What Happens in 2025 Stays in 2026: You May Think AI Led the Stage, but the Cast Is Much Bigger

— Aash Shravah, VP of Sales & Client Success at Traxo

The most critical development in travel and tourism in 2025 and the one that will shape the industry most profoundly in 2026 and well beyond was the explosive acceleration of artificial intelligence across every corner of the travel ecosystem. While the internet revolutionized travel two decades ago, AI is positioned to have an impact 10 times greater, fundamentally reshaping how travel is searched, purchased, serviced, and experienced.  

The shift is already visible.  

Google and ChatGPT have reengineered how travelers ask questions and make decisions, and the entire industry is now urgently adapting to meet travelers where they increasingly are - inside AI-driven platforms. 

For airlines, this shift is both strategic and operational. Over the next 12 months, 56% say their top investment priority is maximizing value from data and generative AI. New tools such as Diya, SkyLink, and Otto are entering the market, while major players like Sabre are rolling out AI-native products like Mosaic Concierge IQ to enhance airline service models. Even flight operations are changing, with American Airlines using AI to help passengers make tight connections more reliably. 

Hotels are pushing equally hard, urging partners to integrate live rates and availability directly into AI search platforms so travelers can shop and book end-to-end without leaving an AI interface. Kayak's “AI Mode,” Revolut’s acquisition of Swifty, and Google’s launch of AI-powered Flight Deals and agentic bookings show how quickly AI-powered distribution is becoming mainstream – and this is just the short list. Google is now working with Booking.com, Expedia, Marriott, IHG, Choice, and Wyndham to bring hotel and flight bookings directly into AI Mode. 

In short, 2025 wasn’t just the beginning of AI in travel; it was the tipping point. AI isn’t becoming part of the travel industry; it is becoming the foundation on which the industry will operate for decades to come. 

— Ira Vouk, Hospitality technology consultant 

The biggest travel story of 2025 wasn’t a new OTA, a fancy loyalty perk, or yet another “revolutionary” booking widget. It was the moment AI stopped politely helping travelers plan trips and started actually booking them. Perplexity kicked the door open with Tripadvisor and Selfbook, letting travelers research a hotel and complete the transaction without ever touching a browser tab. Google immediately said, “hold my cappuccino,” and announced Gemini Trip Planning and AI Mode - same idea, but with Google-sized distribution. And then OpenAI announced its own upcoming app marketplace, where travel brands (not just the OTAs) will finally get a seat at the table.

In other words: 2025 was the year the booking funnel started quietly migrating from search engines to AI engines, and most of the industry is still pretending everything’s normal.

Meanwhile, MCP got real traction behind the scenes. We saw the first live direct MCP bookings - actual AI-to-hotel connections pulling rates, availability, and content without a middleman explaining why the “best available rate” somehow costs $80 more.

So yes, 2025 was the plot twist. In 2026 and beyond, AI becomes the interface, the funnel, and increasingly the place where loyalty lives. 

Websites will still exist… but they’ll be increasingly visited by AI bots doing the work on behalf of humans, not by the humans themselves... which means it’s now essential to understand AI search optimization and start yesterday on adapting your web presence for those bots. 

— James Lemon, Global Lead at Stripe 

The most critical development for travel in 2025 was agentic commerce becoming real inside mainstream Gen AI tools.

Stripe’s October announcement of its Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) with OpenAI, Etsy, and Shopify looks, on the surface, like a retail story. In reality, it’s the proof of concept for how consumers will soon discover, design, and book travel end‑to‑end inside their preferred AI assistants.

Consumers already use popular Gen AI tools for inspiration and shortlisting options. What’s been missing is the last mile: real‑time access to availability, rates, inventory, and secure payment in the same conversational flow. ACP shows how those pieces can be stitched together so an AI agent can not only recommend, but reliably transact on the user’s behalf.

For travel and tourism in 2026 and beyond, that unlocks an entirely new distribution channel: AI-native travel agencies in our pockets. Tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity, Gemini – plus new AI-native advisors we haven’t heard of yet – can assemble multi-supplier trips, reconcile preferences and constraints, and execute bookings seamlessly.

