Former Vertical Systems managing director Chris North has joined an AI travel search start-up as a non-executive director.
He has taken to role at Go There Travel, a business established by former FSS Travel & Leisure Systems partner and marketing director Ian Champness.
The new tech firm has developed an AI travel assistant ‘search widget’ that travel agents can integrate into their websites.
The integration with Open AI’s Chat GPT enables agents to tailor their experience to secure bookings from travel searches made via Generative AI.
North, who became chief executive of specialist travel business The Big Golf Company after leaving Vertical Systems after 25 years last August, said: “I see the GoThere AI widget making life easier for travel agents by handling initial customer interactions and understanding their holiday needs.
“They will get higher quality leads, more sales, and better conversion rates. No more dealing with unrealistic enquiries – the search widget filters those out, so agents can focus on prospect clients who are see the value of an agent’s advice and are closer to booking a holiday.
” I am excited to be on board and this search widget could transform holiday search for agents and the consumer.”
Champness added: “I am delighted that Chris has accepted my invitation to join the company as a non-exec.
“His success in working with the agent sector and his contacts in the trade will be a great asset in helping us grow our start-up quickly.
“Chris is a great AI enthusiast and believes the launching of our AI travel assistant is exactly the right time for agents to adopt this game-changing technology.”
The Go There Travel AI search widget will “harness and unlock the power of using AI to come up with suggestions of what to do in any resort, city or an itinerary and then directly connect with the agent,” according to Champness.
The aim is to is to combine the power of an AI search with the experience, product and destination knowledge of a travel agent to provide personal advice on the best suppliers to match the requirements and budgets of consumers.
“Integrating our AI travel assistant will turn a potential threat into an opportunity. It will do what few websites do – allow the user to ask what they want for their next holiday – and enable agents to compete with the OTAs and even Google,” Champness said.
“We will collate and aggregate ChatGPT searches so visitors will also have the option to see other searches. This will create a growing library of consumer holiday searches – rather like Google search trends, but just for travel.
“Our prototype is developed. We are looking for agents to test it and give us feedback for our customised version.”