Scott Lengel and his wife, Lisa, always loved international travel. But when the pandemic hit, and they couldn’t leave the country, they turned to RVing across America to meet their insatiable wanderlust. Lengel had plenty of technology experience, having worked for Microsoft for 23 years. Yet when he started planning his first trip, he did what most of us would do: He asked Google.
He typed in “six-week tour of national parks in the Southwest.” The results included a photo travel blog, an Amtrak page, and various links to itineraries that didn’t match what he was looking for. Thus began the tiresome slog of road-trip planning that’s likely familiar to many readers.
“Camping is fun,” Lengel said in a GearJunkie interview Tuesday. “But planning camping is painful.”
With his new AI-based travel business, AdventureGenie, Lengel hopes to improve the process for everyone. While the internet might have revolutionized access to information more than 20 years ago, it now feels like its own wilderness — and with no map to help navigate it. Increasingly, companies and individuals are turning to artificial intelligence to find their way.
Lengel started AdventureGenie to offer RVers and campers an AI-based travel planning tool. The site’s campground database and its curated itineraries, called GenieTrips, are free to use. But with a (currently discounted) annual subscription of $50, users can also access its “AI-powered trip planner”.
“We answer the three key questions on campers’ and RVers’ minds: What to do? How to get there? Where to stay?,” said Lengel, the company’s CEO.
