The AI revolution isn't coming, it's already here – and it's going to be bigger than the internet

AI was one of the powerful themes of this year's ITT conference. "Adopt or die," said Inspiretec and SystemsX chief Simon Powell. "There's absolutely no way you're going to be able to compete with the people using this technology going forward," he warned.

Powell said technologists were at the core of most of travel's major players, especially its disruptors. "We all stood there when the internet came, I remember it. Travel Republic, On the Beach, Loveholidays, Expedia – all founded by technologists. They weren't travel people.

"And the expansion of Jet2.com/Jet2holidays and easyJet was only able to happen because of the websites they produced. These things were vital in the growth of these businesses."

Powell said the change would be inexorable. "If we think about the internet and AI, actually, this industrial revolution has already happened. We're just in it now. AI is already rewriting the way we work. Two, three years ago, we were talking about theory; now we're talking about practical application in our sector."

Trusting and empowering employees to become comfortable with AI will be key to the transition, Powell told delegates. "It's really important we put the human in the loop. The relational bit is vital. Embrace the change positively."

He added: "Ultimately, don't miss this opportunity. New entrants stepped into our industry when there was technology change. And this change is much bigger than the one we saw with the internet – by far.

Travel can't afford to miss the boat – again

Powell's comments mirrored an earlier plea from easyJet holidays chief executive Garry Wilson when he was asked by moderator Ayesha Hazarika what he was feeling excited about. "It's the whole technology piece. And I think if we were to look back at the dawn of the internet, I do think we missed the boat as an industry. We were pretty myopic in what we were doing."

Wilson said younger people and new entrants would hold the power. "This should be a lesson for [us] this time around to really embrace new technology and really understand it, but understand it from the people who are using it, which is this new generation coming through."

Reflecting on his career in travel, Wilson said when he joined the industry, the core of the business was its commercial function – the people who priced the holidays, knew the destinations and the hotels. "Everything else danced around that," he said.

"Well that's flipped on its head. The core of the business now is the engineers, the digital teams who really understand the consumer of the future and what they're looking for. Now, about 75% of our team don't have a travel background. They've got a digital background."

Wilson said this cohort were more transient, perhaps even mercenary. "They think, 'I'll come in, I'll do that for 18-24 months, and then I'll do something different'."

Businesses shouldn't be afraid of this, Wilson said, and should instead seek to tap their talent and expertise, even if it is only for a limited time. "You're going to have that churn [of] people who really add value. Then the next generation will come in and do the same. At easyJet holidays, we're open to bringing in the best talent who know what we need and focus iteratively on how we build and grow."

Hazarika suggested this could be seen as a healthy transaction. "It's probably great for them as well," Wilson agreed. "Because travel is at the frontier of tech and innovation right now."

'AI should be there to serve, not replace'

One of the conference's most impactful sessions was led by Claire Steiner, the ITT's director and chair of education, and featured the event's two breakout stars – travel and tourism students Ethan Scriven (pictured centre) and Sinead Edwards from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

"It's fair to say the integration of AI is significantly reshaping career aspirations among young people, particularly within our sector," said Steiner, who presented data showing around a third of travel and tourism-related jobs now involve some form of AI technology.

However, she also claimed nearly a quarter of 18- to 24-year-olds anticipate AI disrupting their roles within travel in the next two to three years, which she said reflected "heightened concerns about their job security". "Are we at risk of becoming less people-centric?" she asked. "And are we creating even more challenges than we already have attracting emerging talent?"

Edwards, who began her studies after a couple of years repping with Tui, said: "I think there's an assumption younger people are all for technology, these new apps and platforms. But it's not why I fell in love with this industry.

"I'm not naive, I will always upskill and adapt, but my worry is what happens if we lose our people skills, which is what this industry is all about. If we become too tech-focused, will we lose our connection and human touch?"

Scriven, meanwhile, added the pace with which AI had become a part of their studies had been rapid. "AI excites me," he said. But, personally, I think AI should be there to serve, not replace."

Reflecting on working in retail, Scriven experienced first hand this new technological tide. "I thought, in a hospitality setting, is this coming in a couple of years' time? Are jobs going to be replaced.

"I love communicating with people. In past jobs, I've got into trouble, because I'll talk to them for half an hour. I want to have a conversation with people. And I just hope AI doesn't take over because I'm a people person."

The next generation of travel talent 'won't put up with inaction on DEI'

In what was another 'adopt or die' moment, delegates were told the next generation of travel industry talent won't work for brands that don't make a stand on DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – or those whose actions they consider to be tokenistic.

