For over twenty years, the internet, large booking platforms, and airline direct sales seemed destined to spell the end for travel agencies. Then came artificial intelligence, seemingly poised to deliver the final blow. But the most recent figures tell a less obvious story: while the digital market continues to grow, traditional intermediaries are showing new signs of revitalization. And technology, once the main threat, could become its greatest ally.
C’era una volta l’agenzia di viaggio. Quella con le vetrine tappezzate di spiagge tropicali, i cataloghi impilati sulle scrivanie e un agente che, attraverso sistemi di prenotazione incomprensibili ai più, riusciva a trovare la soluzione giusta per ogni destinazione. Poi arrivò Internet e, quasi all’improvviso, sembrò che tutto quel mondo fosse destinato a scomparire.
The reasoning was simple and seemingly unassailable: if anyone can search for a flight, compare hundreds of hotels, and book a vacation from their smartphone, why should they still go through a middleman?
First OTAs, then airline direct sales, and finally automation would gradually erode the traditional travel agencies' market. With the arrival of artificial intelligence, capable of suggesting destinations and building itineraries in seconds, their demise seemed only a matter of time.
Yet, more than twenty years after the first predictions, agencies are still here. And not just as survivors of a world that no longer exists. Some market signals suggest that professional intermediation is rediscovering its potential and opportunities precisely within the digital revolution that was supposed to make it superfluous.
The numbers tell a different story
Research presented in 2026 by Phocuswright, one of the leading international observatories of the tourism market, invites us to look more carefully at the evolution of European distribution.
According to data reported by the trade press, in some mature markets, the share of online travel agencies has risen from 22% in 2023 to 19% in 2025. Over the same period, there have been signs of a recovery in transactions through physical agencies, a phenomenon that would seem to contradict the idea of a progressive and unstoppable migration to large digital intermediaries.
This doesn't mean OTAs are in crisis. On the contrary, they continue to move enormous volumes and, in many cases, grow in absolute terms. In the UK, for example, gross bookings through online agencies are expected to reach £10.3 billion in 2025, despite their relative share of the online market declining.
Anche l’Italia conferma la vitalità del settore. Secondo l’Italy Travel Market Brief 2026 di Phocuswright, il mercato italiano dei viaggi ha raggiunto nel 2025 i 30 miliardi di euro di prenotazioni lorde, con una crescita del 4,5% rispetto all’anno precedente. Le prenotazioni online rappresentano ormai il 58% del totale, a dimostrazione di quanto il digitale sia diventato parte integrante delle abitudini dei viaggiatori.
These numbers require caution in interpretation, as they don't reflect a generalized growth of all traditional agencies. However, they do indicate that the market isn't necessarily concentrating on a single distribution model. Direct sales, OTAs, and professional intermediaries continue to coexist, shifting their respective balances.
And it is precisely this coexistence, probably, the most interesting news.
The paradox of technology: everything easier, everything more complicated
The digital revolution has delivered on many of its promises. Today, purchasing a trip is remarkably simple. It only takes a few clicks to find airline fares, compare a hotel with dozens of alternatives, or book an itinerary halfway around the world.
But being able to access an offer doesn't necessarily mean being able to choose the best one.
The problem is particularly evident in air travel. Dynamic fares, ancillary services, change conditions, different commercial policies, and multiple distribution channels have made finding a ticket a process that's often much more complex than it appears on the screen.
The progressive adoption of NDC and the evolution towards the Offers & Orders model are further changing the rules. Airlines are aiming to build increasingly flexible and personalized offerings, gradually overcoming some of the rigidities of traditional fare systems.
This is an important development, destined to expand commercial possibilities, but it also requires adequate tools to manage the growing variety of content and conditions.
This creates a paradox: the same technology that has made travel accessible to all has made it more difficult to navigate the available opportunities.
And when opportunities increase, those who know how to select them, interpret them, and above all transform them into a reliable service regain value.
Because the price of a ticket is only part of the journey. A missed connection, a canceled flight, or an unexpected change can turn a seemingly convenient booking into a costly hassle. In business tourism, where time and operational continuity have a precise economic value, the ability to intervene quickly can become even more important than the initial price.
It is in this space, between technological complexity and the need for assistance, that the professional agency can rediscover an important part of its raison d'être.
Agencies that are reborn are not those of yesterday
However, it would be wrong to interpret these signals as a return to the past. The agencies that can seize new opportunities today aren't necessarily those seeking to reimagine the traditional model, but rather those capable of using technology to profoundly transform their role in the market.
The most interesting change concerns the transition from simply selling travel to the ability to organize and manage a broader distribution business.
An IATA agency, for example, no longer needs to limit itself to issuing tickets for its own customers. It can become a consolidation center, develop its own network of sub-agencies, manage business clients with specific needs, and build commercial relationships through which it can progressively expand its market.
