Guest Post: Travel automation is a growth engine – not a job killer

By Mathias Olhagen, Chief Commercial Officer

Talk to most travel companies about process automation and you’ll hear them say with confidence: “yes, we do it.” But dig deeper and you’ll find that what they’re often describing isn’t automation. They’re using tools to support manual processing.

Auto-ticketing that only works when specific conditions are met. Queue management tools that shift tasks between staff but don’t resolve them. These systems can save time and improve operations, but they don’t actually automate the process.

True automation takes manual, repetitive work off your team’s plate entirely – freeing up staff time and resources. This is an important distinction, as the way travel agencies define automation will influence how they use it. And right now, too many see it through a narrow lens: as a way to cut costs.

In some cases, that’s understandable. If you’re handling a steady volume of bookings and can pay an automation platform less than you’d pay your team, there’s a clear logic to it. But that mindset comes with a ceiling. It treats automation as a line-item saving instead of a real strategic advantage.

Travel agencies that think this way tend to grow in a linear fashion: more volume means having to hire more people. But growth doesn’t wait for you to hire at the right pace. You can run a fantastic campaign, get a sudden surge of bookings, and now you’re behind – you can’t scale your operations quickly enough to match the demand. And even if you do, that sudden surge may have passed by the time you get there.

Real automation breaks that link between volume and headcount. It gives you space to enable growth for the long term. You’re no longer forced to scramble for new hires when demand spikes or shrink teams as soon as it drops. You can maintain a lean core and absorb fluctuations without the usual friction. This isn’t about cost-cutting. It’s about resilience and flexibility.

With repetitive processes handled by automation, your team is free to focus on value-creating roles and tasks. Most agencies know that flights, while essential, are not the main margin driver. The staff deployed to handle post-booking processes for flights – where their expertise and human touch is rarely valued – could be adding value elsewhere: improving products and processes, deploying higher-margin services, building relationships with key partners, or identifying operational gaps and issues.

When you stop seeing automation as a job threat and start seeing it as an enabler, you can start reskilling and redeploying staff. Some of the best people I’ve seen in this industry now design and drive automation. They are using the knowledge they’ve built up over years to define and refine the tools and systems that can achieve sustainable growth at scale. Others have gone from processing bookings to engaging face-to-face with customers – providing reassurance, improving customer satisfaction, and building loyalty. These are not demotions. They’re upgrades.

The most common concern is: where do we start? My advice is always the same – with the boring stuff! Identify the tasks that are done the most often, that are simplest, and that rarely vary. Removing these high-volume, low-complexity jobs creates immediate relief and builds confidence in the process.

From seasonal surges to tech meltdowns, unpredictability is built into how travel operates. We automate to build stability, not to replace people. By eliminating tasks that don’t require their expertise, we can ensure their time is spent moving the business forward, not just moving bookings along.