Why and How to Build an Automated Travel System in 2026

Automated travel systems optimizing business operations, sales, finances, and communications have become integral to core business infrastructures in the travel and tourism industry. This guide covers major aspects of travel business process automation that will help your company stay competitive and grow.

How to Build an Automated Travel System (2026)

What is an automated travel system? An automated travel system (ATS) is a type of software designed to streamline or manage travel-related tasks and travel business processes with minimal human intervention. 

 

ATS often utilize AI and travel APIs to assist travel agencies, tour operators, and corporate travel teams.

Read also: How AI and Machine Learning Are Reshaping the Travel Industry

The basic steps to creating a travel automation solution are as follows: 

 

Strategy & discovery

Research and identify the tasks you need to automate and the goals for your travel business process automation.

 

List the functionalities to build or improve, determine the project requirements, and plan the budget and timeline for the implementation. If you don’t have the time or expertise for such research and writing, it can be delegated.

 

For instance, Onix’s software product discovery services help our clients bridge the gap between their ideas and their technical execution. Market research, technical feasibility studies, and other discovery phase activities mitigate risks and save significant time and money.

Validation & architecture

Create a proof of concept to validate each automation idea that raises questions technology-wise.

 

For example, automated travel booking will require integrations through APIs with Global Distribution Systems (GDS) like Amadeus or Sabre, CRM systems, and payment gateways for transactions.

Read also: How AI is Transforming CRM – And What It Means for You

 

If your IT experts don’t know how to create an automated travel software, engage external travel and hospitality software development services. Outsourcing travel automation software development to companies like Onix also helps save money!

 

Update the project specification and budget/timeline considering the automation of functionalities that proved practical and feasible.

 

 

Development & rollout

Design visually appealing and easy-to-navigate consumer-facing web pages and mobile screens, if needed, and convenient interfaces for your employees.

 

Program and test the platform to ensure that it is fast-loading, effective, and secure.

 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our IT software development company! 

 

Besides traveltech solutions and booking systems development outsourcing, Onix can also act as your travel automation management company!

Let us first list the primary objectives of the growing automation in the travel industry; examples will show how automated tourism and hospitality operations benefit companies, employees, customers, and even the environment.

 

The Main Benefits of Automated Travel System Implementation

Revenue growth

If a business takes inquiries only during working hours, it loses many potential clients. Automated communication systems can reply to customers 24/7. Faster quoting with appealing tailored travel itineraries increases conversion rates. 

Read also: Hyper-Personalization in Hospitality – a Step beyond Customization

 

An automated series of customized emails can increase the inquiry-to-booking conversion rate. The number of reservations that employees can manage may rise tenfold.

Modern travel systems can automatically send travel info to customers, collect their feedback, and help conduct loyalty programs to stimulate more purchases.

 

For example, the sales team can configure sending follow-up emails every few days or upselling emails based on a customer’s purchase history a few days before a trip, further boosting sales.

Read also: AI-driven Travel Shopping: Lessons From Wizz Air

For example, Onix’s client MisterB&B can send perfectly timed messages to customers based on their activities thanks to the integration with Vero. This customer engagement platform facilitates the creation, automation, and delivery of personalized messages via email, SMS, and push notifications.

Automating a business’ marketing processes can boost traffic to its website, potentially increasing sales.

Better customer experience

Access to high-quality travel products at the best prices worldwide, personalized offers, recommendations, and other abilities powered by automation foster the consumers’ freedom and control over their trips and expenses.

Travelers may be synced with newsletter software to receive updates about disruptions, news, or promotions. It may also automatically request customer reviews, e.g., after they’ve checked out of a hotel, and generate reports to help improve offers and services. 

Travel agency sales automation features help respond to clients’ inquiries faster. When automation helps employees perform their tasks easier and faster, they can better serve customers and solve queries and problems more effectively.

Learn more: The Future of Chatbots: 10 Trends, Latest Stats & Market Size

Increased operational efficiency

Machine searching, data collation, and analysis save the employees’ time on the initial tasks and minimize errors and inaccuracies. 

For instance, after B2B travel wholesaler DidaTravel began using Travelport’s API to access content from 500 airlines, automated interaction capabilities also cut down the time its employees spent on processing.

