Case Study: Across Australia & Itinerary Assist AI
The ROI of automation: how “Jeanie” transformed DMC workflows
For Across Australia, one of Australia’s most respected inbound DMCs, their first major AI implementation project began with a realisation - AI integrated with their booking system (in this case Tourplan) had the potential to radically accelerate quote response times without losing control.
After more than a year of working with TourConnect AI’s ItineraryAssist AI, affectionately renamed “Jeanie” by the team, that vision has come to life in ways that have reshaped how their business operates.
“ItineraryAssist AI has undoubtedly enabled Across Australia to dramatically reduce administration time on one of our most persistent and repetitive tasks.”
- Kathy Turner, General Manager, Across Australia
The first AI Implementation at this world class travel company
As part of the Goway Group — one of the world’s largest and most established travel companies, operating for over 50 years across 115 countries — Across Australia has high standards for technology partners and capex return on investment.
Kathy Turner, General Manager at Across Australia, realised that Generative and Agentic AI could theoretically provide a step change in productivity.
“There are many tasks within any organisation that may appear to be necessary and not problematic. Many of these, however, will be costing your organisation time and ultimately money.”
However, accessing these efficiencies would require a specialised Travel AI solution. Every DMC’s database is unique — thousands of supplier services, dynamic trade pricing, live availability, and partner-specific rules.
ItineraryAssist AI is uniquely able to consider the travellers requirements, the Inbound Tour Operators inventory and in-house rules, straight out of the box. Across Australia were familiar with our other specialised Travel AI products, giving them confidence to become an early client of ItineraryAssist AI.
Across Australia’s vision for exceptional customisation
Across Australia has always aimed to be at the forefront of customer service in the DMC industry. Their focus on delivering the highest service standards is central to their philosophy.
But like many DMCs, they recognised a fundamental constraint: their consultant’s time and talent were being held back by the manual processes of building and responding to itinerary requests. Much of the effort involved in creating a quote added little to the creativity or uniqueness that defines a truly bespoke experience for the travelling group.
What challenge was Across Australia solving?
For 20 years, Inbound Tour Operators and DMCs worldwide have operated in largely the same way. Manual data entry and switching between email, booking system and the suppliers website have been accepted as core elements of FIT itinerary creation. Working in this way has been like a tax on productivity that all DMC’s quietly paid. Andrew Lewis, Operations Manager at Across Australia explains,
“Across Australia receives booking requests from multiple agents around the world who utilise a variety of tools and even send bookings in multiple different languages. The request format can be in PDF, Excel, link and free text forms.
Requiring our expert travel consultants to read, interpret and then manually enter services into Tourplan took a significant amount of administration time. This is time that was being spent improving, enhancing and fulfilling our offering to clients.
This administration time needed to be reduced considerably in order for us to scale up our business, so the exciting extraction ability of ItineraryAssist AI is a perfect fit.”
There’s plenty of research that reinforces Andrew’s point. A Harvard Business Review study found that employees lose, on average, 9% of their working time simply refocusing after switching between applications (source data).
Enter “Jeanie” — The AI Copilot for DMCs
To ensure the rollout was both measurable and manageable, the AI implementation began with a structured rollout. A small, cross-functional team within operations led the side-by-side testing, comparing AI-generated itineraries with existing manual workflows. This controlled approach allowed the business to track efficiency gains, consultant feedback, and real-world accuracy before expanding more broadly across the organisation.
Once implemented, the team quickly made the tool their own, naming it “Jeanie” — a nod to a magical helper always ready to make travel wishes come true. Kathy Turner adds,
“We fondly named our AI tool ‘Jeanie’. Before we implemented Jeanie, our consultants wasted hours every day simply data entering services, manually assembling bookings and quotes using the content of our agent emails.
Jeanie now takes care of the majority of this task, allowing our consultants to dramatically improve their service to the agents, thus adding more value to those critically important relationships.”
A New Workflow
Today, ItineraryAssist AI is woven seamlessly into Across Australia’s daily rhythm. Andrew Lewis explains how the workflow has changed,
“The email communications from our customers are extracted by the AI. Extracted services are positioned into a scratchpad. This intuitive and user-friendly interface allows our consultants to check and edit services before they are sent to our Tourplan system.
Critically, this has enabled Across Australia to deliver required services into our system significantly quicker. Extractions are easy to manage and can run in the background, never disturbed or distracted by everyday office occurrences such as communicating with colleagues, customers, suppliers, conducting training or managing assigned tasks.
With these tasks condensed, our expert travel consultants are now awarded the time they desire to personalise and enhance bookings with their knowledge and care.”
What measurable ROI has the DMC achieved so far?
The impact has built gradually and consistently. Kathy Turner explains,
“It has been huge. Expert travel consultants are now able to ensure that service requests are sent to suppliers far quicker than before. In doing so this gives them more time to evaluate, enhance and, if need be, remedy files that require it.
Reponses from our suppliers are generally quicker simply because they have our booking requests so much earlier in the day.
Adding services to our system was never an unpopular task. It wasn't difficult, just time-consuming. Ultimately it was order taking and whilst crucial to get done; the time it took to action was not conducive to increasing productivity, nor was it the best use of the expertise within our consultant team.”
To understand the potential ROI on your Inbound Tour Operator business running Tourplan or Hero, you can read more about our accuracy and speed performance data here or request a 20 minute walkthrough.
Partnering with TourConnect AI
Behind the technology, Across Australia credits the collaboration and support of the TourConnect AI team.
“TourConnect staff are accessible, friendly, knowledgeable and patient. We at Across Australia certainly recommend engaging with them to see how this exciting and visionary business can enhance yours.”
Reflections on the Journey
In the 12+ months since it was launched, all of the initial clients for Itinerary Assist AI continue to use it daily. These clients include AC Group in the UK and Pacific Destinations in New Zealand. In the case of Across Australia, “Jeanie” is just another member of the team. Considering the impact on operations, Andrew Lewis shares,
“ItineraryAssist AI is an incredible tool to be given the chance to utilise. It's proactive, intuitive, thought-provoking and efficient. Our expert travel consultants, who are eager to provide the finest service, now have more time to evaluate and enrich individual bookings. The concept of AI may appear daunting initially but understanding how it can fit into and benefit your organisation both now and in the future shouldn't be underestimated.”
Next Steps
Across Australia’s success shows that AI can elevate human talent rather than replace it — streamlining repetitive work so teams can focus on creativity, relationships, and service excellence.
If you work for an Inbound Tour Operator or DMC and are curious if this could help your team, arrange an exploratory meeting with us today.
