In an increasingly busy world, agents need to know how to do more with less time. For a popular destination that you’re intimately familiar with, there are new opportunities to repackage the same destination for different client profiles with everything from improved search tools to agentic agents. One destination could turn into five different trips, for a solo traveler, a couple, a family, a friend group, or an adventure seeker.
A recent research report from RateHawk has shown that manually searching for the best deals is a travel professional’s “biggest time waster.” As a result, the company added more than 50 filter parameters and an AI-driven “Smart Sort” tool to determine the most suitable accommodation options based on the specific user behavior and traveler preferences.
It’s also key to understand what’s driving the initial inspiration for a trip. The data shows that while lower net worth individuals heavily rely on social media and recommendations from friends, more of the clients with a net worth of more than $1 million are apt to rely on their travel advisor.
Price sensitivity is also an important metric. The price of accommodation was quite influential in destination selection (roughly 25% for each) across Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z, and so was the price of airline tickets. For Baby Boomers, however, the bigger influences were visiting family or friends in the destination and prior experience there.
Especially since the COVID pandemic, tourists have been seeking out more meaningful travel, including multi-generational trips. These types of trips drive demand for larger accommodations. And there is an increased desire to reconnect with nature, pushing wellness higher up in the agenda and putting the spotlight of retreat-style properties. And many experienced travelers are also mindful of overtourism issues and are hunting out less-crowded spots. So, depth can sell better than breadth for repeat visitors to a region.
Practical itinerary structures are becoming more important for each experience type. Agents don’t have to compete with agentic AI, but they need to use it in workflows to complete lower-stakes, time-consuming tasks, leaving more time for adding in personal touches.
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