In automated and AI-supported sales and operations workflows, lots of communication with customers and suppliers occurs via automatic inquiry emails, invoices, reminders, alerts, etc.

 

Some employees can handle more leads and bookings, other human resources are freed up for more meaningful and creative tasks, and companies can do more business with the same staff.

Centralized workflows and automation helped Travel Ease streamline back-office administrative tasks, reducing workload by 30%. MisterB&B was also able to save the customer support team’s time and reduce fraud risks thanks to automation solutions.

 

Read also: How to Create a Booking Website for Travel & Hospitality Businesses

Automated business and employee performance reports help the management improve productivity and efficiency and reward and motivate employees. 

Money saving is a direct result from the advantages mentioned above. Accurate reports on nearly all performance KPIs also empower the management to reduce costs.

Travel operations automation also promotes sustainability by optimizing operations, reducing waste, and informing eco-friendlier decisions. 

Read also: Top Sustainability Trends for 2025: Key Innovations

Business travel automation via sustainable travel management solutions may not only reduce your company’s carbon footprint but also help meet the growing expectations of modern travelers.

Here are some more automated travel system examples. For MisterB&B, Onix implemented the following solutions:

 

• Identity verification. The integration with Shufti Pro facilitates the automatic verification of the validity and ownership of identification documents.
• Fraud detection. Onix also developed a system that discovers illegitimate and high-risk financial activities, such as credit card transactions, theft, cyber hacking, and suspicious messages. This feature enables MisterB&B to detect scams in real time to keep the users’ money safe.
• Image censoring. The platform needed to preclude users from uploading inappropriate profile pictures or photos of properties, such as images containing nudity or property photos with contacts allowing users to arrange stays bypassing MisterB&B. Integration with the Sightengine ensures an automatic identification of such images.
• Automated translation of the users’ descriptions of the accommodations and other texts.
• Payments. A semi-automated system streamlines and significantly speeds up the processing of payments to hosts.
• Tax collection. MisterB&B also collects taxes and sends tax returns for hosts automatically.
• A number of validators help reduce human errors.

These are just a few reasons to purchase or develop an automated system for travel companies. In any case, it’s essential to understand what should be automated.

 

The next chapter outlines the primary use cases and some common features of automated travel systems.

 

Where to Start Your Travel Business Process Automation

Your travel automation management efforts may be best directed towards the optimization of

 

• Sales
• Operations
• CRM and marketing
• Finance and reporting

 

Sales automation

Imagine a travel agent receiving an inquiry consisting of three items: accommodation, transfer, and a one-day tour. Having all the information about the inquiry and customer in one system, they can start creating a quote immediately. 

The software quickly searches for the necessary travel products in the company’s inventory or checks the offerings of all international providers available on the product search interface without logging into each one’s system. Access to the latest special deals and packages instantly makes the offer more competitive. 

Inquiries are automatically emailed to suppliers, and upon their confirmation, the customers would automatically receive quotes and itineraries and the suppliers – confirmations.

The system calculates all prices, discounts, and special offers and enables invoice generation and processing virtually without any human intervention. Once the customer confirms a booking, it will automatically create and send them an invoice and voucher.

 

Specialized travel software facilitates simultaneous sending of multiple product offers and the creation of coupon codes, early booking discounts, special and last-minute offers.

Behind web and mobile pages with search, listings, and booking functionalities, price aggregators should instantly offer visitors the best available flight, hotel, tour, and other travel product prices.

 

Read also: Booking Funnel Makeover: What to Test First on Travel Sites

A travel booking engine connects to suppliers via APIs, receives the necessary information, processes it, and displays exactly what the business wants to show on the search results page.

 

Booking engines can be programmed to show search results favorably using search rules. They dictate what products from what suppliers at what price and to what users to show. AI can help predict who will pay more under certain circumstances. 

Pricing rules allow businesses to always choose the most profitable pricing considering multiple factors, such as season, suppliers, customer acquisition sources, etc.

 

Self-learning ML tools can also predict fluctuations, e.g., in hotel pricing and room availability, using historical data, seasonal trends, current demand, competition, weather forecasts, special offers from airlines, and other factors.

