Amadeus Execs Offer Glimpse Into Tech Investment Trends for Next Decade

25.08.2023 - 14:11 / skift.com / Justin Dawes

Travelers across the board want a future where technology makes payments easy and seamless. 

In fact, that’s their top expectation of the travel industry in the next 10 years, according to a new survey commissioned by Amadeus. Specifically, they are open to paying for travel with cryptocurrency, in a virtual reality, or via facial recognition.

The topic itself is not a surprise, but seeing it highlighted as the top tech interest for travelers was enlightening, said Decius Valmorbida, president of travel for Amadeus, which offers a global distribution system and other tech services for the travel industry. That type of insight is what helps inform Amadeus on future investment.

“The topics are not new in itself — but when you go to the detail of the application of how this is going to shape and manifest itself in the near future and how people expect to use that technology in the future, you have nuances that can provide insight on how to prioritize investments and where you should be focusing that adoption,” Valmorbida said. 

The company’s latest such study — Traveler Tribes 2033 — shows that consumers are increasingly expecting that new technology will be a natural part of various aspects of travel. The study categorizes people in four categories, based on how they expect to use technology when traveling. The data is based on an online survey of more than 10,000 travelers from 15 countries conducted by Northstar Research Partners in August 2022.

With emerging technologies — like biometrics, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality including the metaverse — combined with changes post-pandemic, Amadeus wanted to better understand how travel patterns are changing, Valmorbida said. 

As far as the interest in payments, Valmorbida is happy to see it. 

“Because we’re now making moves and long-term investments towards the payments business,” he said. 

Outpayce, an Amadeus subsidiary, is expected to be awarded an eMoney license, meaning Amadeus can be directly involved with financial transactions, and it will be easier to partner with financial institutions to offer better services. 

Aside from being open to emerging technologies, the report highlighted that travelers want sustainable options and are more concerned about data privacy and cybersecurity. The privacy issue is especially important for emerging tech like biometrics, which are reportedly expanding throughout airports in the country this year. 

“Even though biometrics is, across the board, something that people are willing to adopt, you have to tackle the concerns as well. Otherwise, you’re not going to have full adoption and therefore the full return on the investment you’re doing,” said Paco Pérez-Lozao Rüter, president of hospitality for