Most DMC Inefficiency Isn’t Visible On Any Report

📊 It doesn’t show up in dashboards
🚩 It isn’t flagged in system audits
🧾 It rarely comes up in post-mortems

But it exists in every reservations team.

And over time, it compounds.

Inside large DMC operations, inefficiency is rarely caused by major system gaps or broken processes. Those tend to get fixed. What persists is quieter. A layer of invisible work that sits between receiving an enquiry and getting an itinerary ready to send.

That’s where workflow drag builds.

The hidden layer of work inside itinerary creation

On paper, the process is simple.

An enquiry arrives.
An itinerary is created.
A quote is sent.

In reality, there’s a dense layer of activity between those steps.

Consultants interpret unstructured requests. They extract details. They translate intent into structured services. They rebuild familiar itinerary patterns. They adjust, reorder, refine, and format.

None of this is difficult for an experienced consultant.

But it is constant.

And that’s where the accumulation starts to matter.

Micro-friction: the real source of workflow drag

The term we use for this at TourConnect AI is micro-friction.

Not legacy software Not process breakdown. Just small, repeated interruptions to flow that sit inside otherwise well-run operations with team members doing their best to make a difference for the traveller.

Across large DMCs, these show up in very similar ways. They’re embedded in the day-to-day work of experienced consultants, which is why they’re rarely discovered.

7 micro-frictions that create workflow drag in DMC operations

These are rarely tracked or measured. But they exist in every itinerary workflow and scale with volume.

Micro-friction	What it looks like in practice	Why it matters
1. Extracting structured data from emails	Pulling flight details, dates and notes into the correct fields	Happens on almost every enquiry
2. Rebuilding known itinerary patterns	Recreating common routes and structures from memory	Repetition before value is added
3. Interpreting vague or partial requests	Translating agent intent into system-ready services	Time spent decoding rather than designing
4. Sequencing and restructuring itineraries	Reordering services to ensure logical flow	Small edits repeated across days
5. Re-entering standard content	Typing common notes, inclusions and descriptions	Low-value repetition at senior level
6. Switching between sources to confirm details	Checking emails, attachments and systems for context	Breaks flow and slows momentum
7. Final formatting before send	Adjusting wording and layout to meet standards	Time spent polishing instead of progressing

“It’s just how we do things here”

Micro-friction is easy to accept because it feels like part of the job. It’s human nature to accept them.

I’m sure we’ve all been through an induction meeting when starting with a new company and heard the famous phrase - “It’s just the way we do things here”.

But in large DMC operations, it scales quickly.

📥 It scales with enquiry volume
👥 It scales with team size
🌍 It scales with the number of markets and itinerary complexity

A few minutes here and there becomes hours across a team. Then days across a month.

More importantly, this drag is applied democratically, every one of the DMC operations team is doing it, including the most experienced consultants.

Their value isn’t in handling workflow steps. It’s in applying judgement, knowing the product, and shaping itineraries that convert. Micro-friction quietly pulls them away from that.

Research from McKinsey suggests that generative AI has the potential to automate 60 to 70 percent of activities in roles that involve routine data processing and content creation.Much of itinerary creation sits directly within that category. Not in the decision-making or creativity, but in the preparation work that surrounds it.

What changes when invisible work is reduced

Across DMCs using Itinerary Assist AI in live environments, removing this layer of invisible work changes how teams operate fairly quickly.

The most obvious shift is time.

FIT itineraries that used to take close to an hour to assemble are being created in minutes. In practical terms, that’s often 30 to 45 minutes saved per itinerary, without changing systems or team structure.

But the more meaningful change is how that time gets used.

Consultants spend less time preparing itineraries and more time improving them. Less time interpreting requests, more time shaping outcomes.

At a quality level, outputs are aligning closely with operational expectations. Service line accuracy typically sits in the 90 percent range in production use, which means teams can trust the starting point and focus on refinement.

At scale, that translates into additional capacity without adding headcount.

Why this sits alongside, not instead of, core systems

For large DMCs, core booking systems aren’t the issue.

They manage pricing, availability, operations and reporting. Their strength is depth and reliability. Systems like Tourplan have held that position for decades because they do those things well.

The opportunity sits around them.

Specifically, in reducing the manual effort required to get information into the right shape before it enters the system.

This is where Itinerary Assist AI fits. It works earlier in the workflow, structuring enquiries and building the initial itinerary so consultants are no longer starting from scratch.

For teams using Tourplan, that means less manual preparation and a more efficient path into the system.

The takeaway: inefficiency isn’t where most teams are looking

Most DMC efficiency conversations focus on systems, structure or strategy.

But a meaningful part of the problem sits elsewhere.

👁️‍🗨️ In the invisible work
🔁 In the repeated steps
🧱 In the accumulation that creates workflow drag

That’s where time is quietly lost.
And where meaningful gains tend to be found.

Because when micro-friction is reduced, teams don’t just move faster.

They operate closer to where their real value sits.