Envoyage used the opening of its 2026 Summit in Cairns to detail a year of significant growth and a raft of new tools designed to support its advisor network, with leadership outlining both the trends reshaping the travel industry and the operational changes underway as a result.
After an impressive opening performance by Sand & Sea Dance, Envoyage key account manager Zoran Panzich and events and engagement manager Michelle Mullampy started proceedings by confirming FCTG’s turnover had reached $2.3 billion across five markets, a result global general manager Astrid Richardson said had been achieved despite a volatile year.
“Richardson pointed to the Middle East conflict’s impact on flight paths and bookings in the fourth quarter as a key disruption and credited the network’s advisors with holding the business together through it.
“While booking engines were sending people cancellation emails and nothing else, our members, you in this room, were on the phone, sorting it, reassuring people, getting them home, and getting their trip back on track,” Richardson said.
Richardson used her address to outline five forces she said were reshaping travel: AI commoditisation, a “trust recession,” a loneliness epidemic, a “meaning migration,” and generational wealth transfer.
On artificial intelligence, Richardson warned advisors whose value was purely logistical faced obsolescence.
“By the end of 2027, AI will be better able to plan a trip than nine out of 10 humans,” she said. “If what you’re selling is logistics… you are already obsolete. AI does that faster, cheaper, and increasingly better.”
She said the opportunity lay in judgement and taste.
“When AI takes over the IQ side of the business, the only thing left to compete on is EQ.”
Problem resolution
On trust, Richardson cited Finder research which found established retail agencies outperformed digital-only competitors on service quality and problem resolution.
“You won’t be competing with AI on price, and you won’t be competing with it on speed,” she said. “You’re competing with it on the one thing it cannot manufacture: earned trust.”
Richardson said the loneliness epidemic was reshaping why people travel at all, remarking that solo travel bookings are up 42 per cent year-on-year and Australia now ranks sixth in the world for solo travel.
“Lonely people aren’t buying travel. They’re buying the possibility of connection,” she said, arguing the old model of “maximum privacy, exclusive access, keeping people separate” was now “exactly backwards”.
On the “meaning migration,” Richardson said travel had become less about escape and more about transformation.
“The old luxury was about comfort and status. Look where I stayed,” she said. “The new luxury is about growth. Look who I became.”
She closed the five forces with the generational wealth transfer, noting an estimated $3.5 trillion would move to younger Australians over the next 20 years. “The next generation doesn’t buy the way their parents did,” Richardson said. “They buy purpose, not prestige.
“Your expertise matters less to them than your authenticity.”
Richardson said all five forces rewarded the same qualities.
“Business is built on judgment, trust, connection, meaning, and authenticity – not logistics, not price,” she said, framing the summit’s “rise” theme as a call to meet the changes head-on rather than wait for them to pass.
Ticketing platform changes
Lisa Zahra, Envoyage’s director of operations for Australia, said the operational priorities she outlined were drawn directly from advisor feedback.
“Everything I’m about to cover comes directly from your feedback,” Zahra said.
On air distribution, Zahra said Envoyage would continue evolving its ticketing platform “to become your one-stop shop”, and confirmed support functions would be brought back in-house to give the business more control over service delivery.
On data and insights, Zahra pointed to two new tools, Product Showroom and Beacon, designed to help advisors “buy better” and access “the right products at the drop of a hat”.
On community engagement, Zahra credited Michelle Mullampy’s role in running more than 100 training sessions and sending 50 advisors on famils, saying the goal was to ensure advisors “feel connected” rather than “just feel like a transaction”.
Zahra also announced Envoyage was sponsoring a fully-funded place in CATO’s TIME Mentoring program, connecting mentees with experienced travel industry mentors, with further details to follow post-conference.
Global head of brand and marketing Allie Sparr added two further announcements: an overhaul of the iReach platform into a more advisor-friendly iReach2.0, and the launch of Envoyage Content Community (ECC), which will help members navigate stricter Meta penalties on unoriginal content through a content library. Sparr also revealed a consumer-facing website which is expected to be launched later this year.
Platinum sponsor presentations including those from Jen Pagett of Uniworld, Mitch Spencer from Globus with a focus on Avalon Waterways, plus presentations from The Travel Corporation’s Trafalgar and Contiki brands and Carnival.
The keynote was presented by Simon Kriss of Sovereign AI on how to build artificial intelligence literacy and develop adoption strategies that deliver real business outcomes.
His almost hour-long presentation covered a wealth of AI subjects, from its early beginnings to the road multiple roads ahead with the ultimate conclusion: Standing still is not an option.