 

Read also: AI Agent Use Cases, Benefits, and Development Basics

 

It’s also possible to identify the best destination pairs and the most profitable routes. Automated price tracking software also helps gain market intelligence for dynamic pricing. All of this allows adjusting the prices to increase revenue automatically.

A commission rules engine automatically calculates commission and the final booking price. OTAs can use analytics, tweak rules, or configure the engine to deliver the best deals consistently.

 

For example, they can set a larger commission ahead of high season or events. Customers with more complex itineraries can get a discount. It’s also reasonable to cut the commission for users on the metasearch website and raise it when they come directly to your website. 

 

AI-powered engines customize offerings using various customer data, such as

 

• Metadata (location, browser, device, referral source, etc.)
• Behavioral data (previous bookings, searches, subscriptions, and other online activities)
• A detailed history of purchases and preferences
• Social media data (ratings, customer feedback, shared photos, comments, geo-tagged locations, etc.)

More cases of travel sales automation involve chatbots that guide travelers throughout the search and booking journey.

 

These AI-based assistants can be integrated into Slack, Telegram, or Messenger. For example, they can use input data, customer-specific info, and other external factors to recommend the best flights, check room availability, update customers about booking status and flight schedules, etc.

Tourism management software enables tour companies to create a package, tour, or group itinerary by combining components previously made in the travel system and automatically extracting photos and descriptions.

It can also dynamically generate packaged tours, validating dates, opening hours, and other important info, and calculating tour prices in the background.

Operations automation

Custom automated travel software, such as back-office systems for travel agencies, hotel property management systems (PMSs), and booking apps, can grant companies total control over business processes and the ability to innovate and tweak the functionalities as they need.

 

Travel business software can provide an instant overview of all booked products and assigned and unassigned reservations, identify unconfirmed reservations, automatically assign reservations to specific employees and notify them instantly, and track their status. Availability reports help prevent overbooking or signal when additional inventory is needed. 

Advanced algorithms can process weather forecasts and info from carriers to help predict disruptions, such as flight delays, and anticipate extra services for their clients. This information can be automatically sent to travelers and companies so they can plan alternative routes or check for available hotels to spend the night.

 

Up-to-the-minute risk reports and GPS tracking systems also enable better communication between travel companies and customers. It’s possible to use AI and ML in conjunction with trackers to plan regular services.

 

Travel software can be programmed to fill out auto-filling forms. For example, robotic process automation (RPA) bots can enter and update PNR information for travel agents quickly and accurately. 

RPA software can also check document accuracy, verify signatures in uploaded scanned documents, and automate approval or rejection recommendations. 

Chatbots that provide instantaneous advice, support, and answers to general queries to travel website and mobile app users 24/7 are effectively substituting travel agents.

 

Client feedback gathered through chats or automated emailing will help you find out what they liked and what you need to improve on.

 

Travel portals also need to automate the creation, organization, and management of their content. Generative AI can help you create tons of personalized content and RPA software helps moderate it, e.g., identifying inappropriate images and texts.

CRM & marketing automation

An automated travel booking system will capture all inquiries made via a website directly into a CRM or travel ERP software and create lead profiles using data like names, desired destination, dates, number of people, etc.

 

Continuously tracking all relevant customer information, the company will be able create in-depth customer profiles, which is especially important with corporate clients.

 

Travel agency automation also applies to

 

• the distribution of requests among travel agents
• classification of customers by travel-specific categories
• user segmentation based on their role, location, behavioral patterns, etc.
• order processing
• confirmations and notifications about the main touchpoints of the booking journey via emails, SMS, and push notifications for agents and clients
• departure and arrival notifications
• emailing to reach potential customers
• social media posts for each publication on the website
• real-time recommendations to staff based on the guest preferences analysis
• billing, invoicing, cancellation, issue resolution, and refunds
• compliance reporting
• spreadsheets updates

AI-powered applications can process thousands of factors to predict users’ needs, help tailor deals to a customer’s family status, goals, favorite cities and hotels, etc., and market them through the optimal channels at the right time.

Modern software can automatically adapt interfaces, layouts, feeds, and other website elements to different user groups’ needs. Analytics will show what works and what doesn’t.

 

 

Bots can provide customer insights and analytics from social media, company websites, booking websites, and top destination pages, classifying them based on demographics, average spend per annum, and other criteria.

