​Teams: We are adding the capacity for agencies to have additional seats. This update will occur next week. For a small additional charge, individual seats can be added to an agency account in a manner that will accommodate both agency and advisor Brand Voices (see below). All accounts will get 5 seats for users with the same agency. Seats in addition to 5 will incur a small additional charge. ($)

Brand Voice Enhancement: Toby's brand voice is being significantly improved to ensure a seamless and comprehensive understanding of your agency's profile. In addition to the existing features that allow Toby to learn through agency and agent profiles, we are introducing a new capability for comprehensive document uploads. Next week, both agencies and individual agents on the Team will be able to upload extensive information about their specialized niches, and preferred “voice” resulting in a more personalized experience for your clients.
 
Document Editor: As an option to the “Chat Window” the system is being upgraded to contain a document editor next week. This system will allow the agent to use a WYSIWYG editor in the response window and to add graphics. In early September documents will be capable of posting directly from the system to blogs, social media and other platforms.

Training Customization: While Toby already possesses substantial travel industry training, we believe in the importance of knowledge of the travel agency and individual travel advisor “voices and brand.” Therefore, we are enabling agencies, agents, and organizations like a Host Agency or a Consortia to upload their own background training specifically tailored for their version of Toby. Rest assured, all the information will remain isolated and confidential within the individual travel agency account.

Real-Time Internet Searches: Toby will by the end of August have the ability to perform real-time searches on the internet, similar to a Google search. This has been tested and is ready to deploy. This means Toby can retrieve the most current information without the learning limitations faced by other platforms. We anticipate enabling this capability within the next week, empowering Toby to provide clients with the most up-to-date travel details.
 
Additional Large Language Models: We have integrated Anthropic’s “Claude” AI to assist with “Task Execution” explained below.

Task Execution and Workflows: Toby has evolved beyond simple chats and can now execute sophisticated "tasks." These tasks involve multi-threaded operations to fulfill specific requests. This system is typically executed when current internet-based information needs to be incorporated into the output. For example, Toby can retrieve the weather forecast for Paris next week, create a packing list based on the predicted weather, and suggest an itinerary considering public events and holidays. Because the output will require current information available in the internet, Toby will generate a task list and then deliver the results to the travel advisor. This new feature ensures a customized and efficient travel planning experience for your clients. These workflows can be built by the travel advisor by filling out a form, essentially building the appropriate prompt for the system to execute.

Workflows are included in all accounts at no charge. Tasks Executions will essentially be "power searches" and we are studying the necessity of a small incremental charge for an Task Execution ($)

“Sophie” Companion Extension and Mobile App: To enhance the travel advisor's productivity, we are developing a browser extension and mobile app, called Sophie, to accompany Toby. With Sophie, advisors can seamlessly browse the web while enjoying Sophie's assistance. Whether drafting social media posts or filling out forms on other websites, Sophie will provide support throughout the entire online experience. We anticipate launching Sophie as a browser extension and an iOS/Android app by the end of August. Sophie will be a separate product, available with or without a subscription and will incur a small additional charge ​($).

Voice Enabled Capability: We understand the importance of voice interaction, and therefore, Toby is being equipped with voice recognition technology. By early September, Toby will have the ability to transcribe voice input from agents. By late September or early October, Toby will be able to interact with users via voice, delivering an immersive and conversational experience.

Agency API Access (Beta): Ability to access our API to build in your own integrations. This will be an advanced agency program, and will be moderated by Voyager to ensure appropriate usages.
 
VSCreate: The ability to generate images is being enhanced with the capacity to edit generated images.

These enhancements represent just the beginning of our ambitious travel-oriented roadmap for Toby. We are fully committed to the travel industry and devoted to supporting our travel agency partners. Our vision is to create a product that is highly responsive and tailored to the unique needs of the travel industry.

Thank you for being part of this exciting journey as we strive to redefine travel planning with cutting-edge technology. If you have any further questions or would like more details about these enhancements, please feel free to reach out to me directly. We greatly value your partnership and look forward to contributing to your continued success.

