Travel Agents and Tour Operators Have Generative AI Opportunity

25.08.2023 - 14:26 / skift.com / Travel Experiences / Selene Brophy / Generative Ai

The potential of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to produce personalized travel recommendations and itineraries, as well as on-point content for travel companies, is setting the travel sector abuzz. 

New travel products that would usually take weeks to plan and execute are now created in mere seconds with tools like ChatGPT. The neural-network technology owned by San Francisco-based AI research lab Open AI has been a primary catalyst for the intense focus on AI at the close of 2022.

Increased productivity and scale far beyond how humans can work on those goals are at the center of the debate and what it means for travel agents and tour operators looking to future-proof their business model.

From improved chatbots to digital assistants that act as concierge & tour guides for humans when in a location, the sector could certainly be poised for creative reinvention. 

“By the end of the year, you won’t be able to tell the difference between human production and AI production,” said travel industry consultant Peter Syme.   

“Every single tourism business, from a hotel to a tour operator to the most prominent companies, has access to the same power from a content production point of view. Therefore, tour operators should adopt quickly and not lag to ensure the biggest advantage.”

But there remains room for improvement with the technology. 

“It doesn’t do facts or specifics like dates and times or geolocation, but all of that stuff exists and only needs to be piped in. It’s the speed of learning that is off the scale,” added Syme. 

As a result, the adoption of AI is expected to be much quicker than the shift to the internet, even with the current weaknesses. 

With the relevance of travel agents seen during the pandemic when travelers valued human connection more than ever before, how does AI impact businesses beyond content production?

Travel agents can move beyond just selling the components of travel and sending people away, to extending service and loyalty with far less effort involved, suggested Alex Bainbridge, CEO of Autoura, a digital experience platform for real-world experiences.

AI tools allow agents to increase efficiency and extend value through itineraries and suggestions with minimal effort to ensure stronger relationships with their clients. However, he suggested refining and integrating it with real-time tour operators to create a hybrid digital travel product might be the solution. 

Instead of the cost associated with the expertise required for a five-hour tour, the tour operator would only oversee a two-hour niche in-person experience. The remaining three-hours of the digital-led itinerary would be created at minimal cost and flexible for the traveler to complete on their own.  

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