Amadeus has released its Travel Technology Investment Trends research report, which reveals that nearly all (91%) travel companies surveyed said that they expect ‘moderate to aggressive’ increases in investment in their organizations in 2024.
Methodology
Amadeus commissioned an online survey with an independent market research agency Opinium which concluded in Q4 2023. Over the course of the research, 1,253 of the leading travel technology decision makers were surveyed online across the world. Their expertise spans the airline (full-service and low-cost carriers), travel distribution (online travel agencies, business travel agencies and leisure travel agencies) as well as hotels, airports, corporate travel management and travel payment sectors. Senior decision makers from the UK, France, Germany, UAE, USA, Mexico, Brazil, India, China and Korea represented.
The research examines eight distinct sectors across the end-to-end journey in 10 markets. It benchmarks investment intentions and technology priorities for full-service and low-cost airlines, airports, hotels, travel sellers (online, business and leisure), corporations and travel payment departments across the world. It also captures their ambitions for the future.
Travel technology investment to increase across the industry
Over two thirds (67%) of senior decision makers in the sector expect to increase investment in technology this year compared to 2023 spend. By sector, the average increase in spending forecasted for 2024 are: 17% for airports; 15% for corporations; 14% for hotels; 13% for airlines; 13% for travel agencies; and 12% for the travel payment sector.
Key sector technology investment expectations
Embracing the potential of smarter retailing and personalization and driving digital efficiency are the top priorities for 2024. For example, full-service airlines expect to see an 18% increase in revenue from switching to modern retailing and are optimistic that the transition to ‘Offer & Order’ will take place within the next four years.
In total, 60% of airports expect to roll out biometrics across the complete airport experience in the next five years, including check-in, bag-drop, lounge and boarding. Additionally, some 85% of respondents from the hospitality sector anticipate that personalization could help them to deliver more than 5% growth in incremental revenue.
Alongside this, new distribution capability (NDC) is the top technology for implementation by leisure travel agents over the next 12 months – cited by 40% of the agents questioned. A third of corporate travel managers said their organizations intend to digitize the complete end-to-end expense management process over the coming 12 months. Finally, a third of travel payments leaders confirmed their organizations are planning to better manage global payment flows by implementing payment orchestration in the next 12 months.
Decius Valmorbida, president of travel at Amadeus, commented, “The findings match our on-the-ground experience with customers – every area of the travel industry is increasing investment in digital transformation. It’s crucial this spending delivers maximum impact and improves the traveler experience across the travel ecosystem. Existing technologies, such as biometrics, are already helping to make trips more contextualized and relevant. At the same time, the emergence of generative AI promises to increase the pace of change still further. Travelers will experience significant improvement to the on-trip experience in the coming years, with commitment, investment and collaboration across the ecosystem combining to make travel work better.”
Francisco Pérez-Lozao Rüter, president of hospitality at Amadeus, observed, “We know that the right technology is the key to connecting and unlocking the value of our travel ecosystem. Hoteliers, airlines and the whole sector are right to be ambitious about the next generation of technology that we are building together. Travel providers can see huge potential for a better customer experience as well as significant growth and control if they get their investment strategies right now. We can see clear ambition and commitment to evolution from this research and are excited to be at the forefront of this journey with our customers.”
Top priority technologies for 2024 and by 2029
Machine learning was perceived by travel industry leaders to be the most important technology to their businesses – both this year and in five years’ time. Data analytics and cloud are also seen as top investment priorities by all sectors.
The researchers found that the technologies perceived as most important in 2024 were – machine learning, data analytics, digital payments, digitalization and cloud computing. Similarly, the most important technologies for 2029 were thought to be machine learning, generative AI, cloud computing, digital payments and data analytics.
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