New industry players are taking unique approaches to travel selling, either fully leaning into technology or leveraging it enhance human abilities.
Fora positions itself as a modern travel agency, using tech to help more people become travel advisors and build their own businesses. Unravel, on the other hand, provides travel inspiration via a shoppable video feed. Both Fora and Unravel were named PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startups in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
According to Jake Peters, Fora co-founder and chief product and technology officer, while artificial intelligence (AI) is being used for internal business and its core product, the humans remain a crucial component.
“We’re pro-human, because AI will be used to assist the human in making things better,” he said during an interview at The Phocuswright Conference, also comparing human involvement to how some people approach exercise.
“There are many fitness apps that you can use to automatically learn how to do exercises or guide your exercise routine, but people still benefit from having a personal coach because it’s that element of, okay, the person is showing up.”
For Maarten van Pijpen, Unravel's chief growth officer, AI use depends on a company’s business model.
“Fora is all about helping the customer in personalized itineraries and making sure that they get the trip of their lifetime,” he said. “I think Unravel is way more self-service and therefore less human handling [is] involved.”
Both companies also rely on social media, with Fora leveraging paid social for advisor acquisition and van Pijpen noting Unravel is “TikTok meets Expedia or TikTok meets Booking.com.”
“Currently, millennials and Gen Z are already consuming three hours of video content per day, and 86% of customers were inspired by TikTok for their next vacation. So, what we are trying to do is build or connect that inspirational journey with a transactional journey,” he said.
Peters and van Pijpen further discussed AI and personalization, goals for 2026 and more in conversation with PhocusWire senior reporter Morgan Hines.
Watch the full discussion below.
A new spin on selling travel