No, artificial intelligence (AI) agents are not replacing traditional travel consultants. Automation is absorbing repetitive admin and research, while trust, judgement and crisis management remain firmly human skills and increasingly valuable ones at that.
Key Takeaways
- ChatGPT handles 2.5 billion prompts daily, yet 34% of UK holidaymakers booked their trip through a travel professional in the past year, according to ABTA.
- 23% of mid-sized UK businesses now use AI, up from 9% just two years ago.
- UK travel agency numbers fell around 30% between 2015 and 2024, yet only about 2% of travellers book with an advisor purely for price.
- Not Just Travel, The Travel Franchise’s parent brand, supports more than 750 personal travel consultants and was named Best Lifestyle Franchise in the World for the second year running at the 2026 Global Franchise Awards.
How AI travel planning tools work and what they can actually do
It’s 11pm on a Tuesday and you’re lying in bed, typing “romantic week in Portugal, mid-range budget, foodie focus” into a chatbot. Within seconds it hands you a day-by-day itinerary complete with restaurant picks and a weather forecast.
This is how AI travel planning tools work in 2026. They read plain-language prompts, cross-reference thousands of data points on flights, hotels and activities and produce personalised travel itineraries created by AI in moments rather than hours.
AI chatbots for booking trips can already manage routine flight and hotel reservations, answer questions around the clock and track price changes automatically. Scale is where the technology genuinely wins.
ChatGPT alone processes 2.5 billion prompts every single day worldwide and UK users made 1.8 billion visits to the platform in just the first eight months of 2025.
Ask what AI travel agents can do that human agents cannot, though, and the honest answer is: not much, once you move past speed. AI is brilliant at options. It has no idea which option is right for you.
AI travel agents vs human travel agents: Where the real differences lie
Booking through an app feels efficient. You type, you scroll, you pay. Booking through a human travel consultant feels different: you talk, you’re heard and someone remembers your mother-in-law hates connecting flights.
That difference is where AI travel agents vs human travel agents really splits. Algorithms compare prices and generate itineraries brilliantly, but they fall down the moment a trip gets complicated: a multi-generational family holiday, a honeymoon with very specific expectations or a booking that needs rearranging at 6am after a cancelled flight.
How technology is reshaping the travel agent’s role is a question the industry keeps returning to and the answer lands in the same place every time: tools change, trust doesn’t.
According to ABTA, 34% of UK holidaymakers booked their most recent holiday through a travel professional rather than online. This equates to tens of millions of people choosing conversation over an algorithm for what is often their single biggest annual purchase.
Steve Witt, Co-Founder of Not Just Travel and The Travel Franchise, sums up the balance using a phrase first coined at an ABTA conference:
“AI is the filling in the sandwich, but the personal travel consultant is the bread that holds everything together.”
— Steve Witt, Co-Founder of Not Just Travel and The Travel Franchise
Benefits of using a human travel agent: Skills that AI is unable to replicate
Empathy cannot be coded and that is the simplest way to describe the benefits of using a human travel agent that no AI tool has managed to copy. A consultant notices the hesitation in your voice when you mention a budget.
They catch the glance between partners when one wants adventure and the other wants a pool. They ask the follow-up question that finally reveals what you’re actually looking for.
When something goes wrong like a strike, a cancelled connection or a closed resort, a human consultant gets on the phone to airlines and suppliers and fights for their client. Chatbots don’t do that.
These are exactly the skills traditional travel agents offer that AI lacks: reading a client, not just processing a request. It explains why, even with free tools in their pockets, holidaymakers consistently choose human-led travel planning and why relying solely on AI often leaves travellers exposed:
- No support when things go wrong: An AI chatbot won’t call an airline at 6 am to rebook a cancelled connection, nor will it fight a resort for a refund. When plans collapse, algorithms offer dead ends; a human consultant offers an advocate who takes personal accountability until you’re safely home.
