Key Challenges Facing Travel Companies in 2025: Insights from
Industry Trends and Prospect Feedback
The travel industry is undergoing significant transformation, driven by changing consumer demands, technological advancements, and global uncertainties. However, based on feedback from prospects last year, travel companies face unique challenges that hinder their ability to adapt quickly to this evolving landscape. These challenges include integration complexities, low margins, limited budgets for transformation, and the reality check that transitioning from legacy systems and fragmented setups is an overwhelming and costly undertaking.
This article explores these challenges in detail, combining insights from prospect feedback and general industry trends, while offering strategic solutions to help travel enterprises overcome these obstacles.
One of the most common pain points shared by prospects is the difficulty of integrating new technologies into existing systems. Travel companies often rely on fragmented legacy systems that are not designed to work seamlessly with modern tools like dynamic pricing engines or AIpowered personalization platforms. The lengthy timelines required for integrations can delay
innovation and frustrate stakeholders.
Strategic Solution:
Composable Architecture: Adopting a composable commerce platform allows travel enterprises to integrate new tools incrementally without overhauling their entire system. This modular approach reduces integration time while enabling scalability.
API-First Solutions: Leveraging pre-built APIs for travel-specific systems (e.g., GDS platforms like Amadeus or Servantrip) can streamline connectivity and reduce development cycles.
Travel companies often operate with razor-thin margins due to high operational costs and intense competition. Rising inflation, fluctuating fuel prices, and increased customer acquisition costs further erode profitability, making it difficult for businesses to reinvest in innovation or growth initiatives.
Strategic Solution:
Dynamic Pricing Models: Implementing AI-driven pricing strategies can optimize revenue by adjusting prices based on demand patterns and market conditions.
Subscription-Based Models: Offering subscription packages (e.g., annual vacation memberships) provides predictable recurring revenue streams while enhancing customer loyalty.
High-Margin Ancillaries, Seamlessly Integrated: Easily integrate with suppliers in the ancillaries space—like insurance, activities, and upgrades—to unlock high-margin add-ons that enhance both CX and profitability.
Experiential and Transformative Travel
Many travel enterprises struggle with limited budgets for digital transformation projects. While they recognize the need for modernization, financial constraints prevent them from implementing large-scale changes all at once.
Strategic Solution:
Phased Implementation Plans: Breaking down transformation projects into smaller, manageable phases allows companies to spread costs over time while achieving incremental improvements. For example:
Phase 1: Launch a modern booking interface.
Phase 2: Integrate dynamic pricing tools.
Phase 3: Enhance personalization with AI-driven recommendations.
Low-Code/No-Code Platforms: Using low-code tools like Makeswift enables travel companies to make impactful changes without requiring extensive developer resources, helping reduce upfront costs.
Legacy systems remain a major roadblock for travel companies attempting to modernize operations. Many prospects expressed frustration with their outdated infrastructure but emphasized that a complete overhaul is unrealistic due to operational dependencies and cost constraints.
Strategic Solution:
Incremental System Migration: Instead of replacing legacy systems entirely, travel enterprises can adopt a hybrid approach by integrating modern solutions alongside existing infrastructure. This allows businesses to maintain continuity while gradually transitioning to more efficient systems.
Middleware Solutions: Middleware tools can act as bridges between legacy systems and new technologies, enabling smoother transitions without disrupting day-to-day operations.
Commerce Excellence:
Implement advanced commerce solutions with BigCommerce to streamline checkout processes, enhance mobile-first UX, and enable seamless customer transactions.
Complex Integration Mastery:
Leverage BigCommerce's flexible integration capabilities to connect with AI personalization tools, sustainable travel databases, and subscription management systems.
Feedonomics Integration:
Use Feedonomics to optimize travel product data feeds, enhancing visibility and precision in targeting across multiple digital channels.
Personalized Subscriptions and Bundles:
Offer curated, subscription-based travel experiences designed around luxury, sustainability, and transformative engagements.
The future of travel commerce is centred on superior customer experience, seamless technology integration, and data-driven decision-making. Ubique Digital, empowered by BigCommerce and enhanced by Feedonomics, leads this transformation by providing sophisticated, scalable, and personalized commerce solutions that resonate with modern travellers and industry stakeholders.