Sabre sees Bangladesh travel market shifting toward AI-driven, digital ecosystem

Dhaka : Bangladesh's travel market is on a strong recovery path, with air travel and outbound tourism returning to growth despite continued pressure from the economy and currency, according to Mohammad Saiful Hoque, Country General Manager and CEO of Sabre Travel Network (Bangladesh) Limited.

Hoque said passenger demand has rebounded significantly since the pandemic, supported by business travel, visiting friends and relatives, leisure trips and expanding international connectivity. Dhaka is seeing stronger international traffic as airlines restore or add capacity on regional and Middle Eastern routes.

Outbound travel is also gaining momentum, particularly to India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern destinations. Medical treatment, religious travel, education, business and family visits remain important sources of demand alongside leisure tourism.

He added Bangladeshi travelers are increasingly moving from agent-led purchasing to a digitally informed and price-sensitive "hybrid" model. While consumers use online platforms to research fares and options, travel agencies continue to play an important role, particularly for complex or personalized journeys.

Hoque described Bangladesh as strategically important to Sabre's South Asian operations because of its sizable outbound market, expanding aviation sector and scope for technology-led modernization.

He claimed the growing adoption of New Distribution Capability (NDC) is also changing airline retailing. Instead of relying mainly on standardized fares, airlines can use NDC to offer dynamic products, bundles, ancillary services and personalized options through APIs and modern distribution channels.

Artificial intelligence is expected to accelerate that transformation. Hoque sees major opportunities for AI in travel search, shopping, pricing, personalization, customer servicing and eventually autonomous trip management.

Sabre is developing its technology around an AI-native approach, with Sabre IQ designed to use large volumes of travel data for revenue optimization, automated operations and agentic workflows. The company says its travel-data environment contains more than 50 petabytes of demand signals.

Its SabreMosaic platform combines AI, NDC, Offers and Orders and APIs, allowing airlines and travel sellers to adopt modern capabilities without replacing their entire technology infrastructure at once.

Hoque mentioned traditional travel agencies are unlikely to disappear as direct airline sales expand. Instead, their role will move "up the value chain," with expertise, personalization, access and service becoming more important.

For Bangladesh, he identified fragmentation in infrastructure, payments, regulation, data and industry capabilities as key barriers to wider digitalization. Technology, he added, can help companies improve value for travelers while increasing revenue per customer and lowering service costs.

He also sees global distribution as essential to Bangladesh's tourism ambitions, enabling international visitors to discover, compare, book and manage travel to the country.

Over the next three to five years, Hoque expects travel to evolve from a transaction-based search-and-book model into an AI-driven, personalized ecosystem. Bangladesh, he said, has an opportunity to develop beyond its traditional role as an outbound market and emerge as a more significant regional aviation and tourism destination.