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Winning In The Tech Era
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“I do not. I always believe that technology supplements
the tasks that an advisor does – never replaces. What
a travel advisor does, I believe, is provide that human
connection. They are a conduit to memory-making
and, as such, are an essential part of vacation-planning
experience. What technology does is simply enhance
the advisor’s capabilities and presents more options
that they then convey to the customer. With more tools
and features, to me, that just means that agents can
service and tend to more customers. Ultimately, the
vacation-planning experience is a part of the entire
vacation itself. I firmly believe that travel advisors are,
and will always be, essential for that to be successful.”
– Brian Shultz, chief information officer, Cruise Planners
For nothing short of two decades, some have predicted the downfall of travel advisors at the hands of
technology. Representing various perspectives, here are the unadulterated responses from the travel
experts interviewed for this white paper to this question posed:
At some future date, do you think technology will replace travel advisors?
Why or why not?
WILL TECHNOLOGY REPLACE TRAVEL ADVISORS?
“This has been promised for some time, but has not yet
materialized. Any travel agent who can harness and
use the tools, such as AI, to enhance their offering will be
ahead of this curve Those that want to hold on to old
processes, may in fact be replaced by automation”
– Norm Rose, travel technology analyst, and president
of Travel Tech Consulting, Inc.