As the global travel industry has returned to equilibrium over the past year or two, technology innovators Amadeus have been on something of a roll.

Momentum was developed with the acquisition of two companies - Vision-Box and Voxel - for a total of €450 million, while the Madrid-based company signed major partnerships with industry leaders such as British Airways and Accor.

Amadeus also continues to offer strong financial figures to investors, delivering double digital growth over the first nine months of 2024.

Speaking to an industry audience during an event in London earlier this week, Amadeus chief executive, Luis Maroto, said a feeling of optimism had returned to the sector – but that he remained prepared for change.

“Travel is an amazing industry and, certainly since the Covid-19 pandemic, things have evolved really quickly – the only thing we know is that travel is changing all the time.

“Technology continues to be extremely relevant to this evolution, and travel has been one of the first industries to embrace the possibilities.

“This goes back to the dawn of the internet – and we are now looking ahead to what new technologies can offer us.

“Travel is a sector which accounts for nearly ten per cent of global GDP and is expected to grow further,” Maroto added.

“The combined opportunity of both travel and technology is valued at €90 billion, and we have been evolving from our role as a GDS, a distributor, to become the technology company in travel. 

“We continue to see growth, as our role evolves into all of the touchpoints of travel, while our teams have doubled to around, today, 20,000 people.”

To ensure its position at the forefront of travel technology, Amadeus continues to invest.

This year the company spent around 20 per cent of its revenue on research and development, roughly €1 billion, making Amadeus the fifth biggest researcher in Europe.

“Innovation is fundamental to us at Amadeus – this creates the solutions we offer to our partners,” explains Maroto.

“The only choice we have is to keep innovating all the time – this is what our customers want and expect from us.

“We do so in three ways, firstly organically, investing each year in developing and finding new solutions that will generate future opportunities for us.

“Next, we work with partners, and we have close relationships with many companies around the world to jointly develop capabilities and solutions.

“Finally, we also look at acquisitions, where we can bring innovation to the table globally.”

He added: “Over the last decade, we have acquired a number of companies, and this will continue in the future – though, of course, these companies need to fit into our purpose, goal and strategy as a company.”

Amadeus is not focused on growth for the sake of growth, however, with Maroto explaining the company is seeking to be a ‘responsible innovator’, ensuring ideas are scalable and reliable, as well as useful across the industry.

“A great example is Artificial Intelligence (AI),” he explained, “where we have been working hard for many years.

“There are many new ideas in this space, but we have to be sure these ideas are deployed in an ethical way.

“We have created an AI Office within Amadeus to ensure this is the case, while we have also signed the European Union AI Pact, working to ensure everything we do is informed by these standards.”

With an eye on the future, Maroto said there were currently two grey rhinos to which he was currently paying attention.

“The first is sustainability and the second is the attraction of talent,” he continued.

“On the sustainability front, we are focused on ensuring our industry remains sustainable in the medium-term – a priority for our company.

“Internally, we are committed to carbon neutrality by 2025, and we are working to optimise our solutions in order to help our customers meet their own goals.

“We are also working at an industry level, with partners such as Caphenia, to ensure we can face the sustainability challenges.”

He added: “In terms of talent, social sustainability, many people left the travel industry during the Covid-19 pandemic, and we have to work to reverse this.

“Travel is once again an attractive place to work, and we are rebuilding the stability across our teams.

“We are working to build an environment which is diverse and welcoming.

“Of course, we were initially created as a very diverse company, with four airlines from different European countries coming together to better understand each other.

“We have, thus, always paid close attention to our development in this way – talent will remain an important factor in our innovation ambitions and our success.”

In closing, Maroto said the future looked bright – for travel, technology and Amadeus.

“For any technology company, the people are the most important attribute – and we feel we have the best people in the industry.

“Our teams have a passion for both travel and technology, attracting and retaining these people is our focus, offering stability.

“I believe we are well-positioned for the future and whatever challenges are on the horizon – I am optimistic we can move forward as an organisation.”

More Information

Amadeus recently took the title of World’s Best Travel Technology Provider at the World Travel Tech Awards.

Find out more about the company on the official website.