The middle class is growing faster in the region than anywhere else, making travel accessible to more of the population. It is also a very dynamic, competitive, diverse region, which makes it hard to build scalable solutions.
In an executive interview, Morgenshtern addressed some of the challenges facing the industry in Asia and beyond, including the potential demise of online travel agencies (OTAs).
He doesn’t believe artificial intelligence (AI) will disintermediate the OTAs and said AI now makes it easier and cheaper for them to build their own “top-of-funnel” search rather than relying on search engines for traffic.
“I think it's a very interesting period for us where you'll see us going upward in the funnel. You'll see us releasing more and more features there, and I'm certain that five to seven years from now, potentially even two or three, the user experience will be very different. And I'm pretty certain that a lot of it will be led by OTAs. So, this is the opportunity for OTAs to become the new search.”
Morgenshtern went on to discuss other problems AI platforms such as ChatGPT could potentially solve, including down-funnel challenges such as foreign exchange for cross-border travel, payments more generally and booking different room categories.
While trip planning is often seen as the “sexy part,” the “real anxiety” is around saving money, how to pay and what happens when things go wrong, he said.
The conversation also touched on the potential for Asia to leapfrog with AI as it did with mobile and social media.
Watch the full interview below with WiT’s founder and editor Yeoh Siew Hoon: