Bots now account for 44.5% of Internet traffic in the travel industry

The 2024 Bad Bot Report reveals a significant increase in malicious bot activity targeting the travel and airline industry

The report shows that only 51.1% of Internet traffic in the travel and airline sector is generated by humans, while the rest is generated by malicious bots. This is an increase from 37% last year. Of the malicious bots identified, 66.1% are considered evasive, using sophisticated methods to replicate human actions online.

Key takeaways

• Bad bots have a significant impact on the travel and airline industry. They engage in fare scraping, which skews metrics such as look-to-book ratios, increases API costs, and reduces revenue as OTAs avoid booking fees;
• Bots also engage in seat spinning, holding seats without purchase, resulting in last-minute losses and reputational damage when flights appear full but have open seats;
• In addition, brute-force attacks on loyalty program accounts result in stolen points, dissatisfied customers, higher service costs, and retention challenges.

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