AirAsia MOVE’s social pivot, Traveloka’s scrappy reinvention, and Rakuten’s ecosystem edge show that the future of travel may be powered by tech, but fuelled by people.
If the past 20 years were about putting travel online, the next 20 will be about keeping it human, while algorithms, agents, and AI battle for dominance in the traveller’s journey.
That was the undercurrent of the conversation when three distinct OTA stories from across Asia: Nadia Omer, CEO of AirAsia MOVE (Malaysia); Yady Guitana, CFO of Traveloka (Indonesia); and Yoshiyuki Takano, Senior Executive Officer and Head of Travel Business at Rakuten Group (Japan).
Each represents a different flavour of online travel in Asia – an airline-born challenger, a homegrown unicorn from Indonesia’s archipelago, and a Japanese giant built inside a $300-billion ecosystem. Together, they painted a vivid picture of how Asia’s OTAs are powering up for the next 20.
From airplanes to algorithms: AirAsia MOVE’s to social
When Nadia Omer took the helm at AirAsia MOVE two years ago, she inherited both a legacy and a label, “the AirAsia baby.” “It sounds almost like a nepo baby,” she joked. “But it’s part of our DNA.”
Her challenge was to evolve that DNA. “Our biggest hurdle isn’t customers, it’s partners. Airlines still see us as competitors, not collaborators. We have to earn their trust that we’re an OTA helping them fill seats, not an airline fighting for the same passenger.”
Today, 75% of MOVE’s transactions still come from AirAsia content, but the other 25%, non-AirAsia, is growing steadily.
The bigger shift, though, is philosophical. MOVE is positioning itself not as a budget OTA, but as a social travel platform.
“We have a million users in our communities now,” said Nadia. “They share local experiences and peer-to-peer recommendations. If I want an authentic Isaan experience in Thailand, I’d rather hear it from a local mover than a paid influencer. That’s our future — social into transaction.”
From scrappy to scalable: Traveloka’s Indonesian masterclass
Few stories capture Southeast Asia’s grit like Traveloka’s.
“When we switched from metasearch to OTA in 2013,” recalled CFO Yady Guitana, “Indonesia’s digital infrastructure was almost nonexistent. Payment APIs didn’t exist. Card penetration was tiny. We literally used Raspberry Pi machines to automate bank logins and confirm transactions.”
It was hacking at its purest, a blend of necessity and ingenuity that became Traveloka’s hallmark.
“The mindset was: how do we overcome what’s right in front of us?” said Yady. “We didn’t say, ‘let’s wait two years.’ We just built our own way.”
That scrappy DNA still defines the company. “Even after 11 years and eight markets, we see ourselves as a startup,” he said. “We constantly restructure to stay fast.”
Post-pandemic, though, the playbook has matured. “Pre-COVID, it was all growth,” Yady reflected. “Now, it’s growth with discipline – predictability, planning, and improving the bottom line.”
Still, if the spreadsheet screams “no,” he says he’d still bet on one thing: people.
“In the long run, investing in product, technology, and people always pays off,” he said. “And people are the most important because even AI needs the right humans to run it.”
From loyalty to legacy: Rakuten Travel’s ecosystem power
In Japan, Rakuten Travel operates within one of Asia’s largest digital ecosystems – 70 services, from e-commerce to banking to mobile networks, generating roughly US$300 billion in annual transaction value.
Rakuten Travel itself topped 1 trillion yen (US$6.5 billion) in bookings last year, buoyed by Japan’s post-pandemic travel rebound and inbound surge.
“We’re part of an ecosystem where e-commerce, fintech, and travel all feed into each other,” said Yoshiyuki Takano. “Our shared loyalty programme lets users earn and spend across categories – that’s our superpower.”
The model cushioned Rakuten Travel during COVID. “E-commerce and fintech thrived when travel was down, so we didn’t need to restructure. We recovered in a V-shape,” he noted.
Looking ahead, Takano sees AI giants, not OTAs, as the biggest competitive threat. “AI will change the travel industry in the near future,” he said. “But Rakuten’s strength is adaptability — we can leverage our brand, ecosystem, and loyalty base to evolve.”
Competing with themselves
When asked who their fiercest competitors were, the three had distinctly different answers.
“For us,” said Nadia, “our biggest competitor is ourselves. Staying true to our DNA is our challenge. It’s easy to get distracted by what others are doing, but our power lies in knowing who our travellers, our movers, are.”
Yady’s answer was more diplomatic: “All of them. OTAs, meta-search, affiliates – we compete and collaborate at the same time.”
Yoshi was blunt: “AI giants.”
The audience poll agreed. The room voted overwhelmingly that AI-powered disruptors will be the biggest threat to OTAs in the next 20 years.
New playbooks for a new era
As the conversation turned to the future, each OTA revealed its focus segment.
- AirAsia MOVE: “Our current movers, budget travellers, but we want to move them from functional to emotional, to build a brand they feel something for,” said Nadia.
- Traveloka: “Digital-native millennials and Gen Z – the ones most comfortable living fully online.”
- Rakuten Travel: “Asian travellers who love Japan.”
And when asked whose superpower they’d steal from each other, the mutual admiration flowed: Yady envied Rakuten’s loyalty ecosystem and AirAsia’s brand; Nadia wanted Traveloka’s Indonesia playbook and Rakuten’s loyalty engine; Yoshi wanted everyone’s strong local supply and inventory.
“Let’s do a partnership,” Nadia laughed. “Absolutely,” replied Yoshi.
And perhaps that’s the secret to the next 20 – not competition, but collaboration across cultures, codes, and communities.
