In reading articles about the distribution of travel services, it’s not uncommon to come across the phrase “traditional GDS.” In a 21st Century context, “traditional” suggests the old way of doing things – more Betamax than Blu-ray. Although I don’t think this is actually true of the modern GDS and the advanced technology that drives our business, it’s a reminder that the future of our industry depends on more than the scale and presence the GDSs have today. We have to evolve to meet the growing and changing needs of our customers, and this means changing some of the ways we have traditionally done business.
The travel industry today is no different than any other industry; it is driven by an explosion of information, new and more flexible technologies, and an almost insatiable demand from companies and consumers alike for rich and varied content, presented in a way that enables them to make an informed travel choice. This is driving significant change for our suppliers and customers, and GDS providers need to be equally if not more fleet of foot in anticipating their needs, delivering services ahead of the curve and doing so in an open environment.
The most immediate technology challenge is the aging “green screen” technology used by our travel agency client base – and the historic lack of investment in a true alternative. While most GDS companies have added a “point and click” user interface for their products, it amounts to little more than a graphical skin on top of a cryptic entry workflow process. It’s not enough to accommodate a new world of unbundled content, merchandising, cross-selling and upselling – not just for airlines but for all content suppliers.
We need a far more radical approach – one that enables travel agencies to compare and contrast all the product offerings while incorporating this new content into their workflow and management processes. One that enables corporations to determine which unbundled products are permissible expenses and, if they are, insure they are offered through their chosen corporate booking tool.
In fact, I believe we’ve reached something of an inflection point where we finally have the catalyst we need to get the GDSs and their users off the green screens once and for all. We can now begin to envision the significant enhancement of GDS navigation, the unprecedented broadening of content available to be sold through a GDS, and a revolution in the dialogue between travel product suppliers, travel product retailers and the GDS as to how travel is sold.
To be sure, radical change will require significant new investment by the GDSs and others, but the result will be a true, service-oriented environment. It can and will be achieved by using state of the art browser and display capabilities – integrating data and information sourced through APIs alongside the more traditional host-to-host and peer connectivity the GDSs have relied on for so long. (It will also require a set of industry standards to tie all these systems and connections together, a subject I’ll address in a forthcoming blog.)
Travelport has already pioneered many of these concepts through our work with Air Canada, which was one of the first airlines in North America to embrace unbundling as a new way of selling their product. Traditional GDS methods would not allow us to blend together the way Air Canada sells its branded product with their a la carte menu of additional services (seat assignments, meal vouchers, etc.). We added an API connection into their application in which all the bundled and unbundled intelligence is stored. There was no way we could meaningfully display this content alongside other carrier options on a green screen. Just last month we rolled out Travelport Agencia, which incorporates all of this new technology, to travel agencies throughout Canada.
This is just the beginning. To accommodate the way each supplier wants to sell and promote their product now and in the future, GDSs and other interested stakeholders have to develop an entirely new means of aggregating and displaying content into travel agency desktops and corporate self-booking tools. We also need to provide one-stop API access to multiple OTAs and other online intermediaries.
The good news is that this is actually well advanced and in production. We have the means to connect content from multiple sources, mix and match, enable comparison shopping across different content sources and handle different methods of payment.
I’m optimistic that the industry will see significant further investment as well as advances in the user experience for both travel agencies and corporate travel managers. But radical change will require more than the effort of individual GDSs. It will also require a travel industry that is willing to embrace change and new ways of working to take full advantage of this tremendous opportunity.
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August 24th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Mr. Wilson.
I only have 3 points.
1. Seeing will be believing. Travelport, and other GDS’s as well, have been promising to come out of the dark ages of the DOS green screen user application environment with a true browser based point and click product for years. When you walk the walk, and not just talk the talk, I and other travel agents will believe.
2. All your promised innovation can’t replace the need for your travel agent customers to have an actual live person at your company to speak with when needed. When are you going to reintroduce the ’service’ in ‘customer service’ by providing a front line real live person for us to communicate with when we have questions about your product? I challenge you to find any phone number for a GDS contact on any communication with your travel agent customers.
