AI Will Speed Travel Agent Decline, Says Booking CEO

05.08.2024 - 22:42 / skift.com / Dennis Schaal / Glenn Fogel / Zane Kerby

There has been a resurgence in the use of travel agents since the pandemic – and even before – especially for luxury trips.

One survey of U.S. travelers in 2023 found that 38% of millennials and Gen Zers said they prefer traditional travel agents to sort out their trips. There are reports of High Street travel agents in the UK opening new physical storefronts, as are several travel agencies in Singapore, for example.

But Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel thinks that growth will fade fast and that AI will accelerate a decline in traditional travel agents.

“But the truth is the human travel agent has been a declining population for a very long time,” Fogel said on the Decoder podcast that came out Monday. “And, I’ll tell you, the things we are working on right now in AI and things of that nature, I suspect it’s going to continue to decline.”

Fogel, of course, has skin in the game. His company competes with offline travel agents, and several Booking Holdings brands, including, Priceline, Booking.com, and Kayak have launched a variety of generative AI products, including trip-planners.

All of these virtual agents, regardless of the company, have significant flaws, but these are early days.

Fogel said the position of traditional travel agents will continue to be reduced “as we create the virtual travel agents and as we use all the skills we have in AI, all the new things that are coming out, particularly in generative AI, and try to recreate what was, once upon a time, where the only way you could do travel was speaking to a human being.”

The podcast host asked Fogel whether traditional travel agents, who may have ties and personal connections with a hotel concierge, may have an edge over websites like Booking.com?

“We are doing it too with our best customers,” Fogel said, in trying to offer upgraded services. “Don’t forget, an airline or hotel cares a lot more about the volume we provide to them than any single agent. We did $151 billion of travel last year. That’s a heck of a lot of travel. We have a lot of relationships.”

He said Booking Holdings has to figure out how to differentiate services for its top customers.

“The issue for us is how do we distinguish,” Fogel said. “Does someone who does more business with us, do we give them a higher level of service? Do we separate out and categorize customers? All businesses are always looking out trying to take care of their best customers in a better way.”

Asked about Fogel’s comments on the supposed decline of traditional travel agents, Zane Kerby, CEO of the American Society of Travel Advisors, told Skift he applauds Booking.com and Expedia for their utility as a place to compare prices and schedules across brands.

But Kerby asked whether Fogel is