The ‘Great Debate’ centred on whether AI is the greatest opportunity the cruise trade has ever seen.
“We can always find more clients. We can always sell more cruises. We can always add more products, but we’ve never been able to create more time – until now,” said Steve Labroski, CEO of iTravel, opening the case for those supporting the question.
Mr Labroski said he was supporting AI operating in a secure, closed environment working with an agency’s own client database.
“The knowledge stays yours, the data stays yours and the intelligence stays yours,” he added.
“AI simply helps you use it faster and more effectively than ever before. And that’s where the real opportunity begins.
“For the first time in the history of travel, advisers can combine their own expertise with the collective intelligence hidden within every booking they’ve ever made. That isn’t automation. That’s a competitive advantage.”
Mr Labroski denied that AI would replace the travel agent, who he argued still has the power to personalise and review an itinerary.
“The advisor remains at the centre of the relationship and that’s the real opportunity. AI does not replace the advisor. AI amplifies the travel advisor.”
Responding for the ‘no’s’, Kara Glamore, General Manager Australia and New Zealand at Virtuoso, argued that a genuinely great opportunity must increase an advisor’s value, strengthen their relevance and improve the business.
“So yes, AI can provide answers, but advisors provide wisdom and good judgment and those two are not the same thing. AI helps us identify the opportunity but it does not create the value.”
She was supported in her argument by Stephanie Myers, Travel Industry Mentor, the Stephanie Myers Academy.
“We are drowning in an absolute AI slop fest online at the moment and as experts in the cruise industry, I don’t think that that’s a side issue to this debate. Frankly, I think it’s the entire debate.
“Every time you let AI speak for you, your clients get to see a little less of you. They’re missing out on the human behind the brand, your humour, what you love, what you would recommend and what you wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole, and that’s a loss for everybody.
“In an industry built on relationships, we simply can’t afford to lose that human connection.”
Kara Glamore
Amber Wilson, Director of Sales Australia and New Zealand at HX Expeditions, agreed that AI wasn’t replacing travel advisors – it was elevating them.
“The better AI gets, the more valuable great advisors become,” she said. “Because if technology can create a quote in two minutes, the difference is no longer the quote. The difference is you.
“The future isn’t humans versus AI; it’s humans with AI versus humans without it.”
Mark Richards, National Sales Manager, Carnival Cruise Line, argued that the debate was centred around time.
“Time is the most important thing that we possibly have. The more time we can have with our families, the more time we can have in our lives, the better people we can be. Better fathers, better parents, better brothers and sisters.
“AI is not the captain. AI is the crew that gives you back your bridge.”
The final verdict? The room rejected the statement. No: 59 per cent. Yes: 41 per cent.