In this scenario, the ability to access different fare packages, organize customized commercial terms, and efficiently manage ticketing isn't just an operational advantage. It becomes a tool for developing new business and creating value through a network of customers and partners.
Until a few years ago, building an organization of this type required significant technological investments, dedicated infrastructure, and highly specialized personnel. Today, the landscape has changed dramatically.
Platforms like Skytool They address the complexity of air travel distribution through tools designed to organize and manage the search, booking, issuance, and commercial management processes. The complexity of fares, rules, and different content sources remains intact, but can be managed much more simply, freeing operators to focus on growing their business.
For an IATA agency, this means being able to structure a distribution network, consolidate ticketing from other agencies, and manage corporate clients within an organized business model. For sub-agencies, this means access to professional tools and ticketing services without necessarily having to support the full operational complexity of an independent organization.
The spread of platforms SaaS, Software as a Service, is helping make this transformation accessible even to smaller businesses. It's no longer essential to own a complex technological infrastructure: it's possible to use advanced, modular, and continuously updated services, adapting them to your business needs.
But this could be only the first phase of a much more profound change.
With the arrival of theAgentic AI, l’intelligenza artificiale basata su agenti capaci di interpretare obiettivi, coordinare attività ed eseguire processi articolati, si apre infatti un orizzonte ancora più ampio per il mondo del travel.
It's not simply a matter of introducing a virtual assistant to answer customer questions. The vision is for intelligent systems capable of collaborating with booking tools, interpreting complex requests, comparing different pricing options, preparing offers, and supporting operators in their daily activities.
An agency could thus gradually automate a significant portion of its repetitive processes, devoting more resources to consulting, business relationships, and the development of new services. And a small operator could leverage organizational and technological capabilities that, until recently, were only available to large organizations.
È anche in questa direzione che si colloca l’evoluzione di Skytool verso strumenti di automazione avanzata e architetture predisposte all’integrazione di agenti AI. Un percorso nel quale la tecnologia non rappresenta più soltanto il mezzo per prenotare ed emettere un biglietto, ma diventa parte integrante dell’organizzazione commerciale dell’agenzia.
This is a prospect that will require gradualism, system reliability, and adequate human oversight of the most delicate operations. But the fundamental change is already evident: the agency's value will depend less and less on its size and more and more on the quality of its skills, relationships, and tools.
The technology that seemed destined to eliminate intermediaries could therefore become the main factor in their new competitiveness.
Artificial intelligence: a new threat or a great opportunity?
Of course, there is no guarantee that this transformation will benefit everyone.
Artificial intelligence could further strengthen large global platforms, capable of investing considerable resources in developing intelligent systems and direct customer acquisition. But it could also reduce the technological gap between large and small operators, providing independent agencies with tools that were previously inaccessible to them.
Much will depend on who will be able to govern these technologies and how they will be integrated into the various business models.
The difference, in other words, won't necessarily be between those who use AI and those who continue to work without it. It will be between those who can turn it into an advantage for their customers and those who will end up passively suffering its consequences.
Moreover, the history of tourism distribution has already seen transformations that seemed definitive, but which have instead produced unexpected balances. The Internet hasn't eliminated all forms of intermediation: it has created new ones, modified existing ones, and redefined the relationship between suppliers, distributors, and consumers.
There is no reason to rule out that artificial intelligence could also generate a similar process, albeit with potentially greater speed and depth.
A new season for tourism intermediation
Perhaps, then, the real mistake was to imagine that the future of travel had to necessarily be a future without intermediaries.
Tourism distribution isn't simply a chain of commercial steps to be eliminated to reduce costs. It's a system in which information, expertise, relationships, and services contribute to building the value of the offering.
Online platforms will continue to play a central role, airlines will invest in direct sales, and new intelligent systems will profoundly change traveler behavior. But none of this means a competent and technologically advanced intermediary cannot continue to be useful, competitive, and even more important than before.
Not all agencies will seize this opportunity. Some will remain tied to operating models that the market is gradually overtaking. Others, however, will be able to transform into more dynamic organizations, develop sales networks, expand their services, and build new forms of customer relationships.
The difference will be made by the ability to innovate, knowledge of the market and above all the willingness to consider technology not as something to be defended against, but as a resource to be used.
Ultimately, the rebirth of travel agencies is not about recovering the role they had before the Internet.
It consists in discovering that, thanks to new technologies, they can conquer a completely new one.
Sources and references
Phocuswright – Europe Travel Market 2026: evoluzione della distribuzione turistica europea e delle quote OTA.
Phocuswright – Italy Travel Market Brief 2026: dimensioni e crescita del mercato turistico italiano.
Phocuswright – U.K. Travel Market 2026: andamento delle OTA e dei canali distributivi.
IATA – Modern Airline Retailing: Evolution of Airline Distribution, NDC, and Offers & Orders.
Data and references updated to 2026.
By Guido Deiana and Daniele Di Stefano
