Which AI Technology is Best for Travel Businesses and Tour Operators in 2025?
Finding the Right Fit for Your Business in 2025
As we move through 2025, many B2B travel businesses are defining their AI strategy with urgency. Why? Because the technology is no longer theoretical — it’s delivering tangible productivity gains, improving conversion rates, and removing operational bottlenecks for Inbound Tour Operators and Tour Operators alike.
The market for Travel AI is maturing. A growing number of Destination Management Companies and Tour Operators are far beyond the ‘experiment phase’. They are very quietly doubling down by integrating AI to their core booking processes, extending their head start with every week that passes.
That said, not all AI solutions are created equal — and not all are right for your business model. What’s right for a mid-size DMC running on Tourplan will be very different from what works for a DMC that doesn’t even have a CRM system in place. The question isn’t “Should we use AI?” — it’s “Which type of AI will deliver the most value for our business?”
Let’s break it down.
The Main Types of Travel AI’s in 2025
While there are a growing number of AI products hitting the market, most travel-relevant solutions fall into four categories:
1. Full AI Automation
These tools aim to completely replace a task — often quoting, booking, or responding to standard queries — with minimal human oversight. Placing 100% trust in the new digital workforce is being done now, but the tasks are limited to reduce risk. They're best for high-volume, low-variance tasks like automated chat bots for basic enquiries
Benefit: For those experimenting with AI, these are limited to the likes of website chatbots. For larger travel businesses more serious about productivity gains, it will often entail custom agentic AI software to replace complex manual processes like a fully automated quoted and booking system. When achieved, it is akin to the holy grail for businesses as they can achieve 100% replacement of manual tasks.
Limitation: The limitations are similar in description for those travel businesses experimenting and those more serious about full automation, however, the scale ramps up dramatically. Development costs may be prohibitive, especially if your core data is not well organised. AI training and refinement costs likely to be high when replacing complex manual tasks. Risk of errors and business reputation risk if full AI automation without strong oversight and digital guardrails.
Best for: Very large Inbound Tour Operators and DMCs, most likely with in-house IT teams that have AI experience.
2. AI Copilots
Users commonly interact with these as a Direct Chat or sometimes as an Interface that lets you view and manage an AI’s process flow. AI Copilots act as smart assistants that multiply the effectiveness of travel reservations and bookings staff — upskilling them. Think of them as a knowledgeable teammate that helps with trickier tasks, so that the team can maintain a good vibe and higher productivity throughout the work day.
Benefit: Less customisation required than full AI automation. Respects and maximises the potential of your human team by providing them with a powerful ‘tool of the trade’. Consistent support as the same AI Copilot is sold at scale to multiple customers. Reasonable onboarding timeframe to enable the business to assess impact quickly. Very high ROI and low costs once established.
Limitation: Requires well-structured internal processes and initial setup. Requires careful integration with your technology (eg. AI enabled to read and write into your booking system). Requires careful integration with your human team’s processes.
Best for: Mid to large size DMCs and Accommodation groups; Large Travel Logistics businesses; Tour Operators using common booking systems.
3. Chat Interfaces Inside Booking Systems
Some booking platforms and CRM systems have added AI-powered chat tools inside their interfaces. These typically make it easier to perform tasks within the specific platform, or help reservation and booking teams to navigate their platform more easily.
Benefit: Useful for internal training and support. Improves efficiency of use within the booking system or CRM platform. Improves the chance that the full capabilities of the software will be used.
Limitation: The AI’s are limited to certain functions within that platform or app. Low ability to customise the AI. Can waste time if every prompt given to the AI is not structured carefully and accurately.
Best for: Teams onboarding new staff and familiarising them with existing booking systems, or standardising internal processes.
4. Generalist AI Chat Tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Gemini)
These tools are widely available and often free or low-cost, making them appealing for research itinerary ideas, translations, or summarising product info. While not travel-specific, they can be a useful addition to your travel tech stack.
Benefit: Great for experimenting with AI, particularly useful in filling gaps between existing software and processes. Useful for research either when accessed via Google Search or within the Direct Chat interface itself, eg. ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok etc.
Limitation: These AI systems are not integrated into your booking or quoting systems. They can not check live availability or compare live dynamic pricing versus static, so are very limited compared to some Copilot systems like our own. Another limitation, is that it requires your reservation and booking staff to have an advanced level of AI prompt writing as well as an understanding of how agentic and generative AI functions. Requires your team to also understand the Knowledge Library that has been fed into the AI.