- The mess of complex, multi-destination itineraries: While AI can output a rapid single-location plan, multi-stop trips with synchronised transfers, niche activities and precise timings quickly become a tangled web. A single missed connection in an automated schedule can ruin an entire itinerary. Humans spot the logistical friction points before they turn into expensive mistakes.
- The hidden “AI tax” or hours spent double-checking: Prompts might generate instant text, but travellers still have to spend hours verifying whether the AI’s hotel recommendations are actually operational, if the flight timings align or if the “foodie hotspots” are hallucinated data. Many people simply do not want to spend their free time cross-referencing chatbot output.
- Total peace of mind at zero added cost: Working with a personal travel consultant is simply the smarter way to book. Because consultants earn their income through supplier commissions, clients receive tailored expertise, rigorous vetting, and complete peace of mind without paying extra for the service.
Many consultants have also walked the resort grounds and slept in the beds they recommend, first-hand knowledge no algorithm can invent. Whether clients want a luxury escape or are searching for affordable travel agents for holiday packages, that lived experience and personal involvement remain entirely human territory.
Are AI agents replacing traditional travel agents: What the evidence actually shows
Look at the actual evidence and a more balanced picture emerges from the headlines.
A RateHawk survey of more than 1,300 travel agents found opinion split almost down the middle: 44% believed AI could eventually replace parts of their role, while 56% did not, with European agents even more skeptical, as 58% did not believe AI would replace them.
UK travel agency numbers did fall by around 30% between 2015 and 2024, but that decline tracks the wider rise of online booking generally, not AI specifically.
The real clue sits in Phocuswright research showing that only around 2% of travellers book with an advisor purely because of price. The other 98% are paying for something else entirely. That is relationship, service and reassurance.
Are travel agents still relevant in an automated world? The honest answer is that the role of travel agents in an AI-driven industry is evolving, not disappearing.
Steve Witt argues the real disruption is landing on price-comparison websites and online travel agencies, not on consultants who trade in trust.
Hybrid travel planning: Combining AI efficiency with human expertise
Somewhere between full automation and old-fashioned paperwork sits the model that is actually winning: hybrid travel planning combining AI and human expertise, letting AI handle the busywork while a person handles the client.
Forward-thinking consultants are becoming “bot bosses,” using automation to draft proposals, generate social content and manage routine post-booking messages, then spending the time saved on the phone with actual clients.
Every Travel Franchise consultant now gets free access to NJT Smart AI, the industry’s most powerful AI tool for consultants, built to remove admin rather than replace judgement. It sits alongside the wider question of what software travel agents use day to day to run a home-based business well.
Steve Witt puts the philosophy simply:
“We don’t lead with technology; we lead with people, process and business need. Then we ask: how can AI support this?”
Businesses that adopt AI properly see meaningfully higher turnover per employee, yet those that adopt AI properly see meaningfully higher turnover per employee. However, 77% of small businesses using AI have no written AI policy.
Why now is the right time to become a travel consultant with The Travel Franchise
The future of travel agents in the age of AI belongs to consultants willing to combine both worlds and The Travel Franchise has built its model around exactly that.
New consultants join with no travel experience required, complete a five-day live training course and gain ongoing access to hundreds of hours of learning through The Hub.
The Money-Back Challenge means franchise fees can be refunded once agreed commission targets are met within the set period.
The parent brand, Not Just Travel, now supports more than 750 personal travel consultants and was named Best Lifestyle Franchise in the World for the second year running at the 2026 Global Franchise Awards in Las Vegas.
Technology built for peak booking season means new consultants are never facing that growth alone.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The evidence so far says no. A RateHawk survey of 1,300+ agents found opinion split almost evenly and most travellers pay for relationship and reassurance, not just price comparison.
AI compares prices and builds itineraries instantly, but it cannot read your hesitation, notice a glance between partners or manage a supplier crisis at 6 am.
Most UK consultants, including The Travel Franchise partners, earn commission from the holiday provider, so clients get expert guidance and ABTA-protected holidays without paying extra for it.
Not in the way a person can. When flights cancel or suppliers fail, a human consultant spends hours on the phone advocating for their client, something no chatbot is built to do.
