The head of travel giant Tui, Sebastian Ebel, expects bookings via AI platforms such as ChatGPT within a year.
Classic Google searches, on the other hand, would lose relevance, he told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (“FAZ”).
In addition, well-off customers would travel further, while price-sensitive families would increasingly have to switch to cheaper destinations.
Tui CEO Sebastian Ebel expects a profound change in travel sales through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), as he announced in an interview with the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (“FAZ”).
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In the future, customers will be able to book holidays directly via AI agents such as ChatGPT – for example by entering simple entries such as “two weeks to Mallorca to play golf”. The integration of such functions has already been technically prepared; all that is missing is the connection through the large AI platforms.
AI travel live in just 12 months
“There will be fully integrated AI agents in a maximum of twelve months,” says Ebel, assessing the market readiness of the technology. Classic Google searches would already become less important, while channels like Tiktok or AI-supported recommendations via ChatGPT would become more important in the booking process.
But it’s not just sales that are changing, customers’ booking behavior is also changing – especially under the influence of rising prices. “Tui benefits from the fact that we are strong in the four and five star segment. These customers still have money for travel,” says Ebel. However, this no longer applies to all groups, such as families with children who can only travel during the holiday weeks.
This would mean, among other things, that customers would choose new destinations that were cheaper. “And fortunately there are destinations with a very good price-performance ratio. I can highly recommend Egypt, for example, especially for families,” says Ebel.
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