According to Agoda’s CEO Omri Morgenshtern and CTO Idan Zalzberg, “Travel deserves its own agent, and its own soul.” Speaking at WiT Singapore, they emphasized that travel’s intricacy renders it unsuitable as a secondary function for a general-purpose assistant.
The event highlighted the tension between mass tourism and local character. A writer who visited Malacca, a World Heritage City in Malaysia, described how the city’s heritage heart has become overrun with tourists, mostly from one market. Trishaws decked with Hello Kitty caricatures and stalls selling trinkets catering to Chinese tastes have replaced the local character.
The future of travel agents
As AI transforms the travel industry, the role of travel agents is evolving. Klook’s co-founder, Eric Gnock Fah, noted that agentic commerce works best for standardized products, but experiences like dive trips or visits to elephant sanctuaries are unique. AirAsia’s co-founder, Tony Fernandes, was blunt: a generic agent still needs travel content, which is controlled by airlines and hotels.
The path to the customer is also shifting. Skyscanner’s CEO Bryan Batista said brands must invest across social media, short videos, partnerships, and brand building, as demand spreads out. The front end is up for grabs, but the money is in the back end, according to Etraveli Group’s CEO Mathias Hedlund.
Hedlund argued that consumer research only reveals current thinking, based on today’s options. He has seen no evidence that LLMs will solve the deep back-end challenges of flights, such as sourcing from airlines and GDSs, pricing tickets, fulfillment, and customer service. Etraveli focuses on this essential work, achieving 20% margins, envied by many travel brands.
In an AI-driven world, price matters less than access to the absolute best global content, bookable with quality and speed. Hedlund is not concerned about new storefronts emerging, as Etraveli will power them. AI is already reducing Etraveli’s costs, enabling growth without additional hires, replacing administrative roles with B2B and AI talent.
Fraud is a significant industry concern, often handled as a separate function that rejects too many legitimate customers. Etraveli now sells its fraud engine, Precision, as a module, generating €15 million for one OTA.
Success in travel’s transformation requires starting from scratch, not adding AI to existing systems. Ixigo’s co-founder, Rajnish Kumar, warned that incumbents often layer new technology onto legacy systems instead of reinventing themselves. Ixigo created a “Newco inside the old company,” rebuilding its app from scratch to be AI-compatible. Agents now check in passengers, monitor for cheaper fares, and reconfirm hotel bookings.
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Kumar said the hardest part was creating urgency while the company was still thriving. Mews founder Richard Valtr took a similar approach, merging product managers, designers, and engineers into one role, the “product builder,” achieving an eight-fold productivity boost.
The joy of planning
Booking.com’s managing director for Asia Pacific, Laura Houldsworth, argued that travel has become essential for wellbeing, not just a luxury. Booking.com’s research found that 70% of travelers enjoy planning, and Houldsworth challenged the industry to increase that to 90%. However, 64% of APAC travelers already use AI for trip planning, highlighting the need to balance technology and human experience.
Skyscanner’s Batista noted that more than half of its users arrive unsure of their destination or dates. The company’s Explore with AI tool responds in natural language, compares destinations, and suggests optimal travel times. Skyscanner is also moving into B2B, providing flight search data to airlines for pricing and route timing decisions.
Crisis is the new normal in travel. AirAsia’s Fernandes described how jet fuel prices doubled overnight, forcing the airline to cut capacity by 20% and raise fares by 30%. Despite this, demand held, and AirAsia recently had a record sales day.
Jazeera Airways’ CEO Bharathan Pasupathi described operating an airline in a war zone, relocating aircraft to Saudi Arabia and using buses to transport passengers across borders. He expects more airline closures and consolidation if the Middle East situation persists and fuel prices rise.
Klook’s Gnock Fah listed the shocks Asia has faced, from protests to cross-strait tensions. Diversifying across destinations is key to survival. Skyscanner’s Batista said travel leaders have never faced such a period, with a global health crisis, economic challenges, and rapid technological change. His approach is “firm plans, held loosely,” with weekly adjustments replacing long-term strategies.
Creating new markets, not just competing for share, is vital. Fernandes noted that 60% of AirAsia’s routes were previously unserved, creating new flyers and markets. He plans to connect secondary cities directly, bypassing Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Similarly, Hotel 101 Global’s CEO Hannah Yulo-Luccini aims to create a new market of hotel guests, adopting the low-cost airline model.