The travel agent may have gained a few clever new digital colleagues, but one decidedly old-fashioned principle remains firmly in charge: the price had better be right.
A major new global study of more than 750 travel sellers shows artificial intelligence moving rapidly into the everyday sales toolkit, even as agents double down on rate parity, reliable hotel content and the enduring importance of global distribution systems.
For hotels, destinations and other travel brands, the message is refreshingly uncomplicated. Technology may be changing the shopfront, but accuracy, consistency and useful content still decide what gets sold.
The 2026 Global Travel Agent Report, released by Amadeus on 29 September, surveyed travel sellers using the industry’s three major providers, Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport. Takedown Research conducted the research, weighting results to ensure equal representation across the regions surveyed. Comparable studies were undertaken in 2024 and 2022.
GDS use is growing, not disappearing
Despite predictions that traditional distribution systems would eventually be shoved into the technological attic, the evidence suggests travel sellers have other ideas.
Forty-three per cent of agents surveyed said they were using global distribution systems more than they did in 2024. On average, agents access the platforms more than six times each day and remain connected for almost eight hours.
Asia-Pacific is setting the pace, with 47% of agents reporting increased GDS use, followed by EMEA at 44% and the Americas at 42%.
It is a useful corrective to the recurring prediction that established distribution technology is about to be swept aside by the next shiny object.
In practice, the travel trade appears to be doing what it has always done rather well: adopting the latest technology while keeping the systems that reliably deliver business.
Rate parity remains the deal-breaker
If there is one statistic hotel revenue managers should pin above the desk, it is 94%.
That is the proportion of surveyed agents who rated rate parity as highly important.
More pointedly, 63% said they would actively book away from a property if they believed its pricing was inconsistent.
In other words, a hotel may have a rooftop infinity pool, a celebrity chef, a signature cocktail and enough designer cushions to furnish a small republic, but if the agent discovers a better public rate elsewhere, all that carefully cultivated charm can disappear remarkably quickly.
Hotel content is scarcely less important.
Some 90% of agents said they rely on hotel description fields when comparing and recommending properties. Those descriptions, often treated as routine database maintenance, are therefore nothing of the sort. They are part of the sales process.
Incorrect room details, outdated facilities or thin descriptions are no longer merely untidy housekeeping. They can cost business.
Sustainability moves into the mainstream
Sustainability is also becoming part of that information equation.
The research found 88% of agents believe sustainability matters to customers when choosing a provider, while the absence of relevant credentials can negatively influence purchasing decisions, particularly in Asia-Pacific and EMEA.
For suppliers, that places a premium on providing clear, specific and credible information.
Loose claims about being “green” may look handsome in a brochure, but increasingly sophisticated travellers and travel advisers are likely to want something more substantial: recognised certification, measurable initiatives or independently verifiable practices.
AI moves from novelty to working tool
The study also strongly indicates that artificial intelligence has moved beyond experimentation for a sizeable majority of travel sellers.
More than three in four agents surveyed said AI is now part of their selling toolkit, helping with research, content comparisons, recommendations and productivity.
Conversational AI platforms including ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini are the leading use case across the regions surveyed, with EMEA recording the highest use at 62%.
Globally, automated fare-search tools and AI itinerary suggestion systems are each being used by 29% of agents.
Asia-Pacific again appears among the more enthusiastic adopters of advanced AI applications. The report says 36% of APAC agents use AI for itinerary suggestions, 32% for CRM recommendations and 21% for fraud or quality-related tools.
The Americas remains noticeably more cautious.
Some 35% of agents in the Americas said they were not using AI to help sell travel, although Amadeus suggests that could change as the technology becomes more thoroughly embedded in everyday workflows.
That distinction matters.
The travel trade is not marching into AI adoption at one universal pace, nor should every shiny new application automatically be treated as a revolution before breakfast.
What matters more is where agents believe AI can genuinely save time: pricing and upselling suggestions, hotel recommendations, destination inspiration, and faster comparison of increasingly complex travel content.
The commercially useful AI may therefore prove to be less about replacing an adviser’s judgement and more about giving that adviser better information, faster.
GDS advertising gets closer to the sale
Another intriguing part of the research concerns advertising within the GDS environment.
Around two-thirds of surveyed agents said GDS advertising influences their buying behaviour, while one in four said they had booked a hotel directly in response to an advertisement displayed within the system.
The biggest reported booking trigger was an exclusive GDS-only offer, selected by 57% of agents.
That was followed by verified rate parity at 36%, loyalty benefits at 34% and customer-review summaries at 34%.
This has important implications for hotel and destination marketers.
The advertising most likely to attract an adviser is not necessarily the loudest trumpet. It is the one that provides something commercially useful precisely when that adviser is assembling the booking.
Dan Ciocoiu, Head of Advertising Solutions at Amadeus, said:
“Effective advertising is no longer simply about being visible. It is about delivering the right offer and content at the point when an agent is ready to act. Our advertising solutions combine broad multi-channel reach with targeted insights and industry expertise, helping travel brands capture attention, build familiarity and influence booking decisions.”
Amadeus says its travel advertising offering can place advertising across the major GDS environments, allowing brands to reach sellers during the booking workflow. Its wider Travel Platform connects travel suppliers and sellers across air, hotel, rail, mobility, cruise and destination-experience content.
One important qualification
However, publishers and industry readers should have some context.
Amadeus published the survey, which has a direct commercial interest in travel distribution, GDS advertising, and technology solutions.
That does not invalidate the results. The research involved more than 750 sellers across Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport and was independently fielded by Takedown Research. But the findings should properly be described as results from surveyed travel sellers, rather than automatically presented as definitive behaviour across every travel adviser worldwide.
That distinction strengthens rather than weakens the story.
The old rules have not disappeared
For travel brands, the practical lesson is considerably less futuristic than the AI headlines may suggest.
Yes, advisers are adopting artificial intelligence.
Yes, AI is increasingly becoming embedded in research, recommendation and selling workflows.
And yes, advertising is moving closer to the transaction itself.
But the foundations of successful travel retailing remain remarkably familiar.
Offer a competitive and consistent rate.
Keep product information accurate.
Give travel advisers material they can actually sell.
Provide credible sustainability information.
Make the proposition easy to understand.
Then use technology to put that proposition in front of the adviser at precisely the right moment.
The machinery is getting smarter.
The commercial rules, reassuringly, remain very human.
By: Prae Lee – © 2026.
Read Time: 5 minutes.
Author Bio:
You can tell a great deal about a person by how they meet a Bangkok morning. Prae Lee doesn’t charge into it; she glides, unhurried, as if time itself has agreed to behave. She carries a calm assurance, the sort earned by knowing both your roots and your destination.
A graduate of Chulalongkorn University, she took her business degree with quiet pride, then polished it further in Singapore and Australia. Travel didn’t change her. It refined what was already there: curiosity, discipline, grace.
Back in Bangkok, she slipped modern life into the family business, mastering social media with an instinct for listening and selling with Thai gentleness.
Prae never seeks attention, yet everything she touches grows brighter.
Now with Stephen’s EGT Media, she writes with authenticity, drawing on culture, travel and a rare, steady confidence.