Artificial intelligence has made massive strides recently with image generation. AI systems can now generate highly realistic and customized images that will soon significantly reduce the need for generic stock photography. For travel advisors, AI image generation offers an opportunity to provide clients with personalized visuals of destinations and experiences that are hard or expensive to otherwise capture.
Stock photo websites currently offer an array of generic images of locations, landmarks, hotel rooms, and activities. While useful as a reference, stock photos often lack originality and personalization. Stock photography is often easily identified, and finding a wide variety of images of ethnically diverse people can be challenging. In addition, coming up with the exact photo you want, such as a cat in an astronaut suit in outer space, can be difficult or impossible. If you do find such a photo, chances are good that hundreds of other people have downloaded and are using the same photograph.

AI image-generation tools allow travel advisors to create customized photos tailored to their client’s trips. Advisors can generate images of clients in any location and adjust details like time of day, weather conditions, and specifics of the scene. An advisor creating an Australia itinerary for a couple interested in the Outback and Great Barrier Reef could generate personalized photos of snorkeling the reef. Memes for social media use that are completely different from any other photograph can be generated in less than a minute. Striking photographs, whether of a destination, an animal or of a humorous nature, slows down the scrolling that we all do quickly in our social media feeds.
I do not want to diminish the often-voiced concerns over AI image generation. What is true is that AI-generated visuals could be misleading, and there are valid issues regarding how AI systems can be properly trained and monitored to avoid generating images that are biased, unethical, or promote negative stereotypes. There are also legitimate concerns about copyright and fair use of the imagery used to train the AI models.  However, when used responsibly and transparently, AI image generation can be a powerful tool for advisors to inspire and engage their clients.
The future is one where we rarely encounter the same generic, mass-produced image twice. Instead, we can enjoy personalized visuals tailored to our unique interests, experiences, and dreams of places we have yet to go.

Note: Each photo in this article was generated by VSCreate, Voyager’s AI generation model built on OpenAI’s Dalle2 platform.

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Most importantly, watch these short videos:
https://vimeo.com/805730413/e328dbe6d9?share=copy
https://vimeo.com/825202184/66f0ada59c?share=copy
https://vimeo.com/825249305/6193e68520?share=copy

Here is a copy of a recent newsletter: ​https://mailchi.mp/tro.travel/machine-maverick-newsletter-june-5-12610375?e=d5d1e9f099
We have just introduced an image generator. We did a quick overview here:
https://vimeo.com/834586950/f63d474cdf?share=copy

How to use Toby.AI effectively
•Read and use our KnowledgeBase: https://xsideas.zendesk.com/hc/en-us
•Fact Check and Edit
•Use the Facebook group for sharing and common questions
•Use agentsupport@voyagertravelguides.com for support 
•Don’t use the Facebook Group for support, but visit often!!
Bookmark
•https: www.VoyagerSocial.ai
•https://www.facebook.com/groups/voyagercontentportal
•https://xsideas.zendesk.com/hc/en-us
Finally, please |do not use the EDGE browser, which is largely incompatible with our program. Chrome is best, Safari and Firefox work but will, on occasion, hit a snag.

Please let us know how we can make your use of our system more helpful and productive.

Toby has greatly contributed to our ability to produce the text based part of the Supplier Post Packs. Here is a video tutorial explaining the prompts we use to coax Toby into helping us with our work. I am certain this process will be of real use to travel professionals as they market their own promotions.

In addition, tons of new content is being loaded into the system as quickly as possible.

We have begun to build out a comprehensive KnowlegeBase for the Content Portal. When completed it will be a repository of information on the Content Portal, how to use the various components and tutorials. You can access the KnowledgeBase here, and it may require you to register. This is the first place you will come for information. In addition, we will soon have an AI component who can answer your questions in addition to being able to look up answers for you!

We are also pleased to announce we have set up our first Affiliate Program that allows our existing subscribers to provide travel professionals who want to give the Content Portal a try a 7 Day Free Trial as well as a 10% discount on the program, which essentially amounts to a free month!  If another travel advisor in a Facebook asks about Toby, provide them with your link and give them a free trial and a discount! Details of the new Affiliate Program are in the new KnowledgeBase.

​Keep watching, we aren't slowing down anytime soon!

When initially working with AI and the necessity for appropriate positioning in the agent’s workflow, an almost immediate need is for the travel advisor to recognize where bottlenecks are occurring in their agency. A commonly identified problem is, quite simply, “blank page” syndrome: not being able to come up with suitable topics about which to write. Fortunately, this is an area where AI is very well-suited to assist the travel advisor. AI is undistracted, can analyze a situation very quickly, and can generate dozens of possible topics in only seconds and with minimal prompting.

