MADRID — Amadeus’ 2026 study of travel sellers around the world suggests that travel advisors are using the GDS more than two years ago, outperforming the growth seen in other reservation channels.
Close to half of all advisors globally (43%) report using their GDS more than in 2024, and on average, agents use GDSs over 6 times per day, spending nearly 8 hours connected.
By region, APAC led the way with 47% of agents using the platforms more than they did two years ago, followed by EMEA at 44% and the Americas at 42%.
Amadeus conducts the survey every two years. For the 2026 edition, Takedown Research questioned more than 750 travel advisors across the industry’s three major providers – Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport – in three global regions: APAC (Asia-Pacific), EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and the Americas.
Rate parity for is the priority, notes Amadeus, as agents increase their reliance on the traditional distribution system. Rate parity is seen by agents as non-negotiable, with 94% of the sample saying it is highly important. Two out of three (63%) said they would actively book away from a property if they felt pricing was inconsistent.
Some 90% said they rely on the hotel description (HoD) fields provided by the hotel when comparing and recommending properties. Across all regions, sustainability moved from a “nice to have” to a standard decision factor. Nearly nine out of ten (88%) say sustainability matters to customers when choosing a provider. When green credentials are missing, agents say it can negatively influence the booking decision, especially in EMEA and APAC.
AI & WORKFLOW
More than three in four advisors said AI is part of their selling toolkit, using it to research options, compare content, build recommendations, and improve productivity.
“Comfort levels are high, although regional differences emerge,” said Amadeus. APAC led the way, with agents in that region already embracing advanced AI use cases, including itinerary suggestions (36%), CRM recommendations (32%), and fraud or quality tools (21%).
Conversational AI – ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini – is most employed by agents in EMEA (62%) and is the leading use case across regions. Automated fare search tools and AI itinerary suggestion platforms are also gaining traction, each used by 29% of agents globally.
Agents in the Americas showed more caution towards AI, according to the survey, with more than one in three (35%) of advisors saying they’re not using AI to help them to sell, although the report suggests that “this may shift as tools become more embedded in daily workflows.”
Across all regions, advisors were aligned in identifying pricing and upsell suggestions, hotel recommendations, destination inspiration and content comparison as areas where AI could improve their productivity.
The report can be accessed here.
