Welcome to The #Phocuswright Conference
Summary
This session is the official welcome and opening of the Phocuswright Conference, held in San Diego. The co-hosts open the main stage programming following a first day of breakouts, roundtables, startup programming, and networking. The event brings together more than 1,200 attendees from 600 companies across 50 countries, making it one of the few annual occasions when the global travel industry convenes as a single community.
The welcome frames the conference around a central metaphor of a 'game' in which the rules are being rapidly rewritten by AI, geopolitical uncertainty, shifting distribution dynamics, and evolving consumer behavior. An audience poll is introduced to surface which force attendees believe is most shaping their company — with AI and automation expected to dominate responses.
The hosts present a series of data points from Phocuswright's research. Global gross travel bookings are projected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2027, driven significantly by growth markets. Asia-Pacific represented 27% of global bookings in 2024, with India on track to reach $61 billion in gross bookings by 2028 — roughly 1.5 times its 2024 level. The Middle East is growing through mega-projects and tourism-led development, while Latin America benefits from improving connectivity, currency stabilization, and an expanding middle class.
On AI adoption within the industry, Phocuswright's August survey of travel executives found 83% are actively using AI — approximately 75% for internal solutions and 50% for consumer-facing products. The conversation within organizations has shifted from whether AI delivers value to how to scale it. Agentic AI systems — which take autonomous action rather than just providing information — are gaining traction fast: nearly 60% of travel businesses report experimenting with or scaling agents, while only 9% remain on the sidelines.
Consumer behavior is shifting in parallel. Phocuswright's September US consumer survey found that nearly 4 in 10 US travelers are now using platforms such as ChatGPT or Google's AI mode to research and plan trips. At the top of the purchase funnel, traditional search on Google is losing ground to AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity, while review sites are also declining, possibly because AI and social channels deliver answers faster. Users report that AI query results have directly influenced their decisions on lodging, destination, dining, activities, and booking method.
The program previews a lineup including executives from Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, Google, Marriott, Airbnb, and American Airlines. Barry Diller will open the following morning. A new interactive leadership session focused on future-proofing teams and navigating uncertainty is also highlighted. The conference again offsets its full carbon footprint, including attendee travel emissions, with support from sponsor Travel Guard.
Key Takeaways
- •Global gross travel bookings are forecast to hit $1.8 trillion by 2027 — the recovery is complete and growth is now the story, not resilience.
- •India is the single fastest-growing major travel market, set to reach $61B in gross bookings by 2028, roughly 1.5x its 2024 level — making it a priority market for expansion.
- •83% of travel executives are already using AI, and the strategic question has moved from 'does it work?' to 'how do we scale it?' — companies still evaluating ROI are behind the curve.
- •Agentic AI (systems that take action, not just respond) is the next frontier: nearly 60% of travel businesses are already experimenting or scaling agents, not just watching.
- •Nearly 4 in 10 US travelers now use AI tools like ChatGPT or Google Gemini to research and plan trips — this shift is happening faster than most industry timelines assumed.
- •Traditional Google search is losing share at the top of the travel purchase funnel to AI-powered search tools; review sites are also declining as AI and social channels answer questions faster.
- •AI is influencing actual booking decisions — users report AI queries changed their lodging and destination choices, not just inspiration browsing.
- •The Middle East and Latin America are the two highest-priority growth opportunity regions beyond Asia-Pacific for travel companies looking for incremental demand.
- •Only 9% of travel businesses are completely on the sidelines on agentic AI — competitive inaction is no longer a safe default.
- •Despite AI's speed of change, in-person industry gatherings remain irreplaceable for the human connections that spark partnerships and strategies AI cannot replicate.
Transcript
Welcome everybody to the Focus right conference. It's fantastic to be back together here in this beautiful city of San Diego. We kick things off yesterday with a full slate of breakouts, roundtables, and programs for young leaders and startups, plus plenty of networking and meetings. >> And now we continue with our center stage programming. more than 12 hours of interviews and panel discussions carefully curated by our team of analysts and editors. And of course, our launch program is back where...
