“Artificial intelligence is the enemy of travel. Discuss.” This was the provocative
title of a conference session at the recent World Travel Market (WTM) event
in London.
The session was a lightning debate moderated by Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, principal of travel and aviation consultancy
T2Impact, with three people arguing for and against. AI is still clearly
what people want to hear about at industry events; the session was one of the
best attended at WTM 2025, with standing room only.
Lori Timony, SVP of global trade sales and business development at Go City, was one of the speakers on the debate,
arguing for AI.
“AI is travel’s great democratizer. It levels the playing field. It
gives small businesses super-powers,” she said.
Timony cited the example of a small tour operator.
“Most opened shop because they loved to guide, to be with people,” she
said. “What are they doing now? They are stuck behind laptops, answering emails
that came in at 2 a.m., rebooking, cancellations, issuing and reissuing
vouchers, analyzing pricing and reviews. AI gets them out from behind their
laptops doing what they love to do, in front of those travelers, sharing their
stories.”
She also argued that AI can move more people more effectively.
“Think Google Maps for cities that will read the crowds, suggest the
next street over with the same story or a second-tier gem that might be one
stop away,” she said.
“Perhaps it signals you when crowds have thinned at an iconic attraction
you’ve been avoiding but really want to visit.”
Speaking with PhocusWire after the event, Timony said, “As AI relates to trip
planning, it takes the fear away. There's a lot of opportunity for people that don’t
really get out and explore themselves.”
She added, “As a person that loves to travel and has been a tour
director, I love building a trip. I don't want to take that part away from it
completely. There's also that experience of getting into a city and just being
like, wow, let's go down that street.”
But will AI lead to the end of the human travel agent? Not necessarily, according to Timony.
“I honestly think AI is pushing everybody to do better, whether
you're a supplier and you need to clean your data, improve your content or make
yourself more findable, or whether you’re a travel agent who now needs to step
up their game a little bit and utilize AI as a tool,” she said.
Weighing the cons
Stephen
Joyce, global strategy lead for travel at Protect Group, argued against AI.
“Travel
is an innately human experience. It's something that as humans we have been
doing for thousands of years. We are migratory animals. We are constantly on
the move, and so for me, travel is about that connecting of people in the real
world,” he said.
In
conversation with PhocusWire, Joyce said he doesn’t believe AI
will ever be able to replace the human experience in travel. However, it can simplify
otherwise “mundane tasks” like discovery and booking.
“Although,
I do have issues with the discovery phase being too easy because part of the
excitement and the challenge of travel is discovering someplace new … if we all
just go to the same places, then what stories do we tell at the end of the day?”
He
also expressed fear surrounding the main drivers of AI.
“I
worry about the fact that AI is being driven so heavily by profit-driven
corporations because how they monetize AI will ultimately be what AI is good
for, right?” Joyce said.
“It
was the same thing with the internet. In the early days, it was about
free-flowing information, learning about new things. It's basically turned into
a giant ad platform. The tech companies have now spent billions on developing
AI; they need to make their money back.”
Joyce shared further concerns that AI will make people lose trust.
“I
think AI will result in the vast majority of humans not trusting content in
general, because we won't be able to know if it's AI generated or if it was
generated by a human. Large tech companies have also convinced regular people
that they cannot trust their fellow human beings and that you should trust the
algorithm because it knows best. It's really scary.”
A happy medium?
Following the debate, Alex Chen, chief technology officer of Alibaba’s
travel arm Fliggy, which has
embraced AI, also shared his views on whether AI is the enemy.
“Our attitude towards AI is one
of scientifically grounded cautious optimism. We believe that AI is a close
friend and a genuine transformer for future consumers. However, we need to
start investing and preparing now, while maintaining patience and humility.
It's crucial to pay attention to the actual needs of both the industry and
technology development—just as we nurture friendship.”
Chen also compared the AI age to the rise of the internet, “which became
a multiplier for almost every industry by connecting user demand and supply
online—encompassing information, transactions, content and social interactions.”
AI, however, is operating on an even larger scale.
“AI can not only connect but also think and act. We believe that these
needs are deeply personalized, unpredictable and highly dynamic. An AI agent,
as it evolves rapidly, with long-term memory and up-to-date world knowledge,
can listen, learn, act and adapt to your needs in an ultra-personalized,
real-time and empathetic manner.”
Chen also countered Joyce’s stance on the romance of travel planning,
arguing that AI will actually “increase the serendipity and joyfulness” of
research and planning.
“We believe the romance of uncertainty and the joy of exploration comes
from discovering uncharted areas of information and knowledge, rather than from
tedious and repetitive labor. With modern AI’s powerful reasoning, vast world
knowledge and rapidly evolving agents, the uncharted areas that consumers can
explore become exponentially greater, if not infinite. As a result, the
potential for joyful discoveries also grows.”
Chen
may be right. When it came to the end of the WTM debate, O’Neil-Dunne asked for
a show of hands from the hundreds present of those who believe AI is the enemy.
The
number who did would barely have made up a football team.