Tui believes there is a trend whereby the time-poor TikTok generation see appealing travel options online but are reluctant to book them themselves, prompting them to go to an agent.
“That was the surprise with my kids – roughly 20, 25 – when they told me we have booked at the travel agency,” Ebel said.
“They said, ’why should I spend all that time searching for the right thing? I have an idea of what I want to do but want to hand over the prompt or the challenge to someone who makes the proposal’.
“I found this in the first instance weird, but it’s clever, because whenever you put things together, I quite often mix up the flight time or whatever."
Ebel said retail was “growing very nicely in the UK”, adding: “Retail is very important; it’s not the cheapest but it’s the channel that adds the highest value.”
He said there was a place for new technology, like artificial intelligence, in the traditional agency environment. “We see AI as an opportunity, not a threat,” he said.
“If you look at retail with us they’re using a lot of AI as well, so it’s not that they are working in a traditional mode.
"Half of our people now have had AI training in our company, so it’s not the retail we had 20 years ago – it’s very much modernised, not only how the desk looks like, the locations, it’s the tools.
“I always said when I was asked if you believe in the future of retail that the winner takes it all. If you are really knowing the trends, really know the content, know the IT tools, and you will need size, then you will be the winner."
Tui rolled out an AI-powered personal assistant to staff last year, which it claims is driving up efficiency.