 

Natural language processing and sentiment analysis technologies can process user reviews on websites and social media to provide insights that can improve your service.

 

Integration of a website with Google Analytics or Meta Pixel may help retarget visitors for additional bookings. Businesses can identify the best-performing website traffic segments, create similar audiences, and run highly targeted marketing campaigns.

 

Finance & reporting automation

Automatic invoice generation and processing after a booking are essential. In the case of currency fluctuations, the software would automatically calculate the difference and charge the customer for it a few days before the trip.

You can also set due dates and automatic payment rules for supplier invoices, preventing delays and improving relationships with vendors.

RPA software can track down and notify businesses about malicious data patterns and evaluate transactions to detect illicit activity, reducing chargebacks.

Modern software makes verifying suppliers’ invoices and tracking invoices and payments easier. For example, it may generate invoices both for each customer listed on a reservation and in batches, simultaneously for several reservations. 

Automatic reminders sent to customers accelerate payments. Import of payments automatically linked to reservations from bank accounts will save time.

The software should automate sorting through your organization’s data, clean it up, and present the findings via instant reports and spreadsheets to various departments.

Bots can track your sales and growth trends, competitors, and their strategies, and alert you when they change their prices.

Read also: The Most Popular Fintech Trends Transforming the Industry

 

Tech Stack for Travel Automation System Development

Modern automated travel system development follows the API-first approach, where APIs are defined and designed before the UI or any other components of the software are built.

 

The process begins by defining a detailed API contract that outlines endpoints, methods, parameters, and expected responses. It serves as a single source of truth, ensuring consistency and alignment across technical teams and stakeholders. This approach facilitates parallel development and seamless integration.

 

An embedded ML layer enables intelligent decision-making, and full-stack observability (metrics, logs, traces) ensures system reliability and performance.

It’s possible to build an automated travel software using a variety of programming languages, frameworks, libraries, and integrations. The list of options includes, but is not limited to:

 

• Front-end frameworks: Angular, React.js, Vue, Apollo, NextJS, JSF, Rebass, Jest, Kendo
• Back-end frameworks: Ruby on Rails, Spring, ActiveAdmin, Hibernate, Laravel, CakePHP, Django, Node.js, Meteor.js, Flask, Express.js, .NET, ASP.NET, Micronaut, gRPC, RxJava, CloudCMS
• Cloud storage: Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Storage
• Cloud hosting: Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Heroku
• Automation frameworks: RSpec, Capybara, PhantomJS, Selenium
• SQL data storage: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, SQL server
• Key-value/data storage: Redis, Memcached
• Web server: Nginx, Apache
• Cloud-native platforms: MongoDB, AWS DynamoDB
• Native mobile apps: Kotlin or Swift
• Cross-platform mobile app: Flutter, React Native
• Global payment s: PayPal, Braintree, Stripe, Adyen
• CMS: Drupal, Joomla, Magento, Shopify, Webflow, WordPress 
• Messaging and communication: Twilio, Vero, MailChimp, SendGrid, Intercom
• Other integrations: New Relic, Sentry.io, Skylight

 

Estimated Cost of Developing an Automated Travel System

One can calculate the cost of travel software development by multiplying the time required to deliver the necessary functionalities by the man/hour rate.

 

For example, here’s Onix’s rough estimate of a mid-range OTA project.

However, it can give you only an idea of what to expect, because each business and each project is unique. Too many factors can impact the budget, such as

 

• the number of desired functionalities, their technical complexity, and extent of automation
• the number of platforms and devices the system is designed for
• app architecture solutions
• technology choices
• whether licensed APIs and third-party services are used
• the number of specialists on the development team and their qualifications
• your outsourcing partner’s hourly rates and cooperation model…

 

The broad range of fees IT professionals charge worldwide means that entrepreneurs can develop an automated travel solution in South America or Eastern Europe much cheaper than in the US.

 

For instance, the same set of features built by the same number of specialists with similar qualifications might cost $120K in the US vs. $60K in Ukraine without compromising the quality.

Source: Accelerance

 

At Onix, we usually recommend building a minimum viable product (MVP) instead of a full system. This approach minimizes upfront investment, reduces the risk of wasting resources on unwanted features, and enables faster, data-driven, iterative development.

