Agoda is expanding its partnership-led strategy across Asia as secondary destinations account for 34% of accommodation search demand and travel platforms compete to localise pricing inventory and payment options across fragmented regional markets.
Omri Morgenshtern, Chief Executive Officer of Agoda, said the company’s strategy relies heavily on technology pricing competitiveness and local partnerships to remain relevant across sharply different Asian travel markets.
“Asia is not one market, but a collection of very, very different markets from a user experience perspective,” Morgenshtern said. “Each one of them requires a different type of product.”
The discussion highlighted how travel demand is increasingly shifting beyond traditional gateway cities as travellers look for alternative destinations offering lower costs, less congestion and different tourism experiences. According to Morgenshtern, travel companies are under pressure to diversify inventory distribution and customer acquisition strategies to capture that demand.
“That requires that you either develop those capabilities yourself or you work with partners that enable you to get access to those types of consumers or capabilities,” he said.
The interview also examined how Agoda depends on local supply providers, loyalty programmes, banks, credit card ecosystems and payment partners to compete across Asia’s fragmented online travel market.
Morgenshtern said some travellers will only book through specific loyalty systems, banking platforms or payment channels making partnerships increasingly important for customer acquisition.
“From a demand perspective, it's very hard to be relevant in every country without recognizing that there are consumers that will only go through certain demand partners,” he said.
The discussion also focused on pricing competition between online travel platforms as companies compete aggressively for market share across Asia.
“One is a big focus on price and providing the best price to our consumers,” Morgenshtern said.
He added that local partnerships also help Agoda strengthen regional inventory access and adapt products to country-specific booking behaviour and payment preferences.
“Partnerships in general are very important in travel and I would argue even more important because of the diversity and the complexity of the Asian narrative,” Morgenshtern said.
The interview suggested travel platforms unable to localise inventory pricing and payment systems may struggle to compete as Asia’s online travel market becomes increasingly fragmented across countries' consumer segments and booking channels.
