Why TMCs will run on a single technology stack

For many years, it’s been advantageous for TMCs to offer several booking tools to their customers. This is quickly changing.

The economics of focus, the demands of modern airline distribution, and the rise of AI are pushing TMCs to align deeply with one core technology stack. 

The winners will trade a menu of booking tools for a single platform that is either built in-house or sourced through a strategic partnership. Simplifying and standardizing tools will unlock a pace of innovation that multi‑stack architectures can’t match.

Why this is happening now

Technology is driving more TMC decisions
Travel buyers are looking for TMCs that are implementing AI, enabling travelers to manage bookings on their own, and providing access to the best content. 

Providing a consumer‑grade user experience across mobile, web, and agent channels is now non-negotiable. Soon travelers will expect the ability to use voice or natural language to interface with a booking tool, and TMCs need to be ready to adapt. 

As technology reduces the number of bookings that require an agent touch, travel buyers will increasingly select TMCs based on their tech stack and user experience, with servicing becoming a secondary consideration.

Integration complexity has exploded
Content continues to become more fragmented, and direct integrations often provide the richest functionality and best service experiences. The combination of NDC, direct connects, ancillaries, and continuous pricing have multiplied the number of endpoints and workflows that TMCs must support. 

Maintaining multiple end‑to‑end content integrations that support all core workflows for multiple booking tools creates an exponential testing and maintenance burden. As airlines adopt Offer / Order systems, the complexity of supporting personalized offers, custom bundles, and ancillary sales will only multiply.

AI needs clean, connected data—not silos
Every TMC is exploring AI as a means to improve traveler experiences, increase agent efficiency, and reduce operating costs. AI is complex to implement and fueled by data. 

To deliver on the promise of AI for trip planning, assisted booking, proactive disruption handling, virtual agents, agent co-pilots, and more – TMCs need to simplify their R&D efforts. Data needs to be centralized, normalized, and cleansed.

A single event stream and data model is table stakes for high‑quality AI outcomes. Even more important, AI tools need a unified context for all elements of a trip including trip history, policies, approvals, payment methods, traveler preferences, and duty of care. Managing this complexity across multiple booking tools slows innovation when speed to market is key.

Security, compliance, and audit are board‑level

Each additional vendor supported by a TMC expands the attack surface for cyber criminals, increases data duplication, and complicates audits. Consolidation onto one stack reduces interfaces, lowers data egress, and simplifies compliance attestations for SOC 2, ISO 27001, and data residency.

The economic advantages of managing one stack

The benefits of standardizing on a single travel platform are numerous:

• Lower total cost of ownership: Fewer contracts to manage, fewer custom connectors to build, and fewer systems that require dedicated experts. 
• Higher reliability: One SLA to adhere to, one path for issue resolution, one business continuity and disaster recovery plan, and one source of truth for bookings and financials.
• Faster innovation: One roadmap to manage, one system to integrate to, and fewer regression cycles to release a new feature.
• Better data & analytics: A single data schema enables AI-driven automation, personalized offers and booking experiences, real‑time policy enforcement, benchmarking, and predictive insights.
• Consistent traveler experience: Same content, same policies, same servicing experience available around the world.

The limitations of the past are no longer blockers

For a time, the ability for a TMC to support multiple booking tools was a tremendous advantage. This provided more flexibility to buyers and was necessary to support multi-national corporations with complex requirements.

Technology advancements are steadily eroding these advantages, and open architectures are enabling TMCs to adopt a single travel platform as a hub upon which they can build out a suite of integrated tools for specialized needs.

Here are the key things TMCs should look for in a partner, or build into their proprietary system:

• Open, well‑documented APIs: for every major object (trip, PNR, policy, approval, traveler, invoice) plus webhooks and events.
• Modular architecture: microservices, low-code rules engines, and an extension framework for client‑specific logic.
• Content breadth and depth: GDS, Aggregators, NDC + direct connect; parity across online/offline; ancillaries and post‑ticket servicing.
• Global readiness: localization, payments, tax/VAT compliance, invoicing, data residency options, multi‑entity support, and regional duty of care compliance.
• Policy and workflow engine: configurable granular rules, scenario testing, and real‑time enforcement across channels.
• Analytics and observability: unified data model, extensible data architecture, self‑service reporting, and clear operational dashboards.
• Security and compliance: third‑party audits, encryption standards, access controls, and incident transparency.
• Service tooling for agents: full servicing parity (reissue/reprice/refund) across content sources, queue management, and automation hooks.
• Roadmap governance: joint steering committees, feature prioritization process, and transparent release notes.

Adopting a single stack isn’t about surrendering control or differentiation. Open architectures simply shift differentiation up the stack as TMCs integrate different systems for AI, duty of care, price assurance, group travel, guest travel, expense management, and more. TMCs will also continue to differentiate through their service model, advisory services, SLAs, custom analytics, industry and regional expertise, and traveler care.

This is how virtually every other major sector has evolved. Consider how CRM (Salesforce), HCM (Workday), and Cloud (AWS/GCP/Azure) have all built open platforms with a rich ecosystem of technology and services partners. The TMC of the future will mirror this playbook, with one core travel stack as the system of record, surrounded by interoperable services.

Taking a strategic approach to partnership

Most TMCs don’t have the resources to build a competitive core travel platform on their own. This requires the ability to attract and retain top engineering and product talent with salaries and benefits that are competitive with big tech companies and venture funded AI startups.

Since travel platforms are so essential to the success of TMCs, it’s important to structure a partnership with a partner that supports:

• Shared revenue goals and success metrics
• Embedded solution engineering
• Transparent roadmap, feature intake process, and release governance
• Co‑investment in client‑specific accelerators

This is how you compound advantages, with fewer handoffs, faster learning cycles, and better outcomes.