3. In the absence of numbers 1 and 2 above being accomplished by Travelport, you should expect that Travelport as well as other GDS’s will continue to lose market share at an increasing rate to alternative booking engines that already provide browser based point and click functionality for the various types of travel products that both travel agents and consumers need.
August 24th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Dear Mr. Wilson:
I am all for updating the systems to a point. However, I have found one very important method of booking no longer available on many graphical websites which has traditionally made a travel agent a better way to book. In the old GDS programs, we see all the inventories available on any one flight, and the number of seats (up to 9) that are available. On the graphical new programs they ask how many passengers and then advise what the “best” price is. If, though, I ask for four seats and there is only one seat available at the lowest price, it will only offer me the lowest price available for all four seats. In other words, I don’t even know that there is a lower price available without asking for only one seat. Most travel agents worth that title will book the best prices for their clients, and that may mean breaking a family’s booking into more that one PNR just to give them that best price. If you can offer that technology, then we are on the right track. I do have a website that I often use to look for the lowest price available, as a comparison to using the “$BBQ” input in Apollo. When there is a lower price for one or two passengers, it tells me so. This is something that “$BBQ” doesn’t offer. I know the airlines want to get the highest price they can, but I don’t want it to be at the expense of my clients.
Thank you.
August 28th, 2009 at 9:44 am
Did you ever see the segment on Leno where they had a contest of 2 guys texting a sentence to each other and 2 more guys sending the same message via morse code? The old way was still faster and beat the pants off the “new technology”. I’m all for new technology (I just recently started texting!), but there is something to be said for “old travel agents” and the service we provide our customers by knowing what to look for and how to get it.
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:25 pm
In response to Mr. Roberts comments:
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Let me respond briefly to the points you’ve raised. On the subject of “seeing is believing” – your point is well made. As I said in my blog, we’re well advanced with the development of Travelport Universal Desktop, our future agency desktop solution. In fact, just this week at the NBTA conference in San Diego, we were in a position to preview a working prototype with some of our major customers and the media.
This is way beyond a concept, it’s a tangible product that we intend to roll out in 2010. However, we’re not there yet – and none of our competitor GDS providers are either. But we’re all working hard to bring to market next-generation solutions that truly deliver the graphical and merchandising capabilities our supplier and agency customers are seeking.
Travelport is putting a lot of focus on testing and refining through the alpha and beta development phases to make sure that our eventual full commercial release fully reflects the needs of our customers. That’s what I would call “walking the talk”. I get the sense that you feel we’re moving in the right direction, but you’re reserving judgement on whether we will actually execute – which is fair enough - it certainly throws down the gauntlet to us to follow through in delivering our future vision and I am more than happy to pick that gauntlet up.
On the subject of customer service, Travelport has moved a great deal of the basic FAQ element as well as informational aspects of our product and services to interactive, web enabled capabilities for our clients. However, our account management teams as well as our Help Desk are always available telephonically. The account management team make regular outgoing calls to check in with customers to explain new services and capabilities as well as to receive feedback and we hold regular forums for customers in the various regions of the US as well as in our international operations. I am going to have Travis Christ who runs the Americas for us follow up to ensure that you are receiving the full range of services we offer.
On your third and last point, I’d agree that if you don’t deliver what travellers and the agents that serve them need, then your business will inevitably suffer. Travelport’s “reason for being” is to deliver informed choice to travellers throughout the world. That’s why we’re investing in new and future technologies such as our Universal Desktop for the professional travel agency; Traversa, our corporate self booking tool which is implemented by many leading companies, including IBM who have over 250,000 IBMers across 16 countries worldwide using the system, as well as a wide range of smaller corporations; and our investment in the worldwide roll out of e-Pricing to deliver improved shopping and pricing, to name but three.
Travelport is making such investments even in a recessionary time such as this precisely because we seek to ensure that our future is in lock step with that of our customers and the channels through which customers wish to purchase now and tomorrow.
Through these investments and many more like them, I’m confident that Travelport will be well placed to deliver the advances in user experience expected of us by both travel agencies and corporate travel managers. But, as I said in my blog, radical change will require more than the effort of individual GDSs. It also requires a travel industry that is eager to embrace change and new ways of working – and judging by your comments, it sounds that like us, you are fully committed to making this happen!
Thank you again for your response to my blog.
– Gordon Wilson