This was a big week for travel advisors and partners worldwide, with thousands gathering in Las Vegas for Virtuoso Travel Week.
On the event’s heels, Travel Weekly’s Johanna Jainchill reported on a panel that spun the usual travel trends conversation around: instead of asking what’s next, the advisors were asked which trends they would like to see go away.
The answers included algorithm-led travel, AI-generated itineraries, “city-maxxing,” unrealistic expectations created by social media and, perhaps most universally, declining airport civility.
I found myself agreeing with almost all of them.
Travel has become increasingly optimized by algorithms: the same destinations, the same viral experiences, the same overpacked itineraries.
Technology isn’t the problem. It has made travel easier to research, discover and navigate in ways that would have been unimaginable not long ago. But as we increasingly rely on it to tell us where to go and what to do, the antidote to algorithmic sameness is not less technology; it is more human judgment.
Open Instagram or TikTok, and it doesn't take long before the same hotels, beaches, restaurants, and experiences begin appearing. We can thank the algorithm for that. It learns what captures our attention and gives us more of it.
The problem is that what captures our attention isn’t necessarily what will make the best trip.
This is where I think the role of the travel advisor becomes particularly valuable - not simply to book what a traveller has already found online, but to introduce them to what they haven’t. Along with knowledge of destinations and travel products, a good advisor brings context, perspective and an understanding of the traveller that an endless stream of recommendations cannot replicate.
I think about this in the context of The Bahamas, where I grew up. For many travellers, a trip to The Bahamas means arriving at Atlantis or Baha Mar and never leaving. That’s a credit to resorts that have created experiences where guests genuinely don’t feel they need to. But this behaviour isn’t unique to The Bahamas, and it means travellers can return to a destination again and again while experiencing remarkably little of it.
Sometimes, they simply haven’t been given a reason to look elsewhere.
A good advisor can give them one. They can introduce travellers to the hotel they haven’t heard of, explain when the viral experience isn’t worth their time, or call a client and say, I just learned about this place and immediately thought of your next trip.
The same judgment applies to how much we try to fit into a trip. Jainchill’s piece calls out “city-maxxing”, think six cities in fourteen days. More destinations don’t necessarily make a richer trip when half the journey is spent packing, checking out and transferring.
None of this is an argument against technology, social media or seeing more of the world. It is an argument for discernment.
Algorithms may know us extremely well. They know what we’ll click, save, watch and probably where we’ll want to go next. But predicting what will capture our attention is different from understanding what will make our limited leisure time meaningful.
In a world where our feeds increasingly tell us where to go, there is real value in having a trusted person who can tell us where we should go and why.
As for the panel’s final trend to retire? I have no counterargument. Airport civility could desperately use a comeback.
I think social media feeds (like Instagram) have been useful for highlighting unique travel experiences that were traditionally ignored, consequently providing an economic boost to local communities but then as they explode in popularity everyone’s experiences do converge thus rendering the uniqueness moot. Not sure if that’s a cycle we’ll see end anytime soon.