for verified traveller reviews. Two distinct registers on one reusable loop.
Why it could have failed
Two voices can confuse as easily as they convince. A local persona can tip into performance. The whole thing rested on people trusting a city they thought they already knew.
What it returned
100k sessions, three minutes average, and the 2022 Mercury Award for Innovation. The structure became the template for 10+ destination experiences after it.
The brief
Orlando is synonymous with theme parks. That was the problem.
Tripadvisor partnered with Visit Orlando to build their first immersive audio experience in North America. The brief was to redefine the city for travellers. Not replace the theme parks. Just show people there was more. Local culture, food, neighbourhoods, the Orlando that people who actually live there know.
A standard tourist guide voice wouldn't do it. It had to feel like a recommendation from someone who genuinely loved the city. Someone you'd trust.
The persona
Your friend in Orlando.
The entire experience was built around a single strategic idea: an Orlando local who is passionate about showing off her city. Warm, knowledgeable, proud. Someone who actually lives there and wants you to see the city she loves.
To make her feel real, we cast an actual voice actor from Orlando. Not a synthetic voice, not a generic American accent. Someone who sounded like she'd lived there her whole life. Because she had.
Social Proof
A second, distinct voice for verified traveller reviews. Real opinions from real visitors, woven in to build trust from outside the brand. Two voices, one experience.
The conversation design
Three pathways. Nine Points of Interest. One reusable loop.
I designed a scalable multi-path architecture. From the main menu, users choose between Food, Hotels, and Sightseeing. Each pathway opens its own sub-menu with three options. Every selection triggers the same loop: a local guide recommendation, an optional Tripadvisor review, then a return to the sub-menu or main menu. At any point, users can say “Main Menu” to start again.
The result was nine distinct Points of Interest, all running on the same reusable conversation loop. Consistent, explorable, and built to scale.
PATH A
Food
Italian / Sushi / Gastropub
PATH B
Hotels
Waldorf / Grand Bohemian / Alfond Inn
PATH C
Sightseeing
Feast for the Senses / Non-Stop Thrills / Great Vibes
1. Launch
User invokes the skill
Soundscape plays. Theme park ambience sets the scene.
“Alexa, launch Visit Orlando.”
2. Intro
The local guide introduces herself
The Orlando Local sets the tone. Warm, local, personal. Not a brochure. “Ready?” User says yes.
3. Main Menu
Three pathways presented
Food, Hotels, or Sightseeing. User chooses a category.
4. Sub-Menu
Each path opens three options
Food: Italian, Sushi, Gastropub. Hotels: Waldorf, Grand Bohemian, Alfond Inn. Sightseeing: Feast for the Senses, Non-Stop Thrills, Great Vibes.
5. Recommendation
The Orlando Local speaks
A personal, local recommendation. Specific details. Her own experience woven in. Never generic.
“I know this because I have been going to Prato for years.”
6. Review Offer
Social proof offered
The Orlando Local asks if the user wants a Tripadvisor review. If yes, Social Proof reads the review. If no, skip ahead.
7. Loop or Navigate
User chooses what comes next
Return to sub-menu for more in the same category, or say “Main Menu” to start again. The loop runs as many times as the user wants.
Global commands: “Main Menu” returns to the start from anywhere. “Stop” exits cleanly from anywhere.
“I know this because I have been going to Prato for years.”
The Orlando Local, mid-recommendation. Her own life, woven in. Never a brochure.
Verified traveller review
The second voice. Real opinions from real visitors, read in a distinct voice so users always knew who was speaking: the local, or the crowd that agreed with her.
The collaboration
Cross-functional from day one.
This was not a solo project. It involved developers, sound engineers, and visual designers. My job was to hold the conversation design together across all of them.
Developers
Implemented the conversational logic and smooth navigation between voice and screen.
Sound Engineer
Developed the dual-voice system and sourced authentic ambient sounds for each location.
Visual Designers
Provided art direction for the Fire TV multi-modal elements, ensuring audio and visual worked together.
The ripple effect
Orlando set a template.
10+ destination experiences followed. All written and conversation designed by me. Three examples below.
01
Music Guide to Asheville
An audio journey through the city's musical roots and live music scene.
02
The Florida Keys Quiz
A personality-driven quiz to match travellers with their perfect island.
03
Wanderer: Abu Dhabi
A cultural showcase built for Amazon Prime, taking the format into a new market.
The experience, running
See it in action.
What this shows
A persona that earned trust at scale.
100,000 sessions. An average of three minutes each. Users who came to hear about theme parks and stayed to discover a city. That's what the right voice, in the right experience, can do.