WhatsApp for travel agencies: AI package replies and lead flows

Most travel enquiries in Bangladesh now start in chat. Someone sees an Umrah package on your Facebook Page or a Cox's Bazar offer in a boosted post, and the messages arrive: "price koto?", "December e Bangkok package ache?", "visa er jonno ki ki lagbe?". Before a consultant can quote, every one of those chats needs the same four facts: where, when, how many people and what budget. SaleMag gives your agency WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram one team inbox and an AI agent that answers from your own package documents, so consultants spend their time on travellers who are ready to talk numbers.

Why do travel agencies lose enquiries in chat?

Travel agencies lose chat enquiries because the questions are repetitive, they arrive on several apps at once, and the timing is uneven. Enquiries pile up after a boosted post or before Eid, winter holidays and Hajj registration, then go quiet. The table shows the common problems and what each one costs the agency.

How does WhatsApp for travel agencies work in SaleMag?

SaleMag connects a travel agency's WhatsApp number, Facebook Page, Instagram account and Telegram bot to one shared inbox, where an AI agent answers routine questions and a flow collects trip details before a consultant quotes. WhatsApp connects through the official WhatsApp Business API.

A travel chatbot is an AI agent on WhatsApp or Messenger that answers package, price and visa-document questions from an agency's own files and passes ready-to-book travellers to a consultant. The table shows what SaleMag does with typical traveller messages.

What should go in a travel agency chatbot's knowledge base?

A travel agency chatbot's knowledge base should hold everything a new consultant would read in their first week: packages, prices, visa checklists, policies and office details. SaleMag's AI chatbot accepts PDF, Word, Excel, CSV and text files up to 20 MB each, web pages, sitemaps, plain text and FAQ pairs.

• Package documents: itineraries, hotel names, inclusions and exclusions, departure dates and validity dates.
• Price sheets: one row per package and tier, with the date the price was set.
• Visa and document checklists: one per destination, written the way your consultants explain them.
• Policies: booking deposit, cancellation and refund rules, as text the AI can quote.
• Office details: branch addresses, hours and the consultants' working days.

Then write the instructions. Tell the AI to answer only from these sources, to never quote a price or date that is not in them, and to hand over custom itineraries, group requests, complaints and anything about a booking already made. The AI does not check live airfares or seat availability, so a price in an old file is the price it will repeat. Update the sheet when your prices change.

Can a chatbot answer Hajj and Umrah package questions?

Yes. SaleMag's AI answers Hajj and Umrah information questions from the package details you upload: tiers, the hotel and its distance from the Haram as you describe it, inclusions, departure dates and the documents to prepare. It answers in Bangla, Banglish or English.

Hajj registration, visa rules and quotas change, and the customer is making a large decision. Instruct the AI to say that a consultant will confirm final requirements and price, and to hand over as soon as the customer wants to reserve a seat.

How do you qualify a tour package lead in chat?

In SaleMag, a tour package lead is qualified by a flow in the automation flow builder that asks destination, travel month, travellers and budget, saves the answers and assigns a consultant. The AI answers questions but does not fill in contact fields or tag anyone by itself, so the qualification step is a flow.

1. A keyword such as "package", "Umrah" or "tour", or a first message from a new contact, starts the flow.
2. The flow asks: destination, travel month, number of adults and children, and budget per person. Each answer is saved.
3. An update step writes the answers to contact fields, and a tag such as "Umrah 2027" or "Thailand" marks the interest.
4. The flow assigns the chat to the consultant who handles that destination.

Your consultant opens a chat that already shows what the traveller wants. Track the next stages with tags and inbox statuses, for example "quoted" and "documents pending", so anyone can see where an enquiry stands. The AI lead qualification agent page covers this pattern in more depth.

How does handover to a travel consultant work?

SaleMag's AI hands a chat to a travel consultant when it cannot answer from your documents, when the customer asks for a person, or when your instructions tell it to. The team is notified, and after a consultant replies the bot stays quiet in that chat for 15 minutes. This is human handover.

Give each consultant the agent role so they see only chats assigned to them or still unassigned, and give your inbox lead the moderator role to see and reassign every chat. Internal notes keep context when a chat moves from the Hajj desk to the outbound tours desk. Reports show first-response and resolution times per agent.

How should travel agencies send package offers on WhatsApp?

Travel agencies should send new package offers on WhatsApp only to people who opted in, as Meta-approved templates targeted by interest tag. A WhatsApp broadcast of a new-package announcement falls in the marketing category. Meta decides the category and charges per message.

• Target by tag: send the December Umrah group only to contacts tagged "Umrah", and the Bangkok winter package to "Thailand".
• Schedule around demand: before Eid holidays, the winter school break and Hajj registration windows.
• Use bulk SMS through a Bangladeshi gateway for contacts who are not on WhatsApp, and email for long itineraries.

Collect opt-in when a traveller first writes to you, and stop sending to anyone who asks.

What does SaleMag not do for travel agencies?

SaleMag does not book flights or hotels, process visas, connect to airline or hotel systems, or collect payments. Consultants confirm final prices, book tickets and hotels, process visas, take payments and handle changes to confirmed trips. SaleMag's job is to make sure no enquiry waits, every consultant starts with the facts, and interested travellers hear about the next package.

Get started

Upload your three most-asked packages and one visa checklist, build the four-question flow, and test the bot in the chat playground before linking it to your number. Create an account or compare plans.