Managing Director Christian Hunter announced the scheme at the retail network’s annual conference in Melbourne.
The system is designed to enhance productivity by allowing TC members to search the group’s preferred products and quickly generate complex itineraries.
“This is the most exciting thing Travellers Choice has ever done,” Mr Hunter told the audience of more than 250 delegates, travel media and industry suppliers.
“Whilst AI will likely revolutionise our industry – and our lives – in the coming years, in the same way the internet did, Travellers Choice has embraced the technology to solve some of our members’ most pressing issues.
“Imagine a system that uses AI to support members in curating customer itineraries. One that only shopped from within our preferred product range, had in-built guardrails to prevent hallucination and produced amazing output in a fraction of the time.
“Sounds good huh? Well, that’s what Travellers Choice is building.”
Mr Hunter said the intuitive and easy-to-use AI-system will dramatically reduce the time required to search for products during the itinerary planning phase, freeing members up to focus on adding value.
“If a consultant can turn a one-hour task into a 40-minute task, they have won 20 minutes. If they can do that twice a day, that’s the equivalent to 200 minutes a week, 800 minutes a month, 9,600 minutes (or an additional 20 working days) every year – and that is per staff member.
“The efficiency will amplify member businesses massively and address one of, if not the biggest challenge members face today – a shortage of time.”
As well as delivering efficiency gains, Hunter said the initiative would help less-experienced consultants fast-track their professional development, while also “mitigating leakage” by building itineraries based only on preferred content.
The first phase of the project involved a “transformative data strategy” digitising Travellers Choice entire preferred product portfolio.
The second phase saw the group work with a technology partner to develop its AI search engine, which it expects to go live within weeks.
“Essentially, like a Google for Travellers Choice preferred products, it has a simple, question and answer format that will eliminate the need for leafing through brochures or surfing multiple websites and fast-tracking your product searches.”
The final phase – scheduled for mid-2026 – will see the introduction of AI-powered itinerary building technology that will interrogate the preferred product library to curate “optimal itineraries that best meet your customers” needs.
“This will be an absolute game changer for our members, but also for Travellers Choice itself,” added Mr Hunter.
The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Nailing It!’, intended to show how Travellers Choice members are ‘nailing it’ in their approaches to sales, marketing and customer support, and how their preferred partners are nailing it with their collaborative approach to building relationships and growing sales.
Highlighting another successful year for the company, Mr Hunter mentioned their ‘five-peat’ in again winning ‘Australia’s Most Outstanding Travel Agency Network’ at the National Travel Industry Awards.
“We must be doing something right! Well the truth is, we are,” he said.
“We are focused on the needs of our members, delivering valued support and relevant services that create, protect and return value to members – which is the only reason we exist.”
www.travelagentschoice.com.au.
