Deals of the Year · 2026 Edition
The Most Impactful Travel Deals of 2026
Follow the Money: How AI, Distribution and Private Capital Are Reshaping Travel
By Mike McCormick, Managing Partner · 15 pages
Every deal is a bet. The price tells you how big it is. It tells you nothing about what has to be true for the bet to pay off — which is the question this report puts to every transaction of the year.
Nine deals, three supplier transactions and the venture numbers behind them — each assessed not on its price, but on what has to be true for the bet to pay off. The world’s largest travel management company went private under an AI holding company. A bank bought a corporate card and travel platform. Expedia, Constellation Software and Navan bought plumbing. Venture investment in travel hit a multiyear low, and not one major travel technology company went public.
“Private buyers paid up for control while the public markets stepped back.”
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Inside the Report
What you get
- The nine deals that defined the year, each with the strategic bet and what has to be true for it to work
- Three supplier transactions, including the take-privates and the cruise industry’s move into resorts
- Where the venture money went, and why there were fewer deals but bigger cheques
- The quiet signals — chiefly that no major travel technology company went public all year
- The forces reshaping the industry: AI, distribution and payments
Before the bankers. Before the data room.
Know what has to be true before you make the bet.
Travel Again Advisory helps founders, boards and buyers clarify direction, shape the equity story and get deal-ready — then stays through execution. Led by operators, not career consultants.