 

Challenges to Automated Travel System Development

 

Data dependency

For example, AI needs large amounts of data to generate actionable insights, which may be problematic for smaller businesses.

 

Collecting sufficient data sets for ML may take months. They also need a reliable and secure platform to collect and analyze large volumes of data from different sources, e.g., social media and review platforms. 

Third-party restrictions

Some data aggregation APIs prohibit agencies from analyzing data. A custom data processing platform may offer a solution.

Data security

Customers expect their financial information and personal details to be safe when making online bookings. Data leaks and violations of international security standards are fraught with huge penalties and litigations. Cybersecurity should be an essential part of your automated travel services platform from the onset. 

Read also: Cyberattacks: Types & Prevention Strategies

Integration complexity

Integrating AI-powered solutions into existing business workflows can be complicated when legacy systems lack basic API access. The quality and comprehensiveness of travel API providers’ documentation and support are not consistent.
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Robotic process automation in travel industry settings also has certain workflow-related technicalities. Your IT team must possess expertise in both custom travel software development and ML and AI implementation.

 

How Onix Helps Build Automated Travel Systems

Onix counts over ten years of user-oriented travel software development and partnering with travel, tourism, and hospitality companies.

 

Our team acquired a wealth of skills and knowledge of industry-specific challenges on diverse projects. We apply best practices and tech stacks to help clients save costs and launch custom solutions quickly.

Aside from developing end-to-end software, we can augment your existing workforce with dedicated development teams.

 

Final Thoughts

Data science, AI, and automation profoundly affect businesses across multiple industries. In the ever-evolving cut-throat travel market, the automation of customer communications, marketing efforts, document generation, invoicing, finances, reporting, and other processes has become essential.

 

Travel businesses and startups may leverage either off-the-shelf software or custom solutions. In the latter case, please don’t hesitate to contact Onix! 

 

Our specialists can answer any question, advise you on implementing custom booking systems, AI and ML-powered middleware, chatbots, or speech recognition tools for your particular business case, recommend a tech stack and experienced developers of automated solutions, or create a custom automated travel system for your company from start to finish.

 

FAQ

 

What are the benefits of automation in tourism industry contexts?

Travel agencies, tour providers, and hospitality businesses that integrated automated travel systems have seen

 

• higher sales
• accelerated sales and service provision
• increased customer satisfaction and loyalty
• higher employee productivity and satisfaction
• increased efficiency of the key business processes
• cost reduction
• centralization of the organization’s data and documents
• minimized risks and errors
• enhanced online presence

How does automation reduce operational costs for travel businesses?

Travel operations automation can reduce costs in many ways:

 

• Automated travel booking, invoicing, and customer inquiries, tools that automate repetitive tasks, and software that reduces administrative workload and increases productivity enable travel businesses to accomplish more with fewer employees.
• Automation eliminates human errors, e.g., double bookings, accelerates invoice reconciliation, helps prevent fraud, and facilitates compliance with industry regulations, preventing financial losses.
• AI tools that optimize routes and fuel usage or predict demand promote a better resource allocation, significantly reducing operational expenses.
• Business travel automation enables companies to track spending in real time and enforce policies, optimizing travel spend and preventing costly errors and fraudulent transactions.

Which processes should be automated first to get ROI faster?

It’s reasonable to prioritize automation in travel industry processes like

 

• pricing
• booking and reservation request processing
• approvals
• answering calls and queries
• cancellations
• marketing
• analytics

How to automate travel booking processes with travel technology integration?

You can automate travel booking by integrating your booking engine, payment gateway, CRM, and supplier systems (GDS, hotels, airlines, etc.) via APIs.

 

These tools then exchange data automatically: they update prices and availability, create and confirm bookings, send payment confirmations, and log all customer details in your CRM for marketing and analytics.

 

How is this hotel automated system going to help you in the future as a business operator?

An automated hotel system reduces repetitive manual work, keeps your data accurate and centralized, and helps you respond to guests faster. Over time, it makes it easier to scale your business, launch new services, and improve service quality without growing your team at the same pace.

How to automate payment automation in travel agencies?

