The Pathways to Unlock the Potential of Agentic Commerce in Hospitality and Travel

This IDC Perspective discusses the pathways to unlock the potential of agentic commerce in hospitality and travel. By 2030, agent-to-agent commerce will be operational across segments of hospitality and travel. The shift from generative AI assistance to agentic execution is forcing organizations to rethink core systems architecture, particularly as it relates to distribution and loyalty. As LLM surfaces emerge as booking channels, competitive advantage will move from traffic acquisition to structured offer clarity, policy governance, and real-time entitlement calculation. Organizations that modernize APIs, embed loyalty as infrastructure, and implement disciplined channel governance will shape the next era of travel and hospitality commerce. Agentic AI must not be considered merely a feature enhancement, but as a fundamental reordering of how commerce capabilities are exposed, evaluated, and executed."As AI surfaces become legitimate distribution channels, organizations must re-architect technology, data, and governance models to compete in an environment where agents evaluate structured capabilities rather than human-facing experiences," says Dorothy Creamer, senior research manager, Hospitality and Travel Digital Strategies at IDC. "Agentic AI will redefine how demand is captured and fulfilled in hospitality and travel. The organizations that win will not be those with the most conversational polish, but those that expose structured, policy-governed capabilities that AI agents can trust and transact with at scale."