SINGAPORE, 12 September 2025: RateHawk, a B2B booking platform, reveals that one in five travel professionals considers technology, including AI and automation, as an ultimate solution to overcome daily challenges.
The report, based on a survey of 1300+ worldwide respondents, highlights the specific tech needs of the global travel professionals community, mapping out new opportunities for travel tech players.
Report takeaways
What’s Next in B2B Travel Tech? RateHawk Survey maps out the industry’s most wanted solutions.
Asian travel professionals cite managing high competition as their primary challenge, while searching for the best deals is their main time-consuming task.
To work more efficiently, 31% would like to integrate more technology solutions into their daily routine.
Among various innovation options, 50% of respondents opt for advanced analytics tools, while 47% are interested in automation.
There is also high demand for work on the go, with 44% of respondents wishing to have greater access to mobile tools.
The biggest hurdles are intense competition, rising client expectations, and the time-consuming process of manually searching for the best deals.
Three key challenges
- A quarter of travel professionals worldwide cited intense competition as their top challenge, with increasing pressure in fast-growing markets like the GCC (49%) and Asia (30%).
- Rising client expectations challenge 24% of travel professionals who admit they struggle to keep up. In open responses, many specialists shared frustrations about travellers expecting pre-pandemic prices, making budgets unrealistic.
- Maintaining the desired level of income is the third most challenging aspect for travel professionals, with 15% of respondents worldwide identifying it as a key concern. Additionally, 33% say that achieving higher commission levels is the most desired change.
“The travel industry is known for its low margins, and, with constantly rising travel costs, every opportunity to earn additional commission is crucial. Technology platforms can give this flexibility to support partners’ sustainable development. For instance, our users can set up their own commission levels, as well as loyalty points and other rewards,” says RateHawk Managing Director Astid Kastberg.
Nearly half of respondents identified searching for competitive travel offers as their most time-consuming task — a figure that is exceptionally high in the GCC region (52%) and Asia (49%), but also significant in Europe (40%), Latin America (44%), and North America (39%). Other top global time-sinks include managing booking changes (17%) and repetitive administrative work (16%).
About RateHawk
RateHawk is a subsidiary of Emerging Travel Group, which is a global travel company. Emerging Travel Group is headquartered in Dubai, UAE. RateHawk has offices in several cities worldwide, including London, Berlin, Milan, Lisbon, Warsaw, Dubai, Limassol (Cyprus), and Singapore (Asian headquarters).
(Source: Emerging Travel Group).
