Artificial intelligence is a net positive for travel, according to a show-of-hands after a lively debate which rounded off the Technology Summit at this year’s WTM London.
The role of AI in travel was debated by two teams of three. Those agreeing with the proposition – AI is the enemy of travel – were led by Stephen Joyce from Protect Group, with the dissenters led by Christian Watts of Magpie Travel.
Reservations about AI were that it is not accurate and therefore not trustworthy. As Joyce noted, trips curated by AI “remove the magical human chaos of being somewhere new”.
In contrast, the advocates of AI pointed out that travellers are already using AI, despite the well-documented errors. AI liberates people working in the industry from admin and can help suggest alternative destinations and improve the in-destination experience for travellers.
The show of hands was overwhelmingly in favour of AI. Watts joked that it was “a tough day for the humans” but added that the audience response probably reflected “not where it is today, but where it’s going to be in the future”.
AI was a recurring theme across the sessions. James Spalding from Trip.com shared that the OTA has a global, AI-enabled customer support strategy that is adapted for different markets. Trip.com allows its AI autonomy to answer basic queries, but the AI is also trained not only to identify the complexity of the query but also to engage and respond in the right tone. The AI knows (or has learnt) when to hand the query over to a human to resolve the issue.
Elsewhere, other takes on AI’s role in travel were revealed; Qais Amori from Almosafer talked about AI’s fraud detection capabilities (when the fraudsters themselves are using AI); Melissa Skluzacek from easyJet said that AI is used across all its commercial and operational functions and is seen as an extra pair of hands; Sally Bunnell from NaviSavi explained how it is using AI to help curate, tag and profile its user generated content, with embedded booking options, to make it usable by brands who want to license it.
The summit started off with a bigger picture overview by Dave Goodger from Tourism Economics. He shared data from the WTM Global Trends Report 2025 which showed that three in ten travellers think AI will increase their average spend. His introduction also highlighted that travel’s growth profile is positive, affording AI the chance to positively impact even more travellers and businesses.
One business benefitting from travel’s growth is global eSIM provider, Holafly, WTM London’s official Technology Partner. Its CEO Pablo Gómez Fernandez-Quintanilla noted a convergence of trends – more international travel, the need to be connected, hybrid work, seamlessness – were driving the business forward.
Back to AI, Filip Filipov from OAG identified a potential major headache which resonated with a travel tech audience. The last of his 30-slides-in-300-seconds presentation addressed look-to-book ratios. OTAs currently gets one booking for every thousand views, he suggested. Looking ahead, large language learning models could return a look-to-book ratio of 60,000 to 1. When agentic AI becomes mainstream, he warned that this could be one million to one.
While AI was always likely to dominate proceedings, personalisation was another recurring theme. Many panellists were keen to point out the difference between personalization and contextualisation – the idea that it is as important for travel companies to know why someone is travelling as well as who they are.
The Technology Summit was organised by Timothy O’Neil Dunne, WTM London’s technology conference advisor, from consultancy T2Impact. He said: “Travel’s got a lot on its plate – war, disease, Trump – at the same time as generative AI is shaking up how we search, plan and experience travel, with agentic AI beavering away at the back.
“The Summit addressed many of these issues head on. The main takeaway from across all the panellists and sessions is that while disruptive change is inevitable, the travel technology industry is committed to making travel better for real people.”
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
World Travel Market (WTM) Portfolio comprises of leading travel events and online portals across four continents. The events are Arabian Travel Market, WTM London, WTM Latin America and WTM Africa.
WTM London is the world’s most influential travel and tourism event for the international leisure l travel community. The show is the ultimate destination for those seeking a macro view of the travel industry and a deeper understanding of the forces shaping it. WTM London is where influential travel leaders, buyers and high-profile travel companies gather to exchange ideas, drive innovation, and accelerate business outcomes.
Next event: 4 to 6 November 2025 at Excel London.
WTM Spotlight
WTM Spotlight, launched by RX, is a new travel industry event designed to foster global networking and business opportunities. The inaugural edition held in Saudi Arabia from 29th September – 1st October 2026 at the Riyadh Front Exhibition & Convention Centre, will connect tourism professionals, exhibitors, and buyers worldwide, encouraging collaboration, innovation, and sustainable growth across the travel sector. It highlights RX’s commitment to expanding international travel partnerships through focused, market-specific events.
Arabian Travel Market (ATM), is the leading, international travel and tourism event in the Middle East for inbound and outbound tourism professionals. ATM 2024 welcomed over 47,000 attendees and hosted over 30,000 visitors, including more than 2,600 exhibitors and representatives from over 161 countries, across 10 halls at Dubai World Trade Centre. Arabian Travel Market is part of Arabian Travel Week. #ATMDubai
Next event: 4 to 6 May 2026, Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai
https://www.wtm.com/atm/en-gb.html
Arabian Travel Week is a festival of events taking place from 28 April, within and alongside Arabian Travel Market 2024. Providing a renewed focus for the Middle East’s travel and tourism sector, it includes Influencers’ events, GBTA Business Travel Forums, as well as ATM Travel Tech. It also features the ATM Buyer Forums, as well as a series of country forums.
Arabian Travel Week is a 10-day long festival of travel and tourism events that take place in Dubai. All eyes are on the city, as Dubai invites the international travel industry to come together each year and take part in the events so that we can shape the future of travel together. The travel events that are part of Arabian Travel Week include ATM Start Up Competition, ATM Travel Tech, GBTA Business Travel Forums and Buyer Networking.
https://www.wtm.com/arabian-travel-week/en-gb.html
WTM Latin America is held annually in São Paulo and attracts more than 29,000 tourism professionals and almost 800 exhibiting companies during the three-day event. The event offers a qualified content combined with networking and business opportunities. In its latest edition, in 2024, WTM Latin America kept its focus on effective business generation and was able to schedule in advance six thousand meetings that were held between buyers, travel agents and exhibitors.
WTM Latin America contents are available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Next event: 14 to 16 April 2026 – Expo Center Norte, SP, Brazil
WTM Africa launched in 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa. The event welcomes 6,000 travel industry professionals to Africa’s leading and only business to business (B2B) exhibition for both the inbound and outbound African travel and tourism markets.
Next event: 13 to 15 April 2026 – Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town http://africa.wtm.com/
About ATW Connect: Africa Travel Week’s digital arm, is a virtual hub packed to the seams with interesting content, industry news and insights, and the opportunity to hear from experts on a variety of topics in our new monthly webinar series. All with the aim to keep all of us in the travel and tourism industry connected. ATW Connect focuses on inbound and outbound markets for general leisure tourism, luxury travel, LGBTQ+ travel and the MICE/business travel sector as well as travel technology.
WTM Global Hub, is the WTM Portfolio online portal created to connect and support travel industry professionals around the world. The resource hub offers the latest guidance and knowledge to help exhibitors, buyers and others in the travel industry face the challenges of the global coronavirus pandemic. WTM Portfolio is tapping into its global network of experts to create content for the hub. https://hub.wtm.com/
About RX
RX is a global leader in events and exhibitions, leveraging industry expertise, data, and technology to build businesses for individuals, communities, and organisations. With a presence in 25 countries across 42 industry sectors, RX hosts approximately 350 events annually. RX is committed to creating an inclusive work environment for all our people. RX empowers businesses to thrive by leveraging data-driven insights and digital solutions. RX is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. For more information, visit www.rxglobal.com.
About RELX
RELX is a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. RELX serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs more than 36,000 people over 40% of whom are in North America. The shares of RELX PLC, the parent company, are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York stock exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX.
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