TRAVEL & TRANSPORTATION

Transforming Travel & Transport: Preparing for the Next Decade

The travel and transport sector is on the brink of profound change — the industry a decade from now will look fundamentally different. Key forces reshaping the landscape include:

• The tension between globalization and protectionism
   
• Shifts in global wealth and a surge of disposable income in emerging markets
   
• Changing travel purchase behaviors among consumers and businesses
   
• Consolidation across airlines, hotels, and other suppliers
   
• A rapidly evolving travel distribution ecosystem
   
• Big Data’s transformative impact on planning and operations
   
• Disruptive technologies such as IoT, AR, autonomous vehicles, electrification, ride-sharing, and drones
   
• Growing climate change awareness and related regulations
   

These dynamics affect every corner of travel and transport — airlines and airports, hospitality, tourism, maritime, rail, mobility, freight, and logistics — all essential to moving people and goods worldwide.

Key Questions for Industry Leaders:

• Which trends will most impact my company and sector?
   
• How will competitive landscapes shift? Where are new threats emerging — within or beyond the industry?
   
• How can I craft strategies to navigate uncertainty in the short and long term?
   
• Which capabilities should I build, acquire, or divest?
   
• What alliances—both inside and outside the industry—should I pursue?
   
• How should I structure my leadership team to meet future demands?
   

How We Help

As trusted advisors and thought leaders in travel and transport, we help clients navigate and reshape their industries amid these transformations. Our expertise includes:

• Driving consolidation and strategic partnerships in airlines and hospitality
   
• Developing new ancillary revenue streams and optimizing loyalty programs
   
• Supporting airport privatization initiatives
   
• Enhancing guest experience in hotels and other travel services
   
• Identifying growth and investment opportunities aligned with passenger and freight market trends
   
• Delivering cost savings and operational improvements in network and logistics businesses
   

With deep industry insight and practical solutions, we empower clients to seize opportunities and maintain a competitive edge in this evolving landscape.

TNG’s airline strategy expertise spans the full range of commercial challenges, including:

• Network planning and expansion
   
• Distribution and corporate dealing
   
• Sales force effectiveness
   
• Frequent flier programs (FFPs)
   
• Merchandising and product development
   
• Customer engagement and digital strategy
   

Track Record Highlights:

• Advised on three of the world’s largest airline mergers
   
• Supported half of the 10 most recent global airline joint ventures
   
• Restructured three of the top five global frequent flier programs
   
• Designed network growth strategies across six continents
   
• Consulted on billions of dollars in ancillary revenue initiatives for over a dozen carriers
   

In today’s rapidly evolving airline environment, executives face critical strategic questions:

• How can we build a defensible, profitable position amid intense competition and rising costs?
   
• What will the consolidation end game look like, and how should that shape network growth and alliances?
   
• How do we maximize ancillary revenues without compromising our brand or customer value?
   
• What are the key customer battlegrounds, and how do we win and retain the most valuable passenger segments?
   
• How are big data and personalization transforming our marketing approach?
   
• Are our fare products optimally configured for evolving demand and pricing trends?
   
• How well are we engaging customers digitally, especially younger travelers influenced by OTAs and other travel players?
   
• Is our sales force and go-to-market approach optimized for sustainable growth over the next five years?
   
• Are we prioritizing initiatives effectively and allocating capital efficiently?
   

TNG complements airline-specific insights with a broad Travel & Transport practice spanning airports, hospitality, tourism, rail, maritime, mobility, freight, and logistics. We also draw on our Aerospace team’s deep understanding of supplier landscapes.

Our strong heritage in consumer-focused sectors enables us to apply proven behavior models that uncover untapped opportunities and drive the successful introduction of innovative airline products and services.

Companies operating throughout the distribution, agencies, and tourism ecosystem rely on TNG Consulting’s deep market knowledge and broad industry expertise. Our clients—ranging from global hotel chains, resorts, and casinos to tour operators, cruise lines, car rental agencies, and key channel participants such as Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) and Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)—partner with us to unlock profits, manage risks, and seize new growth opportunities.

Our team’s strong operational and industry experience equips clients with lasting competitive advantages in this dynamic and complex ecosystem.

We advise clients on a wide range of strategic priorities, including:

• Enhancing the guest experience to build differentiation
   
• Developing customer loyalty programs that foster sustained engagement
   
• Driving revenue enhancement through merchandising, upselling, and new product innovation
   
• Crafting growth strategies and distribution strategies that align with evolving market dynamics
   
• Optimizing profitability across channels
   
• Improving marketing effectiveness through data-driven insights
   
• Supporting mergers, acquisitions, and alliances to accelerate expansion and market reach
   

Leaders responsible for growing and maintaining airport logistics and broader tourism operations should consider:

• How can we optimize products and services to create a differentiated and memorable guest experience?
   
• What strategies will build and sustain long-term customer loyalty?
   
• Where and how should we invest in enabling personalization and customer optionality, and what goals should these investments serve?
   
• Which merchandising and upselling tactics, along with new products and services, will best drive ancillary revenue growth?
   
• In an evolving distribution landscape, how can we leverage the full spectrum of distribution channels effectively?
   
• What analytics and data capabilities will best measure and optimize marketing performance?
   
• How can we identify, validate, and value inorganic growth opportunities such as mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances?

