Interview: Chinese travel companies see growing opportunities thanks to AI, says researcher

 China is playing a critical role in the global travel industry, bolstered by the use of artificial intelligence, said a researcher on global trends.

Chinese travel agencies, hotel companies and airlines are powering ahead thanks to new open-source AI tools revolutionizing the global market, according to the IMD Travel Future Readiness Indicator 2025 report released on Tuesday by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD).

"The development of GenAI has opened lots of opportunities for Chinese operators to build up and use large language models to supercharge their digital personalization," said Howard Yu, director of the IMD Center for Future Readiness.

The IMD Travel Future Readiness Indicator ranks 33 global travel companies, including airlines, hotels and online agencies, by future readiness.

China's online travel agency Trip.com ranked fourth in the indicator, after Booking Holdings, Airbnb and Marriott. Chinese hotels and hospitality company H World Group ranked 17th, China Southern Airlines 29th, and Air China 30th.

The study highlighted four 2025 travel trends: digital personalization, sustainability, the blending of business with leisure and financial resilience, outlining strategies for future readiness.

Yu also noted AI agents like OpenAI's Operator and China's Manus are transforming travel booking, potentially disrupting traditional travel agencies by enabling autonomous trip planning.

"The whole technology cluster in China, when it is related to GenAI, is much more open source. In the very near future the end consumer is going to use much more autonomous agents to curate their international travel, whether it's going outside of China or coming to China," he said.

"This open-source approach will open new doors for China to really play a major role in how international travelers are going to curate, personalize and eventually fulfill their bookings," Yu added. ■