20 | Winning In The Tech Era (continued on page) “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.