An Existential Threat? Booking Exec Sees AI as an Expansion Opportunity
Photo Credit: Online travel agency experts believe generative AI could change the way they do business. Adobe / DimaBerlin
Skift Take
Booking's CFO thinks artificial intelligence can put his company on the offensive rather than the defensive. The odds are long but based on past performance you can't count them out.
While some view artificial intelligence as an existential threat to the online travel agencies, Booking Holdings Chief Financial Officer Ewout Steenbergen said it can accelerate growth.
"We believe this will create an expansion of the total addressable market," Steenbergen said during an interview at a financial conference earlier this week. "There will be a faster shift from offline to online travel. About more than 30% of the market is still offline. So this will be an acceleration."
If anyone believes that online travel agencies don't have room to grow, Steenbergen pointed to emerging economies where the people joining the middle class gain more discretionary income, and often want to "travel and explore the world."
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