ITB Asia 2026: six AI sessions on the Travel Tech Asia stage

ITB Asia 2026 takes place from 21 to 23 October at the Sands Expo & Convention Centre in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, with more than 150 speakers booked across three theatres. Messe Berlin Asia Pacific is the organiser. Six AI sessions sit on the Travel Tech Asia Theatre stage, from Booking.com, KAYAK, Traveloka, D-EDGE, Trip.com and RateGain. For hotel, OTA and airline leaders in Singapore this week, that stage is the quickest way to hear how large distributors and hotel technology vendors describe their AI plans.

This is the 19th edition of the show. Travelextra reported an expected turnout of more than 18,000 participants, plus two debuts: Custom Experience Zones and curated Guided Tours. The conference theme is “Experiences in Motion: Human-Centred Design in Travel & Tourism”. Talks are split between the Knowledge Theatre, the MICE Show Asia Theatre and the Travel Tech Asia Theatre, and the AI sessions covered here all belong to the last.

Where the technology sits

Travel Tech Asia occupies Level 1 of Sands Expo, next to ITB Asia and MICE Show Asia. The hosted buyer programme is new this year and brings in about 100 technology buyers. They are CIOs, CTOs and procurement leads from hotels, agencies and DMCs. More than 50 exhibitors are signed up.

Confirmed exhibitors are Agoda, Airalo, DerbySoft, Flywire, Juniper Travel Technology, Rakuten Travel Xchange, RateHawk, SiteMinder and Trip.com. Trip.com therefore appears twice, on the stage and on the show floor, which lets a delegate hear the pitch and then ask a product question at the booth.

The six AI sessions, read for commercial value

The six speaking companies fall into two kinds. Four run consumer-facing booking platforms. Two sell technology to hotels. What an operator should listen for differs between the two.

Booking.com, KAYAK, Traveloka and Trip.com. These four sit between the traveller and the hotel room or airline seat. A session from any of them is useful for one reason: it shows how AI is being used to rank, describe and surface inventory. Revenue managers and airline distribution heads should note which product data each platform asks suppliers to provide, and how that data feeds search results.

Booking.com’s speaker to watch is Laura Houldsworth. WebInTravel ran an interview with her on 19 October on putting Asia at the heart of the company, so her session is a natural place to test how the platform thinks about supply in the region. Trip.com’s speaker to watch is Edmund Ong.

D-EDGE and RateGain. Both companies work on the hotel side of the market. Their sessions are the ones where an independent property or a regional chain can ask what AI tooling is available to it today. Anurag Jain speaks for RateGain and Sojern. Hotel marketing leads should treat that session as the main one on the stage for hotel-side value, since it ties demand data to the channels that act on it.

Questions to carry into every session

Treat each talk as a short vendor briefing and bring the same three questions to all six. What does this company need from my own data? Which step of the booking journey does its AI replace or assist? What would it take for a mid-sized hotel, airline or DMC to connect? Sessions that answer those with specifics are about commercial value. Sessions that stay at the level of vision belong in the general-talk column. With roughly 100 technology buyers in the same venue, the answers can be tested in conversation the same day.

Who should attend and how to register

Hotel groups, OTAs, airlines and DMCs with a technology or distribution brief get the most from the Travel Tech Asia Theatre. Hotel marketing and revenue leads should start with D-EDGE and RateGain. OTA and airline product heads should start with Booking.com, KAYAK, Traveloka and Trip.com. Registration is handled through the ITB Asia website, and the show days are 21, 22 and 23 October.

For organisers

Messe Berlin Asia Pacific has assembled a programme of more than 150 speakers over three theatres, and the Travel Tech Asia stage carries the densest cluster of AI content. The hosted buyer programme gives speakers and sponsors a defined audience of about 100 technology buyers. Panels on AI in distribution, with hotel and airline operators alongside platform speakers, would suit that audience in future editions.

Key takeaway

Send one person from the distribution team to the Travel Tech Asia Theatre and use the six AI sessions to build a vendor shortlist. If only one day fits the diary, pick the day that carries the RateGain or Booking.com session, because those two speak most directly to hotel commercial value. A delegate who arrives with three specific data and integration questions will leave with more than one who comes only to listen.

Daksh Sharma

Chief Editor, TravHQ

Daksh Sharma is a travel tech enthusiast and a prolific voice in the B2B travel industry. A speaker at numerous travel-tech events, he is at the forefront of digital and AI adoption in travel. He conducts AI training and implementation programmes and works as a digital advisor to a number of global B2B brands.

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