Travel agencies, OTAs, travel management companies, and tour operators should adopt virtual credit cards (VCCs). An automated payment process using VCCs will comprise the following steps:

 

1. A traveler making a booking through the intermediary will trigger a flight or hotel reservation from the supplier.
2. The intermediary issues a VCC, which enables them to make a payment to the airline, hotel, or bed bank and facilitates the tracking of the transaction and matching it with internal payment records.
3. The intermediary’s automated system completes the transaction using the VCC instead of manual invoicing.

 

How long does it take to build an automated travel system in 2026?

Building a bespoke automated travel system, from concept to deployment, takes between 3 and 9 months, but can extend to as long as 12-14 months, depending on complexity. An MVP may be released in 6-16 weeks, but a complex AI-driven platform may take 12+ months to launch.

 

How much does it cost to make an automated travel system?

Travel software development costs directly depend on the number of required features, their complexity, etc.

 

For example, a version with only essential features may take ~1,700 hours. With the average developer hourly rate around $50 per hour in Eastern Europe, the same feature set built by the same number of specialists of like qualifications might cost around $85K ($60K in Ukraine) against $120K in North America or Western Europe.

 

What budget should I plan for an AI-powered travel automation MVP?

It depends on your requirements, starting with the desired AI-supported features.

 

For example, an MVP with a simple flight and hotel search, AI itinerary planner, and chatbot may cost around $40K. If you need AI-driven personalized suggestions, voice assistant, predictive budgeting, or other advanced features, you will need to spend at least $60K.

 

Can AI be added gradually, or should it be built from day one?

You can do either way, depending on whether you are building a new product or upgrading an existing, complex system. Modern startups are usually built with an ‘AI-first’ mindset, meaning that they plan for AI from the beginning, even if they implement it gradually.  

 

Still, rushing AI implementation can lead to wasting time and resources on useless tools or features that don’t add value. Instead, it’s recommended to start small and integrate AI organically.

 

Several months after launching your travel booking system, you can analyze its efficiency and identify your customers’ and employees’ pains based on user data and surveys. Let experts suggest AI solutions to improve efficiency, customer experience, or productivity, and test their implementation with users. 

 

For instance, you may start with ChatGPT or another out-of-the-box large language model (LLM) to assist with desktop jobs or by implementing RPA to automate data quality checks and manual work.

 

What KPIs should I track after launching an automated travel system?

After launching an automated travel system, focus on monitoring efficiency, ROI, cost savings, and user experience. 

 

Key efficiency-related KPIs to monitor: 

 

• System adoption rate – the percentage of bookings made through the automated system against the manual/offline channels.
• Average time to book – the time to complete a booking with automation compared to the traditional process.
• Automation error rate – the frequency of failed bookings or technical glitches requiring manual intervention. 

 

Key ROI-related metrics:

 

• The total cost of travel management measures the overall reduction in travel-related expenses.
• ROI of the system – the cost savings and efficiency gains divided by the cost of the automation tool.

 

Key financial KPIs:

 

• Average cost per trip monitors savings on airfare, hotels, and rentals.
• Policy compliance rate – the percentage of bookings that adhere to corporate travel policy guidelines.
• Negotiated rate savings – savings achieved through preferred vendor usage within the system.
• Rebooking/cancellation rate identifies unnecessary expenses, indicating a need for more rigid or flexible policies. 

 

Key user experience KPIs to monitor:

 

• Traveller satisfaction score (CSAT) based on surveys regarding ease of use, speed, and support.
• Booking completion rate – the percentage of users who start a search but abandon it without booking. 

 

How does AI increase conversion and revenue in travel platforms?

Travel platforms increase bookings by using ML to suggest flights, hotels, and activities based on users’ interests,  

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AI-driven dynamic pricing tools optimize prices for flights, hotels, and packages based on demand, seasonality, competitors’ pricing, and customer behavior.

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AI-powered predictive analytics enable travel agencies and OTAs to forecast trends, demand, and market changes, enabling more efficient marketing campaigns. AI-powered platforms can identify high-potential leads, nurture them via automated emails, and offer personalized promotions, raising conversion rates.

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AI algorithms can identify new revenue-generating opportunities within business datasets, such as hyper-personalized cross-sells/upsells or dynamic price optimization.

 

It can also facilitate partnerships among travel suppliers, distributors, global brands, and startups. By sourcing data and integrating products from partners, companies can reach new demographics and grow their ancillary revenues.