01/13/2025
It's interesting to look at the trend in use of travel agents. It used to be that a traveler had little access to information, so a travel agent would be their best bet to compare options, find their best one, answer questions, and book it.
Then the internet and online booking happened, so you didn't NEED a travel agent anymore.
Now, "AI" is happening, and polluting the internet with misinformation. Some people can figure out what's false - like hopefully this example is clearly pulled from a parody website. But do you know which websites are parodies and which aren't? Some take these overviews at face-value because it's AI, which is all-powerful, and so they miss out on a vacation they would have loved. Or they are not so obviously fake, so it adds significant research time, or they arrive and are disappointed because they were misled about what to expect.
And don't get me started on the scam phone numbers at the top of Google when you search " phone number".
We're circling back to travel agents being almost a necessity. We know these places, we know the policies, we receive news on policy changes directly to our inboxes, and we have personal contacts at these companies - not a call center employee reading off a script.
