Elite travel agents use AI to sell vibes, not destinations

UNITED STATES – The best way to gauge the success of a vacation is how you feel when it ends. So, as pop culture becomes more aware of “the vibe economy” – the idea that consumers are willing to pay more to feel a certain way – it is no surprise that travel professionals are hoping to capitalise on it. 

On Feb 13, bespoke travel outfitter Black Tomato launched a new digital tool called the “Feelings Engine” to help travellers identify destinations that will make them feel relaxed, reinvigorated, inspired, excited – or whatever emotion they are seeking.

Co-founder Tom Marchant calls it a return to the company’s roots, noting that when Black Tomato was founded in 2005, its original website similarly prompted travellers to choose destinations based on their emotional desires. And because it is now 2025, he is using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to turn an awkward, tricky-to-answer question – “how do you want to feel?” – into something of a game.

“Back in the day, companies in our industry were mainly concerned with destinations, activities and things you could see, but not really with how you’d feel. From day one, we felt like we didn’t always know where we wanted to go, but we did know how we wanted to feel. It’s something we’ve constantly gone back to,” says Mr Marchant of his company’s credo.

“Now, we’re using cutting-edge technology to bring it back to the fore.”

He is not alone in emphasising the feelings that come from travel.

Ms Misty Belles, communications director at Virtuoso, a collective of about 20,000 travel consultants, says her company runs a survey in collaboration with market research and data analytics firm YouGov each year about travel patterns, spending and the “emotional drivers” behind it all.

In its most recent poll, 65 per cent of US travellers sought “joy or happiness”. An overlapping 57 per cent said “awe and wonder” were important emotional drivers in their travel plans. “Excitement” came in at 51 per cent. Ultimately, Ms Belles says, “this is really what luxury is about – how you make someone feel”.

How it works

Black Tomato’s Feelings Engine – part of a broader marketing push around “the pursuit of feeling” – is a standalone website that, much like ChatGPT, invites users to open a digital conversation much as you would start a Google search.

“All you need to do is share how you want to feel and our Engine will suggest a trip that embodies it,” says the landing page.

The white box that prompts you to begin chatting includes sample prompts such as “I want to feel… challenged”. Within moments, that emotion will generate one great trip idea and some itinerary details to get you inspired and, if needed, kick off a longer conversation.

In beta tests leading up to the launch, the tool was better at providing an endearingly fun user experience than actually usable vacation ideas. The tone is cheeky – the visuals while you wait for results include adorable animated line drawings.

Expecting any AI tool to hit a home run on anything is a tall order, and travel planning is infinitely personal, making that task even trickier to nail.

It is why travel agents exist. But as with other tricky tasks, one of the hardest parts of travel planning is just getting started – and the Feelings Engine makes that feel like a game worth playing again and again.

“Relaxed” can mean many things to Black Tomato. Two options it suggested in response to that emotion were a spiritual discovery in Nepal and Bhutan, or a Spain trip built around the Alhambra at sunset.

“Is that kid-friendly?” I asked about the Nepal trip, leading it to refine the results. A Scottish castle stay may be better for families, it said.

Each of the 400 or so sketched-out itineraries that the tool can currently suggest are tagged to correspond to a full range of emotions. And one of its coolest tricks is that it can describe one place in different ways, depending on the desired feeling – just like a human travel agent could adapt the same pitch for different situations. 

A “restful” Maui itinerary invites you to imagine “waking up to the sound of waves at the luxurious Hotel Wailea in Maui” and “move to your own pace between moments of pure relaxation and gentle activity, like paddling alongside sea turtles in calm waters”.

The same itinerary can come up if you want “wonder in nature”, now with an elevator pitch that includes “the magic of the Haleakala Crater”. (Black Tomato’s agents would continue to customise these trips for clients who are interested in booking.)

There are limitations to the tool’s responsiveness. It does not collect location data, so it does not do well with follow-up requests for itineraries that are “closer to home”. And it generally does not have information on flights, so you cannot, for example, ensure a destination has direct service from your home airport.

And sometimes, the inventory just does not match your needs.

When I asked for something around the West Coast, it offered the closest match in its catalogue: “a gourmet-fuelled road trip” in New England. But it seemed self-aware of the mismatch.

After the suggestion came a very human-like apology: “I notice you’re specifically interested in the West Coast of the United States,” it began. “While this itinerary explores the East Coast, Black Tomato specialises in creating custom luxury experiences. We would be delighted to craft a bespoke itinerary for you featuring the natural wonders of California, Oregon or Washington.”

Travelling for the vibes

Even if travelling for the vibes is not new, there is a reason it feels especially salient now, says Mr Jack Ezon of Embark Beyond, another travel consultancy specialising in ultra-high-net-worth clients.

“The old bucket list is gone,” he says. “Younger people have been travelling the world since they were kids with their parents.”

They have seen it all, he says, “and now they’re going back to places that they have already been, but for new reasons – because of the vibe, the ambience, the shopping, the scene”. 

He adds that people come to him asking simply “to get away” or “for something epic” to celebrate an occasion, and that travellers are increasingly looking to connect more than they are looking to check off sites and attractions. “It’s really not about the destination any more,” he says.

Virtuoso offers training to its agents on how to talk to guests about what they really want from their travels.

“Okay, you want to go to Thailand to have the White Lotus experience,” they might tell a client. “But what are you really looking for from that experience?”

Ms Belles says that when agents are able to track motivations, it reinforces the utility of a travel agent to properly steer travellers towards trips that will hit all the right notes. In other words, it makes them more useful than ChatGPT.

“We’ve always done things a little differently,” Mr Marchant says. “This is exactly the kind of thing we’re good at, using our human experience and our obsession with emotion to put things together in inspiring new ways.”

And embracing technology, he adds, “will just help us bring more people in – to allow us to do all the cool stuff even better and for more people”. BLOOMBERG