One reason for this is that our dreams aren’t always aligned with our practicalities. “People say they’re interested in a certain type of vacation, but the things they book are often quite different: They say they want to go to Zanzibar but end up going to Miami,” Morris laughs.
But Wanderlist could, in theory, be an efficiency tool that shortcuts the “getting to know you” process between client and agent.
“Virtuoso is automating a back-end system that all travel agents already use,” says family vacation specialist Kathy Sudeikis of Acendas Travel, referring to ubiquitous industry software called Client Base that helps agents create client profiles the old-fashioned way, through conversations.
A further benefit, says Sudeikis, is earning the loyalty of Wanderlist’s youngest (and most digitally inclined) users: “The same kids who were exposed to the benefits of working with a specialist will stay clients when it’s time to plan their graduation trips and their honeymoons.” Upchurch says that, so far, Wanderlist has thus far been adopted by travelers aged 6 to 86.
Looking Ahead
If Virtuoso agents could integrate Wanderlist’s data with their sales platforms—which they currently can’t—they might be able to unlock further competitive advantages. For instance, Sudeikis thinks using the data for targeted marketing could prove useful: passing on special discounts for a Paul Gauguin cruise to Tahiti to a family that had already expressed interest in going there, for instance. “The opportunity to expose clients to exactly the types of trips that they are thinking about, and to drill down to such a personal level, stands to be very powerful.”
Morris, too, sees potential for the tool to develop machine-learning capabilities, a Pandora for vacations. “It would be pretty cool if Virtuoso was building a deeper preference map that could surface unique insights and eventually as its own artificially intelligent agent,” she says.
For now, Virtuoso is less focused on those aspects and more on bringing Wanderlist to family offices and corporations, which can use it as an employee-retention benefit.
One chief executive officer, Jeff Prouty of Prouty Project, a Minnesota-based consulting firm , has already signed up and called the tool one of the greatest motivators for his business. Then again, he didn’t just offer his entire team access to the Wanderlist survey; he also provided individual consultations with a local Virtuoso agent and a stipend for each employee’s first trip.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.