I am bumping the column I had written for this week because I just can’t wait to share this one.
I was just about to upload an interesting one, I think, about the Dream Vacations/CruiseOne annual conference held on Celebrity Ascent the week before Thanksgiving. It’s all ready to go, and I’m on deadline today. But just as I was about to enter it into the TRO system, I listened to a noon webinar by Kha Ly, the AI guru who caused such a stir at the Signature conference in Las Vegas just the week before Dream Vacations.
And I had to write that up and file it right this minute.
Ly started with the news that the New Year will change the online world—the world of selling travel on websites—as we know it. Yes, I know you think you know all about it. But I bet you don’t.
By January, Ly says, Google and Microsoft and ChatGPT all will roll out new AI products that can read your browser pages, understand what you have been looking at, and use that information to answer your questions, book your travel, buy your favorite shampoo on Amazon—and win or lose new customers.
This week, OpenAI released Sora, a $20 add-on that can generate videos following prompts like, “Take my photos of Casa Vela, make them into a video, and add Christmas elves saying ‘Happy Holidays from Cheryl Rosen.’”
But it goes way beyond cute photos. A new AI world will dawn with the new year, Ly predicts. ChatGPT parent company OpenAI will debut its own browser, to compete with Microsoft and Google in a new era of talking to our computers—and having them talk back, to us and our customers. It will usher in an easy and comprehensive way for consumers to choose travel options. And it behooves travel advisors to understand, get in front of, and use it to their own advantage.
(If you’re done reading tech talk, skip now to the end of this article for simple tips on how to use your Facebook page to win new customers. But I promise to keep the background short.)
It’s all about websites that act like agents – “agentic websites.” An AI agent is not a travel agent, notes Ly, who is married to a travel advisor and so clearly understands the difference. It’s a platform or piece of software that gets things done for you. One thing it can do is read a 40-page website in 30 seconds, so when a customer asks if Princess or Holland America is the better option in Alaska, it can respond orally, citing every word you have posted on the subject on your site, throw in some options for excursions, and book the trip.
By February, Ly predicts, websites also will be changing their imagery as they recognize us. Tracking the Google, Meta and ChatGPT browser pages a customer has visited, for example, they will know that she is in New York where it’s 30 degrees out and snowing, and so will change your home page to include pictures of cruise ships and over the water bungalows, and reply, “Hi Cheryl! How would you like to escape to a tropical beach right now?”
Claude, a downloadable AI assistant that Ly has been using, already can do much of this. Microsoft has “leaked” CoPilot Vision, “which recognizes what’s on your screen, and you can talk to it as you move along.” Ly predicts that by December 31, Google will incorporate its Gemini AI into its Chrome browser “so you can say, ‘I need a window seat on a Delta flight to Houston at 9 am on Tuesday,’ and it will find and book it for you.”
So once again, travel advisors, the new technologies call for rethinking how we structure our websites. As a writer, I’m happy to report that Ly believes text will become invaluable, now that consumers don’t have to read it; their AI agents will read it for them. So bring it on.
The Perfect Reel
On a call with Meta on Tuesday morning, just before his Facebook Live, Ly scoped out the following tips for travel advisors looking to win over new customers using social media.
- Take advantage of the new option to test your reels. I was surprised by the number of travel advisors I spoke with at the two conferences who said they do not know how to make a reel and had no time to learn. But it’s as simple as posting a photo. Just take a video on your phone and say “yes” when it asks if you want to make it into a reel when you go to upload it. If you have no patience, just add your name and agency contact information, hit “next” for every other question, and upload it to Instagram and/or Facebook. A new option coming soon will ask if you would like to test your reel—an amazing opportunity to have your video and your agency name sent to thousands of people who do not yet know you, at no charge to you. Say thanks to Meta and go for it.
- Think blue. The world’s favorite color, in text or other elements, can increase engagement by 20% or more. Use it somewhere in your post.
- Use a sticker or two, and add trending audio. You can stick on a sticker of yourself—but the one that says “Add Yours” works best. So post your favorite cruise ship restaurant, for example, and stick on “Add Yours” to encourage engagement. Popular music helps too.
- Add a human element. We all know that pictures that tell a story, or include you in them, are most popular. But even a piece of you—a finger pointing to an ice cream cone, for example—gets as much as 20% more hits.
- Short reels reach more non-followers. If they don’t know you, the Meta algorithm says, they don’t want to commit too much time. So videos under 15 seconds work best if your goal is outreach to newcomers.
- Long reels shared on your personal feed engage your friends. Existing customers, on the other hand, do want to see the whole video of the suite you are staying in. Make posts aimed at them 30 seconds long or more.
I promise you will find my column about the Dream Vacations/Cruise One conference really interesting. But this one is so newsy I just couldn’t wait to share the scoop. I’m really interested to hear your feedback, so please let me know if you are interested in reading AI stories like this, or just tired of hearing about it. And I do recommend following Kha Ly’s Facebook page—and thank him for sharing his valuable time with me and with the travel advisor community.
Cheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.
