Key Points
- Travel advisers are growing in the US and Britain despite AI itinerary planners, trade groups say.
- One Canadian fixer charges a $100,000 subscription; her clients each spend $1m yearly on travel.
- Personal service and crisis support are the edge AI cannot match, agency executives say.
The latest:
Demand for human travel agents is holding up against AI trip planners, particularly at the luxury end. More than 310,000 advisers now belong to the American Society of Travel Advisers, up from 190,000 in 2024, and roughly a third of British travellers booked through a human specialist last year, according to trade association ABTA. LinkedIn recently ranked the role among America’s fastest-growing jobs.
Details:
- The high end: Canadian travel fixer Olivia Ferney runs Top Tier Travel, charging a $100,000 subscription fee on top of clients who each spend at least $1m a year on travel. Requests range from flying to Paris to fetch a croissant to demands that she arrange for the rain to stop.
- The audience: Ferney’s escapades have drawn roughly 2m social-media followers and are being adapted into a television show. No broadcaster or air date has been announced.
- US numbers: Membership of the American Society of Travel Advisers has risen to over 310,000 from 190,000 in 2024, the group reckons — a jump of more than 60% in two years, and one reason LinkedIn placed the job among the country’s fastest-growing.
- The counter-figure: The Bureau of Labour Statistics takes a cooler view, projecting that employment of travel agents will grow more slowly than the average occupation in the period to 2034 — a forecast that sits against the trade groups’ membership growth.
- Why clients pay: People turn to advisers for their “taste and judgment” in curating trips, said Evan Frank, co-founder of the luxury host agency Fora. Seasoned advisers bring deeper country knowledge and access to networks of exclusive hotels.
- Niche booking: Some advisers specialise rather than compete broadly, arranging trips for travellers with food allergies, solo tourists, or people travelling with pets — segments where generic automated itineraries are weakest.
- The service gap: Frank argued the real advantage is human backup: travellers cannot call an AI when a hotel room is wrong or a transfer is missed. Bookings through agents rise during geopolitical disruption and extreme weather, when making arrangements alone feels riskier.
- Agents using AI: Advisers may be dismissive of AI’s shortcomings, but many deploy it themselves. Some agencies treat AI as a member of the team, handling tasks humans find boring, said Mark Tanzer, chief executive of ABTA.
- The business model: Fora built a billion-dollar business by giving advisers an AI platform that accelerates administrative work, positioning the technology as a tool for agents rather than a replacement for them.
Between the lines:
The two data sets point in opposite directions: trade-body membership is surging while the official US labour forecast is subdued. That gap suggests growth may be concentrated in the high-margin luxury and niche segments described by Fora and Ferney, rather than in mass-market booking, where automated itineraries compete most directly on price and speed.
What’s next
Watch whether ASTA membership keeps climbing past 310,000, whether the Bureau of Labour Statistics revises its 2034 projection, and whether Ferney’s television adaptation gets a confirmed broadcaster and release date.
