# Technology won't kill the travel middleman, it replaces him

Canonical-URL: https://notitur.com/en/digest/technology-travel-middleman-replaces
Text-Version: https://notitur.com/en/digest/technology-travel-middleman-replaces.txt
Markdown-Version: https://notitur.com/en/digest/technology-travel-middleman-replaces.md
Language: en
Published: 2026-10-03T15:01:18.054Z
Modified: 2026-10-03T15:01:18.054Z
Author: Joan Sanz
Topics: Revenue & Distribution
Summary: Tech was supposed to cut out the middleman, but in travel it just swaps one for another. Whoever aggregates supply and fixes the mess still gets paid.

## Article

The promise was simple: technology kills the middleman. A smaller plane skips the hub and an AI agent skips the OTA. In practice, someone in the middle still has to aggregate supply, take the payment and clean up when things go wrong. That's the thread running through the latest issue of [Travel Tech Essentialist](https://traveltechessentialist.substack.com/p/210-middlemen), which is all about middlemen and what happens when the middle gets squeezed.

My read: the middleman doesn't vanish, he changes shape. When an AI engine recommends and books without touching the OTA, the middle layer isn't gone, it moves to whoever trains that engine, charges the commission or absorbs the incident. That someone needs margin to operate. That's where the real business sits.

For a hotel or an airline, the useful question isn't how to skip the middleman. It's **who will occupy that layer over the next two years** and what commission they'll ask for. Anyone who understands where aggregation and payment concentrate in the new split has the edge. Anyone still believing software erases middlemen is in for a surprise.

## Sources

- Travel Tech Essentialist: https://traveltechessentialist.substack.com/p/210-middlemen

## Citation

Technology won't kill the travel middleman, it replaces him. Notitur. 2026-10-03. https://notitur.com/en/digest/technology-travel-middleman-replaces