Two industry leaders – Wilson (pictured left), and Tui's marketing and sales director Bart Quinton Smith (pictured right) – insisted their businesses will "double down" on DEI in defiance of the rhetoric espoused by the second Donald Trump administration, which has seen a number of major US employers rein in their DEI programmes.

Wilson and Quinton Smith agreed travel's talent pipeline would depend on firms embedding DEI and sustainability practices in their operations.

Asked by Hazarika whether it was something prospective employees were bringing up, Wilson said: "They wouldn't join otherwise. It has to be in everyone's DNA – it's integral to how we operate. We will absolutely be doubling down on it.

"The new generation coming through, they will not put up with it. And that’s something I get value and strength from in easyJet holidays. It gives me a lot of hope that we will go in the right direction."

In a subsequent session with Quinton Smith, Hazarika brought the discussion back to the "hostile environment" in which businesses were having to operate with regards to DEI and other topics.

"I’d use really similar words to Gary," added Quinton Smith. "We’ve doubled down on both DEI and our approach to accessibility and sustainability. Customers want it, colleagues want it, partners want it. It’s ultimately the right thing to do, and it makes a difference."

Travel must become less transactional – it needs consumers more than they need it

Customer service expert and behaviouralist Ken Hughes told delegates it was no longer enough for brands just to deliver on people's expectations, they must exceed them. The consumer of today, he said, "expects way more than they ever did before".

He suggested firms think about appointing "excite and delight" directors, whose job it is to look at the customer journey at all times to find ways to make people smile and feel better. "If you've done your job properly, everyone in your organisation becomes excite and delight directors because they [customers] believe in that connection – connection is everything."

Like Scriven, Hughes said AI would help travel professionals spend more time with their clients. "AI will change the nature of buying for every consumer. In two years, everyone in the room will have a paid agent AI which will buy everything for you. Insurance, utilities, travel – boom, boom, boom.

Travel told: 'It's time to appoint an excite and delight director'

"That obviously changes the nature of this industry. All we have left then really is the relationship part. How can we have deep relationships with customers to the point they come to us because they trust us?"

Hughes said travel needed to move away from a transactional model based around numbers – how many holidays, seats, rooms are being sold. "Step away from the spreadsheet and move towards a relational model," he continued. "How can we have depth of connection and emotional loyalty, not transactional loyalty. That's the target.

"We need to step in and go beyond, not just take their money and think that's the relationship. Remember, they can cut that string really quickly. They have other people they can use for holidays, there are other airlines they can flight with, other hotels they can stay in. We need them way more than they need us."

New tech is changing the way people interact with travel businesses...

Wilson said businesses were having to adapt quickly to technological change. "Back when we set up in 2019, all the technology was new – website, backend, customer interaction points. EasyJet is pretty digital-focused, so we've got good tech.

"But five years on, we're having to re-platform everything. We've just done the app. We realised that with AI and new tech, we were really going to have rethink how we interact with customers, how with AI and personalisation you can create customer intimacy through brilliant experiences at every touchpoint."

Wilson said the way people interacted with websites, particularly in travel, was still "a very traditional journey" – where, when and for how long. "I think for a lot of people, when booking a holiday online, it can be quite clunky.

"A lot people almost hanker after the days of, 'could I have a travel agent again?'. So it's about how you can advance your tech to be intuitive and to feel like it is a kind of human experience."

He continued: "We've talked for years about how customers should be able to type in, 'I want to go somewhere that's this temperature, where I can do this and that, at this budget', and then it gives you all the options. All of a sudden, with ChatGPT, that's exactly what they can do.

"I think the way we look at travel websites and the way people search for travel is going to be completely different in 18 months' time. And we really need to be prepared for that."

Sounds familiar? That's perhaps because it was just six months ago that Jet2holidays rolled out its new AI "conversational search" tool to travel agents, while Tui started integrating its AI chatbot into its app back in 2023 with a view to moving away from traditional search to a more conversational approach.

...and Google agrees – AI is 'supercharging' how people search for travel

Wilson couldn't have wished for greater affirmation when, a session or two later, his comments on search, how businesses interact with their customers and how the booking journey is evolving were underscored by Google UK's travel industry lead Ailish English.

English revealed nearly a third (32%) of people already using AI in their booking journeys, which she told delegates was "supercharging" Google's core search product. "AI is fundamental now," she said. "That number is just going to get higher and higher."

English said this had necessitated "the biggest change" to Google search in 20 years in two ways; firstly, the way people query google and the search terms they use, and secondly, the AI-driven overviews it now returns, which are being used by 1.5 billion users a month.

