A decade in the travel industry has forced me to confront some uncomfortable but ultimately positive truths about value, technology, and boundaries. Those realisations have directly shaped three key changes I’ve made to my business, which I outline below. These aren’t reactive decisions, but deliberate responses to patterns I’ve seen repeatedly over a decade.
Lesson one: AI isn’t the enemy, untrained use is
AI has become mainstream and I’ve noticed more and more clients are already using it to plan travel, often sending me beautifully written briefs that collapse once I apply real-world logistics, budgets, or responsible travel considerations. The issue isn’t their curiosity and wanting to experiment with a novelty tool, it is that generic AI tools are being used without structure or understanding, which creates unrealistic expectations and inefficiency for both sides.
Before developing anything client-facing, I undertook advanced AI training focused specifically on business use. The course is with the AI Advantage Academy – I’ve been doing it for a few months, will graduate in a couple of weeks and it has been the most valuable thing I have done for my business in a long time.
This training has shaped my view that AI can be genuinely useful, but only when it’s properly framed and ethically applied. This led to the development of my AI tool, Virtual Marie, which isn’t designed to plan holidays or replace expertise. Instead, it helps clients overcome the blank page, explore ideas, and articulate what excites them before we speak. It is trained to ask the questions I would ask, help the client formulate a brief for me, and advise them on things like weather patterns. It will also never recommend unethical experiences. The outcome is better briefs, more productive consultations, and AI supporting professional judgement rather than competing with it.
More and more agents are talking about the downside to clients giving them AI generated briefs, and I really wanted to nip this in the bud before it gets out of control.
Lesson two: Value isn’t what you do, it’s what you represent
What I learned over time is that clients don’t struggle to book travel, they struggle to make confident decisions. My real value sits in judgement, context, curation, and knowing what will and won’t work long before it becomes a problem. However, I realised my digital presence didn’t fully communicate that.
That recognition led to me building a website from scratch. I wanted it to act as a digital extension of how I work in real life: service-led, and clear about the value of experience. It also gave me the opportunity to properly articulate my commitment to sustainability and responsible travel, which I’ve invested heavily in through training but hadn’t always made visible. The change was about alignment, ensuring that clients encounter the value of my service before they ever enquire. More and more agents are building their own websites to showcase the things that set them apart and to develop their own niche and reflect their own identities, in addition to the platforms their host agency provides. I really think it is what holidaymakers are starting to look for – unique expertise and agent identities backed by the strength of trusted travel brands.
Lesson three: Not all business is good business
Over time, I have recognised patterns that many agents will be able to relate to: endless revisions, price-shopping disguised as research, and a lack of respect for the hours that go into a bespoke brief. Annika Nickson talked about it recently in this great TTG article about responding to being ghosted. I really saw an increase in this behaviour across the travel agent communities I am part of during peaks 2025 and wanted to think of a way to tackle it in time for this peaks period. I heard so many agents talking about how it affected them and made them feel really down. I knew there had to be a way we could approach this aside from charging an upfront research fee, which isn’t the right solution for everyone, although I appreciate it works well for some agents.
While working with clients who aren’t the right fit can feel unavoidable early in a business, I realised over the years that it becomes damaging, to our wellbeing and to the quality of our work, when we continue trying to do this in the long term.
That reflection led me to introduce a formal terms of engagement document. Rather than being about rigidity, it’s about clarity and mutual respect. It sets expectations from the outset about how I work, what clients can expect from me, and what I need in return for my time and expertise. The goal is to have fewer time-wasters, healthier client relationships, and more energy to give to clients who genuinely value my service.
And just to bring this article full circle, the AI course helped me with my new website and my terms of engagement. Plus, it is helping me with lots of automation and time-saving tasks. It is mind blowing.
These lessons have helped me lay stronger foundations for the next decade of my business. I hope they also inspire others to reflect on the things they have learnt in order to change how they move forward by mitigating things that don’t work well for them.
The travel industry is changing rapidly, and my aim is to evolve thoughtfully, protecting the personal touch that defines my service while using the right tools to make the business more resilient.