Researching appropriate AI solutions is another requirement for busy travel advisors looking to manage their content marketing better. ChatGPT, Jasper, and Bing’s Chat AI are now widely available. Voyager’s solution, Toby, is currently being used by over 500 travel professionals. The advantage of Toby is our efforts at schooling our AI in the travel industry. We have kept Toby tightly informed on the logistics of the travel industry and continue to feed him a steady diet of travel-related information.

It is also essential for the travel professional to understand the current limitations of AI, the creators of which, by and large, trained their models on pre-2023 information. Many early experiments by travel journalists delighted in the mistakes AI would make by failing to bring back current information when requested. However, it is a mistake to attempt to use AI as a Google replacement. While it is possible to do rudimentary research with current AI models, the user must remember that ChatGPT and the other AI solutions are language models that excel at writing but not so much at research. You would not ask Google to write a letter for you. It is equally dangerous to ask current AI models to research for you unless you are willing to fact-check fastidiously.

Finally, anyone using AI in a professional context needs to be schooled, trained, and coached. There are pitfalls, mistakes, and lessons to be learned. A recent article in the New York Times about an attorney filing a legal brief against Avianca Airlines using ChatGTP should be lesson enough. Everything must be fact-checked and edited. There are precautions to be taken, and they are easy enough to guard against copyright infringement and plagiarism. Without guidance, however, there are definitive risks.
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Free Trial
The Voyager Content Portal offers a 7-day free trial and includes not only Toby, our AI component but also lots of other content to assist with your marketing. If you ask in any Facebook group if anyone can provide you with an affiliate link, your friends who participate with us can get you not only a 7-day free trial but also a discount on the program. If you do not know who to ask, you can email me at Richard.Earls@tro.travel, and I will supply you with the name of one of our current users who can provide you with an affiliate link.

Marketing has two goals: the retention of existing clients and the acquisition of new clients. From existing clients you achieve stability and it is from new clients you achieve growth. When you design your marketing properly, both your existing clients and new clients first notice or are reminded of your presence, investigate your offerings and finally enter into conversation with you about the services or products you offer. At this stage you have an actionable lead and enter into the sales cycle.

The process of drawing the potential client closer and closer to you, finally resulting in an actionable lead, is sometimes referred to as the “Marketing Funnel.”

I often hear travel professionals complain they are making no sales from their websites. To my ear, the complaint, however, sounds a bit strange. If you are making “sales” from your website, I suspect you are using a booking engine or a search engine geared to supplier specials, much like Travelocity or Expedia. However, for personal travel consultants, a website is far more of a marketing tool than a sales tool.  The difference is an important one to consider.
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Firstly, every website should be designed with the business model of the company behind it in mind. There is no “one site fits all” website. If your business model resembles that of Expedia, then you are gearing for great volumes with little personal client interaction. In this scenario, a booking engine or supplier search engine makes sense and your website is indeed a sales tool.

If, however, your business is geared to personal travel consulting, your aim is to draw the client into a personal relationship. Your website should be not about suppliers, but about you and your travel practice, the value you add to the travel experience. A booking engine runs counter to the personal consulting side of the business, and a supplier search engine just encourages the viewer to begin a frenzied shopping excursion, comparing your offers to others on the internet. Further, your website should emphasize what is unique about you and your agency. Thus, a "cookie cutter" website resembling hundreds of other travel agency websites is an inferior way of demonstrating your unique selling points.

Marketing conditions the sales environment. Your website should be about you and your travel practice, not about suppliers. Your website should speak to the benefits of doing business with you and your knowledge of the world of travel planning. Unlike the Expedias of the world, you want the client to call, to speak with you. When the client calls, then the sales process begins in earnest. Now you can begin to establish a relationship built on trust.

As a personal travel planner, don’t be surprised you are not “making sales” from your website. However, if you are not getting calls and inquiries from your website, then you should indeed be concerned. You need to examine how you are marketing your website and whether you are generating sufficient traffic to it to generate leads and inquiries. There are tried and true methods of generating traffic. Good search engine marketing, continual promotion of your website and social media cross promotion are all techniques for building traffic. If the traffic is present but you are not generating inquiries, you have to look to your site’s messaging:
Are you inspiring the client to travel with your assistance?