Research: Travel professionals expect growth, but complexity risks slowing momentum
There is strong growth potential across the region, but increasiing complexity and evolving traveller expectations might beccome obstacles.
Expedia Group has released new research, ‘Mapping the future of APAC travel’, showing that 65 percent of travel professionals expect demand for their Asia-Pacific (APAC) travel business to increase over the next two to three years, rising to 78 percent among loyalty professionals.
Based on a survey of 1,250 travel professionals across Australia, China, India, Japan and Thailand, the research points to strong growth potential across the APAC region, alongside increasing complexity as traveller expectations evolve and technology reshapes the booking journey.
Strong demand is creating opportunity across APAC
Growth is expected across a wide range of travel segments. Over 60 percent of professionals anticipate increases in luxury leisure travel, budget leisure travel, bleisure trips and intra-APAC regional travel.
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India and Australia report the highest confidence in demand growth at 82 percent and 76 percent respectively. Looking ahead, travel professionals predict India will see the strongest outbound growth over the next two to three years, followed by Japan. For inbound travel, India and Hong Kong SAR are expected to lead regional growth.
Travellers expect more across payments and experiences
As demand rises, traveller expectations are becoming more complex and localised. Sixty percent of travel professionals report that local and diverse payment options have increased in importance in recent years, while more than 70 percent say options such as ‘buy now, pay later’, global cards and loyalty redemption are now essential parts of the booking experience.
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At the same time, 59 percent report growing importance for booking through AI-powered tools or non-traditional platforms, highlighting the accelerating shift towards more dynamic, tech-enabled travel planning.
Operational gaps risk slowing growth
Many travel businesses still face structural challenges. Thirty-three percent cite a lack of localised content as a major issue, 34 percent point to discoverability challenges across search and AI-driven platforms, and 35% say legacy systems and integration challenges are slowing adoption of new capabilities. While AI adoption is accelerating, 79 percent of professionals say they are already using it and 97% plan to in the future, indicating that many organisations are still working to unlock its full potential.
Partnerships will define winners in APAC
As APAC travel providers look ahead, the focus is shifting from demand recovery to sustained, scalable growth.
“APAC is one of the fastest growing but most complex travel markets in the world,” said Aileen Chan, VP of Sales, APAC, Expedia Group. “While demand is clearly increasing, our research shows that complexity across payments, content and technology remains a major barrier. The opportunity lies in helping partners simplify that experience and scale with confidence.”
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