Kenya’s travel agents are increasingly operating across a patchwork of digital systems as airline distribution, payments, visas, customer management and communication move online. A single international booking can involve a GDS, NDC platform, airline portal, payment gateway, visa system, CRM and WhatsApp before the passenger receives a final itinerary.
The shift is changing what it means to be a travel agent. The job is no longer limited to finding fares and issuing tickets; agents increasingly have to know where airline content sits, how different booking channels work and how to move information between systems when they do not integrate seamlessly.
The technology stack is expanding
The pressure is not unique to Kenya. A 2026 survey of travel industry professionals found that 34 per cent identified technology fragmentation as the biggest challenge facing the sector, while 27 per cent cited the complexity of integrating different technologies.
For Kenyan agencies, the problem can be particularly visible when handling international itineraries. An agent may find a conventional fare through a GDS, check an NDC offer for additional airline content, process payment through a separate platform and then use another system for visa requirements. The customer sees one booking; the agent sees several systems.
NDC adds another distribution layer
The growth of NDC is adding to the complexity while also expanding the content available to agents. In the United States, traditional leisure agencies accounted for 16 per cent of settled NDC transactions in 2025, up from 11 per cent the previous year, while corporate agencies accounted for another 7 per cent.
For Kenyan agents, the significance is that the GDS is increasingly becoming one part of the distribution environment rather than the entire environment. Different channels can present different combinations of fares, baggage, seats and other ancillary products, making it increasingly important for agents to understand where the content originates.
AI enters the agency
Artificial intelligence is now joining the technology stack. Travel Weekly’s 2025 industry survey found that 59 per cent of travel advisers had used AI tools, compared with 41 per cent a year earlier. Among agency owners and managers, 42 per cent reported using AI for marketing materials and website content.
The technology is moving beyond writing and marketing into itinerary preparation, research, customer communication and other repetitive tasks. Phocuswright reported in 2026 that 61 per cent of travel businesses surveyed were experimenting with or scaling agentic AI, although only 6 per cent were already scaling it across their operations.
Is technology actually saving time?
That is the question agencies will increasingly have to answer. A new platform can automate one task while creating another. NDC can provide richer airline content but requires agents to understand different booking and servicing conditions. A CRM can centralise customer information but still requires constant updating, while digital payment systems can simplify collections but add reconciliation requirements.
Technology can therefore shift the workload rather than eliminate it. The agent may spend less time entering information manually but more time checking whether data, payment status, fare conditions and booking details match across different platforms.
The agent becomes the connector
Kenya is already moving deeper into this transition. Kenya Airways began distributing NDC content through the Amadeus Travel Platform in 2025, while Travelport and other distribution companies continue adding NDC connections with international carriers.
For agencies, the competitive advantage may increasingly come from how efficiently these systems are used together. The most technologically advanced agency will not necessarily be the one with the greatest number of platforms, but the one that can complete a booking with the fewest manual steps.
The travel agent is therefore becoming something of a technology operator: not because technology is replacing the agent, but because someone still has to make the systems work for the customer.