Best for: Travel businesses looking to experiment with AI and lighten small aspects of the operational process.
Choosing the Right AI for Your Travel Business
Your current tech stack, business model and size of business are likely to be important factors to consider when deciding on the right AI strategy for your Tour Operator, Destination Management Company or other travel business. Here are a few common travel business types with our recommended AI product type:
🧭 DMC with a Proprietary Booking System
You’ll benefit most from a copilot approach, especially if your system doesn’t currently integrate easily (API) with external tools. A well-structured AI copilot like Itinerary Assist AI can sit alongside your existing system and email systems like Outlook and Gmail, reading quote requests and suggesting next steps to your reservation team staff without needing to change to a new booking system, making it a far more cost effective way to extract much more productivity and life from your booking system. You could also consider integrating digital itinerary creation software to your proprietary booking system.
For those DMCs and Inbound Tour Operators considering changing to a brand new booking system, adding an AI copilot instead could be a much smaller change project and with fewer unknowns.
🧳 DMC Using Tourplan or similar
DMCs fundamentally need to achieve the same core business purpose, so we would still recommend some form of AI Copilot tool for this group. In most cases, it will be easier to connect the AI because the booking system these DMCs use will more than likely have an ‘Open API’ architecture - making it very easier for one software system to securely talk to the other.
There are many excellent booking systems being used everyday to quote and book itineraries. None of these are automated itinerary quotation platforms, but they are a ‘single source of the truth’ when it comes to the thousands of accommodation, tours, transfers and activities that your reservation team can price and include in a custom itinerary.
Tourplan is one of the most popular tourism booking systems for Destination Management Companies and Inbound Tour Operators. There’s good reason for this, with Tourplan and Tourplan NX providing robust features and strong reliability. For that reason, we chose to build our most comprehensive integration with our AI into Tourplan. Our AI Copilot can pull products, match services, apply pricing rules, and load final itineraries with very light intervention.
✈️ Tour Operator Using Common Booking System (e.g. FareHarbor, Ventrata)
Generalist AI chat products and AI Booking tools are more relevant here.
General chat tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok are flexible, affordable, and easy to access. Our CleverCompose AI is similar although it has the benefit of being integrated directly with your email inbox. They're all useful for tasks like writing product descriptions, translating content, summarising emails, and generating social or sales copy. For smaller teams or those just starting with AI, they offer an easy way to offload everyday admin. However, they’re not connected to your booking systems or rules, so they’re not suitable for quoting, booking, or managing live inventory.
Integrated AI tools are built for tour operators and connect directly with platforms like FareHarbor, Peek, or Zaui. Tools like Booking Automation AI can process quote requests and create bookings instantly, based on your pricing rules and product logic. They’re ideal for teams dealing with high enquiry volumes or aiming to scale without increasing headcount. You can read a case study here to understand what impact Tour Operators using AI can expect.
Both tools serve different purposes — and it could be useful for tour operators to use both. General AI tools and Clever Compose AI help with communication and content; integrated AI like Booking Automation takes care of structured, repeatable workflows.
🏷️ Retail Travel Agencies
For travel agencies exploring AI in 2025, there are a growing number of tools available — each suited to different use cases. For everyday support with writing emails, summarising requests, translating content, or creating marketing copy, ChatGPT remains the most widely used and accessible tool among travel agents. Its ease of use and flexibility make it ideal for small teams looking to save time without needing technical setup.
Some booking platforms, like Travelport and Amadeus, are also integrating basic AI chat features to help agents navigate their platforms and complete tasks more efficiently. These are particularly useful for onboarding new staff or standardising common processes.
Final Thoughts: AI for Travel is at an inflection point.
We’re at an inflection point — not just for travel, but across industries. AI is becoming the single biggest transformation lever since the personal computer. Sectors like journalism and logistics and are already far ahead in adoption. OTAs and the B2C travel space are not far behind.
The good news? You don’t need to start from scratch. Small steps — a single AI assistant helping with FIT quotes, or an automated response tool for standard agent emails — can lead to massive time savings and better experiences for both your team and your clients.
TourConnect has been building software for the tourism industry for over 15 years. With five years at the forefront of travel-specific AI, we know how to help DMCs and tour operators get the right setup — and get results fast.
If you’re exploring AI but unsure where to begin, let’s talk. We’re here to help.
👉 Contact us for an exploratory conversation