This will reshape how the product is packaged, how content and inventory are exposed, and who “owns” the customer relationship. Winners will be the brands and platforms that treat Gen AI agents as a primary sales channel, not a side experiment, and redesign their tech and commercial models accordingly. 

— Simon Lehmann, CEO & Co-Founder of AJL Atelier

For me, the most critical development in 2025 was the momentum created around DARM2025 in Destin—the Data & Revenue Management Conference. While not exclusively a travel event, its impact on the short-term rental sector was profound. It marked a clear shift toward a more mature, data-driven STR ecosystem, where technology, real-time intelligence, and revenue optimization practices are rapidly converging.

This year, we saw the industry move beyond simple pricing tools and toward integrated platforms capable of ingesting vast datasets—market signals, guest behavior, competitive intelligence—and using them to generate highly adaptive, automated decisions. The conversations at DARM2025 made it clear: STR operators, property managers, and tech providers alike now recognize that the next phase of growth hinges on better data quality, interoperability, and AI-powered forecasting.

Heading into 2026, this shift will define how the sector improves efficiency, profitability, and guest experience. Operators who embrace these innovations will gain a significant competitive advantage, while the industry overall becomes more professionalized, predictable, and resilient. 

— Artemii Kilmiashkin, CEO at DRCT

2025 will be remembered as the year the aviation and travel industry got ahead of itself on Agent AI. With airlines rushing to deploy “virtual agents” for customer service and itinerary planning, expectations soared — but the results didn’t. They struggled with context, couldn’t perform multi-step digital tasks reliably, and lacked even basic memory.

This disillusionment isn't a failure — it’s a necessary course correction. The overinvestment exposed critical technical gaps: lack of multimodality, poor reasoning, and absent continual learning. Real-world data backs it up — most AI agents flubbed over 85 percent of complex tasks. In an industry built on precision and trust, that’s unacceptable.

Now, the shift is on: from hype to hybrid. Companies are investing in systems that pair AI’s efficiency with human judgment, which is exactly what travel needs. Taste, empathy, and context are still human strengths. And instead of a bubble bursting, this reset can build long-term resilience.

We expected too much, too soon — but now we know the limits. In 2026 and beyond, the winners will be those who treat AI not as a miracle, but as a tool that needs time, oversight, and realism. 

— Tony Vardiman, VP of Global Payments & Operations at Cloudbeds 

The most critical development in travel and tourism in 2025 was the collision between two forces: the rapid rise of agentic AI shaping guest decisions, and the fragmented and uneven AI adoption across hotel technology platforms. Together, they set the trajectory for 2026 and beyond.

On the demand side, agentic AI became the new gateway to travel choices. Travelers increasingly relied on personal AI agents to discover destinations, compare rates, construct itineraries, negotiate add-ons, and, in many cases, complete the booking itself. These agents analyze thousands of variables instantly, including price, amenities, loyalty benefits, guest preferences, and historical satisfaction data. This shift moves intent formation and merchandising away from human browsing patterns and toward machine-optimized recommendation ecosystems. Hotels that do not present clean inventory, clear pricing, well-structured policies, and accessible APIs will be deprioritized before a guest ever enters the funnel.

On the supply side, hospitality systems struggled to keep pace. Throughout 2025, PMS, CRS, and operations platforms launched a flurry of AI features, yet lacked shared data models or strong integration standards. The result is a patchwork of intelligent tools that do not interoperate, leaving hoteliers unable to deliver the seamless and anticipatory experiences that agentic AI has now trained travelers to expect.

This mismatch, with sophisticated AI shaping guest intent while fragmented AI powers hotel operations, is the defining strategic challenge for the industry’s next chapter. The winners in 2026 and beyond will be the providers who bridge this gap by building interoperable AI frameworks that expose machine-readable inventory and allow autonomous agents to transact confidently, while also empowering staff with unified intelligence across the entire guest journey.

This convergence will reshape the competitive landscape of hospitality. 

— Barbara Moreno, Director of Global Product Marketing at Accelya Group 

The most important development in 2025 was AI finally shifting from theory to practice. After years of small pilots, airlines began using AI to unlock value from data long trapped across commercial, operational, and finance systems. This has not transformed the passenger experience overnight, but it is fundamentally changing what airlines can see and how quickly they can act. That shift sets the tone for 2026.

