AI rapidly changes travel planning, with startups like Mindtrip offering personalised itineraries in seconds. Major players like Expedia and Club Med also integrate AI to enhance booking and customer service. While smaller businesses may face challenges in adopting AI, the shift promises many a more personalised and efficient travel experience, though high-end travellers may still prefer human agents.
Are you dreaming of going on vacation but not sure where to go? Increasingly, the answer and how to get there, what to eat, and where to stay will come from advanced AI rather than your old-school travel agent. Startup Mindtrips' generative AI can craft a tailor-made industry in seconds from a single text prompt with suggestions for hotels, restaurants, sightseeing and activities.
After picking their favourite options, travellers can reserve every step of the trip in the app or on partner websites and then open directly to the relevant page.
"Instead of going to Google and you do one search, and then you do another, you can just get into everything," Mindtrip chief executive Andy Moss said.
Similar tourism-focused startups include Vacay, while others like Navan are taking on the business travel market. Generative AI heavyweights like Google, with its Gemini chatbot Openai with Operator, or Anthropic with Claude, are also heavily marketing holiday planning. Existing mainstays of the online travel market are adapting.
Last year, Expedia launched an assistant, Romie, who can help with some reservation steps, mainly used for group trips. Its rival Booking.com introduced Smart Filter, which allows users to request specific recommendations, such as an Amsterdam hotel room with canal views.
"It's early day, but we believe agentic will allow us to deliver unique value," Booking.com's chief technology officer, Rob Francis, told AFP.
French giam Club Med has a WhatsApp chatbot, an offer that lets customers ask practical questions, Henri Giscard d'Estaing told AFP. "When it was a human answering, it took an average of one and a half hours", he noted.
The transformation of travel booking is capitalising on the fact that people want more personalised experiences," said Jukka Laitamaki, a New York University professor specialising in the travel sector. He notes that AI already does much more than simply streamlining the booking process.
"Laitamaki added, Whatever real-time changes may happen, you don't have to call anybody; you can just put it into the system" to instantly update your itinerary.
However, widespread adoption will be slow," said Eva Stewart of the consultancy. The travel and tourism industry is mostly made up of small and medium-sized businesses, independent hotels, tour operators, and regional agencies that lack the infrastructure for large-scale AI integration. "
Startups may be leading the way for now, but Stewart predicted that major legacy players online could come back, powered by their vast resources and technical capabilities."
"They have their customer base," Laitamaki said. "That is an advantage."
Human travel agents' best chance for survival may be catering to people who can afford more for the personal touch.
Researcher Laitamaki said, "I don't think it's going to impact ultra-luxury travel," with the wealthy preferring to deal with a person.
But everything down from there is likely to be affected.
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