During the 2026 National Conference aboard Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas, Dream Vacations and CruiseOne unveiled a new wave of AI-powered marketing and technology enhancements, with a focus on helping travel advisors generate leads, streamline bookings and grow their businesses.
The announcements included AI-friendly website enhancements designed to make advisors more visible in AI-generated search results, new automation capabilities within the company’s Cruise Control booking platform and improvements to the mobile shopping experience that will make room, cabin, rate and promotion options easier for travelers to navigate. Plus, an updated booking experience is planned for Dream Vacations and CruiseOne websites in 2027.
What does all of this mean for advisors and their agencies? We sat down with Dream Vacations’ and CruiseOne’s MarTech (marketing/technology) executives, Alicia Linden, VP of Consumer and Recruitment Marketing, and Sandi Szalay, VP of Information Technology, to get the 411.
AI Search Is Already Generating Leads
When asked which of the latest MarTech enhancements would have the most immediate impact on advisors’ businesses, both Linden and Szalay pointed to the addition of AI-friendly schema markup to advisor websites, making it easier for AI search engines to identify their expertise and feature their content when travelers search for vacation recommendations.
“I think the impact that we’re seeing the most right away are the changes of adding schema visibility to the websites,” Szalay told Recommend. “We have local schema right now on each one of their sites and I think that that has had an immediate impact.”
“I completely agree,” chimed in Linden, “because it’s a new lead-generation source and that’s what our business owners are telling us they need. We’re hearing from them success stories. [They’re] getting leads [that] are turning into bookings. They’re high-value bookings. It’s [a client] who really sees the value in using a travel advisor.”
The company is expanding its AI-search optimization to advisor-created blogs and custom landing pages, allowing franchise owners to highlight their personal travel experiences, destinations and areas of expertise.
Linden and Szalay also discussed the addition of Q&A schema components that advisors can incorporate into their websites, answering common traveler questions based on their own first-hand knowledge.
“When someone’s going to the AI engines and they’re looking for an answer, they’re looking for a recommendation, it’s your Q&A from your personal expertise that’s served up in the algorithm,” Linden pointed out.
Szalay stressed that AI isn’t a replacement for an advisors’ expert advice or client relationships. “I think it’s all about the education that we provide about continuing with human connection,” she said. “Use AI but have your checkpoints. Make sure your personality is coming through. Make sure your storytelling is coming through.”
They’re also hearing about clients arriving with AI-generated itineraries that aren’t always accurate—an issue we’re constantly hearing from travel advisors. “The agents are recognizing error in AI,” noted Szalay.
Saving Time With Smarter Technology
Beyond AI search, Dream Vacations and CruiseOne are investing in enhancements to Cruise Control, their proprietary CRM and booking platform.
Among the upcoming developments is technology designed to read supplier booking confirmations and use that information to begin creating reservations, reducing manual data entry. Additional enhancements include improved search capabilities, expanded supplier connectivity, new client intake tools and greater flexibility in managing final payments.
Szalay stressed that the goal isn’t simply to add AI wherever possible.
“We can think of a million great tricks AI can do in Cruise Control, but we’re not going to put it in there unless it’s going to continue to help our agents be more profitable.
“I think the common theme is continuing to find efficiency,” noted Szalay. “ There’s a definite focus on listening to their feedback and bringing things to the next level to make them more efficient.”
Investing in Education, Not Just Technology
Of course, having access to these tools is one thing. Knowing how to use them, that’s another thing.
“One of the things we hear from agents is they don’t know what they don’t know, so they want to learn about AI. They’re open to it. They’re hearing their peers talk about it and their success and so it’s an investment of their time. You have to invest the time to learn it and figure out how it’s going to work within your business, and then it will create those workflow efficiencies.”
The company plans to continue supporting that learning process, including through the return of its MarTech Summit in 2027, which puts the focus on marketing and technology education.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of advisors this week [during the 2026 National Conference],” said Linden, “and they’ve said it’s not always an investment in dollars, it’s an investment in your time. So taking that time, investing in the learning, in educating yourself…can go a lot further than just spending dollars.”
The Future: Human Connection Powered by Technology
For all the developments in AI, both Linden and Szalay emphasized that the advisors’ personal experiences and connections with clients remain at the heart of the business.
Linden pointed to the company’s philosophy that “personalization leads to dream vacations,” emphasizing the role advisors play in inspiring travelers long before they make a booking. “We provide vacation inspiration and I think they need to lean in on that even more,” she said. “People are dreaming about vacations and an advisor just experienced that vacation. So they come back, they share that experience, they create the content, they answer the Q&A, the FAQs on that experience and that’s really helping the customer envision it before they ever book it.”
And with travelers often dreaming about their next vacation a year or more before departure, technology can help advisors maintain that excitement throughout the planning process. “Everybody keeps talking about—I need technology in order to get this next client—but you also need to build that relationship first and then support their trip,” said Szalay. “The technology and the relationship building is complementary.”