For the first time, teams could get real-time answers to questions that once took days of analysis — from identifying premium bookings without loyalty enrolment to spotting emerging fulfilment bottlenecks. Natural-language tools and order-level visibility made insight accessible to non-technical users, proving that AI can deliver practical, measurable improvements. That boost in confidence is what moves AI into meaningful production use next year.

Commercially, this momentum pushed the industry to stop debating Offer and Order and start planning for it as core infrastructure. Our research shows 44 percent of airlines expect to transition to Full Modern Retailing Platforms by 2028, making 2026 a genuine stepping stone rather than a talking point. It won’t be the finish line, but it’s the year airlines start running the race. Once Offer and Order programmes are underway, the industry can deliver retailing enhanced by AI that is genuinely joined-up and passenger-first - not just promised, but finally achievable. 

— Eric Dumas, CEO of TPConnects

The Distribution and the New Distribution Capability (NDC) debate is over. It is now officially the Past, and execution is already in motion. The majority has already embraced the change, so even though TMC is still debating, the train has left the station and is accelerating. Like anything coming to maturity, evolution is continuous to resolve corporate productivity as well as airline evolution. Today, the reality is that we deploy an NDC solution for an airline, Astra NDC, in 12 weeks. 

This year, our aggregator platform (IRIS) has added more airlines, including Low-cost carriers (LCC), to the mix than ever. So, it is looking more of a Shinkansen/TGV train than the slow train some might still try to convince you. 

If it weren’t for the lengthy, cumbersome RFP processes, the Past would have gone by faster, but the good news is that indeed the distribution path has witnessed a major acceleration, thanks to progressive airlines that have reached beyond 50 percent of adoption. 

The Present is about mixing intelligence and artificial to enable productivity gain in the booking process: Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn't replacing travel agents - it's replacing the tedious process of researching and booking while amplifying what humans are best at - complex problem solving and relationship building. The winners in 2026 won't be those resisting AI, but those integrating it intelligently. And yes, we did start to deploy our Artificial Intelligence (AI) -TripCaptain 12 months ago, and this is very promising. Productivity optimization is going to become a key topic, and AI will be a use case to bring tremendous value for everybody. 

And finally, the Future is Offer, Order, Settle, and Deliver (OOSD). This is what will revolutionize the air retail industry, bringing it on par with the technological sector. Yes, the standard is still evolving, and the transition will be complex, but it is unstoppable. Why? Because systems designed in the 1970s simply cannot serve the 2030 customer needs. 

When you combine AI, exponential transaction volume growth, and modern retailing expectations, there is no choice whether to adopt the One Order concept. Airlines willing to take the calculated risk today will lead the human evolution of air travel. The rest will struggle to keep up.

— Sarosh Waghmar, Founder and Chief Product Officer of Spotnana

In 2025, airline retailing crossed a real threshold: Offers and Orders moved from theory to production. Finnair’s creation of the world’s first IATA One Order–compliant ‘native order’ showed that a trip can be managed as one digital order instead of a patchwork of PNRs, e-tickets, and separate service documents. That change matters most after the purchase—when flights are delayed, itineraries are re-booked, refunds are issued, or ancillaries need to be modified. 

In 2026 and beyond, order-based travel will enable richer, real-time offers (such as dynamic bundles, personalization, and continuous pricing) and dramatically better servicing and settlement. It will also compel TMCs, agencies, booking tools, and distribution providers to modernize around APIs and unified data so they can service orders with far less manual work. 

The companies that win won’t just sell more content—they’ll remove friction during change and give travelers and travel managers transparent control from shopping through expense. 

— Jorge Díaz, CEO of AirGateway

In previous years, we have observed that without commercial or content differentiation between EDIFACT and NDC, adoption naturally falls behind. While sufficient differentiation acts as the trigger to secure the necessary initial volume, it is not where the momentum of adoption for TMCs sustains itself.

