Dongfang Securities has released a research report stating that the AI value of Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) is transitioning from "improving single-point efficiency" to "enhancing transaction conversion and ecosystem operational efficiency." The subsequent critical factor is whether platforms can integrate AI with real-time supply, pricing and inventory, customer service systems, and fulfillment capabilities. For users, AI reduces the costs of searching, comparing, planning, and adjusting. For merchants, AI improves content production, pre-sales consultation, and in-trip service efficiency. For platforms, AI is expected to bring higher conversion rates, stronger user stickiness, and more refined ecosystem operations. Recommended stocks to watch: TRIP.COM-S (09961) and TONGCHENGTRAVEL (00780). The main views of Dongfang Securities are as follows:
The application of AI in the OTA industry has progressed from single-point tools to the stage of reconstructing transaction chains. The use of AI in areas such as intelligent customer service, dynamic pricing, revenue management, itinerary planning, and personalized recommendations primarily aims to enhance service efficiency, reduce user decision-making costs, and optimize platform operational capabilities. Over the past six months, the industry has shifted from AI merely "answering questions and generating guides" to embedding it further into search, shopping guidance, booking, customer service, after-sales, and in-trip services. Simultaneously, AI capabilities are extending from consumer-side user experiences to business-side merchant operations, assisting platform partners in traffic acquisition, content production, pre-sales consultation, and service management.
Dongfang Securities believes that the AI value of OTAs is transitioning from "improving single-point efficiency" to "enhancing transaction conversion and ecosystem operational efficiency." The subsequent critical factor is whether platforms can integrate AI with real-time supply, pricing and inventory, customer service systems, and fulfillment capabilities.
The core change in TRIP.COM-S's AI Agent is upgrading from "helping users find products" to "assisting platforms, merchants, and corporate clients in operations." TRIP.COM-S disclosed at the 2026 Global Tourism Partner Conference that its AI-driven "Intelligent Engine 3.0" has achieved large-scale implementation, bringing over 10% order growth to merchants through a new traffic model, with core partners' GMV growth outperforming the market by 38%. The "CTRIPS Fusion Model" has driven order growth in group tour scenarios, while the AI dual-state shopping guide system handles 80% of pre-sales consultations. The accuracy rate of the AI intelligent shopping guide has reached 70%, with a target to exceed 90% by 2026. Recently, TRIP.COM-S Business Travel further released an AI ecosystem panorama covering four major scenarios: business travel, travel management, procurement management, and capability sharing. It also launched seven AI Agents for business travel Q&A, itinerary booking, approval, insights, compliance and risk control, financial settlement, and resource procurement, indicating that its AI capabilities have extended from tourism transactions to corporate travel management.
Overall, TRIP.COM-S's AI has begun to influence traffic distribution, product presentation, consultation handling, service feedback, and corporate management processes. Its value lies not only in cost reduction but also in improving conversion rates, service quality, and repurchase efficiency.
From the perspective of the overall industry landscape, AI Agents are becoming new tools for OTA platforms to connect external entry points and close transaction loops. Fliggy recently launched the full-category travel and tourism skill plugin "flyai," which is already available on platforms like ClawHub and GitHub, covering end-to-end services such as flights and hotels. Plans to integrate with plugin stores of mobile phone manufacturers like Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Honor reflect the extension of AI capabilities from internal platform tools to external intelligent entry points. Meituan focuses more on local lifestyle and hotel and travel merchant operations, recently disclosing that its "AI Butler" serves over 1.8 million physical merchants. Among its tools, "Kangaroo Advisor" has generated 320,000 location reports with an accuracy rate of 87%, while "Smart Shopkeeper" serves nearly 100,000 merchants weekly through proactive inquiries, solving 6.6 million operational issues cumulatively.
The competitive focus of OTA and local lifestyle platforms is shifting from "whether they have AI functions" to "whether they can integrate AI into real supply and transaction scenarios."
Risk Warnings: Tourism consumption demand may fall short of expectations; industry competition may intensify; AI product experience and commercialization may progress slower than expected; data security, privacy protection, algorithm transparency, and pricing display compliance requirements may become stricter; platform economy anti-monopoly and unfair competition regulations may tighten, with related investigations and rectification requirements potentially impacting platform business rules, merchant cooperation models, and market expectations; overall market valuation volatility may increase.
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