Product Updates
.png){kind=logo}
Every few years, someone predicts the end of the travel advisor. Right now the prediction has a new name: AI. I hear it over coffee at conferences. I hear it from friends who know what I do. Will AI replace you?
The trips my family remembers most are always those planned with a travel advisor. And I make a point of working with different advisors for each of our family adventures. Part of that is curiosity about how each of you runs your business. Mostly, it's because I love how diverse this industry is.
Last August, it was Kimberly at Luxury Italian Tours, a longtime Travefy customer. My family and another family of four were headed to Florence and Tuscany. Two sets of schedules. Two sets of wish lists. A lot of opinions about where to eat. Kimberly knew the region, asked the right questions, and turned all those moving pieces into a trip where all we had to do was show up.
Every trip like that reminds me of what I already know. The value isn't in the booking. It's in the person who knows you, knows the destination, and makes the whole thing feel easy.
Every few years, someone predicts the end of the travel advisor. Right now the prediction has a new name: AI. I hear it over coffee at conferences. I hear it from friends who know what I do. Will AI replace you?
I build technology for a living, and we're putting AI to work across our platform. If anyone had a reason to say yes, it might be me.
But my answer is no. And some of the best proof I've seen lately comes from the advisors who are just getting started.
I've lost count of the midnight phone call stories advisors have told me. The cancelled flight. The exhausted family at the airline counter. The same sold out screen on every app. Then, twenty minutes later, a hotel room, a new flight, and a text from the client: "You're a lifesaver."
No algorithm gets that text. You do.
Megan Love, Vice President of STM Travel Design, knows that work well. She's one of our first ASTA Emerging Leaders, an award we created with ASTA to recognize the people shaping where this industry goes next. Looking back on her career, she wrote:
"All of the sleepless nights supporting clients with in-destination emergencies, all the guidance provided, all the vacation dreams helped to become a reality…have been so worth it."
Travel isn't a transaction. It's someone's honeymoon. Their dad's last big trip. The first time they take their kids out of the country. Nobody wants a search result for that. They want someone who knows them. And travelers need that more than ever. A January 2026 Chase Travel survey found 44% feel more overwhelmed by trip planning than they used to.
Sometimes AI even sends travelers your way. Asia Lantz, ASTA's 2025 Advisor of the Year, recently heard from a traveler who had been planning a month long honeymoon with an AI tool. She was so overwhelmed by the options that she asked the tool to recommend an advisor who specialized in Thailand. Asia got her on a call, and within minutes the trip came into focus.
That's AI's role. A great tool, never a replacement. Let technology take the busywork so you can do more of what only you can do.
I talk to a lot of newer advisors. They're hungry to learn, quick with technology, and full of fresh ideas about what an agency can be. They're also the most anxious about what's coming. In a 2025 RateHawk study, 51% of advisors with under three years in the business saw AI as a potential substitute for their role. Among those with 15 or more years, it was 40%.
That's not a technology problem. It's a mentorship problem.
What newer advisors need from all of us is simple. Keep teaching them. Open real paths to leadership. Build alongside them. And tell them, out loud, that their work matters.
I wouldn't be where I am without a few people who took a chance on me before I'd earned it. They answered my questions, opened doors I didn't know existed, and told me I was ready before I believed it myself. Most of us can name that person. The future of this industry depends on how many of them we have.
That's exactly why Travefy partnered with ASTA to create the Emerging Leaders Award. It isn't another award for sales numbers (although those matter!). It celebrates the advisors who mentor others, share what's working, bring fresh ideas into their businesses, and lift up the people around them.
Our first class shows what that looks like. Megan Love of STM Travel Design. Sam Johnson of Rivers to Peaks Travel. Kristin Hancock of Bright Life Travel Company. Amy Thomasson of Travelmation, who is helping advisors sell Japan with confidence. Tiffany Elberfeld of Travel Pro Summit. Shannon Kittner of The Wander Network. Savannah Hill of Savvy Travel. McLean Robbins of Lily Pond Luxury.
When I read what they shared, the same words kept coming up. Mentorship. Community. Responsibility. McLean put it best:
"Professionally, it affirms my commitment to innovation, mentorship, and leadership within our industry — serving as both a recognition of what I've built and a reminder of the responsibility to help shape what comes next for the next generation of advisors."
If you run an agency or a host, you already know who your emerging leader is. You thought of them while reading this. Nominate them. It takes a few minutes, and it might be the first time someone has told them, in public, that they're the real deal.
And if you're a newer advisor building something you're proud of, don't wait for someone else. Nominate yourself.
The future of travel will be built by people. Let's give them every reason to stay.
Nominations for the 2027 ASTA Emerging Leaders Award presented by Travefy are open through November 3, 2026. Nominate or apply here.
Join thousands of advisors who get our monthly newsletter filled with product releases, upcoming events, and industry highlights. Delivered straight to your inbox.
