The platform lets users describe their preferences, budget and travel style in plain language, returning tailored itineraries, destination picks and local recommendations. It draws on Tripadvisor’s repository of more than one billion reviews and eight million listings, with what the partners describe as enhanced customisation across the 15 destinations most popular among UAE travellers. Relevant Visa cardholder perks, including hotel discounts and car rental offers, surface dynamically within the conversation.

Rohit Garg, group head of retail products and chief digital officer of retail banking and wealth management at Emirates NBD, said: “By combining cutting-edge AI with world-class insights from our partners, we are empowering travellers with innovative and personalised digital experiences that simplifies the process for our customers around one of their biggest passion points.”

The product is framed internally as a lifestyle extension rather than a transactional banking feature, reflecting a pattern seen across Gulf and South-East Asian retail banks where the battle for primary customer relationships is increasingly fought through non-financial engagement. Emirates NBD points to internal data showing the average UAE resident plans seven trips annually and can spend up to three months researching a single trip, an observation consistent with the broader fragmentation of the online travel market following the retreat of several all-in-one itinerary platforms.

The open-access design, requiring neither an Emirates NBD account nor a Visa card to use the basic tool, is commercially notable. It widens the top of the acquisition funnel at the cost of diluting the product’s exclusivity as a cardholder benefit.

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