What Big OTAs Are Betting On: AI and Experiences as the Next Frontier
At a WiT panel, executives from Booking.com, Expedia, Trip.com, and Webjet discussed AI's role in OTAs. Expedia's AI-drafted responses are accepted over 75% of the time; Trip.com's AI Trip Planner handles about 18% of itinerary planning. OTAs collectively process nearly half a trillion USD in transactions annually. AI excels in discovery, but trust remains crucial for transactions. Experience bundling shows potential, e.g., Trip.com sold ~20,000 hotel+concert packages in Hong Kong.
Impact and considerations
OTAs are integrating AI into operations while betting on experience bundling and B2B to stay competitive.
Key points
- Expedia's AI-drafted responses are accepted without edits over 75% of the time.
- Trip.com's AI Trip Planner handles about 18% of itinerary planning volume.
- Four OTAs collectively process nearly half a trillion USD in transactions annually.
- AI excels in discovery, but trust remains crucial for transactions.
- Trip.com sold ~20,000 hotel+concert packages in Hong Kong.
Sources and time
- Primary source
- Web in Travel
- Other sources
- 0
- First source publication
- 2 Sept 2026, 15:52
- Page published
- 8 Sept 2026, 19:14
- Last updated
- 2 Sept 2026, 15:52
- Original links
- Web in Travel：What the big OTAs are betting on as the next frontier - WiT (opens in a new tab)Primary source · en · Published 2 Sept 2026, 15:52