In the Age of AI, This Is What Only a Travel Advisor Can Do
Unpacked by Afar | Travel Smarter, More ResponsiblyShow Notes
You've got more booking tools than ever — so why would you hire a travel advisor? In this episode, Afar editorial director Billie Cohen sits down with travel journalist and matchmaker Wendy Perrin, founder of wendyperrin.com, to answer the questions travelers actually have: What can an advisor do that you can't do yourself? When does it make sense — and when doesn't it? How do you find a good one, interview them, and understand what you're paying for?
From crowd-skipping at Venice to landing the perfect Egyptologist, Wendy makes the case for what truly expert trip planning looks like.
In this episode
Why connections (not booking tools or AI) are the real currency of great travel
The difference between advisors who specialize in you vs. those who specialize in a place
How to interview a travel advisor (and what their answers reveal)
What travel actually costs — and why it often isn't itemized
Why multi-gen trips and post-pandemic travel are driving a new wave of advisor use
Chapters
00:00:00 Why Travel Advisors Still Matter 00:03:00 Advisors vs. Agents vs. Tour Operators 00:06:00 What a Great Advisor Can Do 00:13:00 Choosing and Interviewing an Advisor 00:24:00 Fees, Costs, and Transparency 00:28:00 Cruise Specialists and Misconceptions 00:33:00 Who's Using Advisors Now
Links & resources
Wendyperrin.com and Wendy's Wow List of top trip designers
Listen to our Unpacked episode about cruise travel advisors
Explore the Afar Travel Advisory Council
Follow Afar at @afarmedia on Instagram and TikTok
More travel planning resources at afar.com
Be sure to subscribe to the show and sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, Travel Tales, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us, and View From Afar, where we spotlight the people and ideas shaping the future of travel.
Unpacked by Afar is part of Airwave Media's podcast network. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to advertise on our podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from Unpacked by Afar | Travel Smarter, More Responsibly
Welcome to episode three of a four-part Unpacked series on Dubai travel, this time focused on Dubai food: how a city long known for celebrity chefs and global concepts has grown a homegrown food scene with a flavor all its own.
In a new ongoing series, Afar is asking a deceptively simple question: What does a UNESCO World Heritage designation actually do? This episode starts in North Queensland, Australia, home to two UNESCO sites that sit side by side: the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics, which includes the Daintree Rainforest.
Welcome to episode two of a four-part Unpacked series on Dubai travel, this time focused on Dubai hospitality: how a city with more than 800 hotels and 150,000 rooms built a world-class hotel scene on one of the Arabian Peninsula’s oldest traditions: the welcome.
Welcome to episode one of a four-part Unpacked series on Dubai travel: the history, the ambition, and the glamorous, multicultural city it's become today.
Afar contributing writer Emma John road-trips the Great Victorian Bathing Trail, uncovering the best spa towns in Victoria, Australia—from thermal springs on the coast to century-old bathhouses inland.