Travel Technology

Despite economic headwinds, 2023 is shaping up to be a game-changing year for business travel. Automation, machine learning, and virtual cards are helping business travelers and corporate travel planners add value and flexibility to the travel journey.

Amadeus wants to get ahead of the changing travel industry through investments in new technologies like next-generation distribution, payments, and hotel software. Getting back into the black will help.

The way customers interact with Sabre is changing, and the company’s future depends on how it responds to those changes. Sabre in 10 years could look a lot different than Sabre today.

No longer just a “nice to have,” ancillaries have become central to driving revenue for today’s airlines, hotels, cruises, and rail lines. But instead of adding more fees that travelers see as punitive — such as charging extra for carry-on bags — travel companies should focus on creating incredible add-on experiences that travelers are happy to pay for.

Are the channel wars coming back? The pandemic brought a wave of direct bookings but our latest survey data suggests that this trend may not last. Plus, we find surprising shifts in booking site usage and share among American travelers.

Hotelbeds is joining some other travel tech companies in looking outside for innovative ideas. It's not on the level of adding a venture capital arm as some major travel companies have done, but it follows a similar idea.

Sabre continues to diversify its business by adding technology products, a good investment as the travel industry slowly but surely changes over the years.

As blended travel comes of age, traditional segmentation is no longer effective. This year will require a major overhaul in e-commerce strategies to ensure the individualized needs and expectations of the blended traveler are addressed in a more relevant way throughout the customer journey.

Tek Travels, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian travel distribution platform TBO.com, has fully acquired BookaBed, a business-to-business (B2B) accommodation wholesaler for an undisclosed amount.

For years, we at Skift have talked about messaging & voice search being two potential new interfaces that help change travel booking, but not much has happened. Conversational AI is very likely going to change that.