AI Will Not Replace the Travel Advisor, Here’s the Structural Reason Why
Booking.com CEO Glenn Fogel says technology will recreate the human travel agent 'only much, much better.' He’s half right. Understanding the three layers of travel planning explains why advisors are more defensible than ever.
You have probably been asked the question, perhaps even this week: "With AI around, will you still exist in five years?" Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking.com, recently stated that technology would recreate the human travel agent, "only much, much better." A provocative claim from a man who has never been the greatest champion of independent advisors. Yet he is half right, and it is precisely that nuance that changes everything. There are three layers to planning a trip. AI is going to take over the first one. The other two are exactly what makes travel advisors more defensible than ever, not less. Here is the full breakdown.
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To understand why AI does not replace travel advisors, you first need to map out what the profession actually involves. Most debates confuse information retrieval with advisory expertise. These are two fundamentally different things.
Layer 1: knowing the client
AI can indeed learn to know your clients. A recent test with Claude illustrates this perfectly: when given a client’s travel history, the model recommended exactly the same Parisian hotels that an experienced advisor would have suggested. On this point, Fogel is not wrong, AI can aggregate data and produce quality personalised suggestions.
But knowing someone is not the whole job. It is actually the simplest part.
Layer 2: taste and network
AI can read TripAdvisor. It can analyse Condé Nast Traveler. What it cannot do is read the private discussion thread of an advisor network, like the Fora X group, with its hundreds of daily messages between professionals sharing real-time field reports. It cannot text the general manager of a hotel to secure an upgrade or a special touch for your client.
This human network, these relationships built on the ground and at trade fairs, is an asset that no algorithm can replicate. This is where the travel advisor’s true differentiating value lies.
Layer 3: offline expertise and niche experiences
AI does not know Luca, the best guide in Rome, the one whose clients leave with anecdotes they will recount for ten years. It can only retrieve what is online, indexed, and scrapable. And a large proportion of the best travel experiences deliberately remain offline.
The numbers confirm what is at stake: according to Phocuswright/Arival 2025 data, the experiences, tours and activities market now represents $271 billion and is the fastest-growing segment of the travel industry. A significant share of this market remains accessible only via trusted human relationships.
Why AI strengthens advisors rather than threatening them
The real question is not "will AI replace travel agents?". The real question is: which advisors will leverage AI, and which will ignore it?
Because the winning model is not AI versus advisor. It is AI plus advisor.
- AI handles research and comparison: aggregating options, formatting quotes, generating structured itineraries.
- The advisor keeps what AI cannot do: mobilising their network, activating direct contacts, exercising judgement on offline experiences, handling unexpected situations with empathy.
- The end client benefits: an advisor who used to spend 40% of their time formatting documents can now dedicate that time to relationships and curating unique experiences.
This is exactly the dynamic described by Fora Travel advisors in their feedback: AI is not competing with them, it is enabling them to move upmarket towards their true added value.
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What this means concretely for a travel agent today
Here is how a modern travel advisor integrates AI into their daily work without losing their professional identity:
- Automated initial research: using AI to generate a first selection of accommodation or itineraries in seconds, then refining with their own expertise.
- Quote and client presentation formatting: automating the creation of professional visual documents to focus on high-value advisory work.
- Activating the network at the right moment: once the basic options are identified, using direct contacts to negotiate preferential conditions, exclusive experiences or VIP access.
- Intelligence monitoring and sharing: participating in active professional communities to stay ahead of trends that AI does not yet see.
The advisor who adopts these tools does not work less, they work on what truly matters.
Generative AI: a formatting tool, not a replacement
It is important to be precise about what generative AI actually does in the context of travel. It excels at structuring, rephrasing, laying out and synthesising. It is particularly effective at transforming raw notes into a polished client document, or generating a day-by-day itinerary from defined criteria.
What it does not do: choose the right local supplier because you met them at an ILTM workshop. Know that a particular hotel is under construction until September despite the beautiful photos online. Understand that a client says they want adventure but actually cannot stand discomfort.
That information is not in any database. It lives in accumulated experience, field notebooks and corridor conversations. That is the irreplaceable value of the human travel advisor.
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