notitur.com September 2, 2026
Travel TechnologyPublished September 2, 20261 min read

Amadeus: Traveler, Not Platform, Should Hold the Controls

JSBy Joan SanzCurated by Joan Sanz. · September 2, 2026 · Follow on LinkedIn
Voice reading · ~1 min

Amadeus's president of Travel, Decius Valmorbida, heads to the Skift Global Forum in September with a thesis that begs for debate: the travel industry competes too hard on closed ecosystems and cooperates too little on the plumbing that makes everything work.

His bet is that open, shared foundations grow the pie for everyone. And here's the twist that gets me: the traveler should hold the controls, not the platform serving the offer. Sounds nice, but who blinks first? Building open APIsAPIAn API is the door through which two programs talk and pass data with no human in the middle. In a hotel it is what lets the PMS, the booking engine and the channel manager share availability instantly. When a vendor... is easy if everyone chips in, the problem is when one player has already dug a moat around its data.

In my view, Valmorbida is right that the pie grows when travelers decide freely, but this industry's history shows that closed ecosystems die slowly. Let's see if the forum moves from words to action and rivals actually build together. Because whoever keeps the traveler happy wins, no matter the platform.

Quick questions

What is Amadeus proposing at Skift Global Forum?
Decius Valmorbida, president of Travel at Amadeus, proposes that the industry compete on services, not closed ecosystems, and let the traveler control their experience with shared technology.
Why does he say travelers should control the platform?
Because if travelers decide freely and platforms compete on service quality, the pie grows for everyone. It's a philosophical shift from ecosystems that lock users in.
What does cooperating on 'plumbing' mean?
It means sharing basic tech infrastructure (APIs, standards, common data) and competing on experience, rather than duplicating effort and closing off access.
When is Skift Global Forum taking place?
In September 2026 in New York City. The event will gather industry leaders to debate these ideas, and Amadeus has previewed its stance via Skift.
Is it realistic that rivals build open bases together?
That's the million-dollar question. Valmorbida thinks yes, but many competitors have spent years closing off their data. Regulatory and consumer pressure may push them to open up.

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