Digital Travel APAC 2025, the tenth edition of the annual event, came to a successful conclusion on Wednesday, 13th August.

Throughout its two-day run, a total of 33 speakers shared their insights regarding the most pressing tech-related issues currently pressing the travel, tourism, aviation, and hospitality sectors.

Travel Daily Media was honoured to be a media partner for the event and, by being present, gained a significant understanding of a number of key concepts that are set to transform the travel industry over the next several years.

That said, we would like to share the following insights that stood out from the conference.

Do not fear the coming of AI

Artificial intelligence is, understandably, the single most controversial subject that comes up in the context of technology.

In the case of travel technology, experts opine that it is not something to fear, but more of a tool that can make things easier for both businesses and their customers.

Consider this: rather than use ChatGPT and similar generative AI platforms to simply answer questions, some people are learning to use them to book flights, hotel rooms, and even plan whole trips.

While understandably imperfect at this current stage of development, this changes the game for all players as the process of searching for travel options and consequently planning trips becomes considerably easier.

At the same time, tourism boards should also consider the use of nascent technologies to program their promotional campaigns, building on relevant insights on traveler preferences which, much like technology, are evolving at a rapid pace.

Companies should be more than SEO-savvy; they need to be AEO/GEO-savvy, too

One of the more insightful talks during Digital Travel APAC was a fireside chat featuring Dusit International’s vice-president of marketing Chetan Patel and Chroma Hospitality’s vice-president for e-commerce Sunish Sadasivan who talked about how companies need to think beyond search engine optimisation (SEO).

Indeed, the terms we now need to know are AI search engine optimisation and generative AI engine optimisation, AEO and GEO respectively.

Sadasivan, in particular, pointed out that Google may still be the go-to when doing online searches, but other platforms now need to be considered.

“If you look at recent search activity worldwide, 92 percent of the searches are still happening on Google. On the other hand, AI engines like Open AI, Gemini, and everybody else only get around one percent. But that one percent is rapidly increasing, which is something to look at for the future. What’s happening now is that we are also seeing a lot of other searches happening on newer platforms.”

The use of cryptocurrencies as the coin of the realm is still up for debate

While Travala.com’s CMO Sam Woollard gave a compelling presentation on how crypto payments can help travel and hospitality firms tap into a 700 million-strong market base, people are still ambivalent about the use of both cryptocurrencies and digital wallets in the sector.

There is definitely a place for women in leadership positions throughout the industry

We had the privilege of taking part in Dr Nisha Abu Bakar’s spotlight hour on women in leadership wherein she discussed the ongoing challenges of women in the sector and how they need to take ownership of their careers if they are to make it to the top of the game.

Currently, 80 percent of travel decisions worldwide are made by women; but only 21 percent of C-Suite posts in the travel and hospitality sectors are held by women.

“It’s good but it feels like we can do better. Can we do better? We can go the distance! It’s not too bad in the hospitality sector, as about 49 percent of those in leadership roles are women. But look: did you know that there are only five female general managers in Singapore?”

Where AI is concerned, trust and transparency remain key

As we draw to a close, let’s take a look back at what conference chair Chris Legaspi said at the beginning of the event regarding the challenge posed by the rapid adoption of AI and related developments.

“Research is clear. Transparency, data ethics, and human oversight are the foundations of AI trust in travel. Be upfront about how and why AI is used. If we lead in this transparency, we’ll not only win in terms of efficiency, but we’ll win with regard to customer loyalty.”