Companies operating across the distribution, agencies, and tourism ecosystem benefit from TNG’s depth and breadth of market knowledge. Clients turn to us to develop strategies that unlock profits, manage risks and create new opportunities. Global hotel chains, resorts and casinos, tour operators and cruise lines, car rental agencies, and other channel participants such as GDSs and OTAs choose to partner with us because our experts have the deep industry and operational expertise required to give them a lasting competitive advantage.

Our core capabilities in this sector include advising clients on guest experience, customer loyalty, revenue enhancement, growth strategy, distribution strategy, profit optimization, marketing effectiveness, and mergers and acquisitions and alliances.

Key questions and challenges

Executives charged with maintaining and growing airport logistics need to ask themselves a number of questions, including:

• How can we optimize our products or services to differentiate the guest experience?
• How can we foster sustained loyalty from our customers?
• How should we invest in enabling optionality and personalization — and toward what objectives?
• What are the optimal merchandising strategies, upselling strategies, and new products and services that will drive ancillary revenue growth?
• In today’s rapidly evolving distribution landscape, how can we make the best use of all available distribution strategies?
• What analytics will help us best understand and optimize our marketing activities?
• How should we identify, validate, and value new, inorganic growth opportunities?

 A Turning Point for Hospitality 

After years of unprecedented growth, the global hospitality industry faces a period of heightened uncertainty and disruption. Growth in revenue per available room (RevPAR) is slowing, and several major markets are already seeing declines as a wave of new capacity—initiated during the boom years—comes online.

Meanwhile, digital transformation is reshaping the competitive landscape. Guests now carry buying power in their pockets, making real-time booking decisions via smartphones. But this evolution also introduces complex “frenemy” dynamics with online travel agencies (OTAs) like Expedia and Booking.com. These platforms drive bookings but also erode profitability and dilute brand loyalty through high commission fees and direct customer relationships.

A similar tension exists with credit card companies, which increasingly launch competing loyalty programs, further distancing hotels from their own customers.

While headwinds grow in mature markets, global expansion opportunities—particularly in China, Southeast Asia, and Africa—continue to surge. In these underpenetrated regions, local hotel brands are rising fast, leaving white space for global players to define their footprint. At the same time, millennial and Gen Z travelers are shaping the future of travel with new expectations, values, and behaviors that demand fresh thinking across the entire customer journey.

In this environment, hospitality leaders must act decisively.

TNG Consulting brings decades of experience working with global hospitality brands, helping them navigate disruption and find opportunities in complexity. We partner with senior executives to address the most pressing strategic questions:

• How can we maximize both revenue and profitability amid slowing growth, softening bookings, and intensifying competition?
   
• How should we adapt our marketing and guest experience to engage a changing customer base? Do we need distinct offerings for different segments—and if so, what should those offerings be?
   
• How can we leverage mobile technology to create richer, more frequent, and more meaningful guest interactions?
   
• What’s the best way to unlock value from our growing data assets to personalize experiences, improve loyalty, and increase share of wallet?
   
• How should we navigate today’s complex distribution landscape? What’s the right balance between direct booking channels, OTAs, and strategic partnerships?
   
• Where do we stand in a consolidating market? How can partnerships, alliances, or M&A strengthen our positioning?
   
• Which global markets should we prioritize? Should we enter alone or with partners? How do we calibrate scale, brand positioning, and investment?
   

From brand strategy and pricing optimization to customer segmentation, loyalty transformation, digital engagement, and market entry strategy, TNG has a proven track record of helping hospitality companies deliver measurable growth, stronger customer connections, and enhanced shareholder value.

As the landscape continues to evolve, we provide the analytical depth, industry insight, and executional rigor required to win—whether you're defending core markets or expanding into new frontiers.

As the world becomes more urbanized, connected, and environmentally strained, the demand for smarter, more efficient movement of people and goods has never been greater. Disruptive technologies are enabling a wave of new mobility solutions — from connected and autonomous vehicles to Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), on-demand transit, electric vehicles, ride-hailing and sharing, micro-mobility, drone delivery, and beyond.

These trends are evolving differently across geographies, shaped by local infrastructure, regulation, demographics, and consumer behavior. But one fact is universal: mobility is in the midst of a profound transformation — one that will reshape industries and ecosystems around the globe.

Navigating this transformation requires more than hype or speculation. Organizations need a grounded, practical view of where the market is heading, what changes are sustainable, and what strategic responses will win.

TNG Consulting’s New Mobility practice is a trusted advisor to governments, investors, technology disruptors, and industry incumbents. We help clients understand the commercial implications of mobility trends and make confident decisions about how to adapt, invest, and lead.

Organizations across the mobility ecosystem turn to us for guidance on complex and forward-looking questions:

• What are the most relevant new mobility trends? Where, when, and at what scale will they be adopted globally?
   
• Which business and service models are likely to dominate over the next 5–10 years — and why?
   
• What are the infrastructure requirements, risks, and opportunities emerging from these trends?
   
• How will shifting value chains and stakeholder roles enable or inhibit the rise of new mobility services?
   
• What triggers will drive change in incumbent business models — and how should companies respond?
   
• Where are the M&A or strategic partnership opportunities to accelerate transformation?
   
• What role will government and policy play in shaping mobility ecosystems — from integration of public/private services to decarbonization and air quality goals?
   
• How are consumers and businesses adapting to new transport and logistics models — and what are the broader societal impacts?
   
• What must your organization do now — and in the future — to thrive in the mobility transition?