As 2025 draws to a close, travel advisors are assessing the most important issues the new year may bring, along with solutions for addressing them. Artificial Intelligence (AI) takes center stage, with advisors weighing its benefits and drawbacks. Other issues that advisors are expressing concern about include the increasing number of unqualified agents entering the marketplace, geopolitics and rising luxury hotel rates.
Artificial Intelligence
While all five advisors interviewed for this piece agree that AI has the potential to negatively impact their businesses, they also note that it can’t replicate the human touch and expertise offered by agents.
Nonetheless, they note that AI could pose a formidable threat to their businesses.
According to Richard Turen, managing director for Churchill & Turen, the “use of custom-created personal AI travel consultants who are totally knowledgeable about the guest’s background, travel history, preferences and travel desires” is the biggest challenge for advisors next year — one that will grow more serious over time unless the major AI investors fail to ever turn a profit, he adds.
The remedy?
“Masses of the nation’s very best advisors need to launch major campaigns designed to show all the reasons why having a network of several trillion wires doing the planning may not be the best way to design the perfect vacation,” Turen said. “The best advisors need to expose the practices of online booking engines and their giant call center mentality. They need to point out the dangers of giving one’s financial details to outsourced call centers that can be located virtually anywhere.”
Janel Carnero, a luxury advisor with EMBARK Beyond, has a similar take.
“With AI ‘coming in hot,’ clients can get a generic itinerary in seconds,” she said. “Our challenge is to pivot from being information providers to being curators of context.”
Personal Connection
“We need to utilize technology to speed up our workflow so we can spend our time doing what AI can’t: understanding the client’s unstated desires and adding the personal, emotional depth that turns a trip into a memory,” said Carnel of EMBARK. “Speed is the baseline; depth is the luxury.”
James Berglie, president of Be All Inclusive, shares the same sentiment.
“Advisors need to double down on what AI and mass-recruitment models can’t replicate: personal connection, real-world experience and trusted relationships,” he said. “That means being selective about the type of business you take on, clearly communicating your value and positioning yourself as an advisor — not an order-taker.”
According to Mandee Migliaccio, CEO of Stepping Out Travel Services, one of the biggest challenges advisors face — one that will continue in 2026 — is the rise of clients who arrive with hours of online “research” that often includes outdated or inaccurate information, along with AI-generated itineraries that may look polished but are frequently incomplete or not tailored to real-world logistics.
“With travel content exploding across TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, Facebook and now ChatGPT, many travelers feel fully informed before ever speaking to a professional,” she said.
Advisors can address this by positioning themselves as a trusted filter who brings clarity to the noise, Migliaccio says. Instead of dismissing what clients find online, acknowledging their enthusiasm and then offering the real context creates a collaborative and respectful relationship.
“When advisors take the time to explain what’s currently true and what applies to a client’s unique situation, they reinforce their expertise, build trust and gently guide travelers away from misinformation and toward decisions that genuinely serve their vacation,” she said.
Unqualified Advisors
One perennial challenge on the radar of seasoned advisors is the ever-increasing number of unqualified agents entering the marketplace.
“One of the biggest issues facing advisors is over-saturation — specifically, the rise of large host agencies marketing the idea that anyone can become a travel advisor overnight,” said Berglie of Be All Inclusive.
When inexperienced agents enter the space without proper training or support, it often leads to poor client experiences, mismanaged expectations and service failures, he adds.
“Unfortunately, those experiences don’t just reflect on the individual agent; they chip away at the credibility of the industry as a whole,” Berglie said.
However, while over-saturation may grow, so will the opportunity for serious professionals to separate themselves from the noise, he adds.
Geopolitical Issues
Global Guardian, a company that provides country-specific safety ratings, reports that geopolitical and geoeconomic factors will noticeably impacttravel patterns going forward.
Turen of Churchill & Turen couldn’t agree more.
He believes there may be “psychological payback” from countries that are opposed to what they see as an America First Nationalist movement growing from President Trump’s government policies. “If we set up some of the world’s strictest requirements for visitors to our shores, how will the residents of those countries that cannot visit the U.S. on vacation react?”
He adds that European television reports are airing videos of ICE agents manhandling children and pulling adults out of their cars.
“Why do we think that Europeans will continue to separate what they think of Americans from what they think of our government?” Turen asked. “It is our clients who will be entering those changed perceptions of who and what we are.”
Rising Luxe Rates
A surge in last-minute bookings is making it difficult to organize some 2026 trips, given limited availability, according to Peggy Purtell, owner of Purtell Travel, an affiliate of Travel Experts.
Exacerbating the issue is the fact that premium properties are experiencing higher demand, especially in popular destinations, which drives up nightly rates, she adds.
“Since the onset of COVID, rates have increased approximately 35-40%,” Purtell said.
Typically, she provides clients with a robust range of accommodation options, including both four- and five-star hotels. “Lately, many clients have been choosing four-star hotels, allowing them to allocate more of their budget toward unique experiences and activities,” she said.
Some customers, however, aren’t willing to compromise hotel accommodations.
“A client of mine wanted to travel to New Zealand last year, but every property was booked,” Purtell said. “Rather than compromise, they decided to delay their trip by a year to ensure they could stay exactly where they wanted.”
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