Travel technology investment trends

New global research from Amadeus, Travel Technology Investment Trends, has revealed a strong appetite for investment across the travel sector in 2024.

According to its findings, nearly all (91%) travel companies surveyed said that they expect ‘moderate to aggressive’ increases in investment in their organisations in 2024.

Launching today, the research – which examines eight distinct sectors across the end-to-end journey in ten markets – is said to be the first truly comprehensive work of its kind.

It benchmarks the investment intentions and technology priorities for global 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

Alongside business growth plans, the travel technology market looks bright for 2024. Over 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.

By sector, the average increase in spend forecasted for 2024 for airports is 17%, compared to 13% for the airlines, 14% for hotels and 15% for corporations.

Key sector technology investment expectations

Embracing the potential of smarter retailing, personalisation and driving digital efficiency are the top priorities for 2024. Some of the key takeaways from respondents include:

– 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.

– Some 85% of respondents from the hospitality sector anticipate that personalisation could help them to deliver more than 5% growth in incremental revenue.

Decius Valmorbida, president for travel at Amadeus, says: “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 traveller experience across the travel ecosystem.

“Existing technologies, such as biometrics, are already helping to make trips more contextualised and relevant. At the same time, the emergence of Generative AI promises to increase the pace of change still further.

“Travellers 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.”

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.