Travel 2030: The Future Is Personal
Written by Andrea Caulfield-Smith
19 October 2026
Written by Andrea Caulfield-Smith
When we talk about 2030, it can feel a long way away. In reality, it is remarkably close.
So what will really change in business travel and what should corporates and TMCs be thinking about now?
I don’t believe we will suddenly wake up to an unrecognisable industry. People will still travel to meet customers, colleagues and partners. They will still fly, take trains, stay in hotels and use ground transportation. What will change significantly is how those journeys are planned, booked, managed and serviced and most importantly, where TMCs continue to value within that process.
From personalisation to intelligent travel
By 2030, we will be supporting a generation of travellers with very different expectations of technology. They will expect their travel experience to work in the same intuitive, connected way as the technology they use elsewhere in their lives and throughout their working day. They will not want to navigate disconnected systems to plan a trip, make a booking, manage an itinerary and submit an expense. Increasingly, travel will need to sit naturally within the company’s wider technology ecosystem, with much of the complexity happening behind the scenes.
This is where AI agents and particularly agentic AI becomes really interesting.
We have talked about personalisation in travel for years, but knowing somebody’s preferred seat, loyalty number or favourite hotel is only the beginning.
The opportunity is to move towards genuine hyper-personalisation, understanding the traveller, the purpose and context of their trip, their preferences as well as the parameters within which they can travel. Then, using this information curate the most appropriate journey.
For straightforward travel, the traveller may eventually have very little involvement in the transaction itself. Their AI agent could understand that they need to be in New York for a meeting, know their preferences and company policy, interact with the appropriate TMC systems and curate the right options. Over time, and with the right permissions, it could potentially move from recommending what to book to acting and ultimately transacting on the traveller’s behalf - that is a significant change.
It does however raise questions that the business travel industry still needs to answer. Whose AI agent is making the decision - the corporate’s or the TMC’s? Which curated content does it access? Who applies the policy? Who has authority to make the booking and initiate payment? And who is accountable when something falls outside the agreed parameters? The technology may get there before the trust does.
At the recent Skift Data and AI Summit, we heard that only around 6% of people are currently comfortable allowing an AI agent to make a booking on their behalf. That demonstrates the gap we still need to bridge between allowing technology to recommend, trusting it to act, and ultimately giving it permission to transact. That gap will narrow, and when it does, the opportunity goes far beyond the initial booking.
“The traveller doesn’t see air, rail, hotel and ground transportation as a collection of separate transactions, they see one journey”
Imagine a traveller’s flight is cancelled. Agentic AI could identify the disruption, understand the traveller’s complete itinerary, preferences and company policy, assess the alternatives and begin solving the problem. The other components of the journey could respond accordingly. The traveller should not have to connect the dots, technology should connect them as the traveller doesn’t see air, rail, hotel and ground transportation as a collection of separate transactions, they see one journey.
Where human expertise matters most
Technology changes the role of the travel consultant, none of this means consultants become less important. I believe it changes where their value is greatest. As technology takes on more repetitive tasks, straightforward bookings and predictable disruption, the role of the travel consultant can increasingly pivot towards the areas where human expertise genuinely makes a difference. Situations where judgement, experience, empathy and reassurance matter.
The opportunity is not to replace the travel consultant with technology. It is to use technology to remove the transactions that do not require their expertise, so they have more time for the ones that do. That is a very different role and potentially a much more valuable one.
From managing costs to measuring value
In addition, the corporate travel buyer needs to pivot too. For years, buyers have invested considerable time negotiating individual supplier programmes and rates, however, as the market evolves, we should ask whether that is always the best use of their time.
A TMC is operating at scale and can aggregate significant buying power, supplier relationships, content and market expertise across the whole value chain. The TMC uses that leverage to access strong commercial terms and appropriate content on behalf of its corporate customers, so the buyer does not necessarily need to negotiate every component of the programme independently. That creates the opportunity to give something incredibly valuable back to the buyer - time. Time to focus on the strategic priorities that matter to their organisation. It also means asking a bigger question about travel. From what did this trip cost? to what did this trip enable?
If an organisation is investing significant amounts of time and money bringing people together, what is it achieving through that investment? Did the trip strengthen a customer relationship, create a commercial opportunity, improve collaboration or retain customer business? That does not mean attaching a financial calculation to every journey. It means recognising corporate travel as a strategic investment rather than simply a cost to control.
A stronger partnership for 2030
By 2030, I believe the strongest corporate travel programmes will be those where the roles are much clearer. Technology handles what technology does best, it connects systems, processes data, curates content, manages straightforward transactions and increasingly anticipates and resolves predictable problems. Travel consultants focus where people make the difference, they bring judgement, expertise, creativity, empathy and reassurance to complex situations and the moments that cannot simply be automated. Corporate travel buyers focus on strategy. They define what the programme needs to achieve, align it with organisational objectives and use data and insight to continually improve traveller experience, programme performance and business value. And the TMC brings those elements together, combining technology and human expertise with content, buying power, supplier relationships and servicing capability. That is a much more powerful partnership.
There are still plenty of questions to answer between now and 2030. AI will evolve, distribution will continue to change, new forms of payment will emerge and traveller expectations will continue to rise. Being ready does not mean adopting every new technology that comes along, it means being clear about the outcome we are trying to create and building the right ecosystem around it.
For me, that is where the real opportunity lies.
A more connected journey for the traveller, a more valuable role for the travel consultant, a more strategic role for the corporate buyer and the TMC using its technology, people, scale and expertise to bring all three together.
That is what I believe the corporate travel programme of 2030 should look like.
