New Amadeus research reveals travel industry transformation pace to accelerate

It finds plans to increase technology spend led by airports, corporate travel managers, and hotels

New global research from Amadeus has revealed a strong appetite for investment across the travel sector in 2024. 

The Travel Technology Investment Trends research, which looks at eight sectors across the end-to-end journey in 10 markets - found that nearly all (91%) travel companies surveyed said that they expect ‘moderate to aggressive’ increases in investment in their organisations this year, while two thirds (67%) of senior decision-makers in the sector expect to increase investment specifically in technology this year when compared to spend in 2023. 

Airports lead the way with an average percentage increase of 17%, followed by corporate travel managers with 15% and hotels on 14%. Airlines were fourth with a 13% increase, followed by travel agencies and travel payments on 13% and 12% respectively.

Smarter retailing, personalisation and driving digital efficiency are the top priorities for 2024 as full-service airlines expect to see an 18% increase in revenue from switching to modern retailing and are said to be optimistic that the transition to ‘Offer & Order’ will take place within the next four years.

NDC will be the top technology for implementation by leisure travel agents over the next 12 months as 40% of the agents surveyed said this is their focus.

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.

In the hospitality sector, 85% of respondents anticipate personalisation could help them to deliver more than 5% growth in incremental revenue.

It found that a third of corporate travel managers said its organisations intend to digitise the complete end-to-end expense management process over the coming 12 months, while a travel payments leaders confirmed its organisations are planning to better manage global payments flows by implementing payments orchestration in the next 12 months.

Decius Valmorbida, president, travel of Amadeus, said: “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, hospitality of Amadeus, added: “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.” 

The survey which was conducted online in Q4 of 2023 found the Top priority technologies for 2024 to be machine learning, data analytics, digital payments, digitalisation and cloud computing.

By 2029, respondents said their most important technologies will still be machine learning but this time it will be followed by Generative AI.

Cloud computing shoots to third most important, from last in 2024, followed by digital payments and data analytics as their smallest priority. 

The results of Travel Technology Investment Trends will be launched in Extended Reality in an Amadeus Lounge created in collaboration with Amadeus’ strategic partner Accenture.

During the first half of this year 2024, Amadeus will release in-depth reports examining each sector explored in the research.