As Web in Travel (WiT) marks its 20th anniversary, the industry’s sharpest minds have swapped crystal balls for conference microphones, mapping out a future that promises exhilarating innovation and sobering reality checks.
This year’s milestone isn’t merely about looking back on two decades of disruption and digital evolution. It’s about throwing the spotlight forward — and doing so with the kind of candour that makes airline CEOs squirm and hotel GMs glance nervously at their HR rosters.
WiT has brought together three heavyweight thinkers whose careers have danced across technology, entrepreneurship, and the gritty realities of tourism. Morris Sim, entrepreneur-turned-educator and one of the early champions of social travel marketing; Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, aviation’s resident truth-teller and principal at T2Impact; and Deep Kalra, founder and group chairman of MakeMyTrip, the man who almost single-handedly put India’s online travel industry on the map.
The result? A compelling blueprint for the next 20 years — one that insists on rebuilding trust, rethinking infrastructure, and remembering that at its core, travel is still about humanity, not algorithms.
Trend 1: Travel as the Antidote to Digital Isolation — Morris Sim
For Morris Sim, the real currency of travel isn’t loyalty points or a room upgrade, it’s transformation. “Truth has become contextual. Nations don’t need firewalls anymore; people build them themselves,” he observes, referring to the social media echo chambers now shaping perception.
Sim warns that authenticity is being crowded out in a world curated through Instagram filters. “When you follow someone’s itinerary from Instagram and encounter things they didn’t mention, that’s where the world opens up.”
But he’s not simply waxing poetic. Sim sees “quiet luxury”, understated elegance and personalised service as the next hospitality frontier. Forget chandeliers the size of minor planets; tomorrow’s premium traveller values craftsmanship, cultural depth, and attentive staff who remember your name without peeking at a booking screen.
The snag? A staffing crisis that automation can’t fix. “We have more jobs than people willing to take them. Not everything can be automated. We need to make this industry a career people aspire to; not one they flee.”
Trend 2: The AI Reckoning, Timothy O’Neil-Dunne
If Sim is the philosopher-poet of travel, O’Neil-Dunne is its uncompromising diagnostician. His forecast is blunt: the next 20 years will belong to AI travel agents, and traditional brands must fight to remain relevant.
“We’ve made it so difficult for consumers to buy travel… with all the add-ons and opaque pricing… that they’ve lost faith in brands,” he says. “AI agents will be trusted more than suppliers themselves. That’s a steep hill for many to climb.”
Airlines, in particular, get both barrels. “They haven’t grasped what real e-commerce looks like,” he laments, pointing to outdated retail strategies and decades-old booking systems that have been patched and propped up like heritage buildings.
His prescription? Tear down the legacy infrastructure and build tech that supports intelligent, contextual agents. “Hope is not a strategy,” he quips, a line that could be the rallying cry for the next wave of travel technology innovators.
Trend 3: India’s Tourism Future Rests on Sustainability — Deep Kalra
Deep Kalra’s vision is as vast as the country he champions. With its kaleidoscopic culture, heritage, and landscapes, India could easily claim a spot among the world’s top tourism powerhouses — but only if it gets sustainability right.
“India has all the makings of a top global destination,” he says. “But we need to build model destinations, fix last-mile connectivity, and retain visitors for two to three days with meaningful experiences.”
He’s armed with some sobering statistics: India’s sustainable tourism market, valued at $37 million, could grow to $216 million in the next decade. Yet only 1–2% of current tourism qualifies as genuinely sustainable.
Kalra advocates integrating carrying capacity into planning, warning that overtourism is already straining some hotspots. He also sees the rise of mixed reality experiences, slow travel, and a growing appetite for authenticity. “Urbanisation will drive a craving for silence and authenticity. Travel’s emotional currency can’t be digitised — it’s what makes the experience transformative.”
A Call to Action at WiT Singapore 2025
These aren’t mere musings for the media. They will form the backbone of WiT Singapore 2025, running 6–8 October at Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, where global travel tech leaders will gather under the banner “Fueling the Next 20.”
Expect discussions that swing from the complex engineering of back-end infrastructure to the softer — but no less critical — art of winning back traveller trust. Topics will include AI integration, sustainability frameworks, and the future of customer experience.
As Siew Hoon Yeoh, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Web in Travel, says, “We’ve spent 20 years chronicling the evolution of travel; now it’s time to shape what comes next. The leaders we’ve interviewed aren’t just forecasting trends; they’re issuing a challenge. If we want travel to remain meaningful, we must rebuild trust, rethink infrastructure, and reimagine what it means to serve the traveller of tomorrow.”
Why This Matters
The collective message is clear: the next 20 years of travel won’t be about faster planes or fancier apps. They will be about confronting the human, technological, and environmental truths we’ve been too comfortable ignoring.
Whether it’s rehumanising the hospitality workforce, creating AI systems that travellers trust, or ensuring that sustainability becomes more than a marketing buzzword, the industry’s future is in those willing to challenge old models.
As WiT blows out its 20 candles, the celebration feels less like a nostalgic look back — and more like the lighting of a torch to guide travel into an uncertain but exhilarating future.
By Kanda Limw