Search terms, she said, are not only getting longer – growing by 1.5 times for queries of five words or more – but are becoming multi-modal, with users now able to "circle to search" on their phones or use Google Lens to search straight from their camera app. "Google Lens has 20 billion users a month globally," she said. "And one in four of those searches has commercial intent. Think about that."

She continued: "People are having more conversational experiences now, and AI is providing that opportunity. People are super curious... particularly in the travel space."

English said with nearly three-quarters of people (73%) planning trips, typically spending 303 minutes online doing their research, it was imperative travel businesses honed how searchable they are.

"Inspire that moment," she added. "People are a lot less brand loyal than they used to be. Think about using social platforms, YouTube, to build a community so when they do go and book, you are front and centre – you are the brand they choose.

"We know travellers are more likely to switch brands than ever before, so use this opportunity to seal the deal, to get those customers and bring them on the journey with you."

Can flight-free travel become mainstream?

Sustainability was the second key topic that permeated many of the discussions at the 2025 ITT conference.

Byway chief executive Cat Jones, who travelled to the conference in Sardinia by rail, ferry and finally bus, outlined her vision to bring flight-free travel into the mainstream, stressing it would need people to buy into the joy of the journey.

"It's a really lovely, rich, interesting travel experience," she said. "Our assumption when we set up the business was that people, if we put this on the map, told the stories of these sorts of trips and made them really easy to book, would come and try it.

"And when they did, they would have a beautiful, wonderful time and want to do it again and tell their friends. And that's exactly what we're seeing."

Byway at five: 'More and more people are making sustainability-led decisions'

In conversation with TTG Media CEO Dan Pearce, Jones said she felt hers and Byway's mission would ultimately succeed as it delivers for a growing proportion of mainstream travellers looking for "that bit more adventure and unexpectedness".

Byway powers flight-free travel options for Tui's First Choice brand, and has B2B tie-ins with a number of other trade-friendly brands, including Intrepid Travel. Jones described flight-free as "a really lovely part" of travel's "tapestry of choice".

She added the momentum was being driven both by people looking to travel flight-free for sustainability reasons, or simply for the joy of the journey. "It's unlocking opportunities to quickly and easily do something that's always had a romantic appeal but has never been very accessible."

Travel start-ups now have the chance to build sustainability into their businesses from the outset

Byway was founded during the pandemic, and Jones said this allowed her team to build it from the ground up as a B Corp – a company with purpose at the heart of its mission – ensuring Byway was ready to meet B Corp's rigorous certification standards at a very early stage.

"For us, as a start-up in lockdown, being able to go in early with B Corp allowed us to set out and establish what good looks like before we had anything to retrofit it [the B Corp requirements] to."

Jones said there were other benefits of pursuing B Corp certification early in Byway's journey. "It was very low-cost for us, and it also meant we got into our articles of association that we prioritise commercial stuff, social stuff and environmental stuff, and that every member of our board of directors – forever – has to do this."

Jones added this means she can go out to raise money for the business and seek investment, and bring new directors into the company, safe in the knowledge these articles of association are behind her and that any new directors know what they're signing up to.

B Corp, she said, has been a "huge benefit" to Byway in terms of there now being a community of B Corp travel brands sharing best practice, their experiments and "what good looks like" across the many facets that comprise sustainability, and how they all engage their teams and stakeholders.

Decarbonisation – a question of 'carrot and stick'?

Delegates heard travel businesses can start their decarbonisation journeys right now without significant cost implications, or otherwise need to incentivised – or forced through regulation or fines – to get going.

"We need the carrot and the stick," said HX strategy manager (sustainability) Felix Hamer (pictured right) in conversation with TerraVerde Sustainability founder and director Patrick Richards (pictured left), who – like Jones – also travelled to ITT flight-free.

"We need the fines and the financial incentives to decarbonise. And we need them to ramp up quickly – there are very few regulations that are really pushing us to decarbonise properly."

Hamer said this would also give brands the impetus to justify decarbonisation costs internally. He said brands should not be afraid of admitting they are at the start of a journey.

"If you map out the things you can do – materiality versus difficulty – then just do the things that are low difficulty, high materiality, and just get going," he said. "And again, if you’re reporting, that’s how you keep honest – transparency is much more important than perfection."

Making travel accessible and catering for multi-generational groups

Accessibility was another perennial theme of the conference. Tui's Quinton Smith (pictured right) set the scene, revealing a quarter of the UK travelling population now travel with some form of accessibility need, or with someone that has such a need.