True adoption is catalyzed by the workflows beyond basic booking capability. This requires not only servicing and access to special fares, but also the broader ecosystem that supports the agent: traveler profiles, seamless back-office integration, and critically, the availability of NDC in the Online and Corporate Booking Tools of their choice.

Consequently, the defining development of 2025 in NDC has been the shift toward this "deeper adoption." At AirGateway, we have focused on empowering specialized travel sellers with a stable booking experience that supports these complex needs.

— Michael Duffy, VP of Product & Innovation at Grasp Technologies

I think the most consequential development in travel (specifically corporate travel) of 2025 and even 2024 was the deep operational convergence between travel tech and TMC. There are multiple examples in the last 12–24 months where a TMC has merged, acquired, or made a strategic alliance with a travel technology company. Meaning that it is more than a partnership; it is a platform-level integration.

For the first time, booking, servicing, payments, and data governance begin functioning as a near single operating layer rather than a chain of loosely coupled systems.

The downstream impact into 2026 and beyond is profound:

• TMC operating models will branch. Some will become large-scale platform operators optimized around automation and margins; others will specialize in high-touch, verticalized service where differentiation is human and consultative, not procedural.

• Payments shift from the back office to the control layer. With virtual cards, guest travel, and policy enforcement embedded at the point of booking, payments become a real-time risk and compliance engine, not just settlement infrastructure. 

• Data moves from reporting to orchestration. Unified booking to payment to expense data enables continuous forecasting, anomaly detection, duty-of-care automation, and AI-driven decisioning and fundamentally changes how corporates manage travel performance.

Corporate travel is shifting from “connected tools” to travel commerce platforms. The open question for 2026 is how corporates balance the efficiency of one-stop platforms with the flexibility and independence of best-in-class tools. Perhaps this will mean a rise in the travel integrator to be the key for corporates to maintaining that independence and flexibility. 

— Martijn van der Voort, Travel Consultant

The most critical development in travel and tourism in 2025: the clear entry of regulated FinTech and global payment networks into the centre of travel commerce. It challenges the long-standing assumption that travel distribution must sit downstream of specialist intermediaries rather than upstream of money movement, trust, and compliance infrastructure.

What shifted in 2025 was not experimentation but execution. Capital One for Business Travel continued to bring booking, payment, and expense into one regulated environment. Revolut expanded travel and spend capabilities that narrowed the gap between consumer travel, corporate purchasing, and financial control. Blockskye advanced a payments-first model that treats travel as a financial transaction with embedded settlement and auditability rather than a booking workflow. Looked at together, these steps signal a structural realignment rather than isolated innovation.

The strongest marker was Mastercard’s Agent Pay deployment. This was a live application of AI-assisted agents working inside a global payment network, enabling search, decisioning, and transaction completion within one controlled environment. The partnership with Majid Al Futtaim and Dataiera shows how autonomous commerce can operate where identity, authorisation, fraud controls, and settlement already exist at scale.

The significance lies in the quiet reallocation of control. Traditional travel technology stacks optimise shopping and servicing while treating payment as a final step. FinTech-led models invert that logic. When the payment layer manages compliance, identity, and settlement, it becomes rational to pull discovery and fulfilment towards that layer. Agentic capability then becomes a native function of the payment network rather than an add-on to legacy distribution.

Looking into 2026 and beyond, the likely consequence is a shift in ownership of the customer relationship. Regulated financial platforms are positioned to deliver consumer-grade experiences inside B2B environments with embedded policy, audit, and duty-of-care controls. In that setting, travel becomes a purchasable category within agentic commerce rather than a protected vertical, and the effect will be most visible in corporate travel.

— Knut Erik Rief, VP of Product Management at Onyx CenterSource

Personally, I wouldn’t say that there was one most critical event. Rather, I would say that we see a few things starting to come into increased maturity and focus. The digitization of the travel experience is finding new momentum with the introduction of capabilities like agentic AI that open up opportunities across a variety of segments. 

We see continued evolution in effective payment options; several countries have already or are planning to eliminate the use of checks in 2025/6 – paving the way for expanded use cases for methods like VCC. Stablecoins have surfaced as a yet unrefined opportunity for a world with high volumes of relatively small cross-border transactions. 

