Future Of Travel Depends On What Will Not Change Not Just AI
Future Of Travel Depends On What Will Not Change Not Just AI
Publish Date: 2026-07-16 15:04:00
Source Domain: www.forbes.com
Felix Shpilman, CEO
Emerging Travel Group
In travel, it is easy to get caught up in what is changing.
Artificial intelligence is reshaping search. Younger consumers, including Gen Z, are bringing new expectations to digital interfaces. Banks are moving deeper into travel. Loyalty programs are becoming more like currencies. Global volatility continues to affect where people go, when they go and how confident they feel booking a trip.
But Felix Shpilman, president and CEO of Emerging Travel Group, the parent company behind RateHawk, starts with a different question: What is not going to change?
In a recent conversation, Shpilman described the company’s research with PhocusWire, titled “10 Trends That Will Shape The Industry Over The Next Decade.” While the title points toward the future, Shpilman’s most useful insight may be that travel leaders need to understand the constants before they can place the right bets on technology.
“When the world is shifting,” Shpilman said, drawing on a lesson he associates with Jeff Bezos, leaders should “think about the things that will not change.”
For travel, he believes four things are likely to remain stubbornly persistent: travel is expensive, travel is complex, travel decision-making is overloaded with information and planning a great trip still takes time.
Travel Is Still A High-Stakes Purchase
The first constant is cost.
“Travel has been, is, and will remain an expensive purchase,” Shpilman said. “Whether you think about it as travel in the context of a family’s budget or travel as part of a company’s budget.”
That matters because expensive purchases create higher expectations. Consumers may casually try a new restaurant app or test a new shopping platform with limited concern. Travel is different. A bad booking experience can affect a family vacation, a business trip, a honeymoon or a once-in-a-lifetime journey.
That is one reason banks and financial institutions want to play in travel. Travel is a large…