"Tui has really lent into accessibility," he said. Tui's efforts include working with partner AccessAble to create detailed accessibility guides for 350 hotels covering everything from door widths for wheelchair access to step-free access for pools and showers.

It has also trained more than 5,000 staff in neurodiversity and accessibility needs, introduced British Sign Language in its stores and brought in designated "neuro-friendly" shopping hours. "These are making a massive difference," said Quinton Smith. "We're seeing more and more people with accessibility needs come to Tui – that's up 125% over the past four years. So this isn't just the right thing to do, it is a commercial opportunity."

Delegates heard this need would continue to grow owing to the rise of multi-generational travel, with Hughes noting during his address that with the birth this year of Generation Beta, travel and tourism businesses now have seven distinct generations to cater for.

David Kelly (pictured left), Hilton's senior vice-president continental Europe, said Hilton was designing new hotels with multi-generational parties in mind, including a much higher proportion of connected rooms. "You're selling happiness and memories," he said. "And more people want that to be inter-generational."

Kelly added Hilton was also starting to see the effect of the TikTok generation, Generation Alpha, influencing their parents' holiday purchasing decisions owing to what they are seeing on that platform. "They're influencing mum and dad for the stay, so we're really making sure that we're in that space."

‘Your paradise is our hell’ and a date for everyone's diaries...

Overtourism was on the agenda too. Last year, Sunday Times chief travel writer Chris Haslam visited Paris, Barcelona, New York, Seville, the Canary Islands and Venice to better understand the roots of growing anti-tourism sentiment, meet those affected and those campaigning for change.

Notably, Haslam highlighted how he believes overtourism is now being weaponised by populist leaders, who are creating a siege narrative, one he said dovetailed with growing economic anxiety and the belief that locals aren't getting anywhere near as much out of tourism as they are losing out from it.

"We've got locals on TV telling tourists, 'tu pariso es nuestro inferno' – your paradise is our hell," he said.

"There's a real sense people are being disrespected, that tourism has come and trampled all over the place, that there is no respect any more, that in the old days, if you were invited into someone's house, you took your off your shoes, you were humble, you appreciated being there, that is's these sort of philosophical fundamentals that need to come back."

He counted off the policies, or "populist tactics", he said politicians are using to "stay relevant" rather than address root causes – entry fees and turnstiles for cultural venues, beaches, even entire city centres, tourism taxes, limits on group sizes, seasonal pricing, local-only zones and abolishing short-term lets.

Haslam highlighted Barcelona's Neighbourhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth, which is calling for the city's DMO to be shut down, an end to tourism marketing, a reduction in tourism accommodation, and investment in reducing Barcelona's dependence on tourism. "This problem is not going away," he warned.

He also told delegates to mark 15 June in their diary, a day of action by the Set campaign group – South Europe facing Overtourism. It's the largest mobilisation yet," said Haslam. "Some of you will probably have clients in these destinations on that day. So give them a heads up."

What TTG thinks

I've been to a lot of conferences with TTG over the past eight years, and sat through an awful lot of conference sessions on AI.

There's been nothing wrong with them, per se – many have been as fascinating as they have been concerning, but always eye-opening. However, rarely has there been a coherent discussion of AI that runs throughout a conference programme.

The implementation and application of AI, the scope of the potential benefits for travel, the effect it may have on travel professionals and their worries about how AI is going to reshape their roles and careers – or stop them in their tracks.

At this year's ITT conference, AI very naturally and organically became part of nearly every session. Delegates could frequently be heard chatting about it among themselves, sharing their experiences and wisdom, and often seeking reassurance from – or offering it to – their colleagues and peers.

As Inspiretec and SystemsX chief Simon Powell so succinctly put it, the AI revolution is already under way – we're living it.

Were you to ask delegates to name the standout moments from the conference, there would be three. First, Ken Hughes citing a quote attributed to Hollywood actress Lauren Bacall, namely: “Standing still is the fastest way of moving backwards in a rapidly changing world.” Then there was Powell’s stark warning that businesses must “adopt or die”.

But it was fitting that perhaps the most pertinent take didn’t come from someone 10, 20 or 30 years deep into their travel career, but from someone whose journey is only just starting.

Ethan Scriven’s missive that “AI should be there to serve, not replace” captured the mood in the conference hall; together with the likes of fellow travel and tourism student Sinead Edwards, it's hard not to feel the future for travel is bright in the hands of such thoughtful and conscientious new entrants – not least with the support of AI.