The global business travel community came together at Chicago’s McCormick Place for the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Convention 2026, and ALTOUR was at the center of the conversation. Across three packed days, our team connected with customers, prospects and partners, contributed to three timely education sessions and welcomed guests to an evening of networking in the heart of the Windy City. Running underneath every conversation was a bigger idea: that a travel program is no longer a cost center but a strategic business asset – human-led, AI-powered and globally executed.
The energy was unmistakable from the moment the Expo Hall opened. ALTOUR’s booth saw an incredible turnout throughout the convention, creating a lively setting for conversations about the issues shaping managed travel today: rising costs, fragmented content, traveler experience, duty of care and the practical role of artificial intelligence.
At the booth, the team also conducted the first demonstrations of ALTOUR iQ. Rather than another dashboard, iQ – accessed through its conversational Ask iQ interface – lets travel managers have a conversation with their program: asking it what’s happening, why it’s happening, where they’ll end up, and what would need to change to hit their goals. It marks a shift from reporting on what happened to shaping what happens next, giving buyers intelligence and action, not just more data.
Across the board, the focus was on how organizations can turn new technology and better data into stronger, more resilient travel programs.
Three sessions, one clear priority: Smarter travel management
Understanding the business travel pricing outlook for 2026 and 2027
ALTOUR’s Chief Commercial Officer, Mike Boult, joined Dr. Shawn DuBravac, CEO and President of the Avrio Institute, for the education session “The 2026–2027 Travel Pricing Outlook: Where Costs Are Rising—and How to Stay Ahead.”
Drawing on the 2027 Global Business Travel Forecast published by GBTA and ALTOUR and developed with the Avrio Institute, DuBravac unpacked the economic and operational drivers behind changing travel costs, including energy and labor expenses, capacity constraints, and aircraft-delivery delays.
Boult translated those findings into practical implications for managed travel programs, helping attendees understand how category- and region-specific planning, frequent benchmarking, and flexible supplier agreements can support better decisions. Together, they encouraged travel managers to use forecasts as directional tools for navigating uncertainty rather than fixed predictions.
Watch an interview with Dr. Shawn DuBravac
Making fragmented hotel content work harder
Nina Marcello, ALTOUR’s Senior Director of Hotel Content and Adoption, moderated two sessions focused on the rapidly changing hotel landscape.
The first, “Defining Fragmentation: Are Your Travelers Booking Your Negotiated Rates?,” examined why travelers often find and book hotel rates outside approved channels and what that means for compliance, duty of care and long-term program value.
The panel stressed that a lower public rate is not always the better rate. Cancellation terms, refundability, amenities and other negotiated benefits can materially change the value of an offer. The takeaway for travel managers was not to eliminate choice, but to improve transparency: make the right content visible, explain the value behind negotiated rates and use data to guide travelers toward the best option.
Building hotel programs for volatility and adoption
The following day, Marcello returned to moderate “Rethinking Hotel Programs for Volatility, Value, and Adoption,” which moved the conversation beyond the traditional annual sourcing cycle and featured panelists Christiane Cabot Bini, VP of Global Business Travel Sales at Hilton, Dr. Mat Burnett, Sr. Manager of Travel & Indirect Sourcing at Qorvo, and Ben Pepitone, Director of Corporate Travel and Strategic Sourcing at TIAA.
The panel emphasized that a successful hotel program requires continuous management, with flexible market-specific rate caps, a thoughtful mix of static and dynamic rates and close collaboration among the travel manager, TMC, hotel partners and travelers.
Negotiated content only creates value when travelers can see it, trust it and book it easily. Programs can earn stronger adoption by providing safe, suitable and competitively priced options, then using traveler feedback and performance data to keep improving the experience.
An interview with Nina Marcello
From reacting to disruption to predicting it
The notion of practical innovation carried into Mike Boult’s interview with The Studio @ GBTA. Boult explained how ALTOUR is using AI to move disruption management from reactive to predictive by analyzing airline operations, weather and aircraft location alongside a traveler’s itinerary. He also discussed using AI to validate real-time information for duty of care, surface content from traditional and supplier-direct channels and make complex travel policies easier to understand through short-form video and natural-language search.
For Boult, attending his 29th GBTA Convention also reinforced the value of bringing customers, prospects, partners and friends together in one place. As he noted, the ability to hold meaningful conversations and back-to-back meetings over several days is priceless.
An interview with Mike Boult at The Studio @ GBTA
Connections that continued beyond the show floor
That spirit of connection continued at ALTOUR’s networking event at Chicago’s Fatpour Tap Works. The well-attended gathering brought customers, partners and industry colleagues together for an evening of conversation in a more relaxed setting.
After a full day of meetings and education, the event offered the opportunity to exchange ideas, strengthen relationships and continue the discussions that began at the booth in a more intimate atmosphere.
GBTA Convention 2026 demonstrated what is possible when the industry comes together around shared challenges and new ideas. From the exceptional response at ALTOUR’s booth on the Expo floor to the thoughtful exchanges on stage and throughout the week, Chicago gave us fresh momentum as we continue helping organizations build travel programs that are more intelligent, visible, resilient and human – and that increasingly perform as strategic business assets.
To learn how ALTOUR can help your organization get more value from every business interaction, connect with our team today.