Finally, we have seen how politics impact travel with a year of high political volatility directly impacting the travel sector in the world's largest travel market. With the World Cup coming in 2026, there will be interesting games to follow, not only on the pitch.

— Tomotaka Hirabayashi, EY Japan Partner and Committee member of Japan Tourism Agency

The conflicts between tourists and residents that began to emerge in 2025, so-called demonstrations and actions against overtourism, will continue to accelerate in 2026 due to the accelerated growth of the tourism market.

While aiming for economic growth through tourism, the perspective of destination management will become more important than ever.

The year 2026 will be the first step in a world where tourism destinations, industries, and residents will be enriched by not just tighter regulation by the authorities, but also by more innovative, data-driven, technology-enabled dispersion of tourists and deeper communication with residents.

— Miriam Fois, Sales Director at BCD Travel

2025 marked pivotal changes in business travel, with sustainability emerging as the defining theme for 2026 and beyond. Europe and APAC have led the way by enforcing mandatory carbon reporting for travel providers and requiring green certifications for hotels and airlines. These measures go beyond compliance—they’re reshaping how travel is planned and sold. Expect carbon-neutral itineraries to become mainstream, airlines to accelerate biofuel adoption, and early signs of electric short-haul flights. Regenerative tourism, focused on restoring ecosystems and supporting local communities, will gain traction.

The urgency is clear: travel accounts for up to 11 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, with aviation a major contributor. Meeting the 2030 climate goals makes sustainability reporting a business imperative. Travelers are driving this shift—over 70 percent are willing to pay more for greener options. Brands lacking authentic credentials risk losing market share. Sustainability has moved from an ethical choice to a competitive advantage.

In 2026, the focus will shift to action: trajectory-based emissions management, sustainable aviation fuel partnerships, and embedding sustainability metrics into booking tools. Visibility at the point of sale will continue to build trust, defining the future of business travel through accountability, innovation, and shared environmental responsibility.

— Mohan Das, CEO & Founder of NuFlights

I believe the most critical development that will shape the travel industry in 2026 and beyond is the commencement of Air Taxi (eVTOL) services for rapid airport transfers. This development fundamentally alters the definition of 'door-to-door' travel.

We will rapidly see airlines integrate this new ground transport layer into their core offerings. It will likely be treated as a premium amenity for First/Business Class passengers (similar to chauffeur service) and as a high-value ancillary sale for all other customers.

The crucial element for the booking experience centers on distribution: How will this be sold? If travel agents booking a flight from London to Dubai can seamlessly and efficiently book the air taxi transfer directly through the airline's NDC channel, this creates an unprecedented opportunity. This ability to integrate and sell the full vertical journey is the key to improving profitability for the travel agency community.

While events like Arabian Travel Mart (ATM) and Dubai Airshow remain vital, the integration of eVTOL technology into the core booking flow represents a genuine technological disruption that will redefine airline ancillary sales and agency revenue streams.

— Raquel Portillo Escrich, NDC Product Manager at Air Europa 

One of the most significant developments in 2025 was the rapid adoption of AI-driven systems across the travel industry. These solutions are now capable of managing the entire traveler journey, turning fragmented processes into seamless experiences. 

Many airlines and agencies integrated these tools into their websites to streamline operations and deliver a smoother customer experience.

Another major shift was in sales channels, driven by generational behavior. While older travelers still rely on OTAs, websites, and loyalty programs, Millennials have embraced mobile-first booking and price comparison. Gen Z and Alpha have completely changed the game: they book directly through social platforms, such as TikTok, inspired by influencers and content creators, and attracted by instant checkout. 

The traditional flow (search, compare, book) is now disappearing, replaced by a fast, frictionless process where personalization and API connectivity are essential.

Looking ahead to 2026, these trends will accelerate. AI will move from support to full automation, enabling proactive itinerary management and hyper-personalized offers. At the same time, social commerce will become a mainstream booking channel, forcing brands to rethink distribution strategies and invest in technology that connects inventory, pricing, and personalization in real time. Those who adapt will lead; those who don’t risk falling behind in a market that values speed, simplicity, and relevance.