Booking Holdings and Expedia will end 2025 in the throes of identity issues. Beyond the headlines, they're trying to be two companies at once:
A consumer brand that “owns travelers” and a behind-the-scenes platform that powers other people’s travels.
We at Skift have been writing about these two tracks for years. In a world before artificial intelligence, this division would sound like sensible diversification. In an AI world, where the interface layer is up for grabs, this becomes a tension you can’t mask with org charts and optimism.
Because AI poses a brutal administrative question, and maybe even a choice: Do you want to be a destination that travelers visit… or do you want the invisible infrastructure that banks, airlines, retailers and agents call upon when customers need to travel?
Don't think of this as an OTA-level soap opera. Travel is where the world’s biggest consumer and tech trends first collide on a massive scale: everything impacts travel
