The changes in technologies that have surfaced this year will radically change how travel is sold before many realize what is happening. During the next two years, there will likely be changes that most industry travel industry experts haven’t imagined, because they have emerged from the little-known labs that develop natural language processing (NLP) computer software products rather than within the travel industry.
Enhanced Travel Profiles (ETP)
Soon, when someone signs onto a travel site, the same NLP technology used in ChatGPT or Google Bard will search the internet and proprietary travel databases to discover what’s known about the traveler. Within seconds of signing on, the software can learn the prospect’s income, education, work experience, major purchase, credit history, and arrest records by using the same sources accessed in providing online credit card approvals.
Now if you add the previous inquiries and bookings gathered by firms such as Expedia, TripAdvisor, airlines, and the major travel networks, one can create enhanced travel profiles of travelers in real-time. These can be stored in temporary files as the procedure progresses, and never be distributed or shown to anyone—even the organization that helped to create them or the person initiating the travel request.
Why should private organizations help create the “Enhanced Travel Profiles” (ETPs) they can’t use? To gain access to the massive competitive advantages and labor savings when these ETPs are synthesized and analyzed by natural language processing (NLP) tools such as ChatGPT, Google Bard, and DALL-E. Just as it’s nearly unthinkable today for any firm to generate credit approvals without accessing outside databases, the travel industry may feel the same way about handling travel inquiries and bookings in the near future.
Query the Traveler
When a travel inquiry is initiated, the traveler will then be asked to briefly describe his or her travel needs by verbally interacting with the ATP data through a PC or smartphone. The EPT software can query the traveler using Yes/No and Fill-in-the-Blank answers, until it becomes clear what the traveler needs and the selling opportunities it affords. The software will present an augmented travel request to the prospect and use the dialog to augment the EPT. This entire process should take less than ten minutes.
Develop the Tentative Travel Plan
A detailed travel plan will be developed. It will include destination descriptions tailored to the traveler’s interests and budget, suggested travel itineraries with recommended airlines, cruise ships, hotels, resorts, and excursions and photo opportunities all included. It will also mention package plans and discounts the traveler can qualify for. It will also suggest optional features that will increase its appeal even further, but at an increased cost. The software will then query the prospect to develop a final travel plan and pricing.
Final Travel Plans, Ticketing, Passports, and Visas
The final travel plan with be a multimedia presentation incorporating photos taken from the ETP profile and “deep fake” photos, illustrations, and voiceovers created with NLP visual software such as DALL-E that can create any photo or artwork a user or software describes.
Once tentatively approved, the software can ticket the entire itinerary, including excursions, restaurants, tourist attractions, cruises, airline reservations, resorts, and insurance that the buyer approves. Credit card charges can be finalized 48-72 hours after the ticketing is completed. Packing lists and notes to friends that include the final multimedia travel plan can be sent out to anyone the buyer wants to contact or can be posted online. If anyone wants to join the vacation, the trip can be converted to include group status, and the extra incentives can automatically be added to everyone’s bookings.
If the travel industry goes this way, linkages will likely be established to update passports and issue visas automatically. Imagine how much better travelers’ lives will be if all the hassle and paperwork of foreign travel were eliminated.
Feasibility of NLP Travel Selling Systems
Lest this seems like a fantasy, Expedia and Kayak have already announced partnerships with OpenAI (the developers of ChatGPT), which also has a multibillion-dollar partnership with Microsoft. Expedia and Kayak plan to integrate ChatGPT into their planning and (presumably) purchasing processes for use with individual travelers. Since both companies already have online access to all the major credit card organizations, everything I hypothesized above can likely appear in a year or so.
What is Likely to Happen to Travel Advisors?
I think it’s safe to say that the industry will markedly change, but we will not disappear. Much of what we are describing has already happened in the financial industry. Stocks & bonds research, marketing, and selling is already nearly totally automated. It is dominated by a few mass-market giants, such as Fidelity and Schwab, who still employ advisors, retail staff, and technicians; plus a few high-end firms, such as Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Chase, that focus on corporate sales and wealthier clients.
What has been frozen out of the new financial marketplace are the small firms that don’t have access to the huge resources required for national marketing campaigns and computer systems development. Also, the idea of corporations selling their stock to non-employees has virtually disappeared.
Viewed through this lens, is it any wonder that JP Morgan Chase has purchased Frosch and several other travel organizations? It also explains why travel coops such as Signature and Virtuoso are now considered a necessity.
Also, what will happen to the airline and cruise ship sales organizations? Buyers may be eager to jump to an NLP sale and booking service that doesn’t place buyers on hold for 30-90 minutes, better explores their products, and doesn’t provide 50 pages of fine print legalese to describe what consumers are buying.
There is no question that massive changes are occurring. As the NLP travel systems emerge, try them out. Offer assistance and classes to your clients. Perhaps in the Brave New World of travel planning, you’ll function as the equivalent of a financial advisor with a fiduciary responsibility to your clients and charging them by the hour rather than relying upon commissions.
Dr. Steve Frankel and his wife have cruised on most of the Seabourn, Silversea, Crystal, Azamara, Oceania, Regent, and Windstar ships. Steve is the founder of Cruises & Cameras Travel Services, LLC. He has been recognized as a “2021 Top Travel Specialist” by Conde Nast Traveler magazine and a “Travel Expert Select “by the Signature Travel Network. His specialties are luxury small-ship cruises and COVID-19 safety measures, and has a doctorate in Educational Research with minors in Marketing and Quantitative Business Analysis. He’s also earned a Certificate in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University. Previously, he managed qualitative and quantitative research in the private & public sectors. He’s a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, and has written 13 books and hundreds of articles. His email address is steve@cruisesandcameras.com.