Nearly two-thirds of travel professionals across the Asia-Pacific region expect demand for their business to grow over the next two to three years, though structural challenges around technology and content risk slowing that momentum, according to new Expedia Group research.
The report, Mapping the Future of APAC Travel, is based on a survey of 1,250 travel professionals across Australia, China, India, Japan and Thailand. Australian respondents were among the most confident, with 76 per cent anticipating demand growth, behind only India at 82 per cent.
Growth expectations span multiple segments, with more than 60 per cent of professionals anticipating increases in luxury leisure, budget leisure, bleisure and intra-APAC regional travel. Looking ahead, respondents predicted India would see the strongest outbound growth over the next two to three years, followed by Japan. For inbound travel, India and Hong Kong SAR are expected to lead.
Payments and booking behaviour shifting
Traveller expectations around payments are becoming more complex. Sixty per cent of professionals said local and diverse payment options had grown in importance, while more than 70 per cent said options such as buy now, pay later, global cards and loyalty redemption were now essential parts of the booking experience.
Fifty-nine per cent also reported growing demand for booking through AI-powered tools or non-traditional platforms.
Operational gaps remain
Despite the optimism, many businesses are still working through structural issues. Thirty-three per cent cited a lack of localised content as a major challenge, 34 per cent pointed to discoverability problems across search and AI platforms, and 35 per cent said legacy systems were slowing adoption of new capabilities.
AI adoption is accelerating – 79 per cent of respondents said they were already using it, with 97 per cent planning to in the future – but many organisations are still working to realise its full potential.
Aileen Chan, vice president of sales, APAC at Expedia Group, said the complexity of the region remained the central challenge.
“While demand is clearly increasing, our research shows that complexity across payments, content and technology remains a major barrier,” Chan said. “The opportunity lies in helping partners simplify that experience and scale with confidence.”
The survey was conducted by Censuswide between 26 March and 1 April